The canonization to sainthood of a Burmese religious teacher slain for his faith nearly 65 years ago is sustaining the Catholic Church in Myanmar as it celebrates 50 years in the country.

Myanmar's Roman Catholic Church is stepping up calls for peace and religious tolerance during its celebrations Agence France-Presse reports.

The brutal 1950 killing of Isidore Ngei Ko Lat, a religious teacher travelling with an Italian priest in the war-ravaged eastern borderlands, had slipped into obscurity after decades of military rule.

Under the military religious minorities in the mainly Buddhist country were severely restricted, AFP reported on December 26.

Of Myanmar's 51.4 million people, 89 percent of them are Buddhists, 4 percent Muslims and the same percentage are Christians. One percent of the southeast Asian nation's people, or a quarter of the Christians, are Catholics.

"It is a small Church but active and dynamic consciously prepared to respond to the changing Myanmar," says the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar on its webiste.

"Despite persecution, Catholic missionaries and the local Church in the country have worked to promote dignity and human rights in Myanmar, promoting peace, social reconciliation and interreligious dialogue," the website notes.

CANONIZATION OF ISIDORE

The canonization of Isidore in May has given the Catholic Church a lift during its celebration of 500 years in the country, an event delayed by four years due to religious freedom curbs under the former junta.

"We are very encouraged because we have the saint, the first saint officially beatified from Myanmar," said Father Celso, a parish priest from the Kayah state capital Loikaw, near where Isidore and his colleague Father Mario Vergara died, AFP reported.

The pair had walked into a dispute with Baptist ethnic minority rebels in a remote area where they had started recruiting Catholics in Myanmar, which is also called Burma.

Having accepted government help to travel in the region, they were seen as allies of the State by the insurgents, who starting what was to become the world's longest-running civil war.

The missionaries were marched into the jungle and shot. Their bodies were hidden in sacks, flung into the Salween river and never seen again.

"That time of conflict was not the time to take things slowly and build understanding," Father Celso said in the sun-drenched grounds of Loikaw's imposing cathedral, AFP reported.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide says on its website, "This is a crucial time in Burma's history with signs of possible change in one of the world's most brutal regimes.

Celso said the missionaries were "competing for the faith" of local people, many of whom were animists or had already converted to Baptism. But the Christian traditions had since then put aside their differences.

Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948 which was followed by decades of civil conflict in border areas. From 1962 until 2011 the armed forces ruled Myanmar with minorities complaining of abuses, discrimination and religious persecution.

In its website, CSW says it welcomed "the recent release of over 600 political prisoners and the ceasefires signed recently as steps closer towards change, but there is still further to go and we encourage President Thein Sein to continue along this path and establish genuine peace and freedom in the country."

Successive military regimes enacted "particular discrimination against non-Buddhist religious minorities - Muslims and Christians," AFP quoted Benedict Rogers of Christian Solidarity Worldwide saying.

A quasi-civilian regime has opened the country to the world in the past four years, with reforms including easing of media censorship and allowing Aung San Suu Kyi and her opposition party to enter parliament.

"If Burma is to be truly free, peaceful and prosperous, the rights of all ethnicities and religious faiths must be protected," said Charles Bo, the Archbishop of Yangon, in a Washington Post article in June.

"A movement that has grown in volume and influence threatens this: extreme Buddhist nationalism."

Changes have made it easier for the Church to speak out against ongoing conflict in the northern Christian-majority Kachin state between the army and ethnic rebels, which has displaced some 100,000 people.

Senior church leaders have also denounced religious intolerance and outbreaks of mob violence against minority Muslims that have left around 200 people dead since 2012.

"If Burma is to be truly free, peaceful and prosperous, the rights of all ethnicities and religious faiths must be protected," said Charles Bo, the Archbishop of Yangon, in a Washington Post article in June.

"A movement that has grown in volume and influence threatens this: extreme Buddhist nationalism."