Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali has said that Pope Francis’ visit to Bangladesh, when the country is struggling with the Rohingya crisis, carries great importance.
“We will be able to learn about his stance on the Rohingya issue,” Ali told the media on Thursday. “He supported us before his trip to Myanmar, so he is certainly on our side.”
Pope Francis, the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, has arrived in Dhaka on a three-day visit which will most likely be dominated by the Rohingya issue. He avoided using the word “Rohingya” during his Myanmar visit that came after more than 600,000 members of the ethnic minority fled to Bangladesh from their homeland in the Rakhine state after Myanmar launched a brutal offensive that the UN has described as ethnic cleansing.
The pope is visiting Dhaka at the invitation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Catholic Bishop’s Conference of Bangladesh. He is scheduled to meet 15 Rohingya in Dhaka during on Friday.
Pope Francis will first visit National Martyr’s Memorial at Savar and Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.
He will also attend a state programme organized in his honour, and hold a meeting with the president on Thursday night.
On December 1, more than 80,000 Catholics from Bangladesh Christian community will join a mass prayer with Pope Francis at Suhrawardy Udyan for world harmony and peace. In the afternoon, he will visit the Vatican Embassy (Apostolic Nunciature) in Dhaka at Baridhara where he will meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Later in the day, the pope will hold a meeting with bishops of Bangladesh in the garden of archbishop’s house in the city. He is also set to meet a number of Rohingya people there.
On December 2, he will visit Tejgaon Mother Teresa House and meet with priests, religious and consecrated men and women, seminarians and novices in the church of the Holy Rosary in Tejgaon. He will deliver a speech before the youths in Notre Dame College in the capital at 3:20 pm. The pope will leave Dhaka at 5 pm after receiving an official farewell at the airport.
