Pope Francis in Bahrain boosts Catholic-Muslim fraternity

On his last day of his visit to the Persian Gulf Kingdom of Bahrain, Catholic leader Pope Francis on Saturday celebrates mass at the country’s national stadium in front of thousands. The pope also led a prayer meeting with local Catholics at the Sacred Heart School in Manama.

A poster of Pope Francis outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, in Manama, Bahrain. AP - Hussein Malla

This is the first time the head of the Catholic Church has visited Bahrain and is Pope Francis’ second trip to a Gulf Arab nation.

On his 2019 trip to Abu Dhabi, the Catholic leader signed a document promoting Catholic-Muslim fraternity. This Bahrain visit has also been aimed at improving ties with the world of Islam.

Bahrain has a small Catholic community of 161,000 in a country of 1.5 million. Catholics are mainly Asian migrants, particularly from the Philippines and India, according to 2020 Vatican statistics.

Bahrain’s government has repeatedly been criticised for human rights abuses targeting migrant works, charges which the authorities in Bahrain deny.

Following his arrival on Thursday, Pope Francis called for an end to discrimination and human rights violations. It is vital that “fundamental human rights are not violated but promoted”, the pope said at the Sakhir Royal palace.

Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa also gave a speech at the Royal Palace. He said his country protected the freedom of all faiths, allowing believers to “perform their rituals and establish their places of worship”.

'Let us work together for peace'

On his second day in the Gulf Arab state, Pope Francis gave the closing speech at the Bahrain Forum for Dialogue: East and West for Human Coexistence, which was also attended by Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo’s prestigious al-Azhar University.

Pope Francis joined Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders on Friday in calling for the world's great religions to work together for peace, telling an interfaith summit that religion must never be used to justify violence.

Addressing religious leaders he said, “We are living at a time when humanity, connected as never before, appears much more divided than united,” adding, “we continue to find ourselves on the brink of a delicate precipice and we do not want to fall.

"It is a striking paradox that, while the majority of the world's population is united in facing the same difficulties, suffering from grave food, ecological and pandemic crises, as well as an increasingly scandalous global injustice, a few potentates are caught up in a resolute struggle for partisan interests," Francis said.

"We appear to be witnessing a dramatic and childlike scenario: in the garden of humanity, instead of cultivating our surroundings, we are playing instead with fire, missiles and bombs, weapons that bring sorrow and death, covering our common home with ashes and hatred."

King Hamad urged a coherent effort to stop Russia's war in Ukraine and promote peace negotiations, “for the good of all of humanity.”  The Grand Imam Al-Tayeb also called for an end to Russia's war “to spare the lives of innocents who have no hand in this violent tragedy.”