NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar — Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has constantly used his pulpit to champion the downtrodden and draw attention to the misery of the powerless and the persecuted.

He risked the fury of Turkey by describing the mass killings of Armenians in World War I as a genocide. He apologized for the silence of church leaders in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. And three months ago, he denounced “the persecution of our Rohingya brothers,” referring to the Muslim minority that has suffered a systematic campaign of murder, rape and arson by Myanmar’s military.

“I would like to express my full closeness to them,” he said at the Vatican at the time, “and let all of us ask the Lord to save them, and to raise up men and women of good will to help them, who shall give them their full rights.”

On Tuesday, Pope Francis had a singular opportunity to be an advocate for the Rohingya as he stood next to Myanmar’s de facto leader and in front of a hall full of military officials, prelates and diplomats in this ghostly fortress of a capital.