Jul 28, 2008 / 23:55 pm
Archbishop of Yangon Charles Bo has circulated a letter describing the situation in Myanmar as the country continues to recover from cyclone Nargis. While returning refugees are happy to be home, he said, they are pained by the loss of life and the damage done to houses, schools, and places of worship. “We do hope our way of the Cross is over,” one returnee said.
The archbishop recounted the state of the Catholic rescue mission deep in Ei Ma in the Diocese of Pathein. He related that the parish priest Father Andrew Soe Win died during the cyclone there, and that refugees are returning in a “slow trickle.”
“Their church is gone and their pastor was buried,” the archbishop said, reporting the words of one returned refugee:
“Our altar around which we used to come as a village community is gone. And our Priest who used to tell us so many good things is gone. We were refugees, we begged for our bread in the last months. We do hope our way of the Cross is over. We are happy to be back where our homes used to be.”