Pope Francis told Buddhist leaders in Myanmar they should conquer 'prejudice and hatred', but made no direct reference to the crisis gripping the Rohingya Muslim minorityThe "moral authority" of Pope Francis is undiminished despite his failure to address the Rohingya crisis head-on during a visit to Myanmar, the Vatican said late Wednesday, defending a papal trip framed by the plight of the Muslim minority. In a vigorous defence of the visit -- the first ever by a pope to Myanmar's tiny Catholic minority -- a Vatican spokesman said papal diplomacy had its limits. "People are not expected to solve impossible problems and the moral authority of the pope stands," Vatican spokesman Greg Burke told reporters at the tail end of a four-day trip to Myanmar. But "that doesn't take away anything that the pope has said in the past nor what the pope can say in private," Burke added. - Latin songs by nuns -Myanmar's Catholic community numbers around 700,000 -- a tiny fraction of the country's 51 million people.

Source: Daily Mail November 29, 2017 04:29 UTC