Dear Lord Jesus Christ,
I write to You with a heavy heart, as Your Church stands at the edge of ruin, betrayed from within by those who should be its stewards. The shepherds You entrusted with guiding Your flock have strayed into darkness, their actions echoing the very hypocrisy and deception You condemned so fiercely during Your time on Earth. The leaders of the Church, particularly Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and his inner circle, have turned away from the truth, choosing instead the path of dishonesty and political intrigue. They have betrayed the trust of the faithful and used the sacred tragedy of Easter Sunday as a tool for personal and political gain. We beg You, Lord, to rescue Your Church before it crumbles completely.
Your words in the Gospel of Matthew 23:27 ring truer now than ever: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.” The Cardinal’s outward display of piety and leadership masks an inner decay, as his actions reveal a willingness to cover up the truth and evade responsibility for one of the darkest days in Sri Lanka’s history—the Easter Sunday attacks of 2019. We now see that his reluctance to release key investigative reports and his shifting explanations are not simply mistakes but deliberate acts of deceit.
This is not the first time, Lord, that Your Church has been shaken by the moral failings of its leaders. History is littered with similar betrayals. We remember the corrupt indulgences of the medieval Church, when salvation was sold to the highest bidder, a deception so widespread that it sparked the Reformation. In William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, the character of Angelo is a stark reminder of the dangers of self-righteous hypocrisy in positions of power: “Oh, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength; but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.” How fitting these words are today as we witness the abuse of power and trust by those who wear the robes of Your priests but do not walk in Your light.
Your Church has withstood many storms, but it is the deceit from within that cuts the deepest. The betrayal of the faithful by their own leaders, who have chosen political expediency over moral clarity, is a tragedy that risks the soul of the Church itself. Cardinal Ranjith, like the Pharisees, hides behind a veil of authority, claiming to protect the Church while eroding its very foundations. His refusal to hold those accountable, his evasiveness regarding the Easter Sunday reports, and his complicity in manipulating the suffering of the victims for personal gain cannot go unnoticed. We need Your divine intervention to cleanse the Church of these deceivers, for without truth, there is no salvation.
As Friedrich Nietzsche wrote in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end.” The Church, Your Church, was meant to be a bridge—leading the lost, the broken, and the oppressed towards Your grace. But under the leadership of men like Cardinal Ranjith, it risks becoming a dead end, a structure rotting from within, offering no refuge to the souls in need. The faithful cannot place their trust in a Church where deception reigns, where suffering is commodified, and where those in power refuse to stand for truth and justice.
Your words in John 8:32, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” have been forgotten by those who now hold the reins of power in Your Church. They obscure the truth, wrapping it in political manoeuvres and empty promises, hoping that the faithful will remain blind to their corruption. But You, Lord, see all. You see the pain of the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks, and You see how their tragedy is being exploited. You see how the Cardinal, through his refusal to release key information, perpetuates this suffering. We cry out to You to intervene, to bring the truth to light, and to hold these deceivers accountable.
We have not forgotten the lessons of history, when leaders within Your Church have strayed from Your teachings, only for the faithful to suffer. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s tragic tale of moral hysteria, Reverend Parris clings to power even as his community falls apart, because he is “more concerned with his reputation than the souls in his care.” Cardinal Ranjith, too, seems more concerned with maintaining his position of influence than with the souls who were lost on that terrible Easter morning, and the families still crying out for justice.
But we know that there is hope, for You have never forsaken Your people. In the Book of Revelation, You remind us that “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 3:22). We, the faithful, have ears to hear, and we are crying out for You to rescue Your Church from this moral collapse. We ask that You shine Your light upon the darkness that has enveloped those in power, that You expose the lies, the deceit, and the hypocrisy, and that You cleanse Your Church of this poison before it is too late.
Lord, we beseech You to guide us through this time of crisis, as You have guided Your people through trials in the past. We pray for the victims of the Easter Sunday attacks, that they may receive the justice they deserve, and that those responsible for the failure to prevent the attacks—whether in the government or the Church—are held accountable. We ask that You give strength to those within the Church who still stand for truth, so they may rise up against the tide of hypocrisy and lead the way towards redemption.
We know that Your Church will endure, for You promised in Matthew 16:18 that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” But we fear that without Your intervention, the deceivers within the Church will continue to do great harm, dragging the institution further into disrepute and leading more of the faithful astray. We beg You, Jesus, to restore the integrity of the Church, to purify it of the corruption and lies that have taken root, and to help us rebuild it upon the foundation of truth, justice, and love.
Yours in faith,
A Believer
