Cause for the beatification and canonization of Sri Lankan Cardinal starts

(November 1, 2010) The cause for the beatification and canonization of Sri Lanka’s first Cardinal, Thomas Coorey was officially initiated on Friday in the capital Colombo with a Eucharistic celebration at the National Basilica of Our Lady of Lanka in Tèwatta. Cardinal-designate, Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo celebrated the Mass along with Papal Nuncio Joseph Spiteri and several other prelates. Nearly 200 nuns and priests and some two thousand faithful of the archdiocese were in attendance, including all the relatives of Cardinal Cooray, a former archbishop of Colombo. In his homily, retired Archbishop Owald Gomis of Colombo, who worked closely with Cardinal Cooray in the past, recalled the simple and exceptional holiness, the deep faith and courage of the prelate. Card. Cooray, of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate order was born in 1901 in Pèriyamulla (Negombo), and was ordained priest in Rome in 1929. In 1947 he was made the archbishop of Colombo. Pope Paul VI appointed him cardinal in 1965. He retired in 1976 and died in 1988; and is buried in the Basilica of Our Lady of Lanka in Tewatta which he built. Card. Cooray is the first native Sinhalese whose cause for beatification and canonization has been opened. Fr. Joseph Vaz whom Pope John Paul II declared Blessed in Colombo in 1995, was an Indian missionary from Goa.