As a child, Ma Wai practiced Buddhism, the predominant religion in her Myanmar village. But a few months ago, aged 50, she joined the Catholic Church.
Ma Wai began to “get a sense of Christianity” in 2008 after she married a Catholic when she was 34. That was 16 years ago after she fell in love with Stephen Soe Htet Aung.
She was born the eldest of five children of her Buddhist parents, who belonged to a mix of Bamar-Karen tribes in a village on the outskirts of Hinthada township in Irrawaddy division, southern Myanmar.
Most of the 200 families in the village are Buddhists, with a few Christians.
“I knew that Christians revere Jesus Christ, but I had no idea about Catholicism,” the woman said.
Marrying Soe, she said, opened her “eyes to the world of Christianity,” particularly to Catholicism.
Interfaith marriages are common in Myanmar, forming at least half in Catholic parishes, mostly Catholics and Buddhists, a Church source estimated.
In such marriages, the non-Catholic person need not change religion. However, to have a Catholic marriage, Church law insists the bride and groom agree to baptize their children in the Catholic faith.
Ma Wai said her husband “never pressured” her to change her faith.