Fr. Girish Santiago, SJ, the Jesuit superior in Myanmar, has called on fellow missionaries to stand with the suffering people of Myanmar, as the Southeast Asian nation endures civil conflict.
By Chainarong Monthienvichienchai, LiCAS News
Jesuit Father Girish Santiago called on fellow missionaries to stand with the suffering people of Myanmar as he presided over a Mass in Rome on the eve of World Mission Sunday.
The Jesuit superior in Myanmar, who has spent years ministering in one of Asia’s most fragile nations, reflected on what it means to live and serve amid war, displacement, and despair.
Speaking before fellow religious leaders, he said the Church’s mission today is not measured by success or numbers but by faithful presence among people who suffer.
His words came as Myanmar continues to face civil conflict, mass displacement, and deepening humanitarian crises that have tested both the nation’s faith and the resilience of its people.
Myanmar, once known as the “Golden Land,” he began, was famed for its rich resources, golden pagodas, and deep Buddhist spirituality rooted in compassion and harmony.
“It all happened before seven decades,” he recalled. “Nationalization fractured the nation. Foreigners had to flee.” Among them were his own parents and siblings, who fled to India, where he was later born “in a displaced situation.”
Decades later, in what he described as “my golden age,” he was missioned back to Myanmar—the land of his parents’ birth. “At the airport in Yangon, I was received by relatives I had never known. We cried. We embraced. It was a time of reunion,” he said.
But the Myanmar he returned to was in turmoil. “Where there is a dead body, there the eagles will gather,” Fr. Girish said, echoing Scripture to describe how the nation’s natural wealth has attracted exploitation.
“Where there are rich natural resources, there the eyes of cronies, the military, and the big neighboring countries,” he added.
The result, he said, is a nation crippled by “COVID-19, coup, collapse of economy, conscription law, floods, and earthquakes.”
Today, nearly four million people are displaced—internally and as refugees. Families have been torn apart, communities divided, and many priests and religious risk their lives to serve the poor.
Against this backdrop of suffering, Fr. Girish anchored his reflection on St. Paul’s words to Timothy: “The Lord stood by me and gave me strength.”
“These words could have been written from our own context,” he said, “from a Jesuit house in hiding in Kachin State, from a school relocated to the peripheries, from an internally displaced camp where people wait in uncertainty.”
The Jesuit experience in Myanmar, he said, mirrors Paul’s faith: “Uncertainty, dispersion, and yet—fidelity to the Church and loyalty to the Society of Jesus.”
“Our communities have rediscovered what mission really means—to become smaller, simpler, poorer. In that poverty, not structures but presence; not efficiency but fidelity; not numbers but witness.”
Citing Jesus’ words in Luke 10, “I am sending you out like lambs among wolves,” Fr. Girish said that Jesuits in Myanmar are called not to defend or withdraw, but to “go—even when it feels unsafe.”
“We are sent as lambs—fragile but free, poor but bearing peace,” he said. “When we have no power, God’s presence becomes our power. When we have no voice, His Spirit speaks through our witness.”
Quoting both Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV, he emphasized that mission today means “presence and listening—to stand where people suffer, to walk beside those whose voices are silenced, to make visible a God who does not abandon His people.”
In Myanmar, he said, the word “peace” has profound meaning. “To say ‘Peace’ today means to accompany the displaced and the hungry, to speak truth even when it costs, and to refuse to give in to hatred or revenge.”
Fr. Girish reminded his fellow Jesuits that mission is never solitary: “Jesus sent the disciples two by two. We are not lone rangers but brothers in mission—collaborators with clergy, religious, lay partners, and men and women of goodwill.”
Even amid violence and loss, he drew hope from St. Paul’s conviction: “The Lord will rescue us from every evil work.” God’s fidelity, he said, “never fails—even beneath the ashes of violence, in hidden acts of compassion, in the silent endurance of our people.”
“We are not called to save Myanmar,” he concluded, “but to stand with Myanmar—to reveal the God who is already saving it through faith that does not yield to despair.”
Fr. Girish ended his homily with a final call to hope: “The Kingdom of God is near to you—even here, even now. Let us rediscover our joy—the joy of being Jesuits, men sent to the frontiers, to find God already waiting there.”
At the conclusion of World Mission Sunday celebrations in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV offered a heartfelt prayer for peace around the world, making a special appeal for Myanmar, where violent conflict has continued since May 2021.
Calling reports from the Southeast Asian nation “distressing,” the Pope lamented the ongoing armed clashes and aerial bombardments against civilians and vital infrastructure. Expressing his closeness to all who suffer amid the violence, he urged the warring parties to lay down their arms.
“I renew my heartfelt appeal for an immediate and effective ceasefire,” Pope Leo said. “May the instruments of war give way to those of peace through inclusive and constructive dialogue.”
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