Diocese of Badulla Diocese of Badulla, Sri Lanka Official Website

“For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

The Diocese of Badulla began modestly 40 years ago on 18th December 1972. The first Bishop of Badulla Most Rev. Dr. D. Leo Nanayakkara, O.S.B. of revered memory, left the long established See of Kandy and gladly undertook to pioneer the new diocese, co-terminus with the civil Province of Uva, the poorest province of Sri Lanka. The newly demarcated diocese consisted of four parishes, Badulla, Bandarawela, Lunugala and Welimada, which had already existed as part of the diocese of Kandy. Almost immediately after assuming the reins of the new diocese, he established a mission centre at Bibile, the Catechetical apostolate, Mission Development Apostolate, Committee for InterReligious Dialogue and the Social Arm of the Diocese – The Uva Socio-Economic and Community Development (USCOD) Centre – which attended to communitarian social action and welfare including healing and care of the sick through medical clinics in the outstations and care of leprosy patients through monthly visits by nursing Sisters, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary who worked in the Diocese. Bishop Leo died in 1982, having increased the Parishes to 10 (ten). Read More

The Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy declared last Year for the Universal Church drew our attention to the core of the Gospel message Jesus revealed through His incarnation, life, mission and redemption of entire mankind. The quality of Mercy is the unique characteristic of Christians as Jesus teaches in Luke 6:27-36. The message of Mercy was shared with the entire human family through the Church in an era that is going through a crisis of Mercy at all levels. The Year of Mercy concludes on the 20th of November, the feast of Christ the King, though for practical reasons we celebrate it as a Diocese on the 14th of November. However, the need to ‘be merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful’ is the lifelong call of Jesus Christ, the merciful one who is face of the Father’s mercy – Miseriocordiae vultus.

Most Rev. Dr. Julian Winston Sebastian Fernando, S.S.S., Bishop’s House, Rockhill, Badulla, Sri Lanka.

The Year of Mercy programmes, activities and para – liturgies at parish, deanery and diocesan levels are to be conducted in order to leave our faithful with an experience of God’s merciful love that naturally impels them to be merciful to others. I am glad that the theme of Mercy was taken for the preparatory Novenas for Church/Chapel feasts.

Most Rev. Dr. Julian Winston Sebastian Fernando, S.S.S., Bishop's House, Rockhill, Badulla, Sri Lanka.