A leaked document to religious leaders in Myanmar stated that the country’s military dictatorship plans on destroying a historic cathedral, as well as several Buddhist religious sites, as part of its plans to excavate an ancient city.
UCA News reports that the excavation of the 16th-century city of Toungoo-Ketumati will destroy 16 Buddhist monasteries, one Buddhist convent, a Buddhist retreat center, a pagoda, and the Sacred Heart Cathedral of Taungngu.
Khin Maung Aye, deputy director of the junta’s Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture, sent the letter to the chief Buddhist monk of the Sangha Committee in Toungoo Township Aug. 10.
Father Xavier Wine Maung, the cathedral’s rector, stated that local parishioners are shocked. The cathedral was first built in the 1850s, and after it was destroyed in World War II, it was rebuilt in 1945 and again in 1987.
Fr. Maung said that he has “no answers” for the parishioners who ask him what to do about the impending demolition.
“My only hope is to plead for leniency, asking them to save at least the main church building. It doesn’t matter if they demolish other buildings in the compound,” he said.
“The Sacred Heart Cathedral is one of the religious sites they plan to remove. I’m very sad because it’s a historic Catholic church that’s been part of this area since Christianity began to grow here,” added Baptist Pastor Samuel Saw of Hallelujah Church in Taungoo, according to UCA News.
Buddhist monk Venerable Min Thonnya, a writer and leader of the 2007 Saffron Revolution, told UCA that the military dictatorship “is not a legitimate government” and therefore does not have the right to destroy the religious sites. Thonnya currently lives in exile.
The civil war that has been raging in Myanmar since 2021 has destroyed at least 302 religious buildings, according to the independent research team Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica.
As CatholicVote reported in March, the current government burned St. Patrick Cathedral in the Banmaw diocese, several weeks after burning the cathedral’s rectory, diocesan offices, and high school.
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Author: Grace Porto
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