What happened?
In one of the most diplomatically complex trips in recent papal history, Pope Francis has visited Burma, becoming the first pontiff to do so. After landing on Monday, he met the country’s military chief, General Min Aung Hlaing. The military has been accused of serious human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims.
Francis was also scheduled to meet the under-pressure State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, before going to Bangladesh on Thursday.
What commmentators are saying
Coverage was dominated by one question: would the Pope say the word “Rohingya”? In the New York Times, Jason Horowitz observed that the Rohingya were “exactly the sort of persecuted and downtrodden people in the global periphery whose rights Francis has made it his pastoral mission to champion”.
But it is a “no-win scenario”: if he uses the word, it could provoke nationalists whose willingness to use violence is already clear. “If the Pope appears to take sides with the Rohingya, he risks angering extremist monks who have warned the Pope to steer clear.”
CNN’s Ben Westcott noted: “The Pope is also expected to push for greater rights for the several million members of Myanmar’s Christian minority.”
What local Catholics are saying
Catholics are wary of a possible backlash. The Guardian’s Poppy MacPherson quoted one priest as saying: “Like other people, I’m afraid of what he will say … I don’t think he will say anything.”
A spokesman for the Myanmar bishops also hoped that the Pope would not utter the word “Rohingya”. “The desire of the majority, maybe not only the Catholics but also all the citizens of Myanmar, is for him not to say this thing because we know the complexity of this issue.”
The first people to greet the Pope in Yangon were delighted. “I saw the Pope, he was sitting in the front of the car. I was so pleased, I cried!” Christina Aye Aye Sein, 48, told the news agency AFP. “His face looked very lovely and sweet … He is coming here for peace.”
✣Ministers urged to keep promise on Catholic schools
What happened?
The bishops of England and Wales are urging the Government to keep its manifesto pledge on Catholic free schools – specifically, to scrap the cap that means any new Catholic school can admit only half its pupils on the grounds of faith. They are asking Catholics to sign a petition to the Education Secretary, available at cbcew.org.uk.
Why was it under-reported?
The bishops have not sought wide media publicity. Instead they want Catholics to mobilise in large numbers by backing the petition. A spokesman for the Catholic Education Service (CES) said that during a consultation last year the Government received several thousand emails from secularists opposing the lifting of the cap. That gave a skewed picture of how the country stood on the issue. “We need to make the Government aware of how strongly Catholics feel about this,” the spokesman said. “The time for meetings [with ministers] is now past.”
What will happen next?
That probably depends on the strength of the Catholic response. If the campaign succeeds and the cap is lifted, the Church will press ahead with plans to open new schools. Last year the CES said there was demand for up to 40. The Diocese of East Anglia alone has prepared bids for eight. At the moment, though, the Government seems to be reluctant. A CES spokesman said: “Our hunch is that unless the Catholic community stands up and shows what a big issue this is then the argument may be lost.”
✣The week ahead
The Australian Catholic Youth Festival begins in Sydney on Thursday. The three-day festival will draw almost 20,000 Catholics and is expected to end with the city’s largest outdoor Mass since Benedict XVI’s 2008 visit. Organisers are also launching a video game in which a “John Paul II” character collects Bibles, rosary beads and cakes while dodging bullets and Nazis.
In St Peter’s Square on Thursday there will be a lighting ceremony for the Vatican Christmas tree. The tree, from Poland, is 92ft tall and 33ft wide. Its ornaments are being made by children in hospital as well as victims of Italy’s 2016 earthquake.
An exhibition about angels is being launched at St Marie’s Cathedral in Sheffield on Saturday. The cathedral, built in 1850, has 200 angels. The largest, the Guardian Angel, was donated by the Bernasconi family, who made their fortune from manufacturing cutlery. The exhibition will begin with a family festival involving an angel trail and angel-making workshops.
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