Defence Secretary extends invitation to His Holiness Pope to visit SL

Saturday, 23 November 2013 09:11 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

His Holiness Pope Francis received Secretary of Defence and Urban Development Gotabhaya Rajapaksa at an audience in the Vatican on Wednesday. Rajapaksa, who visited the Vatican as the Special Envoy of President, conveyed to Pope Francis an invitation from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to visit Sri Lanka in the near future.

During his visit, the Secretary also paid a courtesy call on dignitaries of the Vatican City State. Rajapaksa appreciated efforts by the Holy See to promote world peace, disarmament, interfaith dialogue and dialogue among civilisations. He said that as a nation that has been blessed with a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural social fabric, and more importantly as a country that was coming out of a long period of conflict, Sri Lanka valued the strength that comes from the unity of the diverse communities in Sri Lanka. After almost thirty years of suffering, Sri Lanka had embarked upon a new era of development and reconciliation for all its people and looked upon the international community for encouragement and support. He said that Sri Lanka was keen to explore further avenues to strengthen and consolidate relations between the Holy See and Sri Lanka. The delegation accompanying Rajapaksa included Ioma Rajapaksa, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Holy See Ravinatha Ariyasinghe, Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Rome Bennet Cooray, Commander of the Navy Vice Admiral Jayanath Colombage and Chairman of the Urban Development Authority Nimal Perera.