November 23, 2024 04:36 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
'Third World War has begun:' Ex-Ukraine military commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny | UK-India Free Trade Agreement negotiations to resume in early 2024 | UK can arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits country based on ICC warrant | Centre to send over 10,000 additional soldiers to violence-hit Manipur amid fresh violence | Chhattisgarh: 10 Maoists killed during encounter with security forces in Sukma
Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar meets Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh camp; speaks of “Modern Exodus”

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

| @indiablooms | 02 Aug 2019, 02:13 pm

Dhaka: On a week-long visit to neighbouring Bangladesh two cardinals from the Philippines and Myanmar visited a Rohingya refugee camp this week, meeting with refugee families as well as relief agency personnel and government officials.

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.”

 

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Related Images
Xi Jinping, Putin in Russia 22 Mar 2023, 02:56 pm
Related Videos