Pope Francis waved to crowds from the backseat of one of Bangladesh’s typical bicycle pulled rickshaws en route to a meeting of interfaith leaders at the residence of Dhaka’s archbishop.
Bangladeshi dancers serenad-ed him as he made his way to the stage for the event, where he was to meet with Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.
Francis has shunned the bullet-proof popemobiles of his predecessors, opting instead for open-sided vehicles so he can personally greet the crowds when he goes on foreign trips. In South Asia, that has meant a few spins in modified golf carts.
Francis isn’t the first Pope to ride a rickshaw. However St John Paul II rode in one when he visited Bangladesh in 1986.
Pope Francis led a giant open-air mass in Dhaka on Dec 1 ahead of finally coming face to face with Rohingya refugees whose desperate plight has dominated his landmark tour of Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Around 100,000 Bangladeshi Catholics crammed into a park in central Dhaka, cheering and chanting “viva il papa” (“long live the Pope”) as Francis was driven through the crowd in an open-sided popemobile made specially for the occasion.
