He could have been a researcher or an entrepreneur but he chose to get involved in civil society. And at the age of 54, Herman Kumara believes that he made the right choice.
“I am really happy,” he says. “My former faculty comrades are earning money, sometimes a lot of money, but they are not happy with what they are doing. Personally, I have what I need to eat and to survive and that’s enough.” As a student, Herman Kumara studied biology at the University of Kandy in the centre of Sri Lanka, one of the nation’s most reputable universities.
There he was president of the Newman Society which organized the Catholic students.
“We Christians are a minority in the country but an influential minority,” he says. “We are like the salt that gives taste to the curry.” He had planned to do a master’s degree when the civil war broke out. “In 1989, some inhabitants of my village suspected me of being a member of the Marxist party, the JVP. They wanted to kill me.,” he recalls.
“So I realized what oppression of a minority really meant. As Catholics, we could also feel threatened.”
As a result, he ended his studies. “I did not want to be a white collar worker and I understood that my generation was suffering. That it was necessary to find alternatives.”
A priest friend suggested that he join the Catholic development agency, Caritas. The movement then supported the struggles of farmers, fisherfolk, and workers in tea plantations as well as women war victims.
“I did not have confidence in the hierarchy,” he comments with reference to the religious authorities who removed him from Caritas.
Spanish bishops speak out after leaks of their meeting with Leo XIV
The executive committee of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, (CEE, by its Spanish acronym) meeting in Madrid this week, issued an official statement regarding the leaks
