■ Pope Francis defended his decision not to mention the Rohingya while in Myanmar.

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE — Pope Francis on Saturday defended his silence in Myanmar over the plight of Rohingya refugees, saying a public denunciation would have “slammed the door in the face” of his hosts and prevented his message from being heard.

Francis said he chose instead to speak in general terms about human rights in public so that he could engage more frankly in private about what the U.N. has said is a textbook campaign of ethnic cleansing against Myanmar’s Muslim minority.

Speaking to reporters en route home from Myanmar and Bangladesh, Francis said he was “very, very satisfied” that his message had been received in his private meetings with Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar’s powerful military chief, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.

Human rights groups and Rohingya themselves had expressed disappointment that Francis had declined to even refer to the Rohingya by name, much less call out Myanmar’s military for sparking Asia’s worst refugee crisis in decades. Francis waited until he arrived in neighboring Bangladesh to demand that the international community intervene to resolve the crisis and help Bangladesh cope with the influx of more than 620,000 refugees fleeing a military crackdown in Rakhine state.

Francis finally uttered the word “Rohingya” at an emotional encounter Friday with a group of refugees who travelled from camps in Cox’s Bazar to Dhaka.

Francis also confessed that he wept during his encounter with Rohingya refugees on Friday.

Andrew Medichini The Associated Press Pope Francis kisses a child Saturday as he meets with patients and staffers at the Mother Teresa House in Dhaka, Bangladesh.