YANGON (UCAN): Bishop Alexander Pyone Cho of Pyay, Myanmar, urged Catholics to pray and fast during Lent to bring peace to conflict-torn conflict country and Ukraine.
“I urge you to practice special prayers and do fasting during the Lenten season with the intention of getting peace,” Bishop Cho said in a letter.
The bishop also called on Catholics to join in Ash Wednesday prayer and fasting—along with Christians around the world—urged by Pope Francis, who designated a day of prayer for peace in Ukraine.
The pope also called for humanitarian aid for the refugees fleeing Ukraine and called for an end to the violence.
“They are brothers and sisters, for whom we must urgently open humanitarian corridors. They must be welcomed,” he said on February 27 [Sunday Examiner, March 3].
“May the weapons fall silent. God is with the peacemakers, not with those who use violence. It is the people who are the real victims, who pay for the folly of war with their own skin.”
While Christians around the world were urged to pray for peace in Ukraine, Myanmar has witnessed a civil war and military atrocities in ethnic areas including predominantly Christian Kayah, Chin and Karen states where thousands of civilians have been forced to flee to forests or take shelter in churches since last February’s coup toppled the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Despite sowing peace, conflicts are harvested while the seeds of democracy are planted, and we get the results of autocracy, authoritarianism, dictators and Hitlers
Cardinal Bo
Charles Cardinal Bo of Yangon, called on Catholics not to be discouraged and not to lose hope despite facing many challenges.
“As St. Paul said, we are the creation of God and we belong to him, so let us not be tired of doing good,” he said in a homily at St. Mary’s Cathedral on Ash Wednesday.
“Despite sowing peace, conflicts are harvested while the seeds of democracy are planted, and we get the results of autocracy, authoritarianism, dictators and Hitlers,” Cardinal Bo said.
After more than five decades of military rule, Myanmar was set on the road to democracy, but the political, economic and social freedoms that began to sprout in 2011 were abruptly ended by the 2021 military coup.
Pope Francis, who visited Myanmar in November 2017, has repeatedly prayed for peace in the conflict-torn country and called for an end to violence and a return to the negotiation table.
While many world leaders have shown solidarity with the people from Ukraine, Myanmar’s military junta has claimed Russia’s invasion was “justified.”
Russia, a major ally of Myanmar, backed the coup and has conducted arms deals with the junta.
Myanmar’s shadow national unity government and anti-coup activists have slammed the Russian invasion and expressed solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
On the last weekend of February, activists in several townships across Myanmar staged protests holding placards declaring “We stand in solidarity with the people from Ukraine” and “We condemn Russia.”
