More than 5,000 people packed into a mountain village in Myanmar to pay their respects to Fr. Donald Martin Ye Naing Win, 44, who was killed February 14 at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Archdiocese of Mandalay.
Archbishop Marco Tin Win of Mandalay presided over Fr. Donald’s funeral in the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Pyin Oo Lwin Monday. The village is Fr. Donald’s birthplace. According to Fides, information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies, the archbishop urged the faithful to wake up, "because violence only brings death and destruction, it is always a defeat."
He made a heartfelt appeal "to all armed groups and actors involved in the conflict to lay down their weapons and take a path of peace and reconciliation."
According to Fides, the People's Defence Force (PDF), which is fighting against the military junta and controls the area, arrested 10 men suspected of being responsible for the murder. The men were from the village of Kan Gyi Taw, where the priest was murdered.
“The leadership of these forces has been asked to investigate the armed groups that attacked and murdered the priest,” Fides said. “The People's Defense Forces, according to Fides sources, are themselves interested in identifying and punishing the culprits and have transferred those arrested to a court set up by the People's Defense Force in the areas currently defined as ‘liberated.’”
No motive has been determined.
Fides quoted local sources as saying Fr. Donald was particularly involved in organizing educational work for children and young people in the area, where about 40 Catholic families live. Faced with civil war, violence, and displacement, schools are closed, there are no teachers and only informal classes given voluntarily by priests, religious and catechists ensure a minimum level of continuity in the education of children and young people, the news service said.
The Holy See expressed condolences to Fr. Donald’s family, the religious communities and the faithful of the Archdiocese of Mandalay in a message addressed by the Chargé d'Affaires and Representative of the Holy See in Myanmar, to the Archbishop of Mandalay.
Fr. Donald’s killing came just a week after the bombing of a new cathedral in Myanmar.
The southeast Asian country has been plagued by war since a coup d’etat in February 2021. The nation’s military took power after ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Nationwide peaceful protests escalated into civil war.
