ASIA/MYANMAR - Burmese Bishops express their solidarity with the Pope: "Lay down weapons, open hearts, and seek the difficult but necessary path of dialogue and peace"

Yangon (Fides News Agency) - Following the verbal attack by US President Donald Trump, the Burmese bishops of the Bishops' Conference of Myanmar express their solidarity with Pope Leo XIV. They praise the Pope “amid the noise of war and the turmoil of conflicting interests” as “a clear and courageous moral voice, a shepherd who proclaims the truth with love.” In a message published on April 15, signed by the President of the Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, and sent to Fides, the Burmese bishops join the Pope in calling for “a voice in the desert to call humanity back to the path of peace, justice, and reconciliation.”
The bishops stated that the Pope's appeals "remind all peoples that peace is not the victory of one side over another, but the triumph of our shared humanity." "By resolutely defending the dignity of every human life in a world threatened by division, Pope Leo XIV embodies the evangelical spirit of unity, mercy, and truth," the text reads.
The bishops add that the Pope's words also resonate in a country like Myanmar, where the wounds of conflict are painfully felt: "We join our prayers with his and earnestly implore all nations, leaders, and peoples to lay down their weapons, open their hearts, and embark on the difficult but necessary path of dialogue and peace," the message concludes. In it, the bishops assure the Pope of their solidarity and support and reiterate the Beatitude from the Gospel: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."
The Catholic Church in Myanmar, whose communities live under precarious conditions of displacement, observed March 26 as a special day of penance, prayer, and fasting for peace in Myanmar and the Middle East, the scene of the new war. Bishops joined the faithful in prayer vigils, devotions, and Eucharistic adoration, asking God to “grant Myanmar and the world his peace, so that mutual understanding, compassion, and love may prevail.”
Furthermore, the faithful in various Burmese dioceses are preparing to celebrate Masses and rosaries on the first anniversary of Pope Francis’s death on April 21. A celebration is planned in Yangon Cathedral on April 25 at 5:00 p.m. (PA) (Fides News Agency, 16/4/2026)

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