Pope preaches forgiveness in first public Mass at Myanmar

Refers in his homily to the suffering the country’s ethnic and religious minorities have endured

November 29, 2017 01:12 pm | Updated December 01, 2021 06:39 am IST - YANGON:

 Pope Francis drives through the crowds in Kyaikkasan sports stadium to greet the thousands of people who had gathered for the public Mass on November 29, 2017 in Yangon, Myanmar. Many Catholics had travelled from throughout Myanmar and neighbouring countries to catch a glimpse of the Pope.

Pope Francis drives through the crowds in Kyaikkasan sports stadium to greet the thousands of people who had gathered for the public Mass on November 29, 2017 in Yangon, Myanmar. Many Catholics had travelled from throughout Myanmar and neighbouring countries to catch a glimpse of the Pope.

Pope Francis urged Myanmar’s long-suffering people to resist the temptation to exact revenge for the hurt they have endured, preaching a message of forgiveness on Wednesday to a huge crowd in his first public Mass in the predominantly Buddhist nation.

Local authorities estimated some 1,50,000 people turned out at Yangon’s Kyaikkasan Ground park for the Mass, but the crowd seemed far larger.

Catholics had to apply to attend through their local churches to enter the park venue, and many dressed in matching outfits or with hats bearing the pope’s image.

Before Mass, the pontiff looped around the park in his open- sided popemobile, waving to the crowds that continued to pour in as the service began. Local government officials and senior members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party were on hand, as were members of Myanmar’s mostly Christian Kachin minority, wearing traditional dress.

Seeking to minister to community

Pope Francis has said his aim in coming to Myanmar is to minister to its Catholic community, which numbers around 660,000 people, or just over 1 per cent of the population of about 52 million.

His trip has been overshadowed, though, by Myanmar’s military operations targeting the Rohingya Muslim minority in northern Rakhine state.

The crackdown, which has been described by the United Nations as a campaign of “textbook ethnic cleansing,” has drawn international condemnation.

In his first public comments on Tuesday, the Pope told Ms. Suu Kyi and other government authorities that Myanmar’s future lay in respecting the rights of all its people — “none excluded” — but he refrained from mentioning the “Rohingya” by name.

Tacit allusion to Rohingya

The violence, looting and burning of Rohingya Muslim villages have resulted in more than 620,000 people fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh in Asia’s worst refugee crisis in decades.

In his homily on Wednesday, the pontiff referred to the suffering that Myanmar’s ethnic and religious minorities have endured, a reference to the decades of conflicts between Myanmar’s ethnic minorities and the military that continue today in parts of the country.

Myanmar recently emerged from nearly a half-century of military dictatorship, but minorities including the Kachins are still subject to discrimination and other forms of violence.

“I know that many in Myanmar bear the wounds of violence, wounds both visible and invisible,” Pope Francis told the crowd in Italian that was translated into Burmese. While the temptation is to respond with revenge, Francis urged instead a response of “forgiveness and compassion.”

'Not the way of Jesus'

“The way of revenge is not the way of Jesus,” he said, speaking from an altar erected on a traditional Buddhist-style stage.

Later on Wednesday, the pontiff is to meet with Myanmar’s Buddhist leadership and then speak to the country’s Catholic bishops.

He celebrates a Mass for young people on Thursday and then heads to Bangladesh for the second leg of his South Asian tour.

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.