Pope Francis offered asylum to Myanmar’s imprisoned leader Aung San Suu Kyi

Vatican City, Sep 24, 2024 / 12:55 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis said he has offered Myanmar’s imprisoned prime minister Aung San Suu Kyi to come to the Vatican.

In a meeting with Jesuits in Indonesia earlier this month, the pope said he “called for the release of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and received her son in Rome. I offered the Vatican as a place of refuge for her.”

The prime minister, who has been in prison since she was ousted in a military coup in February 2021, “is a symbol, and political symbols are to be defended,” Francis added.

The pope commented on the situation in Myanmar in a private meeting with about 200 Jesuits at the apostolic nunciature in Jakarta during his Sept. 2–13 trip to four countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania.

The transcript of Pope Francis’ three meetings with Jesuits — in Indonesia, East Timor, and Singapore — were published in the Jesuit journal La Civiltá Cattolica on Sept. 24.

In the Sept. 4 meeting, a Jesuit from Myanmar spoke about the difficult situation in his country and asked Pope Francis’ advice. “We have lost our lives, family, dreams, and future. How do we not lose hope?” he said.

“The situation in Myanmar is difficult,” the pontiff responded. “Look, there is no universal answer to your question. There are good young people fighting for their homeland. In Myanmar today you cannot be silent; you have to do something! The future of your country must be peace, based on respect for the dignity and rights of all, on respect for a democratic order that allows each person to contribute to the common good.”

Myanmar in turmoil since 2021 coup d’état

Myanmar has been wracked by violent conflict since Aung San Suu Kyi, a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner elected in a November 2020 general election, was ousted in a military coup three years ago.

The coup d’état triggered widespread resistance, mass protests, and an escalation of armed conflicts across the country, thrusting Myanmar into its current, unprecedented humanitarian and human rights crisis.

In May, in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, archbishop of Yangon in Myanmar, said there is an “unprecedented state of turmoil and suffering, which seems to have no end” in the country after a coup d’état at the beginning of 2021.

The conflict has led to the bombing or damage of more than 100 places of worship, the cardinal said, and the violence has spread in many areas of the territory.

In addition, he said that almost 3 million people have been displaced and are in urgent need of assistance, which has been arriving little by little thanks to the work of the Catholic Church and other nongovernmental organizations such as Religions for Peace.

Persecution of country’s Christians

Amid the ongoing violent conflict between the military junta and resistance forces in the region, the aid group Christian Solidarity International warned in February of a rise in violence against the persecuted Christian minority in Myanmar, with an advocate warning that ethnic-minority Christians there “are subjected to cruel ethnic-cleansing campaigns.”

Although Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist country, the constitution guarantees religious freedom. However, in the interview with ACI Prensa, Bo pointed out a worrying reality: “The last decade saw the emergence of fundamentalist forces that targeted minority religions.”

In April a Myanmar priest was shot while celebrating Mass in the state of Kachin, according to media reports.

Masked assailants shot Father Paul Khwi Shane Aung as he celebrated Mass at St. Patrick Church in the town of Mohnyin in the northern region of Myanmar. The priest “was rushed to a hospital in Mohnyin and was later moved to a hospital in Myitkyina,” according to UCA News.