Yangon (AFP) - Thousands of Myanmar Catholics marked 500 years of the Church's presence inside the country in a lively celebration at a Yangon cathedral held four years late because of religious restrictions under the former junta.
Believers, many wearing colourful traditional dress from ethnic minorities across the diverse Southeast Asian nation, released balloons and sang hymns in the first of three days of parades and services that show a resurgence in confidence for Catholicism after reforms under a quasi-civilian regime.