Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, the archbishop of Yangon and Myanmarʼs first cardinal, told the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference on May 8 that his country is enduring a “polycrisis” five years after the military coup that toppled its civilian government.
Speaking on the opening day of the biannual plenary assembly in Sydney, Bo described overlapping economic, employment, social, health, and education crises gripping the southeast Asian nation, also known as Burma.
More than 3.5 million people have been displaced and basic healthcare and education systems have collapsed in much of the country, the cardinal said.
The figure has risen from the nearly 3 million Bo cited in a May 2024 interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, underscoring the worsening trajectory of the conflict.
A 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck central Myanmar in March 2025, killing thousands, compounded the suffering. Bo at the time described “apocalyptic scenes.”
“Among young people in particular,” he told the bishops on May 8, “daily life is increasingly defined by insecurity, psychological strain, and a loss of trust in the future.”
“We remain a people of hope,” Bo added.
The cardinal thanked Australian Catholics for what he called the “unwavering solidarity” of Catholic Mission, the Australian arm of the Pontifical Mission Societies, which has long partnered with the Archdiocese of Yangon on education initiatives.
“Your solidarity is not an abstract idea … it is a light in the darkness,” he said. “Your support … reminds our suffering people they are not forgotten by the universal Church.”
Bo linked his appeal to the centenary of World Mission Sunday, established by Pope Pius XI in 1926 and to be observed worldwide on Oct. 18.
“Mission,” he said, is “not the work of missionaries but the responsibility of the whole Church.”
“Your partnership with us is not just charity,” he added. “It is communion.”
A voice for peace amid civil war
Bo then led a short ceremony to commission Peter Gates as the new national director of Catholic Mission Australia in the presence of Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth, the conference president. Like Bo, Costelloe is a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco.
Cardinal Charles Maung Bo (center) hands the commissioning document to Peter Gates (left), the new national director of Catholic Mission Australia, in the presence of Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, SDB (right), president of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, in Sydney on May 8, 2026. | Credit: Paul Osborne/ACBC
Myanmar has been engulfed in civil war since the military seized power on Feb. 1, 2021, deposing the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Bo has repeatedly called for nonviolence and dialogue, urging both the junta and pro-democracy forces to step back from further bloodshed. Pope Francis visited the country in 2017. In November 2025, Pope Leo XIV appealed to the international community not to forget the people of Myanmar.
Born in Monhla Village in 1948, Bo joined the Salesians of Don Bosco as a young man and was ordained a priest in 1976. He was appointed archbishop of Yangon by Pope John Paul II in 2003 and was created cardinal by Pope Francis in 2015. He served as president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences from 2018 to 2022.
The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference plenary continues in Sydney through May 13.
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