7/12/2021
https://dev.lb.marist.edu/archives/prayerAndWork/pages/sriLanka2.htm
https://dev.lb.marist.edu/archives/prayerAndWork/pages/sriLanka2.htm
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Sri Lanka
This was in fact in one of the first missions assigned to me, and the one that I became most anchored to.
Negombo, where the Provincial Office is, as is our oldest school, is now the seat of the Province and home to
our most famous school, and the one that has the most famous alumni. When the government wanted to take
over our schools, it was our alumni who stepped in and took over the schools and paid the teachers’ salaries.
The government understood that it was losing its attempt to take over the school, and that it would do better to
support Marist Stella. Our oldest community was Our Lady’s Hemitage, which had been the seat of all
training from the beginning. It had been a small farm and now helps support the Province. Our newest schools
are Kalutara and Kotte, open to all denominations and doing well. Our school up-country continues as a school,
but we use our house mostly for rests and retreats. It is to Sri Lanka’s credit that it has become a center for
the early program of missions to India and Pakistan.