Three Kachin Baptist pastors facing a lawsuit for organizing prayers for peace were among more than 5,000 prisoners freed in Myanmar under a general amnesty granted to more than 5,000 political prisoners.
Myanmar junta forces have reportedly occupied churches and destroyed stocks of food aid for refugees during clashes with ethnic armed forces and militias.
The Cathedral parish in the Diocese of Pathein in Myanmar distributed food supplies — rice, onions, oil, salt, eggs — to poor parishioners on August 22.
It has become a tradition for young Catholics in Myanmar to honor their parents every year during the feast of St. Joachim and St. Anne, the parents of Mary, on July 26.
"I still remember one of my friends saying that if we would continue to be Catholic catechists, the time would come that we have to sell even our wives to survive," said John.
We have an urgent message for today and it comes from the Second reading: St Paul says “As Christ became poor for our sake, so must we share with those in need from our abundance.”
There was a notable increase in the number of churches under military attack in Myanmar in recent weeks, said reports from communities and independent media organizations.
Church officials in eastern Myanmar’s Kayah state have prioritized the emergency needs of thousands of displaced people rather than repairing churches damaged by military attacks.
Catholic Church leaders in Myanmar appealed for a “humanitarian corridor” in the country’s conflict zones as violence continues to rage in many parts of the country this week.
A Catholic Church has been repeatedly hit by artillery shells on June 6, Corpus Christi Sunday, as Myanmar’s military continued its offensive in the eastern part of the country’s Kayah State.
Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Myanmar’s highest Catholic Church official, expressed “immense sorrow and pain” over the attack on churches in the country this week that resulted in the death of civilians.
Military operations against civilian resistance fighters in the village of Kayan Tharyar near Loikaw hit a Catholic church and killed at least four people, said a report reaching Radio Veritas Asia.
