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Targeted for their faith: persecuted priests in Burma
February 18, 2025
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Late last year, in an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Karenni State, Burma (Myanmar), the Catholic church was destroyed by a huge bomb dropped by the military junta.
About 150 meters away, the charred remains of a two-story wooden house stand precariously on the verge of collapse. This was once the home of Father Paul Than, a priest targeted for assassination by the Burmese junta. On the same day the church was destroyed, the Burma Army scored a direct hit on his house. Miraculously, he was neither at home nor at the church when the attack came and he survived.
This was the second time Father Paul Than had cheated death. He was living in the IDP camp because the military government had destroyed his previous home.
Being a Christian—especially a priest—in Burma has become extremely dangerous. Fr Donald Martin Ye Naing Win, of the Mandalay Archdiocese, was brutally stabbed to death on February 14, while serving his parish. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar (CBCM) expressed deep sorrow, recognizing that Fr. Donald Martin Ye Naing Win sacrificed his life in the struggle to end the country’s ongoing violence. This has dramatically intensified since the 2021 military coup.
Burma is a Buddhist-majority country with 135 recognized ethnic groups. Christians make up just 6 percent of the population, with Catholics comprising an even smaller minority—only 1.29 percent of the country’s 54.6 million people. The Catholic community is largely concentrated among the Karenni, the only Catholic-majority ethnic group in Burma. The Karenni are one of the country’s smallest ethnic minorities, numbering around 400,000.
The Burmese military government believes that Buddhism is a key component of Burmese identity. Because of this, Christians—particularly those from ethnic minorities—are treated as second-class citizens with fewer rights, facing repression and violence. Over the past four years, hundreds of churches have been destroyed nationwide.
The military has deliberately targeted schools, hospitals, and camps for internally displaced people (IDP), as well as Christian churches and even Buddhist temples. While the entire country suffers under the regime’s brutality, Christians—particularly Catholics—have faced especially severe persecution. The fighting, which has engulfed the entire nation, has displaced at least 3.5 million people. Most of the displaced are ethnic minorities who have lost their homes and farms, forcing them to seek refuge in makeshift jungle camps with no external support. Even in hiding, they remain targets of government airstrikes.
Clergy and believers have been killed, and thousands have been imprisoned, including Rev Hkalam Samson, the highest-profile detainee. He was accused of holding a prayer meeting with members of the opposition National Unity Government and charged with “incitement.” A former leader of the Kachin Baptist Convention, Rev Samson had previously prayed at the White House for then-President Trump. In 2023, he was sentenced to six years in prison.
Another Catholic priest, who asked to be identified only by the pseudonym Father Saverio for fear of government reprisals, spent two months in prison. He and another priest were leading a small group of Catholic students on a trip to the city when they were stopped by security forces.
The soldiers checked the phones of Father Saverio and his students and discovered that one student had a photo of a resistance fighter in his gallery. That was enough for the authorities to accuse Father Saverio and the students of supporting the revolution.
“The students were released after a month, the two priests after two months, but one of the students remains in prison to this day,” Father Saverio explained over the phone, speaking from an undisclosed jungle encampment.
After his release, Father Saverio returned to the jungle to minister to the internally displaced people (IDPs). “I feel I'm not secure when I'm in the city,” he said. “The soldiers recorded all my numbers, all my Facebook accounts…”
Father Saverio, along with other priests, has chosen to remain in the jungle. “We are also one of the IDPs, and we are helping. We are staying here, going through the same situation as them,” he explained.
“I have contact with the bishop, and I already told him that I’m here, in the village. He agreed and encouraged it.”
Catholic priests and nuns in Myanmar walk a thin and dangerous line. Urged by their faith to help the displaced, they risk being accused of supporting the resistance. This is exactly what happened to Father Paul Than, who, after the coup, found himself caring for over 600 IDPs who had come to him for help. This became the pretext for the government’s repeated attempts to assassinate him.
Burmese government social media not only accused Father Paul Than of supporting the revolution but also claimed he had personally founded the Karenni National Defence Force (KNDF), the primary resistance group in Karenni State. In reality, he was focused on building education programs and support services for displaced families. But once the government discovered his location, they launched an airstrike.
“Nine people died. Seven students from this group, two adults, and a very young child—just two years old. Altogether, nine people passed away,” he said sadly.
Father Paul Than bravely accepted the first assassination attempt as a sign that he was doing God’s work. But when the second attack killed innocent civilians, he finally agreed to be smuggled out of the country to prevent further attacks on the displaced people he loved so much.
Around the same time, Father Saverio learned that the military junta had marked him for a lengthy prison sentence. Given the opportunity to escape, he chose instead to remain with the IDPs. As a Catholic layperson assisting in the priests’ rescue put it, “They need him, and he wants to stay there with his people and serve them.”
Currently, Father Paul Than is safe outside of Myanmar, where he continues to say Mass for diaspora communities and refugees. For many, his arrival is an answered prayer—he can offer Mass in their native tongue and administer the sacraments, including the Eucharist and confession, to those who have lost everything: their homes, their possessions, and, in many cases, their families.
Meanwhile, Father Saverio remains in the jungle, tending to his flock. Both priests, targeted by the junta, have demonstrated profound courage and faith, turning adversity into service and continuing to aid those who need them most.
The dangers they face reflect a broader pattern of religious persecution in Myanmar. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) publishes an Annual Report assessing religious freedom worldwide. In its 2024 report, USCIRF recommended that the US Department of State redesignate Myanmar as a "Country of Particular Concern" (CPC) due to its ongoing, systematic, and egregious violations of religious freedom.
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Antonio Graceffo, PhD, China-MBA MBA, is a China economic analyst teaching economics at the American University in Mongolia. He has spent 20 years in Asia and is the author of six books about China. His writing has appeared in The Diplomat, South China Morning Post, Jamestown Foundation China Brief, Penthouse, Shanghai Institute of American Studies, Epoch Times, War on the Rocks, Just the News, and Black Belt Magazine.
Image credit: Father Paul Than and his home after it was bombed by the Myanmar military / author supplied.
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