YANGON (UCAN): “Our Lady becomes the mother of all people, of all races and all religions. The whole Myanmar came here for healing and celebrating,” Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon said in a homily on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, held at the National Marian Shrine of Nyaunglebin on February 11.
“But this year we have come here as a wounded nation, a wounded people,” he said.
Thousands of Catholics, Hindus and Buddhists from across the country participate in the feast, but this year the novena and celebrations were held online due to the Covid-19 coronavirus and political instability.
Cardinal Bo highlighted the five wounds inflicted on Myanmar in the form of the pandemic, the military coup [Sunday Examiner, 7 Febraury 2021], civil wars, the collapse of the economy and the displacement of people.
Myanmar’s Catholic bishops have appealed for humanitarian assistance for the thousands of displaced people while seeking ‘the fellowship of the universal Church and donor community to seek support to all our Myanmar people without any discrimination’
“More than ever we need our Mother of Mercy in Myanmar today. Our pain is her pain,” he said. “As a mother, she was with her son at the most needed time. Not abandoning us, she stands with the people of Myanmar today. She is the mother most faithful and most merciful.”
Cardinal Bo’s appeal comes amid protests and armed resistance across the country against the military junta, which has unleashed airstrikes, artillery shelling and burning of civilian homes, forcing thousands of people including women, children, the elderly and the infirm to flee and seek refuge in nearby jungles or churches in the villages and towns.
Junta forces in the predominantly Christian states of Kayah and Chin are targeting churches and other community institutions.
Myanmar’s Catholic bishops have appealed for humanitarian assistance for the thousands of displaced people while seeking “the fellowship of the universal Church and donor community to seek support to all our Myanmar people without any discrimination.”
Pope Francis has shown his solidarity by repeatedly calling for an end to the violence and a return to the negotiating table to seek peace and reconciliation.
The number of internally displaced persons has crossed the 800,000 mark since the coup in February 2021, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The agency said some 440,000 people have been newly displaced since then, adding to an existing 370,000 internally displaced persons.
More than 1,500 people have been killed while at least 12,000 have been detained by the junta in the 12 months following the coup.
