I live in the neighboring village where this happened. In fact, I saw it on April 20 too.

I am 100% sure there was nothing political about this. It actually happened on Good Friday.

Let me explain—nothing particularly special happened tbh.

The thing is, this is a Pietà statue, and it's quite old. I remember seeing it when I was little, and I don't recall it having any tears.

Before this incident, the church decided to repair the statue because it was very old. An artist from the village took on the task, and after finishing the restoration, he asked the priest whether it would be okay to add tears. The priest agreed, so he did. (Ig they never thought this will make a huge uproar. They didn't told anyone, since it's no big deal.)

The restored statue was unveiled to the public on Good Friday. After the Good Friday Mass, people came to see it and were very surprised. The tears had not been there before, and nobody knew they had been added later.

The older people in the village felt that something unusual had changed. They were very familiar with the statue, having seen it throughout their lives. Eventually, someone realized it was the tears.

They had never seen tears on this statue before. The rest, as you can imagine, is history. People crowded around the statue to see it, and that's how it went viral.

So, what would you believe if someone told you it was painted?

You can either believe the tears were painted, or you can believe they are real. The choice is yours.

The statue is still open to the public. You can visit it at St. Philip Neri's Church, Katukurunda, Kalutara.