The Myanmar army burned hundreds of houses in Mon Hla, the home village of Cardinal Charles Bo, the Archbishop of Yangon, the President of the Myanmar Bishops' Conference and also the President of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences.
G. Tran Duc Anh, OP | RVA
The Asian Catholic news agency Ucan reported on this Friday, November 25. It is not clear whether the church, and the Catholic monastery here, was burned.
The day before the attack on Mon Hla village, in Sagaing region, there was a clash between the regular army and the "People's Protection Army" near this village. Many soldiers of the Myanmar military government were killed. After that incident, state military aircraft began to attack the village of Mon Hla.
This year, Catholic villages in the Sagaing region have been attacked several times by the army, at least 800 houses have been destroyed and thousands have fled to the forest for refuge in the months of May and June. Historic sites such as Mon Hla, Chaung You and Chan Tha, known as Bayingyi villages, belong to the Archdiocese of Mandalay. The Catholic population here has its roots in the Portuguese period living in this region. Many bishops, priests and religious have come from those villages through the course of history. The population is of Portuguese ancestry, descendants of Portuguese mercenaries or adventurers who arrived in the Kingdom of Burma in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
(Kathpress 25-11-2022)