The Pope asked on Tuesday for prayers for him “that every assembly and occasion may be a fruitful occasion to promote, in God’s call, the cause of fraternity and peace. “
VATICAN CITY — The immobile Pope Francis, already the first pope to set foot on the Arabian Peninsula, will return to the Persian Gulf Thursday when he becomes the first pontiff to stop in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The four-day apostolic adventure will be Francis’ tenth in a Muslim-majority country and his 39th apostolic adventure outside Italy.
Bahrain has a small Catholic presence of about 80,000 people, most of whom are immigrants from Asia, out of a population of around 1. 3 million.
On Wednesday, the pope told pilgrims at his All Saints’ Day Angelus that it would be “an adventure under the banner of dialogue,” referring to the interfaith convention he will attend on Friday. He added that on his trip “he will have the opportunity to meet with devout representatives, especially Islamic ones. “
The conference, an initiative of Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and dubbed “Bahrain Forum for Dialogue: East and West for Human Coexistence,” will take place on November 3-4 in Awali, on the kingdom’s largest island of Bahrain. archipiélago. de 50 herb islands and 33 synthetic islands, and close to the capital Manama.
The King Hamad World Centre for Peaceful Coexistence has presented several projects over the years to promote a culture of cooperation and dialogue.
At the event, Francis will inscribe Mohammed Al Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Cairo-based Al Azhar University and chairman of the Muslim Council of Elders, as well as several prominent figures and devout representatives from around the world.
The convention comes almost 4 years after the Pope signed the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” with Al Tayeb in Abu Dhabi in 2019, his first story in the Arabian Peninsula.
The document, described through the Vatican as “courageous and prophetic” and an “important step” in Catholic-Muslim relations, sparked controversy over a passage noting that “diversity of religions” is “willed by God. “Critics said the statement, which remains in the document, contradicted Jesus’ command to disciple all nations.
No documents are expected to come out of Friday’s meeting, but the pope is expected to address participants in the final ceremony. This will be followed by a personal meeting with Al Tayeb, a meeting with members of the Muslim Council of Elders and a speech. in an ecumenical assembly and prayer for peace. This last occasion will take place in the new Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia in Awali, consecrated last year. The Pope will bless the cathedral, the first to be built in Bahrain.
Bishop Paul Hinder, apostolic administrator of northern Arabia, told Vatican News on Nov. 1 that the scale was aimed at maintaining and deepening “interfaith discussion with Muslims, not only Sunnis, but also Shiites and other currents within the Muslim world, and on the other hand to inspire the flock of Catholics and Christians in general. but above all to Catholics who live in this specific situation.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told reporters last week that Bahrain “is an ancient land where other national, ethnic and devout teams coexist and is a valuable step in the adventure of fraternity that the pope has undertaken. “
Human rights teams have called on the Pope to put public and private pressure on King Hamad to put an end to human rights violations during his stay in the country, adding commutation of death sentences, banning all bureaucracy from torture and ill-treatment. freeing political prisoners and bloodhounds and ending abuses against migrant workers.
Rest of the itinerary
After an official welcome at Bahrain’s Awali Air Base shortly before five in the afternoon. On Thursday local time, the pope will pay a courtesy visit to King Hamad at the Sakhir Royal Palace, a desert apartment used for ceremonies, before attending a welcoming rite in the palace courtyard. The Pope will then meet with authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps.
After attending the interfaith convention on Friday, Pope Francis will celebrate Mass on Saturday at Bahrain’s National Stadium in which 20,000 faithful are expected, followed by an assembly with other young people from the School of the Sacred Heart in Awali.
On Sunday, the pope will face a prayer assembly and recite the Angelus with bishops, priests, religious, seminarians and pastoral staff at Sacred Heart Church in Manama before returning to Awali Air Base for his flight back to Rome. It is scheduled to arrive at Rome Fiumicino airport at five o’clock in the afternoon.
As on his recent trip to Canada and Kazakhstan, Francis would have to use a wheelchair to get around due to fitness issues.
According to his own tradition before and at the end of his trip, he went Wednesday to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome to ask for Our Lady’s blessing. It is Francis’ 100th stopover at the basilica.
His Angelus of All Saints also asked for prayer for his adventure: “I ask each and every one of you to accompany me with prayer,” he said, “so that every assembly and occasion may be a fruitful occasion to promote, at God’s call, a cause of fraternity and peace, which our time needs with such desperation and urgency.
Edward Pentin Edward Pentin began reporting on the Pope and the Vatican with Vatican Radio before becoming the Rome correspondent for EWTN’s National Catholic Register. He has also reported on the Holy See and the Catholic Church for several other publications, adding Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specializing in the Church and the Middle East. Edward is the one from The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates (Sophia Institute Press, 2020) and The Rigging of a Vatican Synod ? An investigation into alleged manipulations at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family (Ignatius Press, 2015). Follow him on Twitter in @edwardpentin.
The Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia is expected to be the non-secular home of some 80,000 Catholics.
From February 3 to 5 in the United Arab Emirates, regional relations between Muslims and Christians will be evaluated.
The denial follows the hypothesis that the pope would possibly go to India to canonize Blessed Mother Teresa.
“God never leaves you alone,” the Holy Father confided to the teenagers, explaining how “prayer opens the heart. “
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In his remarks that flew from Bahrain to Rome, the Holy Father also said that the appointment of a woman as deputy governor of Vatican City State and her inclusion in the Economic Council have been a credit to the Vatican.
Called R20 for short, this year’s first Forum on Religion will resume with next year’s G20 in India and then the following year in Brazil.
The recently announced separation of Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen is a call to pray for the innocent who suffer divorce and recalls John Paul II’s pressing plea: “We cannot yield to the mentality of divorce. “
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