Pope Francis paid a surprise visit to a Buddhist temple yesterday, capping a trip to Sri Lanka where he told huge crowds that religions must unite to heal the country’s war wounds.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the pope briefly stopped at Colombo’s Mahabodhi temple to meet Banagila Upatissa, a Buddhist leader who had invited him when they met on Tuesday at an inter-religious meeting.

“The Pope listened with great respect” as the monks were singing and praying, Fr Lombardi said. He said that in honour of the occasion, the monks opened a container holding Buddhist relics that is normally unsealed only once a year.

The spokesman said that during the Pope’s 20-minute visit, which was not on his schedule, Pope Francis listened intently as the monks explained aspects of their religion.

Pope stresses role of religion for reconciliation

During his two-day trip to Sri Lanka – which is about 70 per cent Buddhist, 13 per cent Hindu, 10 per cent Muslim and seven per cent Catholic – the Pope has stressed the role of religion to help reconciliation after the 26-year civil war that ended in 2009 and killed up to 100,000 people.

Earlier, Pope Francis gave Sri Lanka its first saint at a seafront Mass for more than half a million people in Colombo, calling 17th century missionary Joseph Vaz a model of reconciliation.

He held up Vaz as an example of tolerance as Sri Lanka recovers from the war between mainly Buddhist Sinhalese and Hindu Tamils. Vaz was born in 1651 in India’s Goa, then a Portuguese colony.

He travelled south at the age of 36, dressed as a beggar after hearing about the persecution of Catholics by the Dutch.

He worked for years under the protection of a Buddhist king.