On Friday 25 February the Via Pacis Association of Arco held an evening entitled “The cry of Myanmar” at the International Center, with the online participation of the Missionary Ancelle of the Blessed Sacrament connected directly from the Philippines and from Rome.
The information evening was organized to tell what happens in Myanmar one year after the military coup, what the Burmese people are experiencing in this forgotten war.
Sr. Rosanna Favero, a Venetian in the Philippines for 30 years and contact person for the presence of her congregation in Myanmar, and Sister Jury, Burmese, currently in the Philippines, were interviewed. «My heart is tired of always hearing sad news from my country», said the latter, «My heart aches to see people who have lost everything and cannot live in their homes, cannot work and are threatened with death and killed without guilt».
In the early times of disorder, the nuns offered refuge and help to the many in need, with their hearts in their throats, hearing the shots just outside the door. Every activity was done silently, because the noises, any noise, could attract the attention of the soldiers who wandered the streets. Subsequently, «The troops began to punish people who did not obey: the punishments were arrests or burning of their homes. This has led people to be more and more afraid and feel the need to flee. And so began the exodus of those who fled to the forest or to the mountains» says Sister Rosanna Favero.
In this desperate context, churches, convents and religious houses raised the white flag to offer asylum to people but it was not respected by the military and they did not exclude even these places from the bombing.
In a situation in which the government also prevented the Church from helping the poor, closing the diocesan hospital and increasing checks on priests and nuns, a chain of solidarity was formed between priests and religious, together with trusted lay people who brought aid in the forest where entire families were hiding to escape the military.
And in this desperate situation, solidarity was a light of hope. Numerous and fundamental aid has been received from international associations such as Via Pacis and Caritas Antoniana, which constantly send economic support. «They were important aids that made it possible to intervene, with the desire to help and willing to sacrifice their lives, risking everything to reach the people in the forest. All the contributions have worked miracles, because if you do not have the means, good will is not enough» says Sister Rosanna.
«Many are killed without guilt by bombs or by the violence of the military who arrest and torture. I receive news of the deaths of people I know, relatives, such as my brother-in-law who was burned alive along with 30 other people on Christmas Eve despite having done nothing wrong, young people from my village I knew well who were arrested, tortured, killed and thrown in the garbage dumps. Families are separated, homeless, without work, without care». Sister Jury’s words echo the desperate cry of Myanmar torn by a desperate war that separates, kills and tortures.
«My heart is wounded, it shares the fear, anger and desolation of my people». A suffering, that of Sister Jury but also of all of us, which is also fed by the media silence surrounding this desperate situation. «It is also frustrating to know that the data coming to you is for the most part false. The dead are many more and this silence is really painful and heavy» tell us the sisters before thanking heartily for the help and for listening «I am grateful to be able to share all this with you because speaking is a concrete thing I can do for my country».
The interview with the two women was accompanied by tears for a situation of immense suffering in all their stories of despair, innocent deaths, bombings and loneliness, but also stories full of hope. The hope of receiving help and being able to help «They are people who no longer have anything, they only have the help that is given to them». Hope in solidarity, in prayer and in the possibility that all this ends.
In this desperate cry from Myanmar shines the strength of all the people who are struggling to do good and of those who struggle to share this dramatic reality with the world. At the end of the evening, Fr Francesco Scarin, parish priest of Arco together with the whole assembly asked for a prayer of peace and hope for the Burmese people.
