Volume 35 No. 2 | Winter 2025 4 Society Matters SVD Mission in Myanmar growing to serve local needs One of the SVD Australia Province’s newer missions is Myanmar, where Divine Word Missionaries have been working since 2018 at the invitation of Cardinal Charles Bo SDB, the Archbishop of Yangon, to promote the Bible Apostolate. Since arriving, the SVD have also helped meet the material needs and education of the people by undertaking social projects, including building houses for the poor and needy, and providing music and computer classes for local children and out-of-school youth. This article by Fr Roger Kyaw Thu SVD, gives an insight into the SVD Myanmar Mission. Myanmar is one of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with a population of 55 million. It is predominantly a Buddhist Country where Catholics make up only 1.29 per cent of the total population (about 700,000 Catholics). The SVD house is situated in the Hmawbi Township which comes under the Yangon Division. Some years ago, our Society was invited to work here at the request of Cardinal Charles Bo, the archbishop of Yangon, under whose jurisdiction comes the Hmawbi Sacred Heart parish. The purpose of his invitation for the SVD was to promote the Bible Apostolate in Myanmar as the Cardinal himself continues to say that we are popularly known as active promoters of God’s Word. We officially opened the mission of Myanmar in 2018 after an abandoned and dilapidated building of the archdiocese was well renovated for our residence under the supervision of our confreres Fathers Truc Phan SVD and John Le SVD. The pioneer missionaries to the newly opened mission were Fr Jacob Kavunkal SVD, Fr Mariusz Kubista SVD, Fr Tuyen Nguyen SVD, and Fr Devasagayam Savariyappan SVD. Since 2021, only Frs. Tuyen and Deva have remained and continued the mission here. Recently, the mission received a young confrere, Fr Roger Kyaw Thu. He is one of the first two local SVDs (Myanmar) ordained in the US in May 2024. Myanmar has been in political turmoil since its independence from British rule in 1948. The 2021 Coup has significantly worsened the situation. On top of the political turmoil, the country was recently devastated by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that killed thousands of people and destroyed many buildings. Despite the political unrest which restricts our activities, the contributions of the SVDs to the local Church have been noteworthy. We are involved in the socio, economic and spiritual welfare of the people entrusted to our care. Due to high inflation and increasing unemployment, people are experiencing hard times. We
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