The arrival of Francis comes as it was reported that the police yesterday revealed that a Catholic priest who was organising for a group of hundreds of Catholics to meet the Pope in Dhaka has disappeared in the country where Islamist attacks against religious minorities are on the rise.
Pope Francis today called on the people of Myanmar to embrace peace and reconciliation as their country emerges from nearly five decades of military rule and is still riven by ethnic conflicts.
Pope Francis avoided using the term 'Rohingya' during and after talks with Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi today, on the second day of a visit fraught with tension over the issue of 'ethnic cleansing' against the Muslim minority group.
Thousands of Catholics were gathering in Yangon today after long journeys by train and bus, excited to get a glimpse of Pope Francis, who begins a trip to Myanmar fraught with diplomatic risk over its treatment of the minority Muslim Rohingya people.
The visit next week by Pope Francis to Myanmar and Bangladesh will, naturally, be full of spiritual fruitfulness, but it is also laced with political and religious sensitivity, as became clear last night when the Vatican issued several revisions to the schedule.
The Chinese Communist Party has ordered travel agencies not to send tour groups to visit the Vatican, according to reports, because 'there are no diplomatic relations' between China and the Holy See.
Pope Francis will ignore warnings about not even mentioning the persecuted Rohingya minority when he visits Myanmar and Bangladesh next week as a meeting with Rohingya refugees was added last minute to his schedule.
A media group linked to Islamic State (ISIS) has released a shocking propaganda poster depicting Pope Francis being beheaded, amid fears of terrorist attacks in Europe during this Christmas period.
Pope Francis condemned the 'perverse attitudes' of climate change deniers and sceptics in an address to world leaders yesterday, in what may be taken as an implicit attack on the leadership of Donald Trump.