By Matters India Reporter
Yangon, Jan 23, 2023: In the wake of rising attacks against places of worship, senior religious leaders of Myanmar have appealed for restraint citing international pacts that call for the protection of places of worship, places of learning, and places of healing.
In the latest attack, a church, bell tower and other buildings of Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral at Mandalay in Upper Myanmar were destroyed on January 15.
Government soldiers, an eyewitness revealed, also “desecrated” the place by “looting, drinking alcohol and smoking” inside.
The destroyed church is a historical and cultural heritage for the entire country, including Buddhists since 1894.
Also ,in the January 15 attack, a century-old convent of the Franciscan Sisters was set on fire by the military.
In addition, 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.
On January 21, in his message to the faithful published on the occasion of Chinese New Year, Archbishop of Yangon Cardinal Charles Maung Bo declared January as the “month of the ceasefire,” asking all parties – including the military – to “silence their weapons” and “believe in a peaceful solution.”
The cardinal, who is also the president of the Federation of Asia Bishops’ Conferences, emphasized the value of ‘dialogue’ in conflict resolution and called for the resumption of the Panlong peace process.
“Why are these sacred places attacked and destroyed?” ask archbishops of Yangon, Mandalay and Taunggyi in the open letter entitled “Peace is a pilgrimage, let us walk it together.”
Expressing the concerns and feelings of the different faith communities, the senior Church leaders insist that places of worship promote the interdependence and sense of interrelatedness that are necessary for the nation to heal.”
The prelates further lament that “when they [places of worship] are mercilessly burnt, returning to normalcy becomes a great challenge.”
The signatories also recalled the “great threats to the sacredness of human life, the lives lost, the lives displaced, and the lives under starvation.”
India’s neighbor Myanmar has suffered a series of political, social, and economic crises, and has descended into a spiral of violence since the 2021 military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government. Thousands of people have subsequently been arrested or killed without cause.