Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, who last week urged Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign, is now insisting that the ousted leader must honor his pledge to step down.

Rajapaksa said that he would resign after huge crowds occupied the presidential residence, forcing him to flee. Cardinal Ranjith said that “it was a good thing that the crowds descended on the city,” because the country’s people had lost confidence in the government.

However, the cardinal said, “the leadership in this country has a bad record of promises being kept, so we are all waiting anxiously to see whether he, the president, will keep his promise to resign.”