VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis will visit Bahrain, home to the Arabian Peninsula’s largest Catholic church, in November, the Vatican said Wednesday.
Francis, 85, will be the first pope in the Muslim-majority country, according to Vatican News.
He ordered through the doctor to slow down, after suffering knee pain that forced him to use a wheelchair and cancel some events.
Francis will stop in the capital Manama and the city of Awali during the Nov. 3-6 holiday and participate in the “Bahrain Forum for Dialogue: East and West for Human Coexistence. “
Other main points about the scale in the 39th foreign of Francis’ papacy will be released at a later date.
But the pontiff is expected to visit the cavernous Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia in Awali, which opened last year.
The modern-style church is about 1. 6 kilometers from a giant mosque and a stone’s throw from an oil well in the southern component of the state.
It was built to serve the country’s approximately 80,000 Catholics, mostly staff from Asia, basically from India and the Philippines.
The pontiff beat Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Eisa Al Khalifa at the Vatican in 2014.
The two men discussed “peace and stability in the Middle East” and the Christian network’s contribution to the country, the Holy See said at the time.
He follows another to a Muslim-majority country, following Francis’ stopover in Kazakhstan earlier this month.
In 2019, Francis traveled to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the first pontiff to the Arabian Peninsula and said Mass. There, he signed a landmark document with the leader Imam of Al Azhar in Cairo, the seat of Sunni learning, pledging to be Catholic – Muslim Chequered Cooperation for Peace.
Bahrain is 70% Muslim and allows the small Christian network, made up mostly of foreign staff, to publicly practice its religion in the country’s two churches.
Vatican officials first announced the trip to Bahrain on the pope’s return flight to Kazakhstan earlier this month, but gave no dates.
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