Reflections for Christmas from the life and work of Rev. Fr. Benedict Joseph

• Link between communication, humanity and Sri Lankan identity 

By Surya Vishwa 

In this article we feature one of Sri Lanka’s well-known media personalities, academic and Roman Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Benedict Joseph who hails from Tharala in Pugoda and the son of a traditional physician, who reflects on the power of communication towards humanism and what this should mean for a Sri Lankan identity that prioritises the wellbeing and unity of its people.

The interview with Fr. Benedict Joseph for this article is carried out on 19 December, on the 52nd anniversary of his priesthood. It is 52 years ago, when Sri Lanka was still forging its post-independent identity as a nation that Warnakulasuriya Arachchige Don Benedict Joseph, entering the minor seminary in Colombo at the age 13 years, formally began his journey to replicate the mission of Christ, communicating peace, goodwill and wisdom. 

Ordained by the late Thomas Cardinal Cooray and beginning his priestly service as a hospital chaplain, Fr. Joseph went on to choose communication as his discipline. He was sent for international training in media and communication; this exposure included one and a half years at the St. Gabriel Communication Centre in Middlesex and thereafter at the BBC, where he took up script writing, audio visual media productions and overall broadcast and audio visual journalistic duties. 

His return to Sri Lanka was the beginning of a long journey where he gradually became a key figure in TV, radio, cinema and print media as well as an academic in mass communication at Aquinas College attempting to connect the Sri Lankan Christian identity with the traditions and culture of this country. In this attempt he received utmost support from media veterans such as broadcaster Hudson Samarasinghe.

Among Fr. Benedict Joseph’s contribution to Sri Lanka had been as a member of the Sinhala Dictionary Advisory Committee, Catholic-Christian Advisory Committee and Committee for the Ministry of Cultural affairs, Tele-drama Script Committee and the Advertisement Inquiry Board of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation as well as panel member of the Program Previewers of the ITN and a member of the Sri Lanka Kala Mandalaya.

He recalls his childhood and the strong influence that his father, a traditional physician specialising in the treatment of fractures (Kadum Bindum Wedakama) had on him, influencing both his decision to become a priest and his love for Lankan culture and the passion to communicate and contribute to it.

“A clergy member is someone who brings healing to society, who is able to understand the pain of others and who dedicates himself to assuage that pain with spiritual upliftment. I saw as a child how my father, the only fracture focused physician in my village, healed people. Money was not what motivated him. Some people wrapped whatever little money they could afford in a Betel leaf as is the custom and voluntarily gave it. My father was from the old tradition of physicians practicing the indigenous medicinal science, who never looked at the money being offered, not taking any cash into his hand. The payment, if it was offered, was placed in a corner of the table in the room where he carried out the treatment. 

“People would come in utmost agony, with broken limbs and he would dedicate himself to bring them to normal. My mother was always a soothing presence, attending to any patients at times as needed. I saw how patients who were boisterous on account of the acute pain that is associated with fixing bones the traditional way, would return like lambs, full of gratitude in a few weeks,” he recalls.

His continued respect and bid to uphold the culture of this nation’s ancient civilisation is clearly rooted to the firm foundation he received in his childhood in his village, a predominantly Catholic village but steeped in authentic Lankan culture and especially his direct exposure to Ayurvedic medical practice as practiced in Sri Lanka. 

“My father was a trained Ayurvedic doctor and I experienced first hand the efficacy of the treatments when I broke my hand playing volleyball as a 14-year-old seminarian. I returned from Colombo to my home and my father attended to me. My hand fractured at the elbow and had been put on a sling while in Colombo and it had got fixed like that. It had to be broken and put right and the breaking of the wrongly fixed elbow was done with the hand being tied to an empty water pitcher which was gradually filled with water and which as it got fully heavy would break the joint exactly from the correct point. The method may seem primitive but it has a scientific basis,” he notes.

Among his strong influences in the priestly world had been Fr. Marceline Jayakody, the iconic exponent of indigenous culture of Sri Lanka.

Fr. Joseph is the author of the book ‘Deshiya Natha Geethawaliyen Mathuwana Jayakody Piya Lakuna – (The mark of Fr. Jayakody through the traditional Catholic hymns). The book analyses and features hundreds of lyrics penned by Fr. Marceline Jayakody.

Another influence on Fr. Joseph had been Fr. Moses Perera, well-known Christian lyricist and member of the Hela Haula, the Sinhala literary association formed in 1941 by writer, linguist, grammarian and public opinion shaper, Kumaratunga Munidasa.

“Fr. Moses Perera was fully involved in the Hela Haula. It influenced his work within the church in giving it a traditional Lankan outlook as Fr. Marceline Jayakody did,” recalls Fr. Joseph as he points out that the Catholic church was keen especially in the post-independent times to assert its local identity. The Hela Haula had a lot of Catholics, he states.

“We represent Christ who is a universal figure and whose message is universal. We attempted to ensure that the wisdom and peace of Christ is embedded within the culture of this nation and serving all of its people,” says Fr. Joseph.

As Sri Lanka celebrates Christmas in these rather bleak times, what should it mean?

“The message of Christ is a message of humility, caring, forgiveness and the happiness of the internal celebration of Christmas as opposed to external commercially linked celebrations,” points out Fr. Joseph.

Erudite in Sinhala and carrying out his professional media career mostly in his mother tongue, Fr. Joseph shifts into Sinhala for much of the interview with this writer. 

As a media practitioner representing both Sri Lanka and the Catholic Church, he has worked with and interviewed a range of personages in his career such as Fr. Marceline Jayakody, Moses Perera, Neville Jayaweera, Martin Wickremesinghe, Arisen Ahubudu and Ashley Halpe.

“I have met and worked with a range of people whose professional language was either Sinhala or English or Tamil, who, whatever their religion was, worked towards the overall objective of holistically uplifting Sri Lankan wellbeing in diverse interconnected ways,” he points  out.

Within the media realm he especially recollects the assistance given by broadcaster Hudson Samarasinghe as head of the Independent Television Network (ITN), a role he functioned in several times over the years as is at present.

What is the significance of communication as an academic and practical discipline?

“Communication is the fundamental most powerful tool a person has to survive in this world. With communication he can make or break a situation. All religious leaders were effective communicators. All the religious representatives who taught us at the seminary were wonderful communicators,” he says.

He explains that anyone who trains to be a Catholic priest has to formally study all major religions and that the teaching was conducted by clergy representatives of those religions.

“Buddhism was taught by Ven. Anomadassie, who was at a very senior level in the Buddhist clergy and if I remember right, was from the Malwatu Maha Viharaya,” he states. 

This was in the 1960s-70s and at the national seminary in Ampitiya, Kandy, he explains. 

“The Catholic seminary is equivalent to a Buddhist pirivena. From young days one is given the space and opportunity to develop oneself to a life of humanistic service through the spiritual path. A person in this path is similar to that of a doctor as both are healers.”

It is when he first served as a hospital chaplain, as part of his priestly training, treating the sick and dying that he strongly connected to what his father had dedicated his life to and saw the ideals of the medical and priestly profession as similar. 

Likewise, an empathetic communicator is also a social ‘doctor,’ he notes.

This is what he stood for as the media coordinator of the Catholic Church, organising events such as the annual SIGNIS/OCIC Film Awards, and directly responsible for the Catholic television and radio programs over Rupavahini, ITN, SLBC and Radio Veritas Manila and had worked towards making the Sri Lanka Cinema Day on 21 January a success.

“We used to invite all media bosses on that day, organising diverse programs and it was a major success in connecting the media with artists,” he notes. 

He had overseen the media coverage of both John Paul II and Pope Francis.

Innovation in communication had been a hallmark of Fr. Joseph. He is the first person to produce a TV studio Mass in Sri Lanka and who introduced the bi-monthly TV program “Supuwatha” to feature current national and international events in the Catholic Church. Another significant contribution had been producing a movie and a serialised tele-drama on St. Joseph Vaz, the revolutionary Christian preacher adapted to the South Asian cultures. Joseph Vas goes down in history as being a missionary able to preach in Kandy freely being gradually given this freedom by King Vimaladharmasurya II.

Learning from all there was historically and in the contemporary world, the entire communication strategy Fr. Joseph set about conceptualising in the various roles he played included as the editor of Gnanartha Pradeepaya, the oldest Sinhala newspaper in Sri Lanka, as the Director of the Catholic Press and the Social Communication Center (SCC) in Borella. Through all these he interweaved the Catholic Church with the rest of the country while communicating to the Catholics within the heritage of the nation.

The intention was to ensure that Catholicism and Catholics in Sri Lanka were not seen as an insular set of people but to educate Lankans on their role as citizens of this country while also communicating to them the moral, social and spiritual responsibilities of being a follower of Christ.

It is with this objective that many Catholic television and radio programs were produced under his guidance.

So what are his plans now?

“I am retired. I am now 80 years old. It is now up to the younger media professionals to take on the work of healing Sri Lanka,” he states.

He is currently living a relaxed life dedicated to prayer, reading and writing.