By Delia Gallagher, CNN
Dr.Maung Zarni, an activist and Burmese scholar said “the
Rohingya crisis is a genocide.”
After a week of taking some heat for not calling the
Rohingya refugees by name in Myanmar, Pope Francis explained his controversial
decision on Saturday, saying that he did not want to risk shutting down
dialogue with the country's leaders.
"Had I said that word, I would have been slamming
the door," the Pope told journalists on the flight back from Bangladesh.
"What I thought about it was already well
known," Francis said, adding that he mentioned their plight on various
occasions from the Vatican.
The Pope said in his private meetings he was able to go
beyond his public words.
"I didn't have the pleasure of slamming the door publicly;
a denouncement," the Pope said, "but I had the satisfaction of
dialogue."
The Pope said he had made meeting the Rohingya a
condition of going on the trip, but it had not been logistically possible to
visit the refugee camps, although he would have liked to.
Meeting the Rohingyas
The Pope said he was initially annoyed that the Rohingyas
were not treated properly by some of the event organizers who put them in a
single-file line and rushed them through their meeting with the Pope.
"I even yelled a bit," Francis said,
"Respect! Respect!"
Listening to their stories one by one, the Pope said he
felt moved to make some spontaneous remarks.
"I don't know what I said but I know at a certain
point I asked for forgiveness," the Pope said.
"I was crying," the Pope said. "I tried to
hide it; they were crying, too."
The Pope and the general
Francis characterized his private meeting with Myanmar's
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing -- commander in chief of Myanmar's armed forces --
as a good conversation, noting that it was specifically requested by the senior
general.
"I did not negotiate the truth," the Pope said.
"I made sure he understood that old ways are not viable nowadays.
"He received the message," the Pope said.
Nuclear war
The Pope warned that buildup of nuclear weapons risked
destroying humanity.
"We are at the limits of what is licit," the
Pope said.
Francis suggested that the growth in number and
sophistication of nuclear weapons compared to even 30 years ago had reached the
upper limits of acceptable.
"I ask myself," he said, "Is it licit to
maintain nuclear arsenals as they are or today, in order to save creation and
humanity is it necessary to go back?"