Pope to meet Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
DHAKA (AP) — Pope Francis ordained 16 priests during a mass in Bangladesh yesterday, the start of a busy day that will bring him face-to-face with Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar and the reality of Islamic extremism in South Asia.
An estimated 100,000 people gathered yesterday in a Dhaka park for the service, which mirrored the ordination mass St. John Paul II celebrated when he visited Bangladesh in 1986.
Later yesterday, Francis hosted an interfaith peace prayer alongside Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and other Christian leaders in the garden of the archbishop’s residence. Francis has frequently used such events to demand that religion must never be used to justify violence — a message that will likely resonate in Bangladesh, which has experienced a series of attacks blamed on Muslim militants in recent years.
The Vatican said 18 Rohingya refugees from camps in Cox’s Bazar would be on hand at the event to greet the pope.
Upon his arrival in Dhaka on Thursday, Francis demanded the international community intervene to resolve the Rohingya crisis, which has seen more than 620,000 refugees flee Myanmar’s Rakhine state for Bangladesh in what the UN says is a textbook case of “ethnic cleansing.”
Francis, who had refrained from publicly raising the crisis while in Myanmar out of diplomatic deference to his hosts, didn’t identify the Rohingya by name, ethnicity or faith in his welcome speech alongside Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid. He referred only to “refugees from Rakhine state.” But his words were sharp.
“None of us can fail to be aware of the gravity of the situation, the immense toll of human suffering involved, and the precarious living conditions of so many of our brothers and sisters, a majority of whom are women and children, crowded in the refugee camps,” he said.