During a meeting with Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Pope Francis has expressed his support for her commitment towards democracy in her country.
While the Pope assured the Nobel Peace Prize winner of the Church’s support for her cause, he specified that the Church does not show discrimination but is at the service of all with its charitable works.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi called the 20-minute meeting a “rather significant encounter” between two leaders “fundamentally on the same wavelength” regarding nonviolence, democracy and “peaceful coexistence in today’s world”.
Father Lombardi described Suu Kyi as “one of the most significant personalities in Asia in the area of peace, democracy and peaceful coexistence” and a “symbol of non-violent commitment to democracy and peace”.
He said Pope Francis “naturally assured [her] of his prayers for Myanmar and for the Catholic community and the Church in her country, and of his appreciation for the lady’s commitment to development and democracy in her country, assuring her of the collaboration of the Catholic Church in these great causes”.
Myanmar, formerly Burma, has an overwhelmingly Buddhist population of 55 million, with Catholics making up only 1 per cent.
Under the military junta governing Myanmar, Suu Kyi spent most of the last two decades in some form of detention because of her efforts to bring democracy to the country.
“The Holy Father told me that emotions such as hatred and fear diminish life and the value of the person,” she after her meeting with Pope Francis.
She said the Pope also told her “we need to value love and understanding to improve the lives of people”.
Suu Kyi, who has become an international symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression, was re-elected to parliament in 2012.
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Image: National Catholic Reporter