By Gerard O'Connell

Church has Limited influence in Myanmar

Though free to practice faith, the tiny Catholic minority are viewed with suspicion in largely Buddhist military state

In the midst of the "Saffron Revolution" led by Buddhist monks in September, many Catholics may have wondered what role, if any, Myanmar's Christian community and the Church played in the dramatic push for freedom.

Why weren't Catholic and other Christian churches joining the Buddhist monks in street protests to aid poverty-stricken people who have been ruled with an iron fist by a nationalist military junta since 1962?

To appreciate the stance of Myanmar's Catholic and Christian churches, one has to understand their very delicate situation in this land of 49 million people, where Buddhists make up 89 percent of the population and where the military has sought to identify Buddhism with nationalism.

There are some 300,000 Buddhist monks and about 400,000 military in the country, and while Christian leaders individually have friendly relations with many Buddhist leaders, the military has sought to dissuade relations at an institutional level between the two religious communities.

Christians account for 6 percent of the population -- about 3 million believers -- while Catholics are a small, growing community of almost 700,000 faithful.

"As a group, Catholics, and indeed Christians, are a marginal actor in the political and social affairs of the country," a Church source told Our Sunday Visitor.

Years of repression

Myanmar -- called Burma, a name that the opposition still uses, until military authorities changed it in 1989 -- is the largest country in mainland southeast Asia, bigger than Vietnam and the Philippines put together, but smaller than Texas.

The Portuguese brought Christianity to Myanmar in the 16th century, but organized missionary activity only began in 1722. The Catholic hierarchy was established in 1951.

Throughout history, however, there have been few conversions among the Burmese; Christian converts came from ethnic minorities -- the Karen, the Mon and the Chin.

During the Pacific War (1942-45), the Japanese army invaded Myanmar and expelled or interned all expatriate priests. Many were killed, while churches and Church institutions were destroyed. When Japan capitulated, the British colonial rulers returned, but not for long. The country gained independence Jan. 4, 1948.

From 1951-62, U Thu, a staunch Buddhist, was prime minister and declared Buddhism the state religion. The ethnic minorities resisted this and some tried to separate from Burma.

In 1962, General Ne Win came to power in a military push and in 1965 confiscated all the Catholic Church's schools and hospitals.The next year he expelled all expatriate priests, leaving only 77 native priests to care for 160,000 Catholics.

In 1988, a military junta came to power after brutally crushing the student uprising and attempted to suppress separatist ethnic movements. When national elections were held in 1990, the National League for Democracy led by Aung Sang Suu Kyi won 59 percent of the vote, but the military annulled them and placed her under house arrest, where she remains to this day.

Awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1991, she remains the slender hope for a peaceful transition to democracy if China and other Asian countries can persuade the military junta to go down that road.

Church's freedom

Notwithstanding this situation, the Catholic Church continued to grow in a land where vocations are plentiful. By early 2007, it had 700,000 faithful spread over 14 dioceses, served by a native clergy of 15 bishops, 677 priests, 333 religious men and 1,958 women religious.

Today, Myanmar's Catholic Church enjoys "freedom of worship," a Church source told OSV. But "it suffers many limitations in the field of religious freedom, because it cannot be involved as it would wish in the fields of education and health care, nor can it express its position on socio-political questions in accord with Church social teaching," he added.

But, "it should be stated clearly that there is no persecution against Christianity or Catholics in Myanmar," a Vatican official told OSV.

Though Myanmar and the Holy See have not yet established diplomatic relations, the official revealed that the apostolic delegate, based in Bangkok, Thailand, can freely visit the country, the dioceses and the bishops. And bishops may travel to Rome for meetings.

Furthermore, the government does not interfere in internal Church affairs: Rome may freely appoint bishops, set up ecclesiastical administrations, work among minorities in most areas, and the Church has again begun to do some work in the fields of health and education.

Cautious approach

Nevertheless, Catholic and other Christian churches are regarded with "some suspicion" and even hostility in some parts of Myanmar because of the colonial past and the perception that they are aligned with the West.

That is why at the height of "The Saffron Revolution," Myanmar's Catholic bishops issued a carefully worded statement explaining their stance on the crisis.

Signed by Archbishops Paul Zinghtung Grawng and Charles Bo, the conference's president and general secretary, they recalled that since Feb. 1, 2006, the Church has conducted "chain prayers, fasting and perpetual adoration" in all parishes and dioceses for peace and urgently appealed to Myanmar's Catholics to pray for the country's welfare.

They explained how, "according to canon law and the Church's social teaching, priests and religious are not involved in any party-politic and in the current protests" but "Catholics, as citizens of the country, are free to act as they deem fit." They said they hoped to contribute to promoting reconciliation in the country.

Catholic and other Christian churches in Myanmar have enjoyed good relations over the years and when faced with the dramatic peaceful protests and violent military response, they spoke out together. On Sept. 28, they sent a letter to General Than Shwe, the junta's leader, expressing "great worry and special concern" and appealed to him "to handle" the situation "with paternal love and with peaceful solution" so as to ensure "stability, peace and nonviolence."

Two days later, fearing a bloodbath, Pope Benedict XVI spoke publicly, saying he was following "with great trepidation the most serious events of these days in Myanmar." He assured the people there of his "spiritual closeness," "solidarity and intense prayer" and expressed hope that "a peaceful solution can be found for the good of the country."

While the Christian churches' voice may have had limited impact, the open and defiant challenge by the Buddhist monks to the military regime posed the most serious moral challenge to the junta's legitimacy to rule.

Gerard O'Connell writes from Rome.