Francis calls for peace without saying ‘Rohingya’
PAPAL VISIT /
NAYPYITAW, Myanmar — Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has constantly used his pulpit to champion the downtrodden and draw attention to the misery of the powerless and the persecuted.
He risked the fury of Turkey by describing the mass killings of Armenians in World War I as a genocide. He apologized for the silence of church leaders in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. And three months ago, he decried “the persecution of our Rohingya brothers,” referring to the Muslim minority that has suffered a systematic campaign of murder, rape and arson by Myanmar’s military.
On Tuesday, Francis had a singular opportunity to advocate for the Rohingya as he stood next to Myanmar’s de facto leader and in front of a hall full of military officials, prelates and diplomats in this capital.
But Francis studiously avoided using the name of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority or directly addressing their situation, after church leaders advised him that doing so would only aggravate the situation and put the country’s tiny Catholic population at risk.
“The future of Myanmar must be peace, a peace based on respect for the dignity and rights of each member of society, respect for each ethnic group and its identity,” the pope said as he stood next to Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate whose own reputation has suffered for failing to speak out against the killings. Francis said that respect for rule of law and the democratic order “enables each individual and every group — none excluded — to offer its legitimate contribution to the common good.”
“Rohingya” is a highly polarized term in Myanmar, and the pope’s own advisers had warned him that using it during his visit could antagonize the military, embolden hard-line Buddhists and even make the situation worse for the Rohingya.
But critics worried that Francis’ caution in public, while perhaps prudent, risked diminishing his reputation as the world’s megaphone against injustice.