YANGON (UCAN): The Church in Myanmar urged the country’s military rulers to protect places of worship following a series of attacks by the army in Christian-majority areas of the war-torn nation.
In the latest attack on Christian places of worship, the army, which toppled the civilian government in February 2021 [Sunday Examiner, 7 February 2021], torched the 129-year-old Assumption Church in Mandalay archdiocese on January 15 [Sunday Examiner, January 29].
“Increasingly, places of worship and monasteries, where communities seek peace and reconciliation, are themselves under attack,” the Church said in an open letter, signed by Charles Cardinal Bo of Yangon, and Archbishop Marco Tin Win of Mandalay and Archbishop Basilio Athai of Taunggyi.
“Why are these sacred places attacked and destroyed?” they asked in the letter, released on January 20. The bishops cited international pacts like the Hague Convention which call for the protection of places of worship, places of learning, and places of healing.
“As a nation, we need to heal. Healing comes through our deep sense of interrelatedness. Places of worship promote this interdependence, leading to peace,” they said.
In the January 15 attack, a century-old convent of the Franciscan Sisters was also set on fire by the military.
Five out of 16 dioceses in the country—Loikaw, Pekhon, Hakha, Kalay and Mandalay—are affected by the ongoing conflicts between the army and ethnic rebel groups, some of whose members belong to various Christian denominations.
The letter, however, did not directly blame the military junta for the attacks on Christian-majority areas.
Chan Thar village in the Archdiocese of Mandalay suffered multiple raids by the army last year, and its 500 homes were gutted by fire due to repeated arson attacks.
“Let all guns fall silent, let us reach out to all, as brothers and sisters and start the sacred pilgrimage of peace, united as a nation and as a people,” said the letter.
Pope Francis has repeatedly called for peace and reconciliation in Myanmar, and decried the recent destruction of the Catholic church.
“My thoughts, with pain, go in particular to Myanmar, where the church of Our Lady of the Assumption in the village of Chan Thar, one of the oldest and most important places of worship in the country, was set on fire and destroyed,” the pope said during his Angelus on January 22.
