Pope Francis on Thursday took his message of discussion with the Muslim world to the kingdom of Bahrain, where the Sunni-led government is holding an interfaith convention on East-West coexistence, even as it is accused of discriminating against the country’s Shiite majority.
Human rights teams and relatives of Shiite activists sentenced to death suggested that Francis use his visit, which begins Thursday, to call for an end to the death penalty and political repression in Bahrain. But it’s unclear whether Francis will publicly embarrass his hosts. Four-day visit, the first of all pontiffs to the Gulf island nation.
The 85-year-old pope, who has been using a wheelchair for several months because of stress on knee ligaments, said Thursday he was in “a lot” of pain on his way to Bahrain, and for the first time sat down to greet reporters on their way. with him you have to walk down the aisle of the plane.
He arrived at the Awali desert airbase with a little fanfare and attended a personal meeting with Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Khalifa at the airport before the official welcoming ceremony.
Francis has long presented the discussion as a tool for peace and believes a demonstration of interreligious concord is necessary, especially now given Russia’s war in Ukraine and regional conflicts, such as in Yemen. “The cause of fraternity and peace, which our time urgently needs. “
This stopover is Francis’ moment in a Gulf Arabian country, following his historic 2019 in Abu Dhabi, where he signed a document selling the Roman Catholic and Muslim fraternity with a prominent Sunni cleric, Sheikh Ahmed Tayeb. Tayeb is the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the seat of Sunni learning in Cairo. Francis followed with a stopover in Iraq in 2021, where he was conquered by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, one of the world’s most prominent Shiite clerics.
Francis will meet this week in Bahrain with Tayeb, as well as other prominent figures in the interfaith cadre expected to attend the conference, which is held last month in Kazakhstan that Francis and Tayeb also attended. Members of the Muslim Region Council of Elders; the non-secular leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew; a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church; and rabbis are expected from the United States, according to the Bahrain program.
The testament will also allow Francis to minister to Bahrain’s Catholic community, which numbers about 80,000 more people in a country of about 1. 5 million more. Most are employed from the Philippines and India, though tour organizers expect pilgrims from Saudi Arabia and other neighboring countries. countries to attend Francis’ main Mass at the National Stadium on Saturday.
Bahrain is home to the first Catholic church in the Gulf, the Parish of the Sacred Heart, which opened in 1939, as well as the largest, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia. The latter, with a capacity of 2,300 seats, opened last year in the desert city of Awali on land donated to the church through the king. The king introduced Francis to a style of the church on his stopover at the Vatican in 2014 and issued the first invitation to make a stopover at.
Francis will make a stopover at any of the churches he made his stopover at and will most likely thank the king for the government’s longstanding tolerance for Christians living in the country, especially compared to neighboring Saudi Arabia, where Christians cannot practice their faith brazenly.
“Religious freedom in Bahrain is the most productive in the Arab world,” said Archbishop Paul Hinder, apostolic administrator of Bahrain and other Gulf Arab countries. “Even if not everything is ideal, there will possibly be conversions [to Christianity], which are at least not officially punished as in other countries. “
But before going to Bahrain, Shiite opposition teams and human rights organizations suggested Francis draw attention to the Sunni monarchy’s human rights violations against the Shiite majority. They suggested that he call for an end to the death penalty and request a Jau prison in the country, where many Shiite activists have been jailed.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have denounced the use of torture in prisons, as well as forced confessions and “mock trials” of dissidents.
“We are writing to appeal to you as the families of twelve death row inmates who are under imminent threat of execution in Bahrain,” reads a letter from the families to Francis published this week through Bahrain’s Institute for Rights and Democracy. “Our circle of family members remain behind bars and face execution despite the transparent injustice of their beliefs. “
Francis replaced church training to affirm that the death penalty is inadmissible in all cases. He visited criminals during his trips abroad, although no such criminal visits are planned in Bahrain.
The Vatican spokesman declined to say whether Francis would speak publicly or privately about Bahrain’s human rights record during his visit.
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