Cardinal Charles Maung Bo’s meeting with Myanmar coup leader Min Aung Hlaing has sparked outrage among the Catholic community in the predominantly Buddhist nation.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing visited the archbishop’s house in Yangon on Dec. 23 for a Christmas event hosted by Cardinal Bo and two auxiliary bishops.
The archbishop of Yangon and the general cut a Christmas cake together and the military chief also donated US$11,000 to the cardinal for church funds.
Cardinal Bo said in his short message that peace and peacemaking represent the core message of Christmas.
“I encourage and request all people from all walks of life to make extraordinary efforts to bring peace, unity and development to the country through forgiveness, mutual respect, creating opportunities for the younger generation, sincere dialogue and reconciliation with all our people,” he said.
The cardinal also conveyed the message of Pope Francis, who visited Myanmar in 2017, that he is deeply saddened by the current situation in the country and repeated his appeal to work hard for peace, development and joy.
The meeting between the Catholic leader, who advocates for peace and human rights, and Min Aung Hlaing came amid the military’s relentless assault on civilians including air strikes and shelling in Karen, Chin, Kayah and Kachin states where Christians form the majority.
The Independent Catholics for Justice in Myanmar condemned the meeting, saying it ignored the suffering of the people who have been oppressed and killed and the bombing of churches.
“The meeting is not representing the whole Catholic community in the country as it is against the will of all Catholics,” the group said in a statement.
Catholics including clergy have taken to social media to express their anger, shock and dismay at the meeting.

South Korea’s ex-president Park Geun-hye received a pardon today, cutting short a jail term of more than 20 years for corruption with her successor saying he granted it in the interest of national unity.
Park became South Korea’s first female president in 2013, but less than four years later she was impeached and ousted after a graft scandal sparked huge street protests.
The 69-year-old was serving a 20-year prison sentence for bribery and abuse of power, with another two years after that for election law violations.
“Considering the many challenges we face, national unity and humble inclusiveness are more urgent than anything else.”
Moon said Park’s deteriora-ting health after serving almost five years in jail was also a factor in the decision to pardon her. Park has been hospitalized several times this year. She is currently receiving treatment at a facility in the capital Seoul.
The amnesty will take effect on Dec. 31, the Justice Ministry said.

The international community fed by biased news tends to presume that all Muslim-majority nations ban any kind of celebrations, which is false.
Only a few among the 50 or so Muslim majority countries in the world, among them the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Brunei, Morocco and Afghanistan, disallow celebrations like Christmas.
Speaking for and from Pakistan, non-Muslim citizens are permitted to take a couple of days off for their festivals.
There are over 5 million Christians in Pakistan, though they make up a small proportion of its 162 million people.
We are lucky because Dec. 25 is a public holiday as it is the birthday of the nation’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, also referred to as Quaid-e-Azam or the Great Leader.
The student community gets a longer winter break with schools and colleges closing on Dec. 23-24 until Jan. 2-3.

Catholics in Bacolod Diocese in the Visayas region have cautioned the Philippine government against accepting China’s aid to help victims of Super Typhoon Rai.
Chinese ambassador Huang Xilian on December 22 offered US$1 million as cash aid and 4,725 tons of rice to the typhoon-hit Southeast Asian country.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte accepted the aid and thanked the Chinese government.
The San Lorenzo Ruiz group, comprising representatives from various parishes in the region, said the Philippine government must scrutinize if there were any “strings attached” before accepting Chinese aid.
“The country is in need of money because we are still recovering from the pandemic. Now a natural calamity has hit us. But this does not mean we should put our defenses down while accepting these big donations,” the group said in a Facebook post on Dec. 23.
They further said the Duterte government must exercise caution to avoid falling into a debt trap like fellow developing nation Bangladesh, whose 6.81 percent external debt is now Chinese money.
“Let us be careful because all this could lead us towards a debt trap. These donations may lead to debts later on. Everyone must look at this deal because the million dollars may be a donation but the succeeding millions, if any, would be in the form of debt,” the group added.
The Chinese ambassador said the cash was allocated by the Chinese government for relief and recovery efforts by the Philippine government in badly hit provinces such as the Surigao, Siargao and Dinagat islands in the Visayas region.

As factory workers took selfies with the burning corpse of their manager, Farhan Idrees proudly spoke to local media about the alleged blasphemy. “Priyantha Kumara tore a paper from the wall. It was inscribed with the name of Hussain [grandson of Prophet Mohammad]. He threw it in the basket,” said Idrees, who appeared to be in his 20s. “We complained to the foreman and demanded an apology. He tried to run away. We went on strike and gathered people, protested and burned him.”
“Labaik Ya Rasool Allah” chanted the mob surrounding the remains of Kumara spread on road amid stones, bricks and sticks in front of Rajco Industries, a sportswear manufacturing company in Sialkot, Punjab province. Videos of his vandalized car and lynching went viral on social media on December 3.
Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s special representative on religious harmony, disputes their claim.
“This man [Kumara] used to urge people to work efficiently. Our hearts are wounded. These three incidents were reported in the past year. We urgently send ulemas to avoid similar incidents. The United Ulema Board Punjab has reviewed 113 cases and often given relief to the innocent,” he told media.
“Ulema of all sects have condemned the killing. This is a test case. We ask for forgiveness from the people of Sri Lanka and the victim’s family.” Idrees was among more than 100 protesters arrested on charges of murder and terrorism. Both PM Khan and army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa have strongly condemned the Sialkot incident and announced strict punishment for the suspects.
According to Pastor Iqbal Masih of the Presbyterian Church in Sialkot, local Christians avoided protests about Kumara’s murder. “We are not powerful enough to challenge them. Earlier there were rumors that he had converted to Christianity in a local church five months ago. There were no prayers for him either because he was a Hindu,” he told.

The Philippine government has banned traditional firework celebrations over Christmas and New Year for a second straight year due to Covid-19 and safety fears.
The ban was based on the recommendation of the Health Department to avoid firework-related accidents during a time when medical services were being stretched because of the pandemic, national police chief General Dionardo Carlos said on Dec. 7.
Although the number of daily infections has dropped in the Philippines in recent weeks, authorities say they are mindful of the threat posed by the Omicron coronavirus variant despite there being no recorded cases there yet.
Those caught flouting the ban will face criminal and civil charges, Carlos said.
“The police fully support the Department of Health in pro-moting safety while celebrating the holiday season despite fire-work displays being a cultural tradition Filipinos are accusto-med to during personal and reli-gious events, especially during the New Year,” he added.
In 2020, the Health Depart-ment reported an 85 percent decrease in firework – related injuries thanks to the ban. There were also no fires linked to them either, according to the Fire Department.
“The country benefited from not using fireworks to celebrate Christmas. Nobody was hurt last year. No house was burned,” the police chief said.

It only takes the events of one week to summarize the situation of human rights in Pakistan. “I went to speak and perform in Government College University Chiniot but I was not allowed on campus. I was told that intelligence agencies called Dr. Shahid Kamal (the vice-chancellor) and blocked my entry,” said Taimur Rahman, an associate professor at Lahore University of Management Scien-ces, in a Facebook post on December. 8.
“I have committed no crime. My only ‘crime’ is that I’m a progressive who stands on the side of the poor and downtro-dden. Please share my video to express solidarity and record your protest against this inex-plicable censorship of progre-ssive thought,” he appealed to netizens in a post viewed by more than 3,000 people.
The same afternoon, videos of several women being assault-ed, stripped and filmed in a market in Faisalabad, also in Punjab province, surfaced on social media. Their ordeal went on for an hour with none of the spectators attempting to inter-vene. The incident comes amid 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an annual international campaign that kicks off on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until Dec. 10, Human Rights Day.
Many netizens justified the action after the emergence of a new video showing the women stealing from a shop.

A court in Nepal has sentenced a Christian pastor to two years in jail and a fine of 20,000 rupees (US$166) for violating the Himalayan country’s repre-ssive anti-conversion law.
The sentence from the court in Dolpa district in Pokhara region of western Nepal on Nov. 30 came about a week after it found Pastor Keshav Raj Acharya from Abundant Harvest Church guilty of proselytization on Nov. 22, according to US-based International Christian Concern (ICC).
The evangelical pastor was first arrested on March 23 by police in Kaski district after a YouTube video of him went viral on social media. In the video he said that Covid-19 could be healed through Christian prayer.
“Hey, corona — you go and die. May all your deeds be destroyed by the power of the Lord Jesus. I rebuke you, corona, in the name of Lord Jesus Christ. By the power or the ruler of this Creation, I rebuke you … By the power in the name of Lord Jesus Christ, corona, go away and die,” he reportedly said in the video. Pastor Acharya denied uploading the video on the internet. He was released on bail about a month later.