
Fr. Sunil de Silva was the latest shepherd of the flock at St. Mary's Bambalapitiya
for 5 years.
He hails from the nearby Parish of Dehiwela, and entered the St.
Aloysius Seminary in Borella in 1978. He completed his primary education
in Nuwara Eliya, and thereafter he did studies up to A/L in Science at
St. Peter's College, Bambalapitiya. While in the school and in the
Seminary, on the sports field, he played Basketball and Cricket for the
Minor Seminary and the National Seminary teams and was appointed as an
Official referee of the Basketball Federation and served as a Basketball
coach.
At the National Seminary, Ampitiya, he studied Philosophy and Theology
obtained his B.Ph. and B.Th., and was ordained a priest together with 21
other priests on 28 July 1990 at St. Lucia's Cathedral, Kotahena,
by His Eminence Cardinal
Jozef Tomko, then Prefect of the Congregation
for the Evangelisation of Peoples.
Thereafter he was appointed as the Assistant Parish Priest of
Pannipitiya, and the Co-ordinator for Catechetics in the Kotte Deanery.
After two years at Pannipitiya, he was appointed as the Parish Priest of
Kotugoda and the Coordinator for Catechetics in the Tudella Deanery. In
1994, he volunteered to serve in Pakistan as a Fidei Donum missionary
priest and served in the Panjab Province. He was appointed as the
Principal of St. John's Academy and a member of the Board of Education
in the diocese of Islamabad and as the Assistant Parish Priest of
Sargodha which consists of 106 villages. He also served as the diocesan
director for Pontifical Mission Societies. So he is fluent in Urdu and
Panjabi languages. For a short period he served as the Acting Parish
Priest of St. Lucia's Cathedral, Kotahena and was appointed as the
Parish Priest of St. Joseph's Church Nugegoda, and served there for 3 years.
In 2002, he was
appointed as the Secretary to His Grace Archbishop Oswald Gomis and
continued as the Secretary to His Grace Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith. He
was appointed as a member of Administrative Council, a member of the
College of Consultation, a member of the Council of Priests and a member
of the Priests' Personnel Board of the Archdiocese. He served as the
Editor of the Archdiocesan Bulletin for 08 years and continues as the
Administrator of the website of the Archdiocese of Colombo, which was
started in 2002. On 24th April 2010, he was appointed as the Parish
Priest of St. Mary's Chuch Bambalapitiya, and took over duties from his predecessor Rev.
Fr. Srian Ranasinghe on 1st June 2010.