Archbishop Marco Calls for Low-Key Festive Season

November 16, 2022229 views0

Archbishop Marco Calls for Low-Key Festive Season

2022-11-16T14:39:14+01:00

By Church News

Archbishop Marco Tin Win of Mandalay in Myanmar has appealed to Catholics to focus on spiritual preparations and avoid “high-profile celebrations” at Christmas and New Year to show solidarity with people affected by the ongoing conflicts.“I appeal to you not to go carol singing, partying and other such celebrations, decorating churches, priests’ centres, convents with lights and posting photos about partying on social media,” Archbishop Tin Win said in a pastoral letter.He urged Catholics to follow these instructions “to show solidarity with the people from the embattled Sagaing and Magwe regions.” The two regions are part of the Mandalay archdiocese.The faithful were urged to focus on spiritual preparations for celebrating Christmas instead.“Doing confession, attending Mass, prayers, reading the Bible, Christian meditation, saying the rosary, helping the neediest, charitable works … starting from Advent Sunday, Nov. 27,” he added.Archbishop Marco Tin Win was born in Mon Hla in the district of Shwebo, Myanmar, and he studied philosophy and theology at Saint Joseph’s Major Seminary in Yangon.He was ordained a priest on 22 September 1987. He earned a doctorate in philosophy from the Pontifical Urban University, Rome.Archbishop Marco has held several pastoral and administrative roles, including diocesan director for interreligious dialogue, rector of the Saint Thomas Preparatory Seminary of Mandalay, diocesan bursar, parish priest of the parish of Mary Help of Christians in Sagaing and executive secretary of the Episcopal Conference of Yangon.He also held administrative positions with the Episcopal Conference of Burma and also worked to establish good relationships with other religious groups, including Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus.The Archbishop was secretary of the Office of Inter-Religious Dialogue of the Episcopal Conference as well.He was vicar general, rector of the Cathedral of Mandalay, and a lecturer in philosophy at Saint Joseph’s Major Seminary in Pyin Oo Lwin when Pope Francis, on 25 April 2019, named him Archbishop of Mandalay.ALSO READ Myanmar Catholics Mark Michaelmas