The pope indicated during a recent visit by Archbishop Bo of Burma that he is ready to make a stopover in the totalitarian country on his way to another Asian country.
Pope Benedict XVI says he is ready to make a stopover in Myanmar if he visits another Asian country, Archbishop Charles Maung Bo of Yangon told UCA News in Rome.
Archbishop Bo met the pope privately on Oct. 23.
The previous week, the Salesian prelate, general secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar, issued a surprise invitation to Pope Benedict during the archbishop's five-minute intervention at the Synod on the Word of God.
Looking at the pope on Oct. 14, he concluded with the words: "Holy Father, from the time of St. Peter till today, no Holy Father has visited Myanmar. Our warmest welcome to Myanmar!" The synod burst into spontaneous applause when he finished, participants recalled.
Nine days later, Archbishop Bo was in the pope's private library as part of the ad limina visit every bishop is expected to make once in five years to report to the pope and Vatican officials on the situation in his diocese and country.
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"The Holy Father at once pointed out that I had invited him to Myanmar during my synod intervention," Archbishop Bo said. During their private conversation, he recalled, Pope Benedict made it clear "he would be ready to make a short visit to Myanmar if he chooses to visit one of the countries in Asia."
The archbishop found the pope's calmness and "clear mind" impressive amid a busy schedule with numerous visitors. The pontiff was interested in the rehabilitation work the Church was involved in after cyclone Nargis, as well as the general situation in Myanmar.
The Yangon archbishop had not been able to join the other bishops from Myanmar when they made their ad limina visits as a group at the end of May, because he was leading the Church relief efforts in the aftermath of the cyclone that he says killed nearly 150,000 people. He estimated Nargis displaced another 2 million people.
Myanmar has a population of 53 million people, 85 percent of whom are Buddhists, 6 percent Christians and 4 percent Muslims. Of the 3 million Christians, about 700,000 are Catholics. The military has been running the country since 1962 and has suppressed pro-democracy movements.
A Vatican official told UCA News, "It should be stated clearly that there is no persecution against Christianity or Catholics in Myanmar." He also pointed out that even though the Holy See and Myanmar do not have diplomatic relations, the Bangkok-based apostolic delegate to Myanmar can freely visit the country and meet bishops, who also are allowed to travel to the Vatican.
A Church source clarified that Myanmar's Catholic Church enjoys freedom to worship but is not allowed to work freely in the fields of education and health care. "Nor can it express its position on sociopolitical questions in accord with the Church's social teaching," the source said in Rome.
Pope Benedict has made 10 foreign trips since his election in April 2005 -- six European countries and Turkey, which straddles Europe and Asia, as well as Australia, Brazil and the United States. At the close of the synod on Oct. 26, he announced a plan to visit the African countries of Angola and Cameroon in March 2009.
Asia, excepting Turkey, is thus the only continent Pope Benedict has not visited or announced plans to visit, but his remark about being ready to visit Myanmar were he to go to another Asian country suggests he is considering this possibility.
Earlier this year, Cardinal Jean Baptiste Pham Minh Man of Ho Chi Minh said he hoped Pope Benedict would visit Vietnam in 2010, for the 350th anniversary of its first two apostolic vicariates and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the local Church hierarchy.
Like Myanmar, Vietnam does not have diplomatic relations with the Holy See. A Vatican official said this alone does not present a problem. He cited Pope John Paul II's visit to Mexico in 1979, when that country and the Holy See had no diplomatic ties.
According to Vatican diplomatic sources, a papal visit requires an invitation from the local bishops' conference and the national government's invitation or willingness to receive him, since he is a head of state.
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