Pope heading to Thailand to encourage Catholic minority

Pope Francis is heing to Thailand to encour members of a mirity Catholic community in a Buddhist nation and highlight his miration for ir missionary ancestors who brought faith centuries ago and endured bouts of persecution more recently. After an overnight flight, Francis arrives in Bangkok on Wednesday afteron and will rest for remainder of day before his first full day of public appearances Thursday.

Francis’ three-day visit, followed by three days in Japan, will be a welcome break for 82-year-old pope. He is enduring fresh opposition from Catholic conservatives in U.S. over his just-concluded meeting on Amazon as well as a new financial scandal at home. Leaving those concerns behind, Francis will meet with Thailand’s supreme Buddhist leer, Thai authorities as well as all Catholic bishops of Asia — a rare chance for him to dress some of major challenges facing Catholic Church in region and men responsible for dealing with m.

On eve of trip, Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said interfaith relations and emphasizing dignity of every person are likely to be raised — a reference perhaps to Thailand’s role as a key transit point for victims of human trafficking, forced labor and sex tre. Francis has me fight against human trafficking a hallmark of his papacy. Francis is also expected to encour Catholic community, which represents just 0.58 percent of its 69 million people, as well as encour largely Buddhist country to continue welcoming migrants and showing tolerance to people of or faiths. That mess is also intended to reach small Muslim community amid a persistent insurgency in south.

Thirty-five years after St. John Paul II became first pope to visit Thailand, Francis is marking 350th anniversary of creation of a stable apostolic vicariate in Thailand, n kwn as Siam, after Dominican missionaries first brought faith in 1567, followed by members of Francis’ own Jesuit order. Francis will pray at tomb of Nicholas Bunkerd Kitbamrung, kwn as Rev. Benedikto Chunkim, who became first martyred priest of modern Thailand when he was killed in 1944. Francis is also likely to refer to seven or martyrs killed in 1940 as a nationalistic government sought to convert all Thais to Buddhists. Throughout his visit, he will have a special interpreter by his side: his second cousin, Sister Ana Rosa Sivori, who has been a missionary in Thailand since 1960s.