Being practical, never vengeful, has always been typical of the beloved cardinal’s approach, and increasingly, people are calling in one voice: “Cardinal for president”.

Sri Lankans may be terrified of more attacks, but the response by authorities since Easter Sunday has done little to calm the mood.

Very few positive words have been spoken of the government since it revealed it ignored security warnings about possible suicide bombings ahead of the Easter Sunday attack.

The government has banned and unbanned social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp, and issued conflicting statements, none of which have inspired confidence.

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Hotels, which were booming in a country that Lonely Planet named the number one tourist destination for 2019, have been almost totally deserted.

And when schools reopened earlier this week for the first time since the bombings, only about 1 per cent of students turned up, despite the government assuring parents of safe classrooms.

Such non-responsiveness was unheard of during the worst of the LTTE violence, which cost close to 100,000 lives.

Consequently, the only voice that seems to carry any clout – in what many now consider a battle against IS – has been that of Ranjith, who Forbes magazine reported as among the leading contenders for the papacy after Pope Benedict retired.

“Cardinal Ranjith has surpassed Cardinal Sin, in that His Eminence has become the voice of the nation in a country where, in contrast to the Philippines, Catholics are a tiny minority,” said Crishnath Mendis, a lifelong student of Christian theological trends.

Authorities have also become increasingly mindful of protecting Ranjith, especially if indeed the Easter Sunday bombings suggest the beginning of a bigger fight against IS.

In an effort to keep the cardinal safe, the prime minister offered him a bulletproof car – like the Popemobile. But Ranjith refused it with a volley of derisive words.

“I will not use a bulletproof car when my flock is unsafe,” he said.

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The response disappointed the government.

“The Pope travels around in a bulletproof Popemobile,” said Ranjan Ramanayake, a Catholic Minister of State, implying that the cardinal should have accepted the offer.

But refusing a Popemobile was only the latest in many comments by Ranjith to rile the administration. Even before the April 21 attacks, he had repeatedly questioned the government’s resolve.

Last year, Ranjith notably said “human rights had become the religion of the West”, and there was “no need to teach human rights to Sri Lanka, which has had religious inclination for centuries”.

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Now, after the devastating bombings, he has again taken aim at the relationship, saying the local authorities’ intelligence failure was due to the international community’s interference and “running the country”.

“I respect the Cardinal for preaching love towards the Muslims, but I disagree with him about the international community undermining intelligence, because the intelligence arms of all major powers are helping us now,” Ramanayake argued.

Therein lies the rub. Many Sri Lankans, including Cardinal Ranjith, are cynical about the West’s involvement in Sri Lanka’s security affairs.

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“The UN Human Rights Council report stated that Sri Lanka should devolve power. That’s not a human rights issue, it’s a political issue,” said Manohara de Silva, a senior lawyer and President’s Counsel. “It shows the level of interference and that this government blindly followed the international community’s diktat.”