Colm Fitzpatrick
Young people cheer as they wait for Pope Francis' arrival to celebrate Mass with young people in Assumption Cathedral in Bangkok, .
Photo: CNS photo/Paul Haring Francis talks peace, poverty and prayer during historic visit to Thailand and Japan, writes Colm Fitzpatrick
This month marked 25 years since a Pope has visited Thailand, with Francis embarking on an Asia tour which saw him venture to the former kingdom of Siam – the same place that St John Paul journeyed to in 1984. During the six-day visit from November 20-26, the Pontiff encouraged Catholics to follow in the footsteps of missionaries and pleaded for nuclear disarmament, arguing that the use of atomic energy for warfare is “immoral”.
Francis’ trip began last Wednesday when he touched down after an 11-hour flight to Bangkok and was greeted by 11 children – one for each of the country’s dioceses. Also present was his second cousin, Salesian Sr Ana Rosa Sivori, a missionary in Thailand for more than 50 years and the official translator of the Pope’s stay in the region.
After the long-haul trip, Francis was scheduled to rest for the remainder of the day and prepare himself for the historic visit in a country which houses 400,000 Catholics.
Thursday began with the Pope meeting government authorities, civic leaders and members of the diplomatic corps as well as the Buddhist Supreme Patriarch of Thailand. His Holiness Somdej Phra Maga Muneewong is the head of Buddhist monasticism in the country and is chosen by senior monks and appointed by the country’s king. Speaking in Wat Ratchabophit Sathit Maha Simaram Temple, Francis said Catholics and Buddhists should work together to advance the cause of mercy in the world.
Opportunity
When Catholics and Buddhists “have the opportunity to appreciate and esteem one another in spite of our differences, we offer a word of hope to the world, which can encourage and support those who increasingly suffer the harmful effects of conflict”.
The population of Thailand is approximately 64 million with Buddhism being the predominant religion with Catholics making up about 0.6%.
After this meeting, Francis visited the medical personnel of St Louis Catholic Hospital and reemphasised the theme of mercy by telling doctors and nurses that human dignity can be recognised through helping the sick and injured.
“The healing process should rightly be seen as a powerful anointing capable of restoring human dignity in every situation, a gaze that grants dignity and provides support.”
The work of hospital employees, the Pontiff said, “is about welcoming and embracing human life as it arrives at the hospital’s emergency room, needing to be treated with the merciful care born of love and respect for the dignity of each human person”. Following this address, the Pope met privately with around 40 sick and disabled in the hall of the hospital, “as a way of accompanying them, however briefly, in their pain”, he explained.
Illness, he said, can lead people to ask serious questions about life, death, and suffering, but “by uniting ourselves to Jesus in his passion, we discover the power of his closeness to our frailty and our wounds”.
Francis’ first fully scheduled day ended with an address to 60,000 Catholics at a Mass in Bangkok’s National Stadium. His visit fell on the celebrations of the 350th anniversary of the establishment of the Apostolic Vicariate of Siam Mission, the first Catholic jurisdiction in what was to become Thailand.
You need to be deeply rooted in the Faith of your ancestors: your parents, grandparents and teachers…”
In his homily, the Pope said the early missionaries realised “they were part of a family much larger than any based on blood lines, cultures, regions or ethnic groups”, and, empowered by the Holy Spirit, “they set out in search of family members they did not yet know”.
The missionaries didn’t see the Thai people as pagans or non-believers, but as brothers and sisters, the Pope said. And they did not just want to share the Gospel with the Thai people, but wanted “to receive what they needed to grow in their own faith and understanding of the Scriptures”.
Francis said he came to Thailand for the anniversary not to encourage some kind of nostalgia for the past, but to help spark “a fire of hope” to help Catholics today reach out to others with the same “determination, strength and confidence” the early missionaries had.
The anniversary, he said, should be “a festive and grateful commemoration that helps us to go forth joyfully to share the new life born of the Gospel with all the members of our family whom we do not yet know.”
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Christian missionaries first arrived in what is now Thailand in the mid-16th Century. Some priests there who served Portuguese soldiers and merchants there baptised several hundred Christians. Missionaries and the native Christian community suffered several harsh persecutions before and after the apostolic vicariate was established, especially in the 1700s.
Francis met with 2,500 priests and religious on the Friday and although this sounds like an insignificant number given the country’s overall population size, that’s actually one priest for every 500 baptised Catholics – in the US, it’s one priest per 2,000. After encouraging them to integrate the Gospel into Thai culture, Francis then met with bishops from the country and from other regions in Asia.
He told them to stand with and intercede for their people, especially those who are affected by economic inequality or who are victims of exploitation or trafficking.
The Pontiff’s attention on Friday wasn’t just directed at Catholics, he went on to speak with leaders of major religions and stressed the importance of upholding human dignity and freedom.
“For our part, we are asked to embrace the moral imperative of upholding human dignity and respecting the rights of conscience and religious freedom,” he said at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.
Some 1,500 people were gathered to listen to the Pope, all from different religious traditions: Buddhism, Islam, Brahma-Hinduism and Sikhism, as well as Christians of different denominations, including leaders of the Orthodox Church in Thailand.
He said: “All of us are called not only to heed the voice of the poor in our midst: the disenfranchised, the downtrodden, the indigenous peoples and religious minorities, but also to be unafraid to create opportunities, as is already quietly occurring, to work hand in hand”.
“And to do so,” he added, “in a spirit of fraternal solidarity that can help end the many present-day forms of slavery, especially the scourge of human trafficking.”
Francis’ last full day in Thailand ended with a Mass for an estimated 100,000 young people in and outside Bangkok’s Cathedral of the Assumption. The building dates back more than 200 years to an initiative by French missionaries. He encouraged those listening to remember the history of their ancestor’s faith and recognise that this form of witness must be carried on.
Stand with and intercede for their people, especially those who are affected by economic inequality”
“You are heirs to a precious history of evangelisation that has been handed down to you as a sacred treasure. This beautiful cathedral is a witness to your ancestors’ faith in Jesus Christ,” the Pope told Thai youth.
“In order that the fire of the Holy Spirit will keep burning, so that you can keep your eyes bright and your hearts aflame, you need to be deeply rooted in the Faith of your ancestors: your parents, grandparents and teachers,” he said.
The Mass concluded the Pope’s three-day apostolic journey to Thailand and marked the beginning of his November 23-26 venture to Japan.
Martyrs
Arriving in Tokyo after a five-hour flight from Bangkok, the Pope met almost immediately with the bishops of Japan and outlined the major themes of this four-day stay: nuclear disarmament, the example of the Japanese martyrs, interreligious dialogue and special care for the young.
Francis told the bishops that “ever since I was young I have felt a fondness and affection” for Japan, and he entered the Jesuits hoping one day to be sent as a missionary to the country, continuing work begun by the great 16th-century Jesuit missionary St Francis Xavier. Unfortunately, his superiors thought health issues with his lungs made the missionary life impossible.
Finally setting foot in the country for the first time less than a month before his 83rd birthday, Pope Francis told the bishops it “has been long in coming”.
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Less than half of 1% of Japan’s inhabitants are Catholic, and many of those are foreign workers from Vietnam, the Philippines and other countries.
Still, the Pope said, the history of the Japanese martyrs and of the “hidden Christians” shows the strength and depth of Japanese Catholicism. Japan’s rulers began persecuting Christians in 1597 and in 1644, Fr Konishi Mansho, the last remaining priest in the country, was martyred. No priest set foot in the country for the next 200 years, yet the “hidden Christians” continued to gather secretly, instruct one another in the faith, pray together and baptise new members.
“You are a living Church that has been preserved by invoking the Lord’s name and contemplating how he guided you through the midst of persecution,” the Pope told the bishops.
May the abyss of pain endured here remind us of boundaries that must never be crossed”
Scheduled to travel the next day to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the sites of the 1945 atomic bomb blasts, Pope Francis told the bishops he would “echo your own prophetic calls for nuclear disarmament”.
“I wish to meet those who still bear the wounds of this tragic episode in human history, as well as the victims of the triple disaster,” which occurred in 2011 when a strong earthquake caused a severe tsunami that flooded the Fukushima nuclear power plant. It caused a meltdown, hydrogen explosions and the release of radioactive contamination.
The continuing suffering of the victims, he said, are a reminder of “our human and Christian duty to assist those who are troubled in body and spirit, and to offer to all the Gospel message of hope, healing and reconciliation”.
In a highly-anticipated speech, the Pontiff called for total divestment from weapons of mass destruction and for military funds to be used to help poorer nations.
“No one can turn a deaf ear to the plea of our brothers and sisters in need,” he said. “No one can turn a blind eye to the ruin caused by a culture incapable of dialogue.”
The Pope’s anti-nuclear weapons message was delivered in the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hypocenter park. His call for a world free from nuclear weapons is in alignment with his predecessor, St John XXIII, who in his 1963 encyclical letter Pacem in Terris urged the prohibition of atomic weapons and also stated that lasting international peace “cannot rest on a balance of military power, but only upon mutual trust”.
Later the same day, Francis flew to Hiroshima and prayed for peace at the site of the atomic bomb.
“How can we propose peace if we constantly invoke the threat of nuclear war as a legitimate recourse for the resolution of conflicts?” Pope Francis said on November 24 in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park.
“May the abyss of pain endured here remind us of boundaries that must never be crossed. A true peace can only be an unarmed peace,” the Pope said.
On August 6, 1945 American armed forces dropped a uranium atomic bomb dubbed “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan killing an estimated 80,000 people instantly.
More than 90% of Hiroshima’s buildings were destroyed by the blast. By the end of 1945, the death toll rose to 140,000 with people developing intestinal bleeding and leukaemia from the residual radiation that followed.
“In a single plea to God and to all men and women of good will, on behalf of all the victims of atomic bombings and experiments, and of all conflicts, let us together cry out: Never again war, never again the clash of arms, never again so much suffering,” Pope Francis said after a moment of silence for the victims of Hiroshima.
Francis’ day ended with another flight – this time back to Tokyo – and the following morning, he met with victims of the 2011 “triple disaster”. As of March 1, 2018, the death toll from the event was 15,895 across 12 regions of Japan. Sixty-two victims remain unidentified, and 2,539 people remain unaccounted for. Tens of thousands are still living in temporary housing.
Later that day, Francis celebrated Mass at the Tokyo Dome stadium, telling the faithful that we gain a new perspective on life when we listen attentively to Christ.
The ‘hidden Christians’ shows the strength and depth of Japanese Catholicism”
“In Jesus, we encounter the summit of what it means to be human; he shows us the way that leads to a fulfilment exceeding all our hopes and expectations,” the Pope said. “In him, we encounter a new life, where we come to know the freedom of knowing that we are God’s beloved children,” Francis said.
This Tuesday marked the last leg of the Pope’s visit where he had a private Mass with members of the Society of Jesus in the Kulturheim Chapel of Sophia University before making an address in the college.
Over the six days, Francis covered plenty of terrain and didn’t shy away from emotive and divisive topics. Above all, his message to the Thai and Japanese citizens was that human dignity and peace go hand in hand – any attempt to dismantle this harmonious relationship will only end in disaster.