Vatican defends pope after criticism by rights groups
Pontiff taking flak for not using term ‘Rohingya’ in talk.
YANGON, MYANMAR — The Vatican on Wednesday defended Pope Francis after human rights groups expressed disappointment that he didn’t publicly acknowledge the plight of Rohingya Muslims, who have been subject to what the United Nations has termed a campaign of “textbook ethnic cleansing” by Myanmar’s military.
Spokesman Greg Burke said Francis took seriously the advice given to him by the local Catholic Church, which urged him to toe a cautious line and not even refer to the “Rohingya” by name during his trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, since the majority of people in Myanmar reject the term because the ethnic group is not a recognized minority in the country.
“The moral authority of the pope stands,” Burke asserted Wednesday. “You can criticize what’s said, what’s not said, but the pope is not going to lose moral authority on this question here.”
Burke spoke as Francis neared the midpoint of his weeklong trip, which was in the works well before the Myanmar military launched what it called “clearance operations” in Rakhine state in response to attacks by a group of Rohingya militants against security positions in August. The campaign, denounced by the U.N. and the U.S. as “ethnic cleansing,” has forced more than 620,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh in the worst Asian refugee crisis in decades.
Burke noted that the Holy See had only recently established diplomatic relations with Myanmar, that the Catholic Church in the country was small, and that the Holy See’s broader gains were to “build bridges” with the predominantly Buddhist nation as it emerges from decades of military dictatorship.
“Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Vatican diplomacy is not infallible,” Burke said. At the same time, he stressed that Francis’ diplomatic stance in public in Myanmar didn’t negate what he had said in the past, or what he might be saying in private.
In the past, Francis has strongly condemned the “persecution of our Rohingya brothers,” denounced their suffering because of their faith and called for them to receive “full rights.” While he called in his first major speech on Tuesday for all of Myanmar’s ethnic groups to have their human rights respected, his failure to specify the Rohingya crisis on Myanmar soil drew criticism from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Rohingya themselves.
Myanmar’s government and most of the Buddhist majority say the members of the Muslim minority are “Bengalis” who migrated illegally from Bangladesh and don’t acknowledge them as a local ethnic group even though they have lived in Myanmar, also known as Burma, for generations.
Burke and senior members of Myanmar’s Catholic Church spoke to reporters after Francis had a busy day stressing a message of forgiveness, unity and healing of old wounds during an open-air Mass, an audience with Myanmar’s senior Buddhist monks and during an encounter with his own Catholic bishops.
Local authorities estimated that about 150,000 people turned out for the Mass, but the crowd seemed far larger and included faithful bearing flags from Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, among other places.
In his homily, Francis acknowledged the suffering that Myanmar’s ethnic and religious groups have endured, a reference to the decades of conflicts between Myanmar’s military and ethnic minorities who seek greater autonomy.
“I know that many in Myanmar bear the wounds of violence, wounds both visible and invisible,” Francis said at the Mass. While the temptation is to respond with revenge, Francis urged instead a response of “forgiveness and compassion.”