"If an international figure is desperately and rightly needed to help resolve the crisis [in Myanmar], which has resulted in 600,000 Rohingya Muslims distressingly fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh, that person is possibly Pope Francis."
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Pope Francis is now in Myanmar where he is making what is widely seen as the most challenging foreign visit of his papacy. Yet, it’s probably what this Southeast Asian nation needs most in order to overcome the great turmoil and challenges it is currently facing.
Over the past few months, Rohingya Muslims in the Southeast Asian country’s Rakhine state have suffered what United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and Amnesty International described as “crimes against humanity. Francis himself expressed his sadness about “the persecution of our Rohingya brothers and sisters".
In contrast, for many people in the predominantly Buddhist state, especially its powerful military, there exist no such ethnic cleansing, crimes or persecution of the Muslim Rohingya. They even regard the word “Rohingya” as taboo. Because of this, ahead of his three-day tour, Pope Francis has been advised not to utter it when staying in the country, which is still referred to by some as Burma.
That’s the dilemma facing the pope. If he doesn’t publicly raise the plight of the Rohingya, his moral authority as the defender of the poor and oppressed could be jeopardised. If he does, he could put the minority Christians in danger, including the 700,000 Catholics who he comes to support. It’s why Fr Thomas Reese, a prominent fellow Jesuit, said he shouldn’t risk going to Myanmar at this time.
Nevertheless, if an international figure is desperately and rightly needed to help resolve the crisis, which has resulted in 600,000 Rohingya Muslims distressingly fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh, that person is possibly Pope Francis.
Indeed, the 80-year-old has and represents all that is essential for to addressing this sensitive, complex and deep-rooted crisis. In addition to his well-known personal virtues, such as kindness, gentleness, and attentiveness, the Holy Father goes to Myanmar with a Christian message of “reconciliation, forgiveness, and peace” and “in a spirit of respect and encouragement".
With all of this, the spiritual head of 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide could help the multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation to tackle not only the Rohingya crisis but also many other challenges.
For Fr Reese, a member of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, “Myanmar is a mess". In many respects, this is true.
In a recent interview, Charles Maung Bo, the country’s first and only cardinal, said, the once richest nation in Southeast Asia was “wounded and bruised by six decades of inhuman dark nights of dictatorship”.
He added that even though such dictatorship “has lessened”, it has “not yet fully ended".
But on the positive side, Myanmar has witnessed some notable changes. The country of 53-million people now has an elected parliament, a freer society, and a more independent press, all of which was almost unthinkable a few years ago.
Pope Francis’ outing – the first by any pope and his own first trip to a country with a Buddhist majority – is another positive indicator. Cardinal Bo himself said he had never thought a papal visit would happen in his lifetime.
Against this backdrop, as stressed by the Archbishop of Yangon (also known as Rangoon), the visit is eagerly awaited. It could give the country a moral boost, enabling it to fully overcome oppression, division, and animosity and embrace democracy, peace, and justice.
For Myanmar’s Catholics, their eagerness to welcome the Bishop of Rome on their own soil for the first time is understandable. This is not only because they are a very small minority community but also because many of their regional peers haven’t yet had such a chance.
For instance, Catholics in Vietnam still wonder whether they’ll receive Pope Francis or even any of his successors on their land in the years or decades to come.
The communist-run country has a significant Catholic population (currently about 6 million and roughly 7 percent of its population) and its ties with the Vatican have considerably improved. Many of its top leaders, including the party chief, state president and prime minister, have already visited the Holy See in recent years.
Still, the prospect of Vietnam’s normalization of ties with the Vatican or a papal visit to the country remains distant.
Pope - and now Saint - John Paul II, who canonized 117 Vietnamese martyrs in 1988 and chose a Vietnamese priest to be one of his two secretaries, expressed his desire to visit the country. But, the Polish-born Pope, who traveled to 129 territories/countries during his 27-year papacy and died in 2005, could not realize his wish.
Had the Vietnamese government officially invited Benedict XVI to the country, the now-retired pope could have visited the 90-million-strong population in 2010 or 2011. The Catholic Church in Vietnam then marked the 350th anniversary of the creation of its first two dioceses and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of its Church hierarchy.
Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has paid a special attention to Asia. He already toured three Asian countries, namely South Korea in 2014, Sri Lanka and the Philippines in 2015, and now Myanmar and Bangladesh. He would surely love a journey to Vietnam, should the communist leadership in Hanoi extend an invitation.
While a papal trip to Vietnam remains distant, a similar visit to China, another communist state, is even more so. The Argentine pope has already expressed his warm feelings toward the world’s most populous country and the Vatican has made significant efforts to revive ties with Beijing, which have been estranged since 1951.
Yet, these attempts at a rapprochement haven’t yet produced any breakthroughs as both sides remain at odds on many key issues, such as the appointment of bishops.
Seen from such a regional perspective, Pope Francis’ trip to Myanmar is a very encouraging development. It is indicative of positive changes in both Myanmar’s politics and the relationship between the Holy See and Buddhist-dominated nation.
The two sides established diplomatic ties in May when Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, made a trip to the Vatican.
