Fr. Donald Martin Yeing Win, 44 -year -old diocesan priest of the Archdiocese of Mandalay (Myanmar) was killed on February 14, in the midst of the civil war that has plunged the Asian country into a serious humanitarian and human rights crisis .
According to the Vatican agency Fidesthe presbyter’s body was found by some faithful around 6:00 am (local time), “mutilated and disfigured with white weapon wounds”, in the enclosure of the parish Our Lady of Lourdes, where the priest worked as a pastor .
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Father Martin was ordered priest in 2018. He dedicated himself to his parishion with zeal and faithfulness, also carrying humanitarian assistance and spiritual comfort to those displaced by the civil war.
The church in which it served is in the town of Kan Gyi Taw, in the territory of the Shwe Bo district, belonging to the Sagaing region. This area, says Fides, is one of the areas where the fighting between the militiamen of the Popular Defense Forces and the Army of the Military Board are frequent.
The clamor of bishops: “Let violence end up”
“That the blood and sacrifices of innumerable innocent people, such as Father Donald Martin Yeing Win, serve as an offering to end the violence that hurts the entire nation,” says a statement from the bishops of Myanmar, signed by their President and Archbishop of Yangon, Cardinal Charles Bo.
“Learning from these heartbreaking experiences that we have lived, we raise our fraternal spirit and make a felt supplication to put the end of violence,” adds the text collected by Asia News.
“While the Church says to do justice, we urge those responsible for assuming all the responsibility for the murder of Father Donald Martin since they guarantee that tragedies like this are not repeated,” the statement underlines.
Vatican News It informs that ten suspects have been arrested by the militiamen who control the region.
What happens in Myanmar?
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma or Burma, suffers from a civil war after the military coup of the beginning of 2021, with which the Military Board overthrew the elected government of the Nobel Peace Prize, Aung San Suu Kyi, who had promised a new It was democratic.
The blow triggered a generalized resistance with the militiamen of the Popular Defense Forces, mass protests and an escalation of conflicts throughout the country.
The Military Board has killed thousands of people, has arrested tens of thousands and bombing hospitals, schools and religious buildings such as the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Mindat, which was seriously damaged by the air attacks on February 6 in the state From Chin, the only Christian majority in Myanmar.
The Military Board announced elections for 2025 in which only the parties approved by this can participate.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.