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Bangkok (AFP)
Pope Francis will meet Friday with lecturers and college students in Thailand’s “small however vibrant” Catholic group on his remaining full day of a whirlwind Bangkok journey, closing the go to with a mass for the youth.
The Pope is on his first journey to Buddhist-majority Thailand, the place simply over zero.5 p.c of the inhabitants is Catholic.
His busy schedule Friday consists of conferences with seminarians and catechists at St Peter’s Church, constructed greater than 130 years in the past on the outskirts of Bangkok.
The final pope to go to Thailand in 1984, John Paul II, additionally made a cease on the historic parish, the place enormous crowds gathered Friday to attend for Francis.
“I am so thrilled to see Papa at present… it is an auspicious event and my life and well being will probably be blessed,” Armee Chermuer advised AFP at St Peter’s after travelling 10 hours to see the Pope.
Later Francis will go to a shrine for Catholic martyr Nicholas Boonkerd Kitbamrung, earlier than assembly with non secular leaders at a college the place a younger Muslim choir will be part of different college students to sing for him.
It is going to be a extremely symbolic efficiency for the Pope, who has espoused a message of inter-faith concord throughout his four-day journey to Thailand.
He has additionally spoken about susceptible ladies and youngsters, calling for extra respect for intercourse staff and trafficking victims at his mass Thursday night.
His journey marks 350 years since “the Mission de Siam”, the primary papal mission to the nation.
Chatting with officers on Thursday, the Pope praised Thailand’s “small however vibrant Catholic group”, with fewer than 400,000 followers within the nation at present.
Later Friday the Pope will lead his second mass of the journey in a service aimed toward Thai youth.
The pontiff could also be desirous to drum up curiosity within the religion amongst younger individuals in Thailand, the place faith is more and more marginalised in a quickly modernising society.
“The Pope all the time provides significance to youth which he believes is the inspiration of society, nation and faith,” mentioned Puttipong Puttansri, a Thai historian of the Catholic Church.
Francis touched down in Bangkok on Wednesday and was met by adoring worshippers desirous to catch a glimpse of the 82-year-old Argentine.
His mass on Thursday night time — replete with hymns, prayers and conventional Thai performances — drew an estimated 60,000 individuals, some crying because the pontiff handed in his Popemobile.
He heads to Japan on Saturday for the second and remaining leg of his Asia tour, which is able to embody visits to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, each devastated by atomic bombs by the US throughout World Battle II.
The pope, who years in the past had hoped to be a missionary in Japan, has referred to as for a ban on nuclear weapons.
© 2019 AFP
