A Catholic church has been bombed in the conflict-torn northern Shan state as renewed fighting intensified between the Burmese military and armed ethnic groups.
St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Mongkoe Township, near the Chinese border, was hit by airstrikes on December 3, the feast of St Francis Xavier.
Ucanews.com reported that the parish priest, nuns and some 1,000 Catholics from the area had already fled to China. No one was hurt by the morning raid, which caused fires to burn well into the afternoon.
Bishop Philip Lasap Za Hawng of Lashio said that, once he had the facts, he planned to write to “the authorities, the military commander and chief minister of Shan state”.
The ethnic Kachin bishop called on the government to negotiate with the armed factions. “We need all the armed groups to participate in peace talks,” he said.
More than 60 Christian churches have been destroyed in the Kachin state since a long-standing ceasefire broke down in 2011, according to the British-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
The renewed conflict has intensified in northern Shan between the military and four ethnic groups, known collectively as the Northern Alliance. Thousands of civilians fleeing into China prompted the Chinese authorities to deploy its military along the border, leaving 2,000 trapped and 10,000 more to take refuge in Manhai, Burma, a border town, according to aid workers.
Some 11 non-governmental organisations, including Caritas, have urged authorities to uphold the rights of people affected by the people.
Vatican workers launch first women’s association
Women, lay and religious, make up almost 20 per cent of the Vatican workforce, and a group of them have formed a forum for collaboration, sharing and outreach.
D.VA (Donne in Vaticano: Women in the Vatican) was approved as an association by the Vatican City governor’s office in September. So far, about 50 women have joined the “network of friendship”. Some 750 women are eligible to join.
The female employees include two under-secretaries: Flaminia Giovanelli of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and Sister Nicoletta Spezzati, a member of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, who works at the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Natasa Govekar, a theologian, serves as director of the new theological-pastoral department of the Vatican Secretariat for Communications, and Paloma García Ovejero is assistant director of the Vatican press office.
The Vatican communications apparatus includes many female journalists, and women scholars and restorers work at the Vatican Library, Secret Archives and Museums.
Pope: echo Mary’s ‘yes’ to God
Although she was just a humble young woman from a small town, Mary’s total “yes” to God was “the most important ‘yes’ of history” and overturned Adam and Eve’s prideful “no”, which unleashed sin into the world, Pope Francis has said.
“With generosity and trust like Mary, may each of us say this personal ‘yes’ to God today,” Pope Francis prayed as he recited the Angelus prayer with visitors in St Peter’s Square on the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
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