The Jesuit Mission in Myanmar welcomed Father Stephen Martay as its fourth local priest on February 24, with 50 priests attending the ordination Mass.He was ordained at St. Teresa parish in Tan-nan-U-kwe in Dimoso, Kayah State on the same day as the parish feted its Golden Jubilee with a three-day celebration, according to the Jesuit Asia Pacific Conference. "People prayed together around me. It was a very touching moment," he said. "My friends and relatives came from far away."A special monument set up to mark the mission’s 50th anniversary was blessed on the previous day by Bishop Stephen Tjephe of Loikaw.

On the second day of the festival on February 25. a morning Mass was held in honor of Father Martay.Later that day local villagers greeted their new priest with a procession and traditional music as they led him to their church, the walk peppered with salutary gunfire.On Feb. 26, he celebrated his first Mass on the grounds of the village chapel of Our Lady of Rosary.He is now visiting six villages in Dimoso until the middle of March to see people from the Kapu sub-tribe of the Kayan ethnic group.After that he will return to Bhamo to serve as the assistant parish priest in St. Michael’s parish, where he has already spent several months as a deacon.Father Martay studied philosophy in Manila and theology at the Gregorian University in Rome before returning to Myanmar for his regency.