The visits of Pope Francis to both Myanmar and Bangladesh underwrite just how much the Catholic Church in many parts of Asia has changed.
The visits had many of the hallmarks of this Pontificate. But what was plain to the eye is that this was a welcome to the Pope by energetic local churches comfortable in their own skin, and generations from their colonial foundations. The Church here is embodied by such local churches, not as a branch office of a multinational organisation whose headquarters are in Rome.
This is important for the Church in Asia in all its diversity. But the message of this visit also has universal significance for the Church that Francis wishes to shape in the 21st century.
Myanmar has 135 recognised ethnic minorities and the Catholic Church is at its most vital and numerous among some of the tribal minorities away from the Barman majority in the south of the country. But the culture of the country is dominated by Buddhism, and among its advocates are militant religious nationalists.
Representatives of the Catholics among the tribal minorities made their way to Yangon and the oddly surreal capital, Nay Pyi Daw, in their tens of thousands to celebrate the Pope's arrival, some travelling days by foot, bus and car from villages and Internally Displaced Persons' (IDP) camps.
This was a poor church putting in all they had to live on. When asked by a young Jesuit in Myanmar during his meeting with the 50 Jesuits in that country how he felt about all the sacrifices poor people were making to come to see him, Francis returned to the Spiritual Exercises where St Ignatius asks the retreatant to pray 'for the grace of shame'. He said he had received that grace.
And he admitted to receiving that grace again when it came to the Rohingya: he asked their forgiveness not just for not using the word during his time in Myanmar, but on behalf of all who treat them with neglect.
"The Church in Asia, for its survival no less than for the fulfilment of its mission, begins from accepting pluralism as being as familiar as the air it breathes."
He really couldn't use the word Rohingya in Myanmar, and some — especially American — media condemned him for it. Though all his speeches in Myanmar were coded to be read as a defense of the Rohingya, he complied with the request of the local Church to