2/12/2025 Myanmar (International Christian Concern) — The ruling military regime in Myanmar bombed a newly designated Catholic cathedral earlier this month. The Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, located in Mindat, Chin state, was designated as a cathedral by Pope Francis on Jan. 25 — just two weeks before it was bombed on Feb. 6.
Reports indicate that the bombing destroyed the cathedral’s roof and blew out the windows, rendering the building unusable. Fortunately, the area had been evacuated in anticipation of the attack, and no deaths were reported.
Chin state is the country’s only Christian-majority state, with about 85% of the population ascribing to the faith. Nearly 90% of Burma’s overall population is Buddhist.
A local priest told the media that they planned to rebuild.
Speaking at an interactive dialogue in May 2024, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk spoke of the dire state of human rights in Myanmar under the ruling military junta. Since taking power on Feb. 1, 2021, the junta has killed thousands of civilians and displaced an estimated 2.3 million more.
“Myanmar is in agonizing pain,” Türk said in his statement, “and the disintegration of human rights continues at breakneck speed.” Continuing, he described junta military tactics such as beheadings, midnight bombings of homes, and other brutalities. “We are bearing witness to a country being suffocated by an illegitimate military regime.”
The junta is known to abduct children, forcing them to walk ahead of their troops through minefields. In many cases, their victims are members of ethnic and religious minority communities fighting back against the atrocities of a military that has waged a decades-long war of ethnic and religious cleansing.
Representing an extremist interpretation of Buddhism, the Burmese military has a long history of violence against the people of Myanmar, including against ethnic and religious minorities like the Muslim-majority Rohingya and Christian-majority Chin.
Responding to Türk, U.S. Ambassador Michéle Taylor joined his condemnation of the military’s violence against civilians and highlighted “the need for the international community to do more to impede its access to arms and financial resources,” a longstanding priority of the U.S. in response to the situation.
Unfortunately, the Burmese military enjoys consistent support from Russia and China, which continue to support it economically and militarily despite sweeping international sanctions.
Despite this support, experts believe that the Burmese military is atrophying rapidly, with as few as 150,000 personnel remaining after the loss of about 21,000 through casualties or desertions since the 2021 coup. This number is significantly smaller than previous estimates of 300,000 to 400,000 and calls into question the junta’s ability to sustain its nationwide military campaign, especially after a series of high-profile losses in recent months.
Myanmar is a patchwork mosaic of ethnic and religious groups. Though a strong majority of the population is ethnic Burman, and an even greater percentage is Buddhist, the communities that make up the remainder are well-established and well-organized and, for the most part, predate the formation of the modern state by centuries.
In many cases, Myanmar’s ethnic minorities have taken on a distinct religious identity as well. About 20-30% of ethnic Karen are Christians, while other groups — such as the Chin — are more than 90% Christian. This overlap of ethnic and religious identity has created a volatile situation for believers.
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