Myanmar’s bishops urge peace amid civil war’s ‘polycrisis’: 3M displaced, hope in compassion. “Peace is the only way.”
Newsroom (29/10/2025, Gaudium Press )Amid four years of civil war, Myanmar’s Catholic bishops declared that “this is not the moment to give up” but to ignite “the embers of hope in the ashes of pain,” insisting peace is both possible and the only path forward.
The message, titled “A Message of Compassion and Hope in the Face of Myanmar’s Polycrisis,” was published October 29 and signed by all Burmese bishops. Drafted during an online assembly focused on the Church’s plight, it was shared with Fides news agency.
The bishops painted a grim portrait of a nation gripped by overlapping catastrophes: “Throughout our beloved country, from north to south, from east to west, our people are facing a crisis unprecedented in recent history. This is not a single tragedy. It is what experts call a ‘polycrisis,’ in which multiple crises overlap and exacerbate one another. We are experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters, displacement, economic collapse, and a deep social fracture.”
Human suffering dominates their account. “The suffering of the people breaks our hearts more than anything else,” they wrote, citing United Nations figures that over 3 million people have been displaced by escalating violence. “These are not just numbers. These are mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and children. Some are seeking shelter under trees, in rice paddies, monasteries, and makeshift shelters, without food, water, education, or security.”
Conflict zones feature “ghost towns,” while earthquake-ravaged villages lie in ruins, inflicting “deep trauma and fear.” Women and children endure the brunt: “Many children have not been to school for years. Their classrooms are in ruins. Their future is uncertain. Some have lost their parents. Some have witnessed violence. Many are hungry, sick, and unable to express their feelings.” Women, meanwhile, “carry the pain of losing their families, the responsibility of caring for the youngest, and the fear of exploitation,” often giving birth or raising infants without shelter or medical care. Yet, the bishops noted, “it is they who hold communities together, cook for many, pray in the darkness, and comfort the bereaved.”
The text confronted systemic fractures head-on: “One of the deepest wounds we see today is the lack of understanding and trust between the various actors and interest groups. There are many fronts, many visions, many needs. Often there is little dialogue, few authentic spaces where hearts can truly listen to one another.” This impasse blocks aid, stalls development, and restricts humanitarian access.
Daily life has devolved into survival: soaring food prices, vanished jobs, scarce fuel and medicine, unreliable electricity. “Fear has become a silent companion in every family.” Youth, dreaming only of education and opportunity, grapple with “fear, anger, and disillusionment,” their potential squandered.
Amid this, the bishops posed stark questions: “We, as Christians and as people who work together with all faiths, ask ourselves: Where are we going? How can we end the war?” Christianity offers no quick fix, they said, but a “quiet and humble path” to reconciliation, healing, and peace. “Reconciliation does not mean forgetting or pretending everything is alright, but listening to the stories of others, weeping with those who weep, and seeking common ground where no one has to lose so that others can gain.”
Invoking Jesus’ words—”Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9)—they framed peace as “an active and courageous commitment to life instead of death, to dignity instead of revenge, to community instead of isolation.”
The bishops closed with a vision of renewal: “May our wounded and battered nation rise again, not only with buildings, but with new hearts. And may our children one day be able to say: ‘They did not give up on peace. And so we found our way home.’ God bless Myanmar.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Fides News
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