A Catholic priest was killed in Myanmar on Friday, an incident that “deeply shocked and saddened” Cardinal Charles Maung Bo. Source: Crux.
Fr Donald Martin Ye Naing Win from the Mandalay Archdiocese in Upper Burma, was killed by a group of armed men on Friday evening in Kangyi Taw village of the Shwebo Township.
The 44-year-old was a priest at Our Lady of Lourdes’s Parish, and had been a priest for seven years. His body was found in a forest near the old town of Pyu in Kangyi Taw.
The local Christian community told media he was a kind-hearted priest and a great missionary, and they were saddened by his death.
Kangyi Taw village is located on the border of Shwebo and Wetlet districts. In addition to the church, Kangyi Taw village also has a Buddhist monastery.
In 2023, the military council burned down Kangyi Taw village and the 120-year-old Mae Taw Thakin Ma school in Chan village, a Catholic Christian village in Ye U Township.
According to a military council report, Fr Win was arrested by the Kachin Independence Army and the Kachin People’s Defence Force in the village at about 6pm on Friday and then stabbed to death outside the village.
Christians make up about 6 per cent of Myanmar’s overwhelmingly Buddhist population, but about 34 per cent of Kachin’s estimated 1.7 million population.
The KIA and KPDF have been operating in northern Myanmar for decades. Although a nominal peace was formed in 2008, the 2021 coup d’état ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi led to a renewal of the rebellion.
Cardinal Bo, the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar, said the Church was “deeply shocked and saddened by the news” of the murder.
“The Catholic Church throughout Myanmar mourns this loss together with Archbishop Marco Tin Win, the priests, the religious, the faithful of the Archdiocese of Mandalay and parents and relatives of Fr Donald Martin Ye Naing Win.
“May the blood and sacrifices of countless innocent people, along with Fr Donald Martin Ye Naing Win, serve as an offering to ending the violence that is occurring throughout the Nation.”
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Catholic priest murdered in the Kachin area of Myanmar (By Nirmala Carvalho, Crux)
