Pope Francis has asked for forgiveness from Rohingya Muslim refugees for all the hurt they have endured, and pronounced the word “Rohingya” that he had so assiduously avoided only days earlier in Myanmar.
In a touching encounter Friday, Francis greeted and blessed a group of refugees, grasping their hands and listening to their stories in a show of public solidarity.
He apologized for the “indifference of the world” to their plight.
“The presence of God today is also called ‘Rohingya,'” he said.
Refugee camps overflowing
The 16 Rohingya travelled to Dhaka from Cox’s Bazar, the district bordering Myanmar where refugee camps are overflowing with more than 620,000 Rohingya who have fled what the UN says is a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Myanmar’s military.
The Pope greeted each of the Rohingya Muslims and listened to their stories. (Andrew Medichini/Associated Press)
Myanmar does not recognize Rohingya as an ethnic group and calls them “Bengalis.”
Francis greeted and blessed Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled to Bangladesh from neighbouring Myanmar, grasping their hands and listening to their stories at an interfaith peace prayer in Dhaka.
One by one, each one of the refugees approached the Pope at the end of Friday’s event. Francis grasped their hands and listened intently as they recounted their experiences to him through an interpreter.
He blessed one little girl, placing his hand on her head, and grasped the shoulder of a young man.
Trades popemobile for rickshaw
Earlier in the day, Francis waved to crowds from the backseat of one of Bangladesh’s typical bicycle-pulled carts en route Friday to a meeting of interfaith leaders at the residence of Dhaka’s archbishop.
Bangladeshi dancers serenaded him as he made his way to the stage for the meeting with Rohingya refugees.
Francis has shunned the bullet-proof Popemobiles of his predecessors, opting instead for open-sided vehicles so he can personally greet the crowds when he goes on foreign trips. In South Asia, that has meant a few spins in modified golf carts.
Francis isn’t the first pope to ride a rickshaw, however. St. John Paul II rode in one when he visited Bangladesh in 1986.