By Matters India Reporter
Guwahati, Nov 16, 2019: Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar has spent a week in India’s northeastern region. He concluded the visit on November 13 with a concelebrated Mass in the Salesian Provincial House, Guwahati, Assam.
The cardinal, president of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC) and Archbishop of Yangon, made his first visit to the region, known as the cradle of the Salesian missions in India.
During his stay in the region, the Salesian cardinal led the annual Eucharistic procession in Shillong, capital of Meghalaya state. The cardinal reportedly won the hearts of more than 200,000 people from the region with exhortation in faultless Khasi language.
The cardinal began his pastoral journey with a visit to the Salesian College in Sonada and the bishop of Darjeeling. In Sonada, he spoke to the staff and students of the college and recalled the long association the Salesians of Myanmar had with the college in the past.
Myanmar was part of the Kolkata province until a decade ago and many Salesians from Myanmar had their formation in the Sonada college.
The cardinal then flew to Guwahati and travelled by road to Shillong to be at the Eucharistic Procession in fulfillment of an invitation he had received from the late Salesian Archbishop Dominic Jala of Shillong.
Archbishop Jala died in a car accident in USA. The Myanmar cardinal’s visit a month later reportedly brought comfort and solace to the archbishop’s family members, clergy, religious and faithful of Shilling archdiocese.
The cardinal recalled his warm and cordial relationship with Archbishop Jala and said the untimely death has caused great loss for the universal Church as well as northeastern India where he made a distinction as an able pastor and erudite leader.
Cardinal Bo played the audio recording of the last words of Archbishop Jala in Khasi when they had met in Rome a few days before his death. The recording was made by Archbishop Jala at the request of Cardinal Bo, and was meant to be a farewell message of the cardinal before he would leave Shillong, but in fact became the farewell of Archbishop Jala.
The cardinal presided over the Eucharist in the Sacred Heart Theological College, Shillong, an institution that has formed hundreds of priests for the region and the Church. He also paid tribute to Salesian patriarch Father Sylvanus Sngi Lyngdoh, at his tomb near the Sacred Heart Shrine.
He visited many important institutions and formation centers in Shillong and met fellow Salesians, priests and religious and those in formation. He presided over the Eucharist in the regional Major Seminary, Oriens Theological College near Mawlai, where he exhorted the students to study theology with their mind and heart. He urged the future priests to emulate the pastoral leadership and qualities of Pope Francis in their ministry.
Earlier the cardinal dedicated an amphitheater at Siloam- a center for wholeness and transformational leadership at Umiam, near Shillong, to late Archbishop Jala. He also offered floral tributes and blessed the tomb of Archbishop Jala in the presence of his family members and the church leaders of Shillong. He visited the home of Archbishop Jala and comforted the family members.
In Shillong and Guwahati he addressed Salesians and spoke of Myanmar that had gone through decades of military rule. He explained the struggle the country continues to face even as civilian rule is gradually emerging. The cardinal highlighted the role being played by the Catholic Church in building peace among the many religious and ethnic communities through inter-religious dialogue.
Before he left Guwahati for Kolkata en route to Yangon, the cardinal expressed his gratitude to God and to the people of the region for the warmth, hospitality and spiritual fervor he had witnessed.