Raising alarm over proposed education reforms, the Archbishop of Colombo cautions that parental authority, cultural values and religious foundations are being sidelined in the name of modern policy.
The Archbishop of Colombo, His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, has warned that the government’s proposed education reform system risks stripping parents of their fundamental rights in raising their children.
He made these remarks while participating in a ceremony held yesterday at the Church of Our Holy Father Joseph in Pahasgama, Hanwella, where he addressed concerns surrounding education policy, family life and cultural values in Sri Lanka.
Speaking at the event, the Cardinal stated that several programs currently being implemented in society are disrupting the institution of marriage. He specifically referred to the sex education course recently prepared by the Ministry of Education, expressing deep concern over its content and direction.
“There are various programs that are being implemented in today’s society that are disrupting marriage. One thing is what is being done to these children in the sex education course that was recently prepared by our Ministry of Education in our society. Starting from the age of six, children are taught various vices through this sex education, they are taught that they can be done, that they are good, that there is nothing wrong with them. We see that the government in our society is proposing an education reform system that has taken away this right from parents. We cannot accept that.”
He further emphasized that Sri Lanka possesses a deeply rooted cultural heritage shaped by centuries of tradition and faith.
“In our Sri Lanka, we have a culture, a civilization, a set of values that we inherited, especially the religions we believe in, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, there is a set of humane cultural policies that have been edited by the principles of all these religions. Regarding marriage, children, raising children, sexuality, a certain set of models, a set of laws, have been formulated in society.”
The Cardinal warned against abandoning these foundations in favor of what he described as harmful influences drawn from Western societies.
“But leaving all this aside, if we abandon all these, and the various anomalies that are happening in this Western world, and if we worship that money and betray our policies, no government has the right to rule this country. If it has a hand in the cultural heritage of this country. That is what we should tell all the leaders in that political world. Please do only your part. ‘Don’t go and do things that don’t belong to you.’”
He also criticized the influence of international organizations.
“The wrong ideas and attitudes that the United Nations or the United Nations birth control organizations or various organizations of the United Nations give us with the money they impose on us have destroyed our cultural background, destroyed our religious background, destroyed our families, and turned our children against their parents in a way that makes them disobey their parents. They allow children to do whatever they want. In this kind of system, we should have some respect for children. Children also have human rights. That is true. But turning a child against their parents is not what human rights are. There should be a background of love between parents and children.”
