In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon in Myanmar, said there is an “unprecedented state of turmoil and suffering, which seems to have no end” in the country resulting from a coup d’état at the beginning of 2021 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The conflict has already left more than 100 places of worship bombed or damaged, the cardinal said, and the violence has spread in many areas of the territory. In addition, he said that almost 3 million people have been displaced and are in urgent need of assistance, which has been arriving little by little thanks to the work of the Catholic Church and other nongovernmental organizations such as Religions for Peace.
Although Myanmar is a pre-dominantly Buddhist country, the constitution guarantees religious freedom. However, Bo pointed out a worrying reality: “The last de-cade saw the emergence of funda-mentalist forces that targeted mi-nority religions.”
The situation has been exa-cerbated by recent political unrest affecting people of all faiths who are suffering the consequences of an expanding civil war. “Peace is the common prayer of all the religions,” the cardinal emphasized.