Pope Francis has kicked off a three-day visit to Thailand by calling for more protection against sexual abuse and human trafficking for children.
The 82-year-old pontiff, on his first visit to Thailand as Pope, praised the government for taking action against the country’s notorious sex trade, but said more could and should be done.
‘The future of our peoples is linked in large measure to the way we will ensure a dignified future to our children,’ he said in a speech at Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s Government House offices.
Pope Francis began the first full day of a two-day visit to Thailand on Thursday by meeting the country’s Prime Minister and its Buddhist spiritual leader
Francis used a speech at the Prime Minister’s offices to call for greater protection for children against traffickers who target the country’s notorious sex trade
Francis also aimed his comments at the international community, saying more needs to be done to protect women and children ‘who are violated and exposed to every form of abuse’
Francis is undertaking his first visit to Thailand as Pope, where around 0.5 per cent of the country’s 70million citizens are Catholic
Pope Francis (C) waves to well-wishers while riding the pope mobile as he arrives at St Louis Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand
He also appealed for greater international commitment to protect women and children ‘who are violated and exposed to every form of exploitation, enslavement, violence and abuse.’
He called for ways to ‘uproot this evil and to provide ways to restore their dignity.’
Prime Minister Chan-ocha didn’t make any reference to the problem in his remarks to Francis, though he stressed that Thailand had made great strides in promoting human rights.
‘We have sought to strengthen the family institution and ensure equal opportunities for all groups in society, especially women and children,’ he told Francis after a brief private meeting.
Francis has made the fight against human trafficking one of the cornerstones of his papacy, calling it a crime against humanity.
Under his express wishes, the Vatican has hosted several conferences on eradicating trafficking, featuring women freed from forced prostitution.
And during his papacy, an international network of religious sisters, Talitha Kum, has gained greater prominence following decades of quiet efforts to rescue women from traffickers.
Following his meeting with Mr Chan-ocha, Francis held an audience with Thailand’s supreme Buddhist patriarch in a gilded Bangkok temple where he called for harmony between religions.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha (right) didn’t directly acknowledge the Pope’s remarks in his own speech, but said the country has made strides on human rights
Well-wishers wait to greet Pope Francis during his visit to St. Louis church in Bangkok
Francis spent his first full day in Thailand by hosting high-level meetings and greeting crowds, and will later lead Mass
People take photos as Pope Francis arrives at St. Louis Hospital in Bangkok
Pope Francis sits with Thai Cardinal Michael Michai Kitbunchu (left) and Cardinal Kriengsak Kovitvanit (right) at the Saint Louis hopsital in Bangkok
This is the pontiff’s first visit to Buddhist-majority Thailand – where just over 0.5 per cent of the population are Catholics – before he jets off to Japan on Saturday.
In a highly symbolic meeting , he sat down with Thailand’s supreme Buddhist patriarch Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong at Bangkok’s Ratchabophit temple in the city’s historic old quarter.
‘Catholics have enjoyed freedom in religious practice, despite their being in a minority, and for many years have lived in harmony with their Buddhist brothers and sisters,’ the Pope said in a speech at the meeting.
The pair sat before a brilliant gold Buddha statue inside the ornate temple, built 150 years ago by the former Thai King – the supreme patriarch barefoot and draped in orange robes as they spoke.
The Pope reciprocated the gesture, removing his shoes for part of the tete-a-tete.
In an earlier speech, the Pope said the meeting was ‘a sign of the importance and urgency of promoting friendship and inter-religious dialogue’.
It was the same temple visited by John Paul II on the last papal trip to Thailand in 1984.
This visit coincides with the 350th anniversary of the founding of the ‘Mission de Siam’, marking the first visit by Catholic missionaries who arrived from Europe in the 17th century.
Though Christianity’s first visitors were initially met with scepticism, today Thailand’s nearly 400,000 Catholics face little discrimination and the country is largely free of religious conflict.
The head of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics met with Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha at a red carpet welcome ceremony at the government guest house, before addressing medical staff at Bangkok’s St Louis hospital.
He was accompanied throughout the day by his cousin Sister Ana Rosa, who has lived in Thailand for decades and is helping the pontiff as a translator.
Thai Buddhist Supreme Patriarch Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong greeting Pope Francis during a meeting at Wat Ratchabophit, a 150-year-old in Bangkok
Francis used a speech at the temple to praise Thailand as an example of religious harmony, and for an end to persecution of faith around the world
Pope Francis arrives at St. Louis Hospital in Bangkok during his first visit to Thailand
People cheer and wave flags as Pope Francis drives through downtown Bangkok
Pope Francis is in Thailand for an apostolic visit on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the founding of Mission de Siam
At the hospital, he praised the valuable service ‘the Church offers to the Thai people, especially to those most in need’.
Earlier he made a plea for the women and children ‘who are wounded, violated and exposed to every form of exploitation, enslavement, violence and abuse’, calling for a ‘dignified future’ for the youth.
Trafficking for sexual exploitation is rampant across southeast Asia, and most victims are young girls, according to the United Nations.
He did not miss the opportunity to address the issue of migration, calling for the ‘safe, orderly, and dignified’ movement of people in a region rife with human trafficking.
The risks of illegal journeys abroad were laid bare last month when 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in a refrigerated truck in Britain.
‘It was heartbreaking; let us all pray for them,’ the Pope said in a video message about the tragedy to a Vietnamese youth group.
Later Thursday the Pope will lead a huge mass for tens of thousands of people, including ethnic Karen Christians from northern Thailand and Vietnamese Catholic refugees living in Bangkok.
He will also meet Thailand’s King, before kicking off another full day Friday that will see him greet Catholic leaders and host a second mass.
On Saturday he flies to Japan, where he will visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two cities devastated when the US dropped atomic bombs at the end of World War II in 1945.
The pope, who years ago had hoped to be a missionary in Japan, has made strong calls for a ban on nuclear weapons.
Since his election six years ago, Francis has made two trips to Asia, visiting the Philippines and Sri Lanka in 2014, followed by Myanmar and Bangladesh in 2017.