Pope celebrates historic UAE Mass

Pope Francis blesses a boy during a Mass at the Sheikh Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on Tuesday. The pontiff traveled to Abu Dhabi to participate in a conference on interreligious dialogue sponsored by the Emirates-based Muslim Council of Elders, an initiative that seeks to counter religious fanaticism by promoting a moderate brand of Islam. AP

ABU DHABI — Pope Francis ministered on Tuesday to the thriving Catholic community in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as he concluded his historic visit to the Arabian peninsula with the first-ever papal Mass here and a call for his flock to remain meek in following God.

A day after making a broad appeal for Christian and Muslim leaders to work together to promote peace and reject war, Francis celebrated what some considered the largest show of public Christian worship on the peninsula, the birthplace of Islam.

For the Gulf Arab region where public displays of non-Islamic faith are restricted, the hymns of “Halleluja” booming out from speakers marked a milestone and evidence of the Emirates’ much-touted assertions of its tolerance for other faiths.

Cheers erupted inside and outside the Zayed Sports City Stadium as Francis arrived and looped through the crowd in his open-sided popemobile, as chants of “Viva il Papa” and “We love you!” echoed from the crowd.

Organizers had to raffle tickets to accommodate in the stadium an estimated 135,000 faithful from 100 countries expected to attend the Mass, including 4,000 Muslims from this Muslim federation — evidence of the enormous diversity among the nine million people who live in the UAE.

The Catholic Church estimates as many as one million of the over nine million living in the UAE are Catholic. Most are Filipino and Indian, many of whom have left behind families back home in order to come here and work.

“It is most certainly not easy for you to live far from home, missing the affection of your loved ones, and perhaps also feeling uncertainty about the future. But the Lord is faithful and does not abandon his people,” Francis said in his homily.

“He is almost divine. He has a special charisma, which appeals to each one,” said Raphael Muntenkurian, 64, an Indian-native and former seminarian who has lived in the UAE for more than 30 years.

Prayers during Mass were being read out in a variety of languages. A prayer in the Indian language of Konkani called for public officials to be “illuminated” and promote the dignity of all, while the one in the Filipino language of Tagalog urged prayers for migrants

Francis’ visit, 800 years after his peace-loving namesake St. Francis of Assisi visited an Egyptian sultan, marked the culmination of years of Holy See efforts to improve relations with the Muslim world after they hit a low during the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI.