The Burmese army set fire
to the ancient Church of the Assumption, built in 1894 in Chan Thar, a village
inhabited by Catholics in the region of Sagaing, in the territory of the
Archdiocese of Mandalay, located in the northeast of Myanmar. During the action
on January 15, the soldiers also set fire to the nearby convent of the
Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary (FMM), who were forced to flee with some
3,000 villagers. Their homes, numbering around 500, were also destroyed and
only rubble remains of the village. Local sources of Fides note that clashes
continue in the area, as the area is considered a stronghold of the People's
Defense Forces (PDF) rebels, who oppose the Burmese military junta that came to
power with the coup of State in February 2021.
Sister Rita, one of the
nuns who fled, told Agenzia Fides: "We asked the inhabitants of the
village to leave their homes, not to oppose the soldiers and not to resist, to
avoid massacres and brutality. The soldiers want to crush any resistance from
the civilians. They enter the villages, occupy buildings like schools and
churches and camp there. From there, they carry out raids from house to house
to flush out the rebels. They stayed in our church for three days and when they
left, they set fire to the church and our convent".
The nun affirms that
"by a miracle, the chapel of adoration of the church was not affected by
the flames. We see there a sign from the Most High: even in this brutal and
senseless violence, the Lord is always with us. Our region was known to be one
of the most peaceful and harmonious in the country. Now it's a place of
devastation and rubble. It's terrible." […]
The local community
remembers with sadness that at least eleven children died following a regular
army airstrike on a civilian populated area in Sagaing on September 16.
The Archbishop of
Mandalay, Marco Tin Win, notes: "We are living in a time of great
suffering. Half of the territory of the Archdiocese of Mandalay is affected by
the clashes and this worries us greatly. We are helping thousands of internally
displaced persons, in five centers set up in five Catholic parishes: we are
doing what we can".
"While violence
rages especially in some areas - says the Archbishop - we do not lose hope
because we know we have the Lord with us. The faithful have confidence in Him
and the fact that the chapel of adoration of the destroyed church was spared by
the flames is a symbolic fact which consoles the faithful and reminds them that
our only refuge is the Lord". Article
from FIDES missionary news service of the Pontifical Mission Societies.
