Loikaw, Myanmar (Agenzia Fides) — Displacement, hunger, cold, the fatigue of a daily life in refugee camps or in makeshift settlements in the forests cannot stop the Catholic faithful of Loikaw, a diocese in the Burmese state of Kayah in the east of the country, from celebrating the Holy Year. As Fr. Paul Pa, diocesan representative for the Holy Year 2025, tells Fides, the Catholic community of Loikaw, with about 90,000 members scattered in an area marked by clashes and fighting between the army and the opposition forces, is striving for unity and has found the spiritual strength to celebrate its “Jubilee in exile” since the Christ the King Cathedral and the Pastoral Complex in Loikaw were seized and occupied by the military in November 2023.
Mass in St. Joseph’s Church in Mandalay, Myanmar (a different diocese in Myanmar). Photo credit: Christian Heimig – Own work, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
