By LiCAS.news
ST Patrick’s Cathedral in Banmaw, a town in Myanmar’s Kachin State, was destroyed by fire on Sunday, Mar 16, the eve of the feast day of the saint to whom the church is dedicated.
According to testimonies sent to Vatican’s Fides News Agency, the fire broke out at around 4.00 pm local time during military operations in the area allegedly conducted by soldiers of the State Administration Council (SAC), Myanmar’s ruling military junta.
There has been no official statement from the SAC regarding the incident.
This was the second fire reported at the diocesan compound in recent weeks. On Feb 26, the priests’ residence, a newly constructed three-story diocesan office building, and a high school were also burned.
These events led to the displacement of the clergy, including Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam, the local ordinary of Banmaw.
Fr John Aung Htoi, in a message posted on social media, said the cathedral, built by the Missionary Societies of St Columban around the 1950s, was a “historic cathedral and a landmark of Bahmo, Kachin State.”
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