People crowd into churches to pray for cyclone survivors in Myanmar

Published: 2008-05-19

YANGON, Myanmar (CNS) -- Christians crowded into Catholic and Protestant churches in Yangon to pray and donate money to relief efforts for survivors of the cyclone that recently devastated the Irrawaddy River delta and Yangon. About 1,000 people, some inside Our Lady of Fatima Church and others outside under umbrellas in the rain, attended a May 18 Mass devoted to the victims and survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which struck May 3. Before the Mass, Father Joseph Maung Win, the parish priest, asked Massgoers to pray for the victims. Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon said the Mass, and Archbishop Paul Zinghtung Grawng of Mandalay, three other bishops and 19 priests concelebrated. Both Archbishops Bo and Grawng recently visited cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy delta. Archbishop Grawng is president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar. "It is important to help the neediest people affected by Cyclone Nargis without discrimination," Archbishop Bo said in his homily. "The good news is God is one, we are one."

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