Preparations are continuing for Pope Francis’ two-day visit to Sri Lanka in January despite fears that the country’s president is using the trip for propaganda purposes as he stands for re-election Sri lanka is one of the most beautiful places on earth, where serendipitous pleasures wait round every other corner, and indeed this island country may be the origin of the English word “serendipity”. But it is also a country of great sorrow and darkness, and racial and religious hatred, and civil war and abductions and killings. The latest fears are that someone has set booby-traps for Pope Francis, who is due to visit Sri Lanka for two days, starting on 13 January, on his way to the Philippines.Already, a leading Catholic layman has risked his own safety by writing a