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Myanmar’s Cardinal Bo urges Catholics to stay firm in faith

Catholics in Myanmar prayed to Mother Mary for peace as deadly conflict continued to rage in the military-ruled nation

Published: February 17, 2023 11:13 AM GMT

Updated: February 17, 2023 12:39 PM GMT

Catholics across Myanmar celebrated the feast of Our Lady of the Lourdes last Saturday and prayed for peace in the conflict-torn country.

Cardinal Charles Bo, archbishop of Yangon, urged Catholics to stay firm in faith and say prayers to the Virgin Mary amid the suffering that has seen airstrikes, shelling, and the burning of houses and churches by the army in recent months. The 74-year-old cardinal made the appeal during his homily at the National Marian Shrine of Nyaunglebin in Yangon Archdiocese.

Thousands of Catholics, Buddhists and Hindus participated in the event. But celebrations and the novena at other places were held online due to pandemic restrictions and the political unrest that has raged since the military coup on Feb 1. 2021.

Thousands have been killed and more than 1.5 million people have been displaced since the military takeover. Christian-majority states witnessed deadly fighting between the army and rebels, leaving churches, Christian institutions and villages destroyed and civilians killed. 

Catholics burn candles at a Marian grotto in Yusomo village, Demoso township under Loikaw diocese in the conflict-stricken Kayah State, on Feb.11

Catholics burn candles at a Marian grotto in Yusomo village, Demoso township under Loikaw diocese in the conflict-stricken Kayah State, on Feb.11. (Photo: Missionary Childhood Demoso- St.Treza)

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Bishop Alfonse Nguyen Huu Long of Vinh diocese in central Vietnam has disowned a priest ordained for his diocese in the Philippines.

The move comes after laypeople questioned the worthiness of Father John Baptist Ho Huu Hoa, saying that he was once jailed for bribery and not known to have trained in a seminary.

Ho Huu Hoa (left), a former Vietnamese fortune teller who was jailed for brokering a bribe in 2021 was ordained a Catholic priest in December last year. (Photo: Facebook)

Bishop Long issued a statement last Friday, three months after the priest was ordained. The bishop said he was “surprised” by Hoa's ordination and asked him to “present the documents of his ordination so that he could celebrate sacraments validly.”

Hoa was arrested in 2019 for allegedly helping a former police intelligence colonel to broker a bribery deal. He was held in temporary detention until being released in November 2021.


On Valentine’s Day in the Philippines, Catholic couples from the global Catholic lay movement, Couples for Christ, visited orphanages and offered food to children.

Around 123 members of the movement visited the children, many of them victims of trafficking and abuse. They attended cultural programs and offered the kids fried chicken and spaghetti.

Members of the Couples for Christ movement visit and offer food to orphan children at Angel House Orphanage in Davao province in Mindanao region on Feb. 14. (Photo supplied)

Marife Ruiz, a leader of the movement, said they have been involved in the formation of children and built classrooms for them across the country. Such services are vital for children as the report from the Philippines Orphanage Foundation says the country has an estimated 2 million orphans and street children out of a total population of 109 million.

Couples for Christ was founded in the Philippine capital Manila in 1981. It is now active in 163 countries. The movement is around 120,000 strong in the country and 1.2 million members worldwide.

Police in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh arrested three suspects for a recent arson attack on a Protestant Church. A senior police official said the suspects were arrested in connection with setting fire to the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Christians came to know about the attack when they arrived for prayers last Sunday. The six-year-old church with a seating capacity of 1,000 was burnt from the inside, which resulted in damage to the Bible, prayer books, chairs, and carpets.

Indian Christians hold placards during a protest outside the Sacred Heart Cathedral following recent attacks on churches, in New Delhi on Feb. 5, 2015. (Photo: AFP/ UCAN files)

The arsonists erased a slogan on the wall praising Jesus and inscribed the name of a Hindu god in place of it. The state, ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party, saw a rise in anti-Christian violence since the passing of a stringent anti-conversion law in 2021.

The United Christian Forum had recorded 22 incidents of persecution against Christians and their institutions in Madhya Pradesh till November last year. In 2021, the state recorded 39 attacks on Christians.


A court in Indonesia handed down death penalty to former police inspector-general Ferdy Sambo for the murder of his aide and a junior officer.

Judge Wahyu Iman Santoso of the South Jakarta District Court ruled Sambo guilty of the premeditated murder. The Protestant Christian was charged with ordering the killing of his aide, Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat.

Former Inspector General Ferdy Sambo of Indonesia's National Police, was sentenced to death for the murder of his own aide, Brigadier Yosua Nopryansyah Hutabarat. (Photo: Indonesia Police)

The murder was committed in Sambo's official residence on July 8, 2022, while Sambo was still in service. His wife, Putri Candrawathi, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in planning the murder.

She was charged with twisting facts and speaking dishonestly throughout the hearings. She had claimed Hutabarat raped her but failed to offer evidence. Tough sentences against police for crimes are rare in Indonesia. Data from Amnesty International shows police were involved in 27 out of 30 extrajudicial killings in 2022.


The family of Malaysian Anglican pastor Raymond Koh who went missing six years ago vowed not to rest until they find answers for his mysterious disappearance.

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Koh’s wife Suzanna Liew and other family members attended a vigil at the Council of Churches Malaysia in Petaling Jaya on Sunday, to mark the sixth anniversary of his abduction.

Christian pastor Raymond Koh (left) and Shia Muslim social activist Amri Che Mat went missing about six years ago. (Photo: Free Malaysia Today)

The case of Pastor Koh is one of several high-profile abduction cases reported in Malaysia in recent years. Masked individuals abducted him on the morning of February 13, 2017, while driving his car from his house to his workplace after Islamic radical groups accused him of proselytizing among Muslims in Selangor state.

In 2019, the National Human Rights Commission pointed that the government's agents, namely the police's Special Branch, had carried out the enforced disappearance of Pastor Koh and activist Amri Che Mat. On Feb. 11, 2020, Liew filed a lawsuit against 13 defendants, including the government of Malaysia.


Some 15 Christian families along with a pastor were forcibly evicted from a Buddhist-majority village in northwestern Laos. The villagers have driven out the Christians and a pastor allegedly over their conversion to Christianity in the ethnic Ahka-inhabited Mai village in Luang Namtha province.

An unnamed Christian said the efforts from the government agencies to resolve the issue through discussions have failed and the evicted villagers remain homeless. The affected families have declined to comment on their plight due to fear of reprisal.

Lao Christians evicted from their homes in Luang Namtha province's Long district are shown in a February 2020 photo. (Photo: RFA)

Despite having a national law that protects the practice of religious faith among its citizens, Christians in the communist-ruled country are considered second-class citizens and discriminated against at various levels as Christianity is viewed as an alien religion and detrimental to traditional animist practices.

Global Christian rights group, Open Doors, listed Laos at 26th position among 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.


Cambodia has come under fire from rights groups and western nations after the nation’s authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen closed down the independent media outlet, Voice of Democracy.

The United States and Australian embassies are leading calls for the reinstatement of the media outlet which was shut after it reported that Hun Sen’s son and heir, Hun Manet, had signed off on a 100,000 US dollars aid package to Turkey in response to the deadly earthquake.

Supporters of online media outlet Voice of Democracy (VOD) hold placards in front of the VOD office in Phnom Penh on Feb. 13 after Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said VOD would have its operating license revoked for a news report about his son. (Photo: AFP)

Hun Manet denied it while Hun Sen stated he’d authorized the relief package and demanded an apology from Voice of Democracy. He revoked its license after the response fell short of his expectations.

A government official alleged serious professional misconduct over publishing misleading news that could be intended to cause chaos among top leaders of the government. The Overseas Press Club decried the closure, and 93 civil society groups from Cambodia, The Philippines and Indonesia endorsed the statement.


Church-run soup kitchens in South Korea that offer free food to hundreds of hungry and homeless people are struggling to operate due to price hikes of daily essentials and the high cost of utilities.

The consumer price index in January rose 5.2 percent from the same month last year. The rise in prices in January was largely due to an increase in public utility charges. Electricity bills in January this year rose 30 percent while city gas and district heating costs jumped 36 percent and 34 percent respectively.

Poor people receive free lunch boxes from volunteers at Thomas House in South Korean capital Seoul. (Photo: Catholic Times of Korea)

Official data shows the rate of increase in public utility rates was the highest since 2010. The price hike has drastic impacts on church-run free meal services at St. Mary's House in Daejeon Diocese, Thomas House in Seoul, and St. Vincent's House in the Diocese of Cheongju.

Each of South Korea’s three Catholic archdioceses and 14 dioceses and various religious organizations run such free meal services across the country to provide food for poor and homeless people.


A group of Pakistani Muslims has publicly insulted the cross on the Norwegian flag in their continued retaliation against the recent desecration of the Quran by far-right activists in Europe.

The act of cross desecration occurred during a protest rally of the radical Islamist political party Tehreek-e-Labbiak on a public road in Faisalabad city in eastern Punjab province on Monday.

Muslims protest over the incident of desecration of the Holy Koran in the Norwegian city of Kristiansand, in Quetta on Nov. 24, 2019. (Photo: AFP)

In a video on social media, a man is seen slamming his shoes on the Norwegian flag lying on a street while another ride his motorcycle on it. Protesters also chanted radical Islamist slogans. The act came despite Pakistani Christians condemning the burning of copies of the Quran in Sweden and the Netherlands.

Catholics have expressed concern over the provocative methods adopted by Islamist mobs and have urged civil society to avoid blaming Christians for the anti-Islam acts committed in Europe.

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