Suba Seth Gedara in Buttala known as the Buddhist-Christian Dialogue and Conscientization is a rural community organization situated at 12th Mile Post on Katharagama-Buttala road in the Monaragala district of Sri Lanka.
The founder of this place, the late Father Michael Rodrigo, dedicated his life to serving the rural poor in an area predominantly inhabited by Sinhala Buddhists. Suba Seth Gedara was established not as a missionary center but as a space for promoting inter-religious understanding.
“The Christ we follow is poor. These villagers have nowhere to go or anything to hold on to during times of trouble. Abandoning them, in a difficult time means abandoning the suffering body of Christ. This is when they need us the most. I cannot abandon those who stood with me in both joy and sorrow. I am now old, my bones are fragile, but it does not matter if they turn to dust in Buttala,” he once remarked.
Father Rodrigo often emphasized to the people the need to be prepared to die for others when the moment called for it.
On November 10, 1987, at 7:30 PM, during the final blessing of a mass held at Suba Seth Gedara, Father Michael Rodrigo was assassinated. A gunman fired a single bullet through a window, striking him in the head.
“On November 4, 1987, Father Rodrigo handed over all documents related to his work to the Monaragala District Secretariat. The military accused him of aiding a banned political party and claimed he was wielding considerable influence in the area. That was the kind of environment,” recalls Shirani de Silva, who witnessed his final moments.
The assassination raised allegations against the state, but investigations did not progress, and no perpetrators were identified.
Father Michael Rodrigo supported the struggles of local people against the environmental and social damage caused by the Booker-Tate company’s sugar cane plantation in Wellassa. Additionally, he opposed the torture and killings of youth associated with the then-banned Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP, the major party of the current ruling alliance National People’s Power).
“The window through which the bullet that ended Father Michael Rodrigo’s life was fired symbolizes an opening towards the people of Buttala and the rural poor, to whom he devoted his life,” noted the late scholar Dr. Nalin Swaris.
In a tribute, Dr. Hiniduma Sunil Senevi, present Minister of Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs, wrote, “Father Michael Rodrigo was an extraordinary man, revered as a godlike figure by the poor (known as ‘Poor Michael Rodrigo’). He was a brilliant scholar, linguist, theologian, researcher, professor, and a holder of two doctoral degrees. He never bowed down to injustice. He was a social reformer, poet, a different kind of Catholic, and the victim of an extraordinary death.”
Born on June 30, 1927, in Dehiwala, Father Rodrigo received his education at St. Mary’s School in Dehiwala and St. Peter’s College in Bambalapitiya. In 1947, he joined the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O.M.I) for his priestly training and later studied at their international institution in Rome.
The Princeton University Library website describes Father Michael Rodrigo as “a distinguished theologian who earned two doctorates, one from the Gregorian University in Rome and another in Comparative Religion and Buddhist Philosophy from the Institut Catholique de Paris. He taught at the Ampitiya National Seminary in Kandy for many years before moving to the Sevaka Sevana Seminary in Bandarawela. Sevaka Sevana, an innovative theological seminary founded by Bishop Leo Nanayakkara, was distinct from the colonial Western model, offering indigenized education. During this time, he was awarded a professorship at the Institut Catholique de Paris. However, in 1980, he channeled his knowledge and experience into establishing Suba Seth Gedara in Buttala, which quickly evolved into an educational and organizational center for rural communities. It was named the ‘Center for Buddhist-Christian Dialogue and Conscientization.'”
Link: Princeton University Library Website)
