“Nowhere in Asia is the Christian faith journey more challenged than in Myanmar. Our small flock is currently scattered due to both natural disasters and manmade crises, causing multidimensional crises and immense suffering. … Homes have vanished, and churches have borne the brunt of cruelty,” he said at the synod Mass.
Bo told the synod delegates that just as the faithful women followed Jesus to the cross, so too does the Church in Asia “continue our tear-filled synodal journey, believing that, like those women, we will see all wounds healed, and a new dawn of hope, peace, and justice will shine upon every long-suffering nation.”
During the prayers of the faithful at the Mass, the congregation prayed for the Church in mainland China that it “may increasingly preserve and celebrate the communion of love and life with the universal Church.”
Prayers were also offered for the Church in Myanmar as it “strives for democracy, rule of law, and that all forms of violence will end.”
In his homily, Bo underlined that “one of the grave concerns” during the synod is “the legacy we will leave for the next generation.”
“The environment has been borrowed from the young, and the inheritance due to them, a more peaceful world with the integrity of creation intact, is in jeopardy,” he said. “Global warming has devastated communities and the livelihoods of millions, threatening to slip away from the next generation.”