We will be watching!
By the way, in Burma (aka Myanmar), the majority Buddhist population does not think the group of people referred to as Rohingya are anything more than Bangladeshi ethnics who got in to the Buddhist country from Muslim Bangladesh over decades. That is why the word, setting them aside as some special ethnic group, should the Pope utter it, will not sit well with his hosts.
From Malta Today:
Pope Francis has arrived in Myanmar, becoming the first pope to ever visit the southeast Asian nation.
The world’s most high-profile Christian takes center stage in a staunchly Buddhist country accused of horrifying acts of brutality against its Rohingya Muslim minority.
The Pope previously decried the violence against the Rohingya, calling them his persecuted “brothers and sisters.”
Experts warn that this trip will require balancing a uniquely complicated set of humanitarian, diplomatic and religious questions. Even his own cardinal has advised the Pope to steer clear of the word Rohingya for fear of stalling his message of reconciliation before it has even begun.
Aaron Connelly, research fellow at Australia’s Lowy Institute, said that there was little chance the Pope’s visit to Myanmar was going to be a “generic Papal visit.”
“Clearly the thing that motivated this visit was always a desire to talk about the Rohingya,” he said.
“The question is … is he going to do that in a way which is less confrontational and engages?” Connelly added. “Or is he going to say, this is outrageous, these people have a right to be in Myanmar?”
Reading almost like an afterthought, here is the last line of this news:
While Pope Francis’s stance on the Rohingya crisis will likely dominate headlines, the Pope is also expected to push for greater rights for the several million members of Myanmar’s Christian minority.
Why does all of this matter to you in America? We have already admitted nearly 20,000 Rohingya ‘refugees’ in the last ten years. I’ll be updating numbers soon.
For more on Rohingya, see my Rohingya Reports category here with 214 previous posts.