Pope Francis has again plead-ed for peace and reconciliation in conflict-torn Myanmar where millions of people including Christians have been oppressed by the brutal military junta.
During his Easter plea for peace around the world, he cited the Southeast Asian nation where violence has persisted for more than a year after the military ousted the civilian government.
“I pray that God grants re-conciliation for Myanmar, where a dramatic scenario of hatred and violence persists,” he said. “We need the crucified and risen Lord so that we can believe in the victory of love, and hope for reconciliation.”
His attention to the people of Myanmar comes as the world is focused on the war in Ukraine.
Pope Francis has spoken several times about the crisis in Myanmar, which he regards with much affection after visiting the country in November 2017.
He has repeatedly called for military leaders to stop the violence, release all detained people and pursue dialogue to seek peace and reconciliation.
“Let our families be healed, let our nation be healed, let our world be healed. We greet the families that are coming out of many challenges”

Ever since losing a vote of confidence moved by a united opposition this month, Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has divided the nation with his aggressive campaign — on the ground and online.
You either agree with him or risk being called a traitor to the country, a thief or lifafa (a journalist accepting bribes). The space keeps shrinking for free thinkers. However, nothing compares to the controversial content posted by his followers last week.
“Peace be upon him,” stated a Khan sticker on the back wind-shield of a car whose photo was shared on Facebook.
The Islamic honorific, commonly used by Sunni Muslims, follows specifically after uttering the name of the Prophet Muhammad.
One can easily dismiss the image as being photoshopped. Well, guess again after reading the comments from diehard followers of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
“Peace be upon you, brother. Peace be upon everyone. It’s a prayer for safety, everyone should give it to each other,” stated Mohammad Bahoo Sarwar, president of Bahoo Films Corporation. All hail the cricketer hero who led the national team to its first and only World Cup win on March 25, 1992. A cult of personality was born that day.
Sadly, most people in the Islamic republic are neither as liberal nor moderate as Sarwar thinks. Media outlets in Pakistan follow a strict editorial policy of using this expression whenever mentioning the Prophet Muhammad. Religious minorities can be easily accused of blasphemy for using the same title with their names.
C. Raja Mohan, a contributing editor on international affairs for The Indian Express, even compared Khan to the Biblical character Samson determined to bring down the house of Pakistan, dominated until now by the army.

A Catholic midwife who has served a remote Indonesian province for more than three decades was among 10 women honoured by the government during its 144th Kartini Day celebrations.
Yovita Mariati, a midwife from Sikka district in East Nusa Tenggara province, received the award at the state palace in Jakarta on April 21.
Indonesians celebrate the day annually to commemorate the birth of their national heroine Raden Ajeng Kartini, hailed as a symbol of women’s empowerment for promoting gender equity and women’s rights during the Dutch colonial era.
Mariati has served new mothers and children as a midwife in Sikka district’s Nangalimang villages for the past 34 years.
The 54-year-old is a mother of four children who was widowed in 1999. She doesn’t get paid for her work and survives by selling hand-woven fabrics.
But that hasn’t stopped her from working for and advocating medical interventions to prevent diseases such as dengue fever, malaria and tuberculosis in the villages.
“I am crying and touched because it turns out that someone cares about what I have been doing all this time. I never thought that one day I would be rewarded like this”
An emotional Mariati, who received the award from First Lady Iriana Widodo, said: “I am crying and touched because it turns out that someone cares about what I have been doing all this time. I never thought that one day I would be rewarded like this.” She said she had only tried to do what she could for her fellow humans based on her high school education and the training and experience she had gained while being on the job.

Approximately 40 Burmese soldiers forcibly took control of a Catholic cathedral in Mandalay prior to a Lenten prayer service on April 8 and detained an Archbishop and dozens of other worshippers, including a correspondent for CNA.
The soldiers entered Sacred Heart Cathedral at 2:30 p.m. local time April 8 and refused to allow worshipers to leave. Soldiers also occupied other buildings on the compound.
Abp Marco Tin Win and employees of the Archdiocese of Mandalay were similarly herded into the building and forced to sit in the pews along with the worshipers.
A correspondent for CNA was present and was detained for about three hours, then allowed to leave. The others detained were released several hours later.
“I was so afraid,” one elderly Sacred Heart Cathedral parishioner, who did not give her name for safety reasons, told. “The military was always crazy but they never acted like this before. We ran home as soon as we were allowed out of the church.”
“The soldiers kept demanding to know where the gold and money and weapons were hidden,” explained her nephew, who also asked for anonymity. “I told them there was none. Any money collected is for the relief of poor families.”
As soon as the soldiers entered the cathedral, alerts were sent out to the entire Catholic community to stay away from the compound.
Upon hearing of the intrusion, Monsignor Dominic Jyo Du, vicar general of the arch-diocese, confronted the soldiers and their officers inquiring as to their presence. The soldiers rushed him into the cathedral along with the archbishop.
About 30 of the soldiers moved away pews to make room for themselves and slept in the cathedral overnight. They were still inside the cathedral early Saturday morning.

Philippine Bishops have urged voters not to gamble with the country’s future in national elections in May by voting for corrupt and incompetent candidates.
Their call came as senior Catholic officials, together with religious congregations and lay-people, gathered in Manila on April 6 for a solidarity Mass on the Catholic Church’s role in the polls.
The “Solidarity Mass for Moral Choice,” held at the National Shrine of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Baclaran, Manila, was presided over by Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jose Advincula and members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
The prelates said the aim of the Mass was to have one heart and mind as priests, religious and laypeople on the Catholic Church’s role in politics.
“If faith cannot guide us in our role in politics, then perhaps we have not done enough in our duty. It is easier to just name a candidate to vote for rather than to teach our people how they should vote,” Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, president of the bishops’ conference, said in his homily.
He said that there is no division between faith and politics, especially when issues in politics are moral in nature such as truth and falsehood.
“Truth is like lime pressed on one’s wounds. It hurts but it keeps us awake. But sometimes, if the truth hurts and causes us inconvenience, we choose to be blind and deaf … we choose to be neutral”

A global civil society alliance has expressed serious concern over Sri Lanka’s clampdown on civic space and urged the government to release those detained arbitrarily and investigate and punish abuses by security forces.
“We urge the government to refrain from deploying violence against protesters and instead respect and protect people’s rights to peaceful protest,” said Josef Benedict, Asia Pacific researcher of CIVICUS, in a statement on April 5.
He called the restrictions on access to the internet and social media platforms and the arrest of Thisara Anuruddha Bandara, a youth activist, for promoting the #GoHomeGota social media campaign against the president “a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression and information guaranteed by the constitution and under international human rights law.”
Benedict urged authorities to drop all charges against Bandara immediately.
“CIVICUS has documented how the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration has led an assault on civic space and fundamental freedoms since the president assumed power more than two years ago,” the statement said.
In March, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet had similarly reported to the Human Rights Council that “the government’s response to criticism has constricted democratic and civic space.”
The protests and escalating economic crisis have led to the resignations of 26 ministers in the current cabinet, leaving only the president and his brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the prime minister, to manage affairs.

When Buddhist San Shwe Mya’s uncle, a Christian, tried to speak about Jesus Christ, he was annoyed and paid little attention.
“I told my uncle he couldn’t persuade me to convert to Christianity as I had no interest in it,” San Shwe recalled.
Living in a remote village in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, work was the first priority for the 43-year-old father of three children. “We have to rely on ourselves for our livelihood, so work was the only thing on my mind,” he said.
San Shwe belongs to the ethnic Chin tribe and grew up in a Buddhist neighbourhood in a village in Minbya town. He followed his parents’ Buddhist religion.
His Buddhist-majority village has a few Christians including some Catholics. He could see how the Christians faced daily challenges while practicing their faith. “But I had no idea about Catholicism or Christianity,” he recalled.
San Shwe remembered some radical monks and laypeople warning Christians and not allowing them to use loudspeakers during celebrations such as Christmas.
“I wasn’t involved with the group who opposed Christian celebrations but I witnessed the challenge of being a Christian in a predominantly Buddhist com-munity,” he told.
His native village was remote but it was close to where intense fighting between the military and the Arakan Army had been going on since December 2018.
More than 90,000 people had been displaced due to the conflict in Rakhine that also spilled into neighboring Chin state, home of many Christians, mostly ethnic Chin.
The violence forced even San Shwe to leave for Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial hub, looking for employment and, more importantly, education for his children.

A rising trend of rape victims settling for marriage with their rapists has triggered an angry response from female activists in Bangladesh who termed it unethical and unacceptable in a civilized society.
“Instead of punishment, a rapist is being allowed to marry a rape victim. This is absolutely unethical and it undermines women’s rights. If the perpetrators get away this way, then more rape will happen in our society,” said Rita Roselin Costa, convener of the women’s desk at the Catholic Bishops’ Laity Commission.
In Bangladesh, women and minor girls are socially ostracized when they become victims of rape, she said, adding that even if they go for trial, they lose patience for justice due to the lengthy and complex legal system. “And then the criminals take the opportunity, marry the victims and get relieved from the punishment,” she said.
Costa, a social activist and mother of three, was speaking after a court granted bail to a police officer after he married the woman he raped in June 2020. The inspector was jailed and convicted of rape.
On March 23, Judge Mehedi Hasan Talukdar of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal in Panchagarh district in northern Bangladesh granted bail to police sub-inspector Abdul Jalil after he married his rape victim on the court’s premises.
Jalil, 45, was arrested and imprisoned after the woman filed a case against him on March 25, 2021, alleging she was raped during an investigation into a land dispute she was involved in.
Local media reported the marriage took place on the premises of the district lawyers’ association office within the court in the presence of Jalil’s first wife, who gave consent for the marriage.
The court granted bail after Jalil applied for bail on the condition that he would marry the victim, his lawyer Mehedi Hasan told.

A Pakistani Muslim youth who climbed a church roof and sat on the cross chanting “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is great) was arrested and charged with blasphemy by police in Punjab province.
Videos circulating on social media showed Muhammad Bilal mounting the cement cross standing 12 meters from the ground on the rooftop of One in Christ Church in the Hafiz Chowk area of Lahore.
“He climbed the church roof at 10 am from the adjacent lattice factory and first tried to break the cross. Later he sat on the cross and kept chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ for half an hour,” said M.M. Akash, a local evangelist who called the police helpline.
Bilal was detained by police in Kasur district, 49 kilometres from Lahore, after a first information report (FIR) under section 295-A of the blasphemy law was registered by Akash on March 16.
“As people gathered in the street, Bilal came down. He was arrested but later released by the police after an initial investigation. The same evening we gathered at the police station to register the FIR and gave witnesses [statements] about the blasphemy in front of the super-intendent of police. Bilal was rearrested late at night,” Akash said.
Church authorities have urged the community to remain peaceful. About 400 Christian families are members of the church built in 1985.