In 2006, while he was visiting Regensburg, Germany, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI delivered an address in which he cited a 14th century dialogue between a Byzantine emperor and a Persian, unleashing a firestorm of protest across the Islamic world.
Benedict’s quote cited the emperor saying: “Show me just what Mohammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”
The citation was shot out of a media cannon with deadly consequences. An Italian nun was shot to death in Somalia, churches were firebombed on the Gaza strip, and the pontiff was burned in effigy in the streets of Ankara.
Myanmar’s first-ever cardinal, Charles Maung Bo, who will be hosting Pope Francis during his Nov. 27-30 visit to the Asian nation, fears that a similar situation could unfold, though this time Muslims wouldn’t be the protesters but the victims.
Bo, created cardinal by Francis in February 2015, spoke with Crux in Rome ahead of the papal visit to Myanmar, the first by a Pope, and Francis’s first to a Buddhist majority country.
During the 30-minute conversation with the pontiff, the cardinal acknowledged that if Francis chose to use the term ‘Rohingya,’ “there could be demonstrations at once, going after the Muslims.”
The “R” word, used by a Muslim minority in Myanmar to define themselves, is causing controversy ahead of the Pope’s visit.
The United Nations is accusing Myanmar’s military of carrying out ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, and the international community is concentrating its energy on the persecuted minority. Yet Bo is all but begging the Pope not to call the Rohingya by their name.
“If he doesn’t use it, the international community will say something,” Bo acknowledged. “If he does use it, then it could be very bad for the military, the government and the Buddhist community.”
By political connotation, Bo explained, he meant that the Pope wouldn’t be supporting the idea the estimated million Rohingya living in Myanmar – though it’s believed that half of them have fled to Bangladesh in recent months – should be given citizenship.
