Pope Francis left Myanmar for Bangladesh on Thursday, concluding the first part of his 21st apostolic journey. He’ll be spending three days in Dhaka, before returning to the Vatican late on Saturday evening.

During his visit to Myanmar, the pope met with popular leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as the president and the top military general. He met with Buddhist leaders and local bishops, but above all he went to meet ordinary Catholics, who travelled from all over the country to attend an open-air Masson Wednesday…

On Thursday morning, the last day of his apostolic journey to Myanmar, Pope Francis celebrated a morning Mass for young people, gathered at St Mary’s Catholic cathedral in central Yangon.

It was the last event of this four day visit to Myanmar and it was the one which best captured the hopes of the country, struggling to find its way to becoming a modern, democratic, developed nation…

Pope Francis has met with the commander-in-chief of Myanmar’s Armed Forces during the first day of his Apostolic Visit to the country.

The Pope held talks with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing at the Archbishop of Yangon’s residence shortly after his arrival in Myanmar on Monday.

Following the courtesy visit, which lasted 15 minutes, the pair exchanged gifts…

In his Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Francis reflected on the last judgement, the subject of the day’s Gospel reading.

He noted that this is the last Sunday of the liturgical year, the day on which the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe. Christ’s kingship, he said, is one “of guidance and service, but it is also a kingship that at the end of time will be asserted in judgement.” The vision of the second coming of Christ, presented in the Gospel, introduces the final judgment, when all of humanity will appear before Him, and Jesus, exercising His authority, will separate one from another, “as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

Pope Francis recalled the criteria that Jesus says will be the foundation of His judgment: “What you did for the least of my brothers, that you did on to me.” This sentence, the Pope said, “never fails to strike us, because it reveals to us” the end to which God is willing to go on account of His love for us…