Pope Francis leaves SL
13 January 2015 09:25 am
Pope Francis holds a service at Our Lady of Madhu church in Mannar
Pope Francis waves to people as he arrives to lead a canonisation mass for Joseph Vaz at the Galle Face Green this morning.
His Holiness Pope Francis arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake at 8.45 am.
The Pope has a busy first day, including meetings with the country's bishops and representatives of the country's major religious groups.
He is expected to call for greater dialogue among the country's Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Catholics amid a surge in anti-Muslim violence by fundamentalist Buddhists.
On Wednesday, Francis will canonise Sri Lanka's first saint, the Reverend Giuseppe Vaz, a 17th century missionary credited with having revived the Catholic faith among both Sinhalese and Tamils amid persecution by Dutch colonial rulers, who were Calvinists.
Later in the day he will fly to Madhu Church, to pray at a shrine beloved by both Sinhalese and Tamil faithful.
On Thursday he heads to the Philippines, the largest Roman Catholic country in Asia and third-largest in the world, for the second and final leg of the journey.
Pix by Pradeep Pathirana