Catholic Church in Myanmar

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The Catholic Church in Myanmar (also known as Burma) is part of the worldwide

Burma - approximately 1.29% of the total population.[1]

The country is divided into sixteen dioceses including three archdioceses. Each of the archdioceses is also a

metropolitan. There are over 1,000 priests and 2,000 nuns serving across 460 parishes.[1]

The representative of the Holy See to the Catholic Church and the government of Burma is an Apostolic Nuncio, who is resident in Thailand. As of November 2017, the Apostolic Nuncio is Archbishop Paul Tschang In-Nam.

Episcopal Conference of Burma

Main article: Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar

The membership comprises bishops and auxiliary bishops of the 16

dioceses of Myanmar. As of 2020, the president of the CBCM is Cardinal Charles Maung Bo.[2][3]

Dioceses of Myanmar

Ecclesiastical Province of Mandalay

Ecclesiastical Province of Taunggyi

Ecclesiastical Province of Yangon

Ecclesiastical history of Burma

The ecclesiastical history of

Christianity in Burma begins before its annexation by the British, when it still consisted of the kingdoms of Ava and Pegu.[4]

Catholic missions

In 1548

Pegu, but nothing is known as to the outcome of his request.[4]

Chief mercenary

Catholicism and was baptised by a priest from Goa
.

In 1699 the

Legatus a latere, decided against the vicar Apostolic.[4]

The actual work of evangelising Ava and Pegu began under the pontificate of

Rangoon
from 1783 to 1808; his A description of the Burmese Empire was first published in 1833.

Bishop Giovanni Ceretti, OMV
Archbishop Giovanni Balma, OMV
Logo of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary

The Barnabites having given up the mission,

Adrianople (Edirne), as first Vicar Apostolic. About this time, (the year 1845) Catholics of the two kingdoms numbered 2500. Giovanni Balma (+ April 5, 1881) succeeded as Vicar Apostolic on 5 September 1848, but the war with the British rendered his labours ineffectual, and the mission was abandoned around 1852.[4]

The British had in reality begun to assume control of Burma in 1824, but it was not until 20 December 1852, that the

Rangoon the whole of Burma came into the possession of Great Britain. The Congregation of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary having withdrawn from the mission, the vicariate was placed under the control of the Vicar Apostolic of Siam in 1855. At this date the kingdoms of Ava and Pegu contained 11 priests and 5320 Catholics.[4]

Burma, in the mid-nineteenth century was bounded on the east by China and Siam, and on the west by Assam and Bengal. Its area was approximately 444,001 km2, while that of Great Britain and Ireland is 310,798 km2, but it's not densely populated. For some ten years the mission remained under the administration of the Vicar Apostolic of Siam; but such a condition could not be indefinitely prolonged without compromising its future. A decree of

Propaganda Fide on 27 November 1806, accordingly divided Burma into three vicariates, named respectively with references to their geographical positions, Northern Burma, Southern Burma, and Eastern Burma. The boundaries then fixed were abrogated on 28 June 1870, by another decree of Propaganda, which constituted these three vicariates as they now are.[4]

Northern Burma Vicariate

St Joseph's Catholic Church in Mandalay

This vicariate, which has been entrusted to the Missions Étrangères of Paris, was bounded on the north by the Chinese province of Yunnan, on the east by the River Salween, on the south by Karenni and Lower Burma, and on the west by Manipur, the Garo Hills, and the independent territories of Tipperah and Assam.[4]

In an early 20th-century population of 3,500,000 there were 7,248 Catholics, spiritually served by 22 European clergy of the Missions Étrangères of Paris and 3 native priests with 47 churches or chapels. The vicariate possessed 18 schools with 754 children, a seminary with 22 students, 2 boarding-schools with 160 pupils and 6 orphanages with 315 orphans. This is the most dense. The Apostolic vicar is at

Lower Burma and the Province of Yunnan; hence the large Chinese element in the population.[4]

Eastern Burma Vicariate

The vicariate was entrusted to the Milan Seminary of Foreign Missions. Its boundaries, determined by decree on 26 August 1889, were: on the north the Chinese Province of Yun-nan; on the east, the

Sittang.[4]

The vicariate was made up of two quite distinct portions connected almost at right angles by a somewhat narrow strip of territory. The first of these portions comprised Toungoo and the regions lying between the Sittang and the Salween as far as 20 north latitude; from this parallel of latitude the second portion stretches north to the Tropic of Cancer, bordered on the east and south by China, Annam and Siam, and on the west by the River Salween.[4]

The beginnings of the mission go back to 1868 when the Milan Seminary of Foreign Missions sent thither Eugenio Biffi as prefect Apostolic, accompanied by Sebastian Carbode, Conti and Rocco Tornatori. The last named of these was the present vicar Apostolic, and has resided for decades in the vicariate. There were 10,300 Catholics in this vicariate, the population of which amounted to something like 2,000,000. The vicar Apostolic resided in the Leitko Hills and visited 130 villages in the Karenni district, with 10,000 Catholics—almost the whole Catholic population of the vicariate.[4]

In the early 20th century there was a school with 65 children, a convent of the Sisters of Nazareth of Milan, with 40 girls, and in some villages the beginnings of schools with a few pupils. Toungoo, in the south of the vicariate, with 300 Catholics, had an English school of 130 children of various races, a Native school of 100 children, and a convent of the Sisters of the Reparation of Nazareth of Milan with 70 girls. There were 10 priests. In 1902 there were 140 conversions from paganism and 6 from Protestantism. The stations provided with were, besides the residence of the vicar Apostolic, Toungoo, Northern Karenni, Yedashe and Karenni.[4]

Southern Burma vicariate

Mass in St. Joseph's church, Mandalay
Mass in St. Joseph's Church in Mandalay

This vicariate, entrusted to the

Toungoo district (assigned to the above Vicariate of Eastern Burma). It is bounded on the east by the Diocese of Dacca, on the north by Eastern Burma, on the west by Siam and on the south by the sea. It extends from the nineteenth to the tenth parallel of north latitude and beginning from Moulmein, forms a long and rather narrow strip of land shut in between Siam on the one side and the sea on the other.[4]

In a population estimated in the early 20th century at 4,000,000 as many as 45,579 Catholics were found distributed among 23 stations, the most important of which in respect of Catholic population being:

Sisters of the Good Shepherd, of St. Joseph of the Apparition, and of St. Francis Xavier, those known under this last name being natives. The vicariate supported 12 Anglo-native schools with 4501 children, and 65 Burman or Tamil schools which give instruction to 2200 pupils. The Little Sisters of the Poor, 9 in number, take care of 55 old people at Rangoon, and the Missionaries of Mary's asylum sheltered 100 children, besides which there were 21 orphanages, containing 790 children, under the care of the above-mentioned religious communities. The vicariate thus was in further advanced in Christianity than the other two, due to its greater accessibility and the British influence, which developed faster in these regions. In 1845, as has been seen, there were only 2500 Catholics in Burma, sixty years later there were 59,127.[4] The fact that there are still more Catholics in Burma today than in neighbouring Thailand
is likely due to this missionary activity in a British colony; Thailand was never ruled by Europeans.

titular Bishop of Limyra, Vicar Apostolic of Southern Burma, born at Fresse, Haute-Saône, France, 9 January 1859, and educated in the seminaries of Lunel and Vesoul and of the Missions Étrangères, began his labours in the mission field in 1879, and in 1893 was appointed coadjutor to Bishop Bigandet, his predecessor in the vicariate, who consecrated him at Rangoon (24 June 1893). He succeeded to the vicariate on the death of Bishop Bigandet, 19 March 1894.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Catholics and Culture website, retrieved 2023-08-08
  2. ^ G Catholic website, retrieved 2023-08-28
  3. ^ FABC website, retrieved 2023-08-28
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Burma". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

External links

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