VATICAN CORNER
On November 27, 2017, Pope Francis took his 21st trip outside Italy and flew 10 hour to Southeast Asia to visit Myanmar (also known as Burma) and then to Bangladesh 3 days later. This trip replaced his visit to India which fell through. Myanmar is bordered by India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos and China and of its 51 million people, only 700,000 or 1.3% of the population are Roman Catholic. It is ethnically diverse with 135 different ethnic groups recognized, four major language families, and with 80% to 89% of the population practicing Buddhism. The Christian and Muslim populations face religious persecution and the Rohingya Muslims that did comprise 4 percent of the population, have mostly fled to neighboring Bangladesh in the last 3 months after a barbarous military campaign backed by Buddhist nationalist. Arson, systematic rape and mass murder have driven 623,000 Rohingya out of the country and the international community is calling it a campaign of ethnic cleansing. The Pope’s trip was meant in part to celebrate the new diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Myanmar established when Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s, the government’s civilian leader visited the Vatican in May. She is a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was under house arrest for a total of 15 years while the military ran things, until the 2015 elections. The Senior General Min Aung Hlaing runs the military and has ambitions of running the country. The constitution written by the military puts the armed forces out of Ms. Kyi’s control. She has failed to confront the military crackdown on the Rohingya, but the Catholic leaders in Myanmar think that she is possibly the country’s last and best chance towards democracy and protection of civil rights. They urged Francis to give her the benefit of the doubt and lend her his support, given her delicate relationship with the generals who were once her jailers. The Pope’s trip was also aimed at sowing peace and hope in a land full of conflict. The Pope preached harmony between the Buddhists and Muslims. He carefully maneuvered around egos and agendas with his talks while still trying to maintain his moral authority. He was advised by the local Catholic leadership not to even utter the word Rohingya, for fear of aggravating the situation or endangering the local Catholics by se-ng off a diplomatic incident. The Catholic community had been eagerly anticipating the visit, but they were also fearful that the Pope’s remarks could spark nationalist anger towards them. Thousands of the local Roman Catholic travelled from far and wide to see the Pope, and 150,000 people attended mass. Later in Bangladeshi, Pope Francis met with Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and told them that God’s presence was within them and they should be respected. He said later “I was crying and tried to hide it,” when the refugees told of their ordeals to him.
Sources: nytimes.com, abc.net.au, pbs.org, reuters.com, news.va, cnn.com