COVID-19, first documented in China's Hubei Province in December 2019, has now spread to 203 countries worldwide. As of April 2, there have been more than 2,000 cases documented within the Philippines, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, and other developing countries.
Bo called on China to write off the debts of other countries to help cover the cost of COVID-19.
On March 29, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, archbishop of Manila and prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, also appealed to rich countries to forgive the debts of poor countries, who are struggling to fund a coronavirus response. The Filipino cardinal said the money governments spend on military and security could go toward masks and ventilators.
The Burmese cardinal acknowledged that many governments in different parts of the world have been criticized for failing to prepare after the coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan, China. However, he said, China bears primary responsibility as there is strong concern that the Chinese regime's official statistics downplayed the scale of infection within China and subsequently published propaganda accusing other countries of causing the pandemic.
"Lies and propaganda have put millions of lives around the world in danger," he said.
Bo has led the Burmese Archdiocese of Yangon since 2003. Pope Francis made him a cardinal in 2015.
The cardinal said that the CCP's response to the coronavirus is "symptomatic of its increasingly repressive nature."
"In recent years, we have seen an intense crackdown on freedom of expression in China. Lawyers, bloggers, dissidents and civil society activists have been rounded up and have disappeared. In particular, the regime has launched a campaign against religion, resulting in the destruction of thousands of churches and crosses and the incarceration of at least one million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps," he said. "And Hong Kong, once one of Asia's most open cities, has seen its freedoms, human rights and the rule of law dramatically eroded."
"Christians believe, in the words of Paul the Apostle, that 'the truth will set you free.' Truth and freedom are the twin pillars on which all our nations must build surer and stronger foundations," Cardinal Bo said.
Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.