Pope Francis to pay four-day Visit to Bahrain from 3 November

Bahrain.
 

Pope Francis to pay four-day visit to Bahrain from 3 November,
celebrate public Mass and address the Bahrain Forum for Dialogue

The visit is in response to the invitation from His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain

His Holiness Pope Francis will visit the Kingdom of Bahrain from 3-6 November 2022. His itinerary will include a public Mass at the Bahrain National Stadium, an address to the Bahrain Forum for Dialogue and a host of other programmes.

The visit is in response to the invitation from His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain.
During his stay in the Kingdom, the Holy Father will address the Bahrain Forum for Dialogue, a conference that will focus on the theme “East and West for Human Coexistence”.

Bishop Paul Hinder, the Apostolic Administrator of the Vicariate of Northern Arabia (that encompasses Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia), said: “The theme of the Apostolic Journey to the Kingdom of Bahrain is ‘Peace on earth to people of goodwill’, a verse taken from the second chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke. This theme is very timely, as many people all over the world are struggling under various forms of conflict, hostility and wars, and are turning to Heaven with an earnest cry for peace.”

Pope Francis will celebrate a public Mass at the Bahrain National Stadium on Saturday, 5 November, 2022, at 8.00 a.m. The Catholics in Bahrain and from the other countries of the Vicariate of Northern Arabia are invited to attend this celebration of the Eucharist. Taking into account the limited spaces available, a system of registration is being worked out together with the Government authorities.

Bahrain has a rich history of religious tolerance and harmony. The Kingdom has been supporting non-Muslims or people from other religions to carry out worship for well over 200 years. This was reflected in the gesture of the Ruler of Bahrain granting license for constructing a Hindu Temple in 1819. In 1893 the American Mission representatives came to Bahrain, met with the then Ruler, the late Shaikh Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa, and were given permission to establish a church, a school and a hospital.

Bahrain has over 80,000 Roman Catholics, the majority of them migrants from different countries, including the Indian Subcontinent and the Philippines. Bahrain is also one of the few GCC countries to have a local Christian population – largely Roman Catholic - of about 1,000, mostly Arab Christians from the Middle East who migrated to Bahrain between 1930s and 1950s and now hold Bahraini citizenship.

The first Catholic Church in Bahrain was opened in Manama in 1939 under the name Sacred Heart Church.  It became the first church in the Arabian Gulf. On December 8,1991, a  second church was opened in Manama.

More recently, on December 9, 2021, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia was inaugurated in Awali in the Kingdom, on a plot of 900 square metres, gifted by HM the King. Located in a town about 20 km south of the capital, Manama, it is the Arabian Gulf’s largest Roman Catholic church which can seat up to 2,300 worshippers. The modernist church with an octagonal dome has two chapels and an 800-capacity auditorium.

Relations between Bahrain and the Vatican have progressed in recent years. HM King Hamad presented a model of the Our Lady of Arabia Cathedral to Pope Francis in 2014 and also extended an invitation to the Pontiff to visit the Kingdom.

King Hamad also endorsed the Document on Human Fraternity, signed in Abu Dhabi by the Pontiff and Dr. Ahmed El Tayeb, Grand Imam of the Al Azhar in 2019 that aims to bring people together in the spirit of respect and tolerance.

The Bahrain Forum for Dialogue is a reflection of the Kingdom’s positioning as a developed and liberal country and a beacon of tolerance between peoples and religions, which has turned the Kingdom into a model of tolerance and coexistence. Full details of the forum are to be announced later.

Together with representatives of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Holy See, church officials of the Vicariate of Northern Arabia are working out the arrangements for the programmes and events to be attended by the Pontiff.

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