By Courtney Mares
About 30,000 more people packed a soccer stadium Saturday morning to attend the first public papal mass in the Kingdom of Bahrain, a Muslim-majority island country in the Persian Gulf.
In the crowd is Julius Rhe, who traveled with his wife and son from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where restrictions prohibit the birthday party of Catholic Masses in public.
“We are highly revered for being a component of this memorable event. . . We are very fortunate,” Rhe told EWTN on Nov. 5.
Rhe’s circle of relatives practiced the Catholic religion at home and attended a personal mass in an apartment while living in Saudi Arabia.
According to Bahrain’s Daily Tribune, about 2,900 of the participants registered for the Mass at the stadium with Pope Francis arrived from neighboring Saudi Arabia.
Reuters reported that foreigners living in Saudi Arabia were transported by bus to mass on the King Fahd Causeway connecting the two countries.
Many foreigners from the Gulf region come from the Philippines, India, Pakistan and other South Asian countries.
Catholic foreigners living in Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates also traveled for Mass.
Pope Francis arrived amid cheers from Bahrain’s national stadium as he greeted the cheering popemobile crowd.
In his homily, the Pope repeated the words of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans: “Do not allow yourselves to be overcome by evil, but triumph over evil with good. “
Pope Francis said that Jesus “suffers when he sees today and in many parts of the world, tactics of exercise of force that feed on oppression and violence, to expand his own territory by restricting that of others, imposing his own domination and restricting basic freedoms, and thus oppressing the weak.
In the face of oppression and enmity that exist today, the Gospel calls Christians to “love everyone, even our enemies,” the pope said.
While more than 70 of Bahrain’s total population of 1. 5 million is Muslim, there are about 161,000 Catholics living in the country, according to 2020 Vatican statistics. The country is home to two Catholic churches and 20 Catholic priests.
Pope Francis described Bahrain as “a living symbol of coexistence in diversity” and “a symbol of our world, marked by the constant migration of peoples and the pluralism of ideas, customs and traditions. “
He added, “Then it is to take up the challenge of Jesus: ‘If you love those who love you, what praise do you have?Don’t tax creditors do the same?”
At the end of the Mass, Archbishop Paul Hinder, apostolic administrator of the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia, thanked Pope Francis for appearing as “pastoral care of a small Church in a small country. “
The bishop said: “Like his patron Saint Francis of Assisi, he is not afraid to build bridges with the Muslim world and show his fraternal closeness to all other people of intelligent will, whatever their cultural origin and devout belief. “
“We, the Christians of the Middle East, those of ancient Eastern culture and those who, as migrants, live temporarily in this component of the global, seek to make effective St. Francis’ invitation to his brothers and sisters to ‘live spiritually among Muslims. . . not having interaction in discussions and [just] recognizing that [we] are Christians. “»
Pope Francis thanked the Catholics who had come from Saudi Arabia and countries in the region to attend the Mass. He said: “Today I bring you the affection and closeness of the universal Church, which looks at you and embraces you, which loves you and encourages you.
“May the Blessed Virgin, Our Lady of Arabia, accompany you on your adventure and keep you in love with everyone. “
Alexey Gotovsky contributed to this report.