by Lawrence

On the feast of Pentecost, in Yangon Cardinal Bo announced new services, bringing the number of languages ​​spoken by the Catholic station to 12 in a country marked by an extraordinary diversity of peoples and cultures, but also by the sad reality of conflict dividing communities. Broadcasting in the Akha language will also be very important for Akha communities living in China, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam.

 

Yangon (AsiaNews) – Last Sunday, the Catholic Church in Myanmar inaugurated two new radio services in indigenous languages ​​on Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), the Akha Service and the Kayan Service, a significant expansion in the Church's multilingual media mission to ethnic minority communities across Myanmar and in several neighbouring countries.

The local Church described the event as a "blessed and historic day”, bringing the total number of RVA programmes in Myanmar's indigenous languages ​​from 10 to 12, extending the reach of Catholic broadcasting to some of the most geographically and culturally remote communities in mainland Southeast Asia.

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, archbishop of Yangon, announced the inauguration during the solemn Pentecost celebration held at St Mary's Cathedral. In more than two decades as archbishop, Cardinal Bo has consistently championed the cause of Myanmar's ethnic minorities, promoting peace, dialogue, and humanitarian work.

Announcing from the pulpit that the Church now speaks two more Myanmar's indigenous languages ​​is consistent with the pastoral vision he has pursued throughout his episcopal ministry, centred on the idea that the Gospel must reach people where they are, in the language closest to their hearts.

A Voice for the Akha people in five countries

RVA’s new Akha Service was conceived from the outset as a cross-border ministry. Some 226,000 Akha people will benefit from the service in Myanmar alone, but its ambition goes beyond that since the service will also reach approximately 259,000 Akha in China, 80,000 in Thailand, 113,000 in Laos, and between 13,000 and 25,000 in Vietnam – communities scattered across national borders but united by language, culture, and, in many cases, faith.

The Diocese of Kengtung, in eastern Myanmar, provides the immediate ecclesial context for the Akha Service. The diocese is home to approximately 73,000 Catholics, most of whom are ethnic Akha, a community that has long been one of the most vibrant centres of Catholic life in Myanmar's mountainous border regions, but whose language has until now lacked a dedicated platform on Radio Veritas.

Kayan Service: A community shaped by faith

RVA’s Kayan Service serves a smaller but deeply Catholic population. Approximately 250,000 Kayan people live in Myanmar, with another 2,900 in Mae Hong Son Province, in northwest Thailand.

About 60 per cent of the Kayan population is Catholic, a remarkably high proportion, with the majority of the faithful concentrated in the dioceses of Phekon, Loikaw, Taungoo, and the Archdiocese of Taunggyi.

For this community, the launch of a dedicated service in the Kayan language is not simply a media development. It is the recognition that this people – whose identity has often been reduced in the outside world to the iconic image of "long-necked" women of border regions – possesses a living faith, a native language, and a spiritual life that deserve to be nurtured in their own language.

Twelve languages, eight areas of ministry

The two new services bring Radio Veritas’s language list in Myanmar to 12. The original 10 covered the Burmese, S'gaw Karen, Pwo Karen, Kachin Jinghpaw, Kachin Lisu, Kachin Rawang, Hakha Chin, Falam Chin, Tedim Chin, and Mindat Chin communities, a list that already reflected the extraordinary linguistic diversity of the Catholic Church in the country.

Each of the 12 language programmes now offers content in eight defined thematic areas: daily reflection on Scripture, Sunday homily, national and international church news, lives of saints and role models, programmes for youth and families, papal messages, environmental issues, and what the Church describes as the "triple dialogue”, i.e. the ongoing conversation between Christians, people of other faiths, and the wider world.

Alongside these thematic pillars, each service maintains the daily 30-minute radio broadcast that has been RVA’s founding heritage since its inception, now complemented by short video content and English-language news bulletins designed to connect local communities with the universal Catholic Church.

Broadcasting as a mission in a fragmented country

The significance of RVA’s expansion in Myanmar cannot be separated from the country's current reality. Years of armed conflict have severed physical connections between communities, displaced populations across ethnic ancestral lands, and made conventional pastoral work increasingly dangerous or impossible in many areas.

In this context, radio and digital media have become not supplementary tools of evangelisation but primary ones – often the only means by which isolated Catholic communities can maintain contact with the Church, receive the Word in the sacraments, and feel that they have not been forgotten.

The Church's commitment to broadcasting in 12 indigenous languages ​​is, in this perspective, more than a pastoral strategy. It is a form of witness – a statement that every ethnic community, no matter how small or remote, bears a dignity to which the Gospel addresses itself by name, in their own language, and on their own terms.

The official announcement described the expanded mission of Radio Veritas in terms that directly capture this spirit: the 12 language programmes, operating across radio, video, and digital platforms, are called to “guide and support the hearts of those in need with God's Word and the spirit of evangelisation,” and to strengthen the spiritual, psychological, and physical resilience of communities living in conditions that test the faith of any people.

• myanmar
• radio veritas
• new programmes
• indigenous languages
• akha
• kayan
• outreach