Dhaka: Pope Francis has hailed Bangladesh as a role model of peaceful coexistence of people with different religious beliefs.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church praised Bangladesh in an address to priests at Mother Teresa Home for orphans in Dhaka’s Tejgaon before leaving for Rome on November 2, ending his three-day tour the Muslim-dominated South Asian nation.

After the Mother Teresa Home program, he attended another event at Notre Dame College, where he addressed around 7,000 young people.

At the Mother Teresa Home, the pope described disunity between people as the shortcomings of society.

“Bangladesh is a role model of interreligious harmony,” he said.

He urged all to live life happily and away from criticism and backbiting.

“Defaming someone is also a form of terrorism. Both happen secretly,” he said.

After the address, Pope Francis visited the Holy Rosary Church Graveyard next to the Mother Teresa Home.

Before his departure from Dhaka, Pope Francis addressed a group of students at Notre Dame College. The students belonged to Catholics, Muslims and other religions. The Pope told them to welcome and accept those who “act and think differently than ourselves,” according to Reuters.

“When a group of people, religion or a society makes a ‘little world’, they lose the best that they have and plunge into a self-righteous mentality of ‘I am good, and you are bad’,” the Pope said at the Notre Dame College.

He also asked his young listeners to “not to spend the whole day playing with your phone and ignoring the world around you!”