Cardinal Charles Bo calls for “fasting from anger" in his lenten appeal as protests against the military coup in Myanmar intensify.

Pope Francis held a moment of silent prayer for Myanmar (Burma) during his Angelus address on Sunday, expressing his “spiritual closeness," along with "prayers" and "solidarity” with the people of the country.

In a statement issued Friday, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar asked Catholics -- a tiny minority in the mostly Buddhist nation of 53 million -- to participate in an hour of adoration while keeping a fast. 

Nobel peace laureate and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who currently serves as State Counsellor, is among the elected officials detained, reportedly under house arrest. Soldiers took Suu Kyi into custody along with Myanmar’s president, Win Myint, and other leaders the National League for Democracy party (NLD), who won a landslide victory in elections last November. Official military channels allege election fraud as their reason for seizing power, now in the hands of Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the army’s senior commander, who has declared a one-year state of emergency.