Australia’s Catholic bishops have been told Myanmar is going through a “polycrisis” five years after the military coup. Source: ACBC Media Blog.
Cardinal Charles Maung Bo was speaking on the opening day of the biannual plenary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference in Sydney on Friday.
The Archbishop of Yangon said his country was experiencing simultaneous economic, employment, social, health, and education crises.
Prices were rapidly rising, jobs were being shed, more than 3.5 million people were displaced and there was a failure in basic health care and education.
Among young people in particular, the cardinal noted, daily life is increasingly defined by insecurity, psychological strain, and a loss of trust in the future.
“We remain a people of hope,” Cardinal Bo told the bishops’ meeting.
He said Catholic Mission had shown “unwavering solidarity”, as he thanked Australian Catholics for their generosity.
“Your solidarity is not an abstract idea … it is a light in the darkness,” he said.
“Your support … reminds our suffering people they are not forgotten by the universal church.”
He said as this year marks the centenary of World Mission Sunday it is a reminder that mission is “not the work of missionaries but the responsibility of the whole Church”.
“Your partnership with us is not just charity – it is communion.”
Cardinal Bo asked for prayers for the people of Myanmar, who believed “one day peace will return”.
“We will remember the church in Australia walked with us.”
Cardinal Bo led a short ceremony with the bishops to commission the new director of Catholic Mission in Australia, Peter Gates.
Through his partnership with Catholic Mission, Cardinal Bo continues to support initiatives that expand access to quality education across Myanmar.
Also on Friday, the bishops re-elected Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe as the President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
Archbishop Costelloe has been President for two terms and this will be his final term under the three-term limit rule.
Sale Bishop Greg Bennet was re-elected Vice President for a second term.
FULL STORY
Myanmar Cardinal addresses Australian bishops (ACBC Media Blog)
Elections held at May bishops’ plenary (ACBC Media Blog)
