Myanmar's military continues to persecute ethnic Kachin, the predominant Christian group in a conflict-torn part of the country, as well as Rohingya Muslims, said Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, Myanmar.
During the cave crisis, at the Cathedral of Saint Michael in Thare, a small village located along Nonghan Lake in northeastern Thailand’s Isaan region, Catholics offered Mass and asked for the intervention of St. Michael the Archangel to protect the young men.
Church and political leaders alike expressed alarm over a growing culture of impunity. President Rodrigo Duterte’s frequent tirades against the Catholic Church in the Philippines are believed to have emboldened killers in the recent attacks against priests.