YANGON: Pope Francis on Wednesday urged Myanmar’s top Buddhist monks to reconcile people of different ethnicities and religions as their country emerges from nearly five decades of military rule still riven by ethnic conflicts and communal strife.
That echoed a call for peace he made at a Mass earlier on the third day of a visit fraught with diplomatic risk over a military crackdown that has triggered the flight of about 625,000 Muslim Rohingya from the country.
Visiting the Supreme Sangha Council of Buddhist monks in Yangon, the pope and his entourage of cardinals and bishops were ushered to an ornate chandeliered and carpeted room of gold and wood carvings with a white statue of Buddha at one end, taking off their shoes at the entrance.
In his address there, Francis called for “a common witness by religious leaders” and lamented that the “wounds of conflict, poverty and oppression persist” in many places.
The meeting, he said, was an opportunity for Buddhists and the tiny Catholic community “to affirm a commitment to peace, respect for human dignity and justice for every man and woman”.
“If we are to be united, as is our purpose, we need to surmount all forms of misunderstanding, intolerance, prejudice and hatred,” he said.
Bhaddanta Kumarabhivamsa, leader of the government-appointed Buddhist council, told Francis that all religions had the goals of peace and love, and terrorism arose from a lack of belief.
“It is so sad to see terrorism and extremism happening in the name of religion in the world nowadays,” he said.
Only about 700,000 of Myanmar’s 51 million people are Roman Catholic. Thousands travelled from far and wide to see Francis, and many attended Wednesday’s open-air Mass on the grounds of what was a racecourse in the Rangoon of British colonial times.
Among the tens of thousands were priests, nuns, diplomats, leaders of Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy, and members of ethnic groups in traditional garb who sang and waved Myanmar and Vatican flags as they waited for the pope.
In his homily, he called for reconciliation and peace.
“I know that many in Myanmar bear the wounds of violence, wounds both visible and invisible,” he said, urging them to shun temptation to seek healing from anger and revenge.
Prayers were then read by members of the congregation in the Shan, Chin, Karen, Kachin and Kayan languages.
When she came to power in 2016, Nobel peace laureate and longtime champion of democracy Suu Kyi said her top priority was ending multiple ethnic conflicts that have kept Myanmar in a state of near-perpetual civil war since independence in 1948.
That goal remains elusive and, although Suu Kyi remains popular at home, she has faced a barrage of international criticism recently for expressing doubts about reports of rights abuses against Rohingya and failing to condemn the military. — Reuters
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