BANGKOK: Pope Francis met with Thailand’s supreme Buddhist patriarch on Thursday in a gilded Bangkok temple on the first full day of his Asia tour aimed at promoting religious harmony.
This is the pontiff’s first visit to Buddhist-majority Thailand -- where just over 0.5 percent of the population are Catholics -- before he jets off to Japan on Saturday. He is pushing a message of inter-faith peace on a four-day visit that will see him lead a mass for tens of thousands of faithful from across Southeast Asia.
In a highly symbolic meeting on Thursday, he sat down with Thailand’s supreme Buddhist patriarch Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong at the Ratchabophit temple in Bangkok’s historic old quarter. (AFp)
This is the pontiff’s first visit to Buddhist-majority Thailand -- where just over 0.5 percent of the population are Catholics -- before he jets off to Japan on Saturday. He is pushing a message of inter-faith peace on a four-day visit that will see him lead a mass for tens of thousands of faithful from across Southeast Asia.
In a highly symbolic meeting on Thursday, he sat down with Thailand’s supreme Buddhist patriarch Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong at the Ratchabophit temple in Bangkok’s historic old quarter. (AFp)