NAKHON PATHOM, Nov 22 (TNA) – Pope Francis on Friday
visited a Catholic community in the central province of Nakhon Pathom on the
outskirts of Bangkok, urging the Catholics in Thailand to find new ways to
“spread the word” and Thais not to see Christianity as “a foreign
faith.”
The Pope met clergy, worshipers, seminarians and catechists
at St. Peter’s Parish church in Sam Phran district, home to Thailand’ second
biggest Catholic community.
Outside the church, Pope Francis was welcomed by a large
crowd of devotees who chanted “Viva il Papa” and waved Thai and Vatican
flags. About 18,000 Catholics from
Nakhon Pathom and other provinces gathered to greet the Pope.
“We need to seek new ways of spreading the word, ways that
are capable of mobilizing and awakening a desire to know the Lord,” he said in
the Mass.
The Pope said he was saddened to learn that for many people
in Thailand, Christianity was “a foreign faith, a religion for
foreigners.”
“This should spur us to find ways to confess the faith ‘in
dialect’, like a mother who sings lullabies to her child,” he said.
About 390,000 Catholics make up 0.58% of the population of
Buddhist-majority Thailand.
The pope also visited a modern sanctuary built in honour of
Nicholas Bunkerd Kitbamrung, a Thai priest who died in 1944 and is considered
by the Vatican as a martyr. (TNA)
