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DHAKA: National flags flew at half-mast in Bangladesh on Thursday as the Muslim-majority nation began three days of state mourning for Pope Francis.

The Argentine pontiff, leader of the Catholic Church since March 2013, died at his residence, Casa Santa Marta, in the Vatican on Monday. He was 88 years old.

Bangladesh’s interim administration issued a notification on Wednesday night, announcing that the government had decided to hold special prayers in memory of the pope and lower national flags to half-staff on buildings across the country, as well as at its missions abroad.

Bangladesh’s Christians account for less than 0.5 percent of its population. Most of them, about 400,000, are Catholic.

It is the first time Bangladesh is observing three days of remembrance for a Catholic leader.

“This is a great honor given to him,” Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario, former archbishop of Dhaka, told Arab News.

“Our country, Bangladesh, has decided well to mourn for three days. This is not because of the church, but because his messages were always universal, moral, and social.”

It was in the very first days of Francis’ papal service that the Rana Plaza building collapsed in Dhaka due to a structural failure, killing over 1,100 people, mostly garment factory workers.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the pope called for prayers for the victims and their families, and urged a renewed commitment to fighting for the rights and dignity of workers, reflecting his long-standing advocacy for social justice.

He visited Dhaka in 2017, at the invitation of its government and the Catholic Church, at the beginning of the Rohingya crisis, when hundreds of thousands of members of the predominantly Muslim ethnic group were forced to flee Myanmar.

The majority of them have been sheltered by neighboring Bangladesh. Francis met with the refugees during his visit.

“He had a (heavy) heart because of the suffering of the people, and he also tried publicly to see the miseries of these people. He was deeply touched by Bangladesh’s gesture,” D’Rozario said.

Revered by millions of Catholics around the world, the pope’s message resonated in Bangladesh too.

In his final address from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Francis called for a ceasefire in Gaza and condemned the “deplorable humanitarian situation” caused by Israel’s ongoing deadly onslaught on the territory.

“He has been talking about the people’s suffering in Gaza ... On Easter Sunday, he spoke about four or five minutes about the Palestinians. So, there is that unity (in) support, also in Bangladesh,” D’Rozario said.

“Coming from Latin America, with a lot of suffering over there, a lot of poor people, he had a social message, a message on politics — good politics — a message on economics, message on trade and commerce, message on the international peace.”

The pope’s funeral mass will take place in St. Peter’s Square on Saturday.

Bangladesh’s chief adviser, Prof. Muhammad Yunus, who heads its interim government, is going to attend the service.

Yunus, an economist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, worked with Francis on poverty alleviation.

“Pope Francis was a towering figure of moral clarity, humility, and compassion in our time. His lifelong dedication to justice, peace, and the dignity of every human being resonated far beyond the Catholic world,” he said in a statement on the pope’s passing.

“His leadership, rooted in the values of fraternity and service, inspired global efforts to uplift the poor, protect the vulnerable, and build a more humane and peaceful world.”

PRETORIA: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Kyiv would do “everything” its allies wanted but could not recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea, considered illegal under Ukraine’s constitution.
“We do everything that our partners have proposed, only what contradicts our legislation and the constitution we cannot do,” Zelensky told reporters during a visit to South Africa in response to a question about Ukraine’s position on ceasefire talks.