Cardinal Benjamin Thomas Cooray OMI

Fr. Benjamin Cooray had just returned to St. Vincent's Home, Maggona after an outing to Beruwala Light House with his Oblate seminarians on January 5, 1945 to learn that he had a telegram calling him to Colombo where the happy news awaited him that Pope Pius XII had appointed him Co-adjuator Archbishop of Colombo with the right of suceession to His Grace Archbishop Jean-Marie Masson OMI who a year or so earlier had requested for a co-adjutor as a result of his failing health. The news concerning Fr. Benjamin Cooray OMI had been overwhelmingly received with joy. The appointment had been officially made in Rome by the Pope on December 14, 1945. At this news he notes in his diary: "Having consulted His Grace and the Vicar of Missions, accepted the appointment, offering myself to the Heart of Jesus through Mary". With the news going public, he humbly writes in his diary the day following:

"The news is out. Plenty of congratulations. It would have been the same for anyone else. Who even thinks now of those numberless Bishops who were similarly congratulated, but are no more now. Or what use was their worldly greatness for eternity. The only thing that counts is to do well God's will and to work for Him alone. I accept the post not for the honour quid hac ad aetenitatem but for the labour". It was hard for him to leave the Oblate Seminary where he had been Superior for the last eight and a half years and now having to move to Archbishop's House.

Fr. Cooray then journeys to the Rosarian Monastery in Tholagatty, Jaffna where his acquaintance Fr.B.A. Thomas OMI is the founder and makes a retreat of sevenfull days in preparation for his Episcopal consecration. On his return, he took canonical possession of Office as Co-adjutor by making the Profession of Faith and Oath of fidelity to the Pope in the Sacred Heart Chapel of the Bishop's House on March 4, 1946. Having received the interim document from the Delegate Apostolic, Archbishop Leo Kierkels CP from Delhi to proceed with the consecration before the arrival of the Papal Bull, the ceremony was eventually held on the March 7, 1946 at St. Lucia's Cathedral, Kotahena with the Apostolic Delegate as the chief consecrator and with Bishops Edmund Peiris OMI of Chilaw and Bernard Regno OSB of Kandy as co-consecrators. On the very day of his consecration, he was appointed the Vicar General of the Archdiocese. Due to the sudden demise of the Archbishop Jean-Marie Masson OMI, the Coadjutor Cooray became the sixth Archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Colombo, being the first ever Sri Lankan to be called to this highest ecclesiastical office in the country.

His diary shows that immediately following the days of his consecration, he had been celebrating Mass at his beloved Scholasticate where he was superior for over eight years, then at St. Joseph's College, his Alma Mater where he was also a staff-member; then at St. Bernard's Major Seminary where he taught for several years and finally at St. Aloysius's seminary where for 12 years he had been a junior seminarian. It was from there, that he attended the Colombo University and became the first-ever seminarian to gain a secular degree (B.A) from the London University. His religious life then began with his entry into the Oblate Novitiate on first January 1924 and making his first religious vows on January 25, 1925 as a full-fledged Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI). His superiors having seen in Bro. Benjamin Cooray, a very promising vocation, taking into consideration his intellectual abilities, spirit of holiness, prayer and obedience and other human qualities, had decided to send him as the first ever Oblate seminarian to Rome for his further religious, missionary and priestly formation. Having pursued his studies brilliantly at the Angelicum University of the Dominicans he had earned doctorates both in Philosophy and Theology. Ordained by the Vicar General of Rome, Cardinal Basilio Pompilj on June 23, 1929 and having celebrated his first mass in the crypt of the Basilica of St. Mary Major , he returned to Sri Lanka in July 1931. His first appointment was to the staff of St. Joseph's College, followed by appointments to the Catholic University Hostel as warden and finally to Oblate Scholasticate from where he was called to be the Co-adjutor to Archbishop Masson.

Archbishop Cooray OMI was created a cardinal at the public consistory held on February 25, 1965, the final year of the Vatican II. Having been the chief shepherd of the Archdiocese, ats chief administrator and spiritual head for nearly 30 years from July 1947 to September 2, 1976, he retired to his home at "Emmaus" where he lived for another 12 years before his demise. Cardinal Cooray was the fifth Asian to be raised to the honour of Cardinal and the third in the rank of the Oblate Congregation worldwide and the first ever SriLankan. Cardinal Cooray was preceded by Cardinal Joseph-Hippolyte Guibert OMI, the great architect of the imposing Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Paris (created Cardinal in December 1873) and Cardinal Jean-Marie Rodrigue Villeneuve OMI, the Archbishop of Quebec, Canada (created Cardinal in March 1933). At the time of his demise, Cardinal Cooray was 63 years an Oblate Religious, 59 years a priest, 42 years in the Episcopal rank and 23 years a cardinal. In his last will he had expressed his desire that his mortal remains be interred in the crypt of the Basilica. This edifice is a great accomplishment of the Servant of God besides it being a great symbol of his personal devotion to the Mother of God, to whom he wished that others too turn, their hearts. Amidst great difficulties and challenges, he had persevered for 24 years to raise this monument which was to fulfill a vow made by his predecessor to honour Our Lady of Lanka who saved our mother land from the perils of World War II. Together with Paul VI Centre in the heart of Colombo for the co-ordination of all Lay Apostolates in the archdiocese, these two ventures were two of the major dreams of Cardinal Cooray.

His Episcopal Coat of Arms carried the words of the Jesus in the Gospel "Ministrare non Ministrari" : to serve and not to be served. Besides, it carried also the words of Jesus uttered in the synagogue of his hom-town of Nazareth: "Pauperes Evangelizantur": the poor are evangelized. No wonder as a young seminarian faced with a choice, he embraced the charism of St. Eugene de Mazenod, the founder of 'the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who desired that his missiolaries leave nothing undared to evangelize the poor and who chose Sri Lanka as one of his first missions sending his Oblates here in 1847. Cardinal Cooray had chosen the membership of the Oblate Congregation for as his founder, he ha an unbounded love for Mary Immaculate. It is in this love that made him welcome the Pilgrim Virgin statue that toured worldwide to SriLanka in 1950 and got the sculptor who carved that wonderful statue to also do the statue of Our Lady of Lanka that stays crowned by his own hands since February 6, 1974. As Archbishop he worked towards' the establishment of a local clergy, invited 12 womens' and eight mens' congregations to work in the archdiocese. He had innovative ideas about priestly formation and was very much dedicated to the sanctification of his clergy. The intermediate seminary of Haputale and the work connected with the opening of National Seminary of Kandy bear witness to this zeal. The Retreat House in Tewatte together with its two contemplative convents of nuns in the precints of the Basilica, the Rosarians and the Poor Clares, are clear symbols of the spiritual ideals he had set for priests and religious. To cater to youth formation, he invited the Christian Brothers to open a Boy's Town in Diyagala and the Salesians to open a technical school in Ettukkala, Negombo. One cannot forget his pioneering missionary undertakings in the north western province of Anuradhapura where thanks to him, poor farming families whom he planted there and nurtured in faith and life during the settlements era, became the foundation of what thirty years after, became the diocese of Anuradhapura.

From the days of his priesthood, sanctity was his sole aim in life and he was intent on spending his whole life, his total energy, time and God-given gifts to serve the beloved archdiocese that God had entrusted to him. Cardinal Cooray is well known for his kindness, humility and compassion, resilience, his spirit of prayer and faith that assisted him in difficult and trying times such as the schools take-over in the sixtees, political/cultural upheavals in the country and the problems that began to afflict the Church following the false interpretation of Vatican II. As Cardinal, he had the interests of the Asian Church too in mind and being the member of important Vatican dicasteries rendered a yeoman service to the universal Church. In Sri Lanka, he was much respected as a religious leader and a true patriot. He had a profound respect and love for the person of the Pope and the Holy See and saw to it that orthodoxy in doctrine was never put at risk. History will remember Cardinal Cooray OMI as a priest, a bishop and a cardinal who lived up to the ideals of episcopacy and loved the Church in the way he served it. Indeed, the Servant of God accomplished well his historical task of' guiding the destinies of the Church of Sri Lanka through the vicissitudes of the post- independent era.