“is the highest honor and respect we can offer to his holiness.”

Pope Francis became the second pope to visit a Buddhist temple on Wednesday, changing his schedule at the last minute to pay his respects at an important place of worship in Sri Lanka’s capital and to witness a key ritual for Buddhists: the opening of a casket of relics of two important disciples of the Buddha.

St. John Paul II visited a Buddhist temple during a 1984 visit to Thailand. MORE