Colombo, September 8 (newsin.asia): The Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Foreign Minister Prof.G.L.Peiris who will shortly make a visit to Bologna, Italy, to participate in an international event, have no plans to meet the Pope at Vatican nor has there been any invitation to do, says a release from the Lankan Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.
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The event in Bologna is to be graced by the Prime Minister of Italy and other dignitaries from Italy and other European countries. The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the opening session of the international symposium which will be held in one of Europe’s oldest seats of learning, the University of Bologna.
The Foreign Minister, at his briefing conducted on Monday 6 September, clearly described the purpose of the scheduled visit.
At no stage has the Prime Minister requested nor has he received an invitation to visit the Vatican for an audience with His Holiness, the Pope. The Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister will be leaving Italy, at the conclusion of the events in Bologna, the government said.
There were rumors that Rajapaksa would be meeting the Pope in Vatican as Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Sri Lanka has been clamoring for the identification of persons or institutions which had masterminded the suicide bombing of churches on Easter Sunday in 2019 that caused more than 250 deaths. He had threatened to internationalize the issue and make his own suspicions public.
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