The ceremony was held at the Cathedral of Christ the King. In the State of Kayah, marked by the war with the Burmese army, the destruction of churches and thousands of displaced persons, the prelate chose the invocation “Your Kingdom come” as his episcopal motto. “All of us who are here today thirst for peace: let us seek freedom and justice in the Word of God and let us build it together.”
Loikaw () – “Your Kingdom come”. In one of the regions hardest hit by the conflict that has disfigured Myanmar for more than two years, the new bishop of Loikaw, Bishop Celso Ba Shwe, presented himself with this evangelical motto (Mt 6,10) that points to the horizon of a peace that only God can give. In the Cathedral of Christ the King, where he has served as parish priest for 13 years, the prelate – who was born in 1964 in this same diocese, in the village of Moblo – received episcopal ordination yesterday, on the feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, During a solemn ceremony presided over by the Archbishop of Taunggy, Monsignor Basil Athai, in the presence of Card. Charles Bo, Archbishop of Yangon.
Loikaw is the capital of the eastern Burmese state of Kayah, one of the places most affected by the civil conflict, but also one of the cities where the Christian presence in Myanmar is most deeply rooted, also the result of the long ministry carried out in this region by missionaries of the PIME. Since December 2020, however, this diocese had been left without a pastor following the sudden death of its bishop, Stephen Tjephe. And Father Celso -appointed apostolic administrator- had already had the task of guiding this flock through the difficult season that inaugurated the coup d’état on February 1, 2021. “He is already the Good Shepherd who lives among the sheep “said the card. Bo in his homily for yesterday’s celebration – and he is here with the smell of the sheep, knowing their tears, their wounds, their scattering. God has called him to bear witness to the Via Crucis – he added – and he will lead him to the glory of the Resurrection, of hope, of peace, of reconciliation and of the reconstruction of communities “.
A perspective before which Monsignor Celso did not hide his difficulties: “At this time -he recounted in a video posted on the Burmese Church YouTube channel– I have discovered all my weakness, my fatigue, my impotence. For this reason, when they told me that they would entrust me with the responsibility of the diocese, I felt a lot of resistance inside. I told myself: I am not capable of being a leader. But I received a lot of encouragement from people close to me, especially Bishop Emeritus Sotero Phamo, who reminded me that I will not be alone, that I will have the priests, the nuns, the faithful of this Church by my side. Then I understood that it was the will of the Lord and I accepted”.
In the video he recounts the long story of his vocation, marked by many difficulties: his father’s initial veto, working as a teacher in public schools, and then finding himself in the seminary with boys much younger and more advanced than him in Latin and English. “In these weeks I have thought a lot about the Gospel passage in which Jesus says that God does not reveal himself to the wise or the intelligent, but to simple people,” he commented. And it is precisely with them that he sets out with today in a wounded land, that he has known in the last two years the destruction of churches and the forced exodus of thousands of people.
His invitation is precisely to return from the invocation: “Your Kingdom come.” “In this country it seems to me to be particularly topical,” he explains in the video: “today the whole world thirsts for peace. But what does a true kingdom of freedom and justice mean? You have to look for it in the Word of God, only He can give it in the hearts of all people. Together with all the citizens of this country, we must build this kingdom of peace and justice.”
On his episcopal shield, along with three symbols – the open book of the Word of God, the tree of life and a cross within a crown that indicates Christ the King – three colors stand out: blue, red and white. “Marian blue represents peace”, explains Bishop Celso, “red represents the Holy Spirit, but also the suffering of this time, our martyrs: it is an invitation to have courage. White is the sign of purity. Let us pray and let us hope that God fulfills his promise of life today, not only for Loikaw and Myanamar, but for the whole world.”
