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Yangon, Burma, Nov 28, 2017 / 04:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a major speech in Burma, Pope Francis told the nation’s leaders to leave conflict behind and work for peace by promoting justice and respect for the rights of all citizens, regardless of religion or ethnicity.

“The arduous process of peace-building and national reconciliation can only advance through a commitment to justice and respect for human rights,” the Pope told Burmese civil authorities Nov. 28.

Speaking from the capital of Yangon on the first full day of a six-day visit to Burma and Bangladesh, Francis noted how justice is historically understood as “a steadfast will to give each person his due,” and is often viewed as “the basis of all true and lasting peace.”

This understanding is what, after the experience of two world wars, led to the formation of the United Nations and their subsequent declaration on human rights as the foundation for global efforts to promote justice, peace and human development, and to resolve conflict through dialogue, “not the use of force.”

With a past marred by internal conflict and a present filled with ongoing political tensions, Pope Francis said the future of Burma “must be peace.” This peace, he said, must be “based on respect for the dignity and rights of each member of society,” as well as respect “for each ethnic group and its identity.”

It must also be founded on a keen respect “for the rule of law, and respect for a democratic order that enables each individual and every group – none excluded – to offer its legitimate contribution to the common good.”

Pope Francis landed in Yangon Nov. 27 for the first phase of his third tour of Asia, which will take him to both Burma – also called Myanmar – and Bangladesh. He will be in Burma Nov. 27-30, and will visit two cities before moving on to Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he will stay Nov. 30-Dec. 2.

His visit to Burma, in particular, is significant not only because the country has a small Christian minority, but also due to a contentious political situation that has roots in both a recent regime change and an ongoing crisis over their minority Rohingya Muslim population.

Francis’ visit comes amid a spike in state-supported violence against the Rohingya, the largely Muslim ethnic group who reside in Burma’s Rakhine State. The staggering scope of the crisis has prompted the U.N. to declare the situation “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

The Burmese government refuses to recognize the Rohingya, and considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They have been denied citizenship since Burma gained independence in 1948.

Facing heightened persecution in their home country, many Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, with millions camping along the border as refugees. More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled Burma for Bangladesh in the past few months alone.

The Pope’s visit also falls as Burmese officials continue to work out a recent transition to democracy after more than 50 years of military dictatorship, which began to come unhinged as democratic reforms started taking root in 2011.

In November 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi, who belongs to the National League for Democracy, was elected by an overwhelming majority, putting an end to military rule.

However, despite the win, she is still barred from officially becoming president, and holds the title of “State Counsellor” and Foreign Minister, while a close associate is acting as president. The military also still wields considerable political authority, including the appointment of cabinet ministers, and one-quarter of the nation’s legislature, making the ongoing transition rocky.

In his speech to Aung San Suu Kyi, civil authorities and the diplomatic corps in Burma, Pope Francis praised the efforts of all those working to build “a just, reconciled and inclusive social order” in the country.

While Burma is known for its beauty and natural resources, the nation’s greatest treasure are its people, he said, noting that they have suffered and continue to suffer from civil hostilities “that have lasted all too long and created deep divisions.”

“As the nation now works to restore peace, the healing of those wounds must be a paramount political and spiritual priority,” he said.

To this end, Francis said the country’s various religious traditions and its youth will have key roles to play in working toward national reconciliation and building a better, more just future.

Religious differences in Burma, a majority Buddhist country, “need not be a source of division and distrust, but rather a force for unity, forgiveness, tolerance and wise nation-building,” he said, adding that religions can play an important role in healing the emotional, spiritual and psychological wounds of years of unrest.

“They can help to uproot the causes of conflict, build bridges of dialogue, seek justice and be a prophetic voice for all who suffer,” he said, and pointed to current joint efforts among religions to work together in peace efforts through education, assistance to the poor and in promoting human values.

By seeking to build a culture of encounter and solidarity, religions contribute to the common good and lay “the indispensable moral foundations for a future of hope and prosperity for coming generations.”

Youth also have an essential role to play, the Pope said, calling them “a gift to be cherished and encouraged, an investment that will yield a rich return if only they are given real opportunities for employment and quality education.”

This attention to youth is “an urgent requirement of inter-generational justice,” he said, noting that the future of the nation is changing at an increasing pace.

Given these rapid changes, youth will need to be trained not only in the technical field, but also in “the ethical values of honesty, integrity and human solidarity that can ensure the consolidation of democracy and the growth of unity and peace at every level of society,” he said.

Future generations must also be guaranteed that the natural environment and beauty Burma enjoys is “unspoilt by human greed and depredation,” he said, and stressed the importance of not allowing youth to be “robbed of hope and of the chance to employ their idealism and talents in shaping the future of their country and, indeed, our entire human family.”

Pope Francis closed his speech encouraging fellow Catholics in the country to persevere in faith and to continue spreading a message of “reconciliation and brotherhood” through both charitable and humanitarian works.

“It is my hope that, in respectful cooperation with the followers of other religions, and all men and women of good will, they will help to open a new era of concord and progress for the people of this beloved nation,” he said.

Thanking his audience for their attention and service to the common good, he said “long live Myanmar!” and asked God to bless its leaders with “wisdom, strength and peace.”

In a speech to Pope Francis, Aung San Suu Kyi told the Pope that “you bring us strength and hope in your understanding of our need, our longing, for peace, national reconciliation and social harmony.”

She said his words on justice resonate, and serve as a “reminder that in our quest for peace we must be guided by the wisdom and aspirations of our fathers.”

Burma currently faces various challenges, Suu Kyi said, noting how the country is made up of people from various ethnic and religious backgrounds.

“It is the aim of our Government to bring out the beauty of our diversity and to make it our strength, by protecting rights, fostering tolerance, ensuring security for all,” she said, adding that the road to peace is not always smooth, but is the only way to ensure the people of a “just and prosperous land.”

Among the greatest of the challenges the nation faces is the refugee crisis involving Rohingya Muslims from Burma’s Rakhine State, she said, adding that the Pope’s “compassion and encouragement” for the situation “will be treasured” as the country seeks to address the longstanding social, economic and political issues that have “eroded” trust, understanding and cooperation between different communities in the area.

Suu Kyi closed her speech saying the Pope’s blessing will be shared by everyone in Burma as they seek to spread “goodwill and joy” throughout the nation.

The nation’s leaders “will strive to discharge our duties with probity and humility,” she said, adding, “we wish to leave to the future a people united and at peace, secure in their capacity to grow and prosper in a changing world; a compassionate and generous people, always ready to hold out a helping hand to those in need; a people strong in skills and whole in spirit.”

“The road ahead is long,” she said, “but we will walk it with confidence, trusting in the power of peace, love and joy.”

 

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Yangon, Burma, Nov 28, 2017 / 03:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In an impromptu meeting on Tuesday morning, Pope Francis urged religious leaders in Burma to work toward peace, each according to the gifts and traditions of their faith.

“Each one of you has their values, their wealth, and also their shortcomings. And each confession has its richness, its tradition, its wealth to give. And this can only be if we live in peace,” the Pope said Nov. 28.

Peace itself is built “in the chorus of differences,” he said.

On the morning of the first full day of his visit to Burma – also known as Myanmar – Nov. 27-30, Pope Francis met with religious leaders at the residence of Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, in what was an unscheduled meeting.

The meeting included 17 interreligious leaders from the Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Anglican, Baptist and Catholic faiths. After a short introduction from Catholic bishop John Hsane Hgyi, a leader from each faith gave a short speech, followed by the off-the-cuff address of Pope Francis.

The Pope’s visit comes amid an uptick in state-supported violence against the Rohingya, a largely Muslim ethnic group who reside in Burma’s Rakhine State. In recent months, the violence has reached staggering levels, causing the United Nations to declare the situation “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

In May, a senior United Nations envoy warned that the country was failing to stop the spread of religious violence.

In his discourse, Francis said that when the leaders were speaking, it brought to his mind a prayer from the Book of Psalms that says “how beautiful it is to see brothers united.”

He stressed, however, that to be united does not require uniformity, but rather that we must “understand the richness of our ethnic religious and popular differences…and from these differences” create a dialogue.

Pointing to the great geographical and natural wealth of Burma, he said they can learn from each other “as brothers,” in what ways each faith is helping to build the country.

He then thanked the leaders for coming to meet him at the place he was staying, since he was the one who had come to Burma to meet them. He also recited a few verses of the well-known prayer from the Book of Numbers, which he called “an old blessing that includes everyone.”

“May the Lord bless you and protect you. May his face shine upon you and show you his grace. May you discover his face and may he grant you peace,” he prayed.

After the meeting, Pope Francis also met briefly with the Buddhist leader Sitagou Sayadaw before celebrating Mass in private and then continuing on to his meeting with the president.

 

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Yangon, Burma, Nov 27, 2017 / 11:15 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Monday Pope Francis touched down in Yangon for what will likely be a politically charged and religiously significant six-day trip bringing him to both Burma and Bangladesh as the two countries face an escalating refugee crisis.

Pope Francis is in Burma and Bangladesh Nov. 27-Dec. 2, in what is now his third tour of Asia since his election in 2013. It is the first papal visit to Burma, the Holy See having established formal diplomatic relations with the country only last year.

His visit to Bangladesh, however, is the second time a Pope has visited, the first being St. John Paul II in 1986. Bl. Pope Paul VI made a brief stop in the territory in 1970, when it was still East Pakistan.

Throughout his six-day visit, Pope Francis will give 11 speeches total: five in Burma, consisting of three formal speeches and two homilies, and six in Bangladesh, counting five official speeches and one homily.

On the plane ride over, Francis told journalists he hopes it will be a fruitful visit. Here are a few key things for which to keep an eye out as things move forward.

The Pope’s meetings with Burmese civil and military authorities

This trip is one of the most diplomatically complicated international voyages Pope Francis taken so far, so much so that Vatican Spokesman Greg Burke described the trip to journalists as being “very interesting diplomatically” in last week’s briefing on the visit.

Aside from the very small Catholic population in each country, political circumstances in Burma have been precarious for years, as they are in the midst of a transition from military leadership to diplomacy.

The country is also called Myanmar, and while the Vatican uses this name in their official diplomatic correspondence, ‘Myanmar’ is considered by the U.S. government and many democracy activists to have been illegally imposed on the country by its military dictatorship.

Burma functioned as a military dictatorship for more than 50 years, until democratic reforms began taking root in 2011. In November 2015, Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy, were elected by an overwhelming majority, putting an end to a five-decade military dictatorship.

Aung San Suu Kyi and her party had also won the election in 1990, but the results weren’t recognized by the military government, and she was put under house arrest. However, despite her success in 2015, she is still barred from officially becoming president, and holds the title of “State Counsellor” and Foreign Minister, while a close associate is acting as president.

Despite emerging signs of democratic reform in Burma, the military still wields considerable political authority, including the appointment of cabinet ministers, and one-quarter of the nation’s legislature.

A key element of the Pope’s visit to watch for, then, is his formal meetings with both Aung San Suu Kyi Nov. 28, and his meeting with Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces.

The meeting with Min Aung Hlaing wasn’t initially on the Pope’s schedule; however, during a recent visit to Rome Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon recommended that a meeting with the military leader be added.

Pope Francis took the cardinal’s advice and scheduled the meeting for Nov. 30 at the archbishop’s house in Yangon, where he is staying while in Burma. However, the meeting was bumped up, and took place on the first day of Francis’ visit, shortly after he landed.

Lasting a total of 15 minutes, including conversation via interpreters and an exchange of gifts, the private encounter was the Pope’s first official meeting of the trip. Several of Min Aung Hlaing’s deputies were present.

According to Burke, the two spoke of “the great responsibility of the country’s authorities in this moment of transition.”

Min Aung Hlaing said on Twitter that he told Pope Francis, “there’s no religious discrimination” in the country, and “there is the freedom of religion.”

That Francis bumped the trip to the first day of his visit, when nothing else was scheduled, is noteworthy, and will be important to keep in mind as he meets with  Aung San Suu Kyi, the president,  and civil authorities Nov. 28. His words during the meeting are sure to carry a weighty significance.

The term ‘Rohingya’

With this political backdrop in mind, another thing to look out for is whether or not Pope Francis will use the term Rohingya to describe the largely Muslim ethnic group who reside in Burma’s Rakhine State.

His visit comes amid an uptick in state-supported violence against the Rohingya, which in recent months has reached staggering levels, causing the United Nations to declare the situation “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

With an increase in persecution in their home country, many of the Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh, with millions camping along the border as refugees. More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled Burma for Bangladesh in recent months.

However, despite widespread use of the term Rohingya in the international community, the term is controversial within Burma.

The Burmese government refuses to use the term, and considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They have been denied citizenship since Burma gained independence in 1948.

Because of the touchy nature of the term, Cardinal Bo also suggested to the Pope that he refrain from using the word on the ground, arguing that extremists in the area are trying to rouse the population by using the term, making the risk of a new interreligious conflict ever-more present, with Christians in the crossfire.

According to Bo, the correct term to use is “Muslims of the Rakhine State.” He also stressed that other minorities in Burmese territory face persecution and displacement, including the Kachin, Kahn, and Shahn peoples, yet their plight often goes unreported.

Burke said the recent worsening of the humanitarian situation in Burma will be a strong element of the Pope’s visit, and that Francis is coming “at a key time” in this sense.

However, while the situation of the Rohingya has escalated in over the past few months, Burke said it wasn’t the primary reason for the Pope’s visit. “The trip was going to happen anyway,” he said. Recent developments have now “drawn attention to it, but it was going to happen anyway.”

Burke himself used term “Rohingya” to describe the persecuted Muslim minority, saying “it’s not a forbidden term” in the Vatican, and the Pope himself has used it before. But Cardinal Bo made a suggestion that Francis “took into account,” he said, adding, “we’ll see together” whether or not Pope Francis uses the term during his visit.  

Interreligious encounters

Throughout his visit, Pope Francis will have several moments of interreligious encounter, with Rohingya Muslims also participating. Combine this with that fact that Burma is a majority Buddhist country and Bangladesh majority Muslim, and these meetings will be of special interest.

Of importance is a private meeting of interreligious leaders scheduled to take place Nov. 28 at the archbishop’s residence in Yangon, which wasn’t initially on the Pope’s slate, but was also added upon the suggestion of Cardinal Bo.

Though there is not yet a list of who will participate, Bo said around 15 leaders will be present representing Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims, including the likely presence of a member of the Rohingya community.

On the same day Francis will also meet with members of the “Sangha,” the Supreme Council of Buddhist clergy in the country. Catholics in Burma are a small minority, making up just 1.3 percent of a population of nearly 52 million.

Pope Francis will also meet with Rohingya Muslims during a Dec. 1 interreligious encounter in Bangladesh where five testimonies are expected to be given. Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Christians will all be present for the gathering.

In Bangladesh, 86 percent of the population practices Islam. The 375,000 Catholics there represent less than 0.2 of the total population.

Words to the Catholic community

As is by now well-known, Pope Francis has a special affinity for the peripheries. Both Burma and Bangladesh fall into this category ecclesiastically speaking, as well as economically. Bangladesh is among the poorest countries in the world, with nearly 30 percent of the population living under the poverty line.

Francis already boosted the profile of these nations by appointing the first-ever cardinals, giving Cardinal Bo a red hat in 2015, and elevating Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario of Dhaka in November 2016.

With Christians being a small minority in both Burma and Bangladesh, the Pope’s appointments were considered an encouragement for the small Catholic populations, and his visit is seen as a further sign of his closeness to a demographic that also faces discrimination in the area.

Christians in Burma also face blatant persecution, which some fear could increase if the Pope offends the government regarding the Rohingya.

Last year the United States Commission on Religious Freedom issued two separate reports on Burma, one of which focused on the plight of the Rohingya, and the second, titled “Hidden Plight: Christian Minorities in Burma,” highlighted the discrimination and persecution Christians face.

Encounters with youth

The Pope’s visits to both Burma and Bangladesh will be closed with meetings with the countries’ youth.

According to Burke, this was a decision the Pope himself made in order to show that they are an essential part of the Church, and that in each country, it is “a young Church with hope.”

In his meetings with youth, the Pope typically tosses his prepared remarks after listening to testimonies and speaks more freely and casually to the youth as he tries to enter into the raw reality faced by the local population, giving them a message of hope and some instructions for the future.

In messages sent to both countries ahead of his visit, Pope Francis said he was coming to spread the Gospel and to bring a message of peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

Though he will likely offer paternal advice to priests and religious, the meeting with youth is where his more pastoral side is most likely to come out stronger, and where he will likely go beyond the politics in order to offer a message of hope, peace and reconciliation for youth to carry forward into the future.

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