ASIA/MYANMAR - Cardinal Bo: "May the Jubilee Year be a year of reconciliation and resettlement of displaced persons"

Yangon (Agenzia Fides) - Over 600 members of the various Christian denominations in Myanmar gathered in Yangon for a celebration and dinner to celebrate Christmas and to express their best wishes for the New Year, together with government officials, members of the government and the head of the ruling military junta, General Min Aung Hlaing. The celebration, held in the complex of the Catholic "St. Mary's" Cathedral in Yangon, was intended as an opportunity to discuss peace, justice and prosperity in the country and to keep a channel open with the current leaders in the government, reported Fides sources. But it was not a moment when the leaders of the Christian churches, including the Catholic Church, "entered into an alliance with the military power," as some media outlets wrote about the event, which was also criticized by some Burmese priests and lay people living abroad who are members of the Independent Catholics for Justice in Myanmar network.
The celebration, which traditionally takes place at the end of the year, was held in the Catholic St. Mary's Cathedral in Yangon and was jointly organized by four Christian church organizations: the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar, the Myanmar Council of Churches, the Council of the Evangelical Association of Myanmar and the Myanmar Sabbath Mission Association.
The Archbishop of Yangon, Cardinal Charles Bo, welcomed the guests, including General Min Aung Hlaing. According to the faithful present, the meeting was an opportunity to talk about and pray for peace, as was also emphasized by Cardinal Bo, who in his address to those present quoted excerpts from Pope Francis' Message for the World Day of Peace, addressing the issue of foreign debt and the responsibility of richer countries towards people who are impoverished for various reasons. The cardinal further stressed that Christmas and the Jubilee Year "proclaim a message of joy and love that must urgently be applied in the context of Myanmar." "Our beloved country longs for peace and needs it," he said, calling on all parties to end the violence. "May 2025 be a year of reconciliation and resettlement of our people's refugees," said the archbishop, referring to the more than three million people displaced as a result of the country's civil war, a number that has been rising for at least three years. Finally, the Archbishop of Yangon called on the government to facilitate the distribution of aid to the displaced and to commute the sentences of prisoners sentenced to death on the occasion of the jubilee Year. Such an appeal is also contained in a joint statement by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, published in recent days and co-signed by the governments of the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland and Timor-Leste. "We call on the military regime and all armed actors in Myanmar to limit violence, respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law, protect the civilian population and allow full, safe and unhindered humanitarian access so that assistance can be provided to all those in need," the document says. It refers to "human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law committed against the civilian population in the context of the conflict," such as forced kidnapping and recruitment of children, aerial bombardments of civilians and civilian infrastructure, burning of homes, attacks on humanitarian workers and structures. The statement reiterates: "full support for the central role of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) in finding a solution to the crisis and the role of the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Myanmar". (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 9/1/2025)

Share:

human rights

---

---

peace

---

---

ecumenicalism

---

---

displaced persons

---

---

armed conflicts

---

---

civil war

---

---

jubilee

---

---