Yangon (Agenzia Fides) - The Catholic faithful in Myanmar express emotion and gratitude to Pope Francis who has launched a new universal appeal to prayer for Myanmar and, at a time of extreme suffering, they place themselves in Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament to invoke, with the Pope, the gift of peace in their tormented land.
Receiving pilgrims from the diocese of Crema, the Italian city that was the birthplace of Blessed Father Alfredo Cremonesi, a missionary killed in Myanmar on Feb. 7, 1953, at the Vatican on April 15, Pope Francis recalled the violence that still disrupts the lives of the people of Myanmar, saying: "As you know, it is a troubled land, which I hold in my heart and for which I invite you to pray, imploring of God the gift of peace".
"Pope Francis holds us in his heart and prayers and continues to emphasize to the world our miserable conditions," Robert Khen Tlung, a Catholic layman from Yangon, tells Fides. The man, who sincerely thanks the Pope, is among the benefactors who helped build the new Perpetual Adoration Chapel in the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Yangon, blessed yesterday by Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon.
The faithful are grateful to the Pope who "is praying for Myanmar to overcome the current difficult political situation," note religious and lay people who have begun a round of continuous Eucharistic Adoration prayer, night and day, in the new chapel to invoke peace in the country.
During Sunday Mass yesterday, April 16, in the Cathedral, Cardinal Bo remarked: "While the Burmese people are experiencing the horrors of war, we do not forget God and entrust ourselves to Him for all our needs. Each of us experiences hardships, pains, problems. Let us place them in the hands of the Lord. Even the Holy Father remembers us and prays that we entrust ourselves to Divine Mercy, who gives us comfort and consolation, and graces in abundance". (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 17/4/2023)