Fr. Michael Rodrigo and Education for Justice

The 10th of November  will be the 37th anniversary of the killing of Fr. Michael Rodrigo, OMI, popularly known as Fr. Mike. He was killed while I was a student at St. Peter’s and he has been a role model and an inspiration since my school days.

In this article, I want to focus on his work and thoughts on education. Fr. Mike was also a student of St. Peter’s and we both taught at College after leaving school (in my case informally only for a few months). Later on, we both became involved in education and struggles for social justice and human rights, including through the Centre for Society and Religion (CSR). A hall at CSR that has been hosting regular discussions on social justice and human rights is named after Fr. Mike.

During my time in school and afterward, I have come across many Peterites who have gone on to excel in fields diverse as academia, science, music, film, sports, business, priesthood etc. It is difficult to judge the criteria of a true Peterite – is it fame, high positions, wealth, awards? If we consider values like simplicity, service, self-sacrifice and uncompromised commitment to the College motto of “Virtus et Veritas” (Virtue in Truth) and giving life to the words in the College anthem “lend a heart and lend a hand….ever fighting for the rights….helping those in need”, Fr. Mike would be an exemplary Peterite.

It is such values that led him to give up comforts and high positions, and seek to live as a poor amongst the poor peasants in Alukalavita, Buttala, in the Monaragala district. He had a strong spirituality that gave him the courage to sacrifice his life when he had plenty of options to give up the difficult and dangerous mission and shift to a safer, comfortable mission. On 10th November 1987, he was shot dead while celebrating Holy Mass.  His congregation the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) has  initiated a process to recognise him as a martyr, the first ever Sri Lankan Catholic to be submitted for such an honour.

Fr. Mike’s article on “Virtus et Veritas” (Virtue in Truth) and his educational work

Eight years after leaving College, in 1954, the same year of his ordination as a Catholic Priest, Fr. Mike had penned an article for the College magazine, titled “Spotlight on a College Motto”. He highlights the importance of religious and ethics education, stressing that these will give rich meaning to other school activities. He reflects that our minds were created to seek truth, that young minds are very responsive to the truth and that teachers and books that impart knowledge must be true and trustworthy. He insists that Peterites must be seekers, doers and defenders of truth and that this will require effort and courage. He had cited a story of a man who chose to be killed for truth and goodness, rather than conducting experiments on some prisoners. He may not have thought that 33 years later, he would also make a similar choice to be killed for his beliefs.

Fr. Mike has spent much of his adult life as an educator. Immediately after completing his studies at College, Fr. Mike started teaching at the College. He was an intellectual - after his ordination, he had obtained two doctorates in Rome and Paris, and he had been a teacher at the national seminary at Ampitiya in Kandy for about 16 years, helping in the formation of several generations of Catholic priests. But his most pioneering educational efforts came after he had obtained his second PhD, starting off by engaging in public education at the Colombo- based Centre for Society and Religion (CSR) for several years. He then moved to “Seveka Sevana”, to help Bishop Leo Nanayakkara with an innovative educational experience for those being trained to be Catholic priests (seminarians) of the newly established Catholic diocese of Badulla in the Uva province. This comprised a contextual type of priestly formation, starting from real life struggles of people, especially the oppressed such as tea estate workers in upper Uva and peasants in lower Uva. In 1980, he ventured even beyond, to the rural village of Alukalavita in Buttala, also in the Uva province. He lived and worked from a simple Cadjan and mud hut which he named “Suba Seth Gedera”. He lived amidst a Buddhist community, without any attempt to convert them. He had engaged in a series of educational and empowering activities, such as on indigenous medicines and agriculture. He played an important role in supporting peasants to understand what was happening to the environment and natural resources due to industrial sugar cane cultivation and actively supported the local community’s struggles for land. It is from Alukalavita, that he had written a challenging article to the College’s 60th jubilee magazine in 1982, that remains very relevant today, 42 years later.  

Article for the 60th anniversary of St. Peter’s College in 1982

Fr. Mike recalls his first day in College, lovingly referring to how he was handed over by his own mother to another “kind mother” - Alma Mater. But he reflects that “College paid lip service to Social Justice since 1936”, that “true education is education for justice” and (college) can and must take a new turn”. The article stressed the importance of Catholic education prioritizing dialogue amongst all faiths and justice and that dialogue and justice should be the two main thrusts of College.

Quoting extensively from Catholic teachings (magisterium) on education, Fr. Mike  questioned whether the College will have the courage to follow these teachings, saying that “if the national policy is making efforts to keep education unjust, elitist and crisis-ridden, “Virtus et Veritas (Virtue and Truth) would demand that we run counter, that we make College an oasis of justice and link up the oases and make the desert bloom”. He suggests that College must provide “education for justice by creating an atmosphere of justice animated by Christian love, within the school and by service to the poorest members of society where the students live and grow and where the College exists”

Fr. Mike’s thoughts on education were very much in line with the thinking of the World Synod of (Catholic) Bishops in 1971, which had highlighted that the principle aim for education for justice must be to awaken the conscience of situations, call for improvement and that it must be a practical education through action, participation and contact with the realities of injustice.

Fr. Mike is one of St. Peter’s College’s earliest and foremost public intellectuals and an exemplary and inspiring role model student. He became a martyr for living to his ideals and faith. He is no more, but the anniversary of his killing would be a good occasion to reflect and act more seriously on the thoughts about education and in particular Catholic education.

His last words were “College must become a lever of society: she (College) must know, love, serve. She must become aware of social reality, have a heartache for the poor from who she distances herself and serve in a Servant Church”.

On 10th November 10am, the annual remembrance events of Fr. Michael Rodrigo will be held at Suba Seth Gedera, Buttala, where he was killed 37 years ago.

(The writer is a Catholic educator, writer, activist and a Consultant at the Centre for Society and Religion (CSR).