Pope Francis will meet Buddhist monks and military leaders in Myanmar

Arakan News Agency
Pope Francis will meet senior Buddhist monks and military generals in Myanmar as well as its civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in November during a visit to the country and Bangladesh, which are facing a crisis because of the Muslim minority of Rohingya.
According to the program of the full visit, announced by the Vatican on Tuesday, the pope will establish two saints in Myanmar, which has a Buddhist majority, and a saint in predominantly Muslim Bangladesh.
He will be the first Pope to visit Myanmar and the second to visit Bangladesh, where Pope John Paul II visited in 1986.
The pope will arrive in Myanmar’s largest city of Yangon on Nov. 27 after a flight of more than 10 hours and is scheduled to rest for about a day before heading to the capital Naypidaw for a day visit.
In the capital, separate private talks will be held with President Htin Kyaw and Aung San Suu Kyi the state adviser and foreign minister, making her the country’s civic leader.
A senior Vatican official said military leaders were expected to attend a separate and public meeting in which the pope would talk to diplomats and politicians. He is expected to deliver his important speech during the visit at this meeting.
Myanmar faces global condemnation because of the suffering of the Rohingya minority. In February, Pope Francis said they were tortured and killed because they simply wanted to live according to their culture and religion.
In August, some hard-line Buddhists felt angry when the pope spoke of “persecuting our Rohingya brothers and sisters” and asked Catholics to pray for them, adding they should have “full rights”.