Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar meets Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh camp; speaks of “Modern Exodus”

Referring to the 1 million Myanmar Rohingya refugees, Cardinal Bo from Myanmar spoke of the “Modern Exodus” in Southeast Asia during a homily in the Parish of Holy Rosary Church, Tejgon, Dhaka.

The Rohingya refugees fled across the Myanmar border to Bangladesh, and are living in refugee camps, many of them are located in a swampy sort of ‘buffer zone’ along the border between the two countries.

Cardinal Bo and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila travelled to the refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh on July 29, accompanied by Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario of Dhaka, Bangladesh; Holy Cross Archbishop Moses Costa of Chittagong; and Bishop Gervas Rozario of Rajshahi.

“Bangladesh is the scene of Exodus today.  Amidst all the tragedies of the Jews, Moses was called by God to give the Commandments.  The story of Exodus is the story of unfailing love Yahweh, his care and concern for the people without a home.   We pray that thousands of refugees hosted in your land, like the Jews of the Exodus, feel the presence of the loving hand of God and reach home.  This human tragedy needs to strengthen our faith resolve to serve more, not less,” Cardinal Bo said.

“Bangladesh hosts one of the biggest refugee population.   In recent history, your country welcomed thousands of refugees from Myanmar. I pray for and commend the bigheartedness of your government and the people. I feel a deep sense of fellowship with you.  As neighbours, we not only share borders but also our tragedies, our brokenness, our displacements.  We grieve together but we also hope together for a world without war and displacement,” Cardinal  Bo said.

Cardinal Tagle is the president of Caritas Internationalis, a global confederation of Catholic relief and development agencies, that has helped more than half a million Rohingya refugees by providing shelter, water, sanitation, hygiene, and living supplies.

In 2017 the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group, faced a sharp increase in state-sponsored violence in Myanmar and the Burmese government refused to use the term Rohingya, and called them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They have been denied citizenship and  other rights since a controversial law was enacted in 1982.

The violence against Rohingya reached levels that led the United Nations to declare the crisis “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”