He rocked the ecclesiastical foundations of his church from here in Colombo to Vatican. John Paul II under the instruction of then head of Vatican watch dog (CDF), current pope with the current cardinal of Colombo as the then auxiliary bishop made sure the injunction of Vatican excommunication was executed on him bluntly.
He was deeply radical but an ardent church loyalist. Not sure how he managed that actually. May be a skill I guess. The church in the periphery will miss him here in the Asian context. The theological world beyond would want to pursue the passion with which Tissa went about in the free thinking world. The excommunication affected him, he was never the same again even though his own OMI congregation stood by him. Many others both local and international groups and individuals rose to the occasion to speak and write about the Vatican’s injustice done to a man of faith, robustly vocal which Vatican wished to silence. He is silent now, but his stand in the name of what he believed will be a legacy in the history of this nation’s religious and political landscape.
May he rest in Peace and his thought continue among us