The Jesuits first went to Sri Lanka hundreds of years ago, not long after the time of Francis Xavier in the 16th Century. Many Sri Lankans became Catholics. The Jesuits opened parishes, schools and colleges, especially for Tamil migrants from India, who worked as labourers in the tea and coffee plantations. After independence, the previous balance between the two ethnicities of Sri Lanka, Tamils (of Sri Lankan origin) and Sinhalese, became more and more distorted. This led to a big split in Sri Lankan society and civil war broke out between a group called the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) and the Sinhalese government.

Sri Lankan Jesuits belong to both communities and are doing all they can to prevent further bloodshed. One of the Jesuits, Fr Eugene Herbert SJ, was killed in 1990. At the beginning of February 2009, the South Asian Regional Director, P. S. Amalraj SJ, and the International Director of Jesuit Refugee Service, Peter Balleis SJ, went to Sri Lanka to witness at firsthand the present conflict situation. (Sources: Jesuit Mission Australia and SJ Electronic News Service)

The Social Justice Secretariat has created a webpage with a collection of news items and material about the situation in Sri Lanka: http://tinyurl.com/cynq8o