Pope holds historic papal mass in UAE

Tens of thousands of Catholics and several thousand Muslims attended an unprecedented public celebration of Mass on Tuesday by Pope Francis, the first pontiff in history to visit the Arabian Peninsula.

About 135,000 Catholics attended the mass on Tuesday with some carrying Vatican flags and banners as the pope drove into Zayed Sports City Stadium, where an altar with a large cross was set up for the open-air service.

The UAE hosts about half of the two million expatriate Catholics living on the peninsula, home to the birthplace of Islam in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. The community includes large numbers of people from the Philippines and India.

“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,” the pope said, telling those gathered to draw inspiration from Saint Anthony the Abbot, the founder of monasticism in the desert.

“The Lord specializes in doing new things; he can even open paths in the desert,” he said at the end of a trip where he met with the grand imam of Egypt’s Al-Azhar mosque and UAE leaders.

Cheers erupted inside and outside the stadium as Pope Francis arrived and moved through the crowd in his open-sided popemobile before the mass. Chants of "Viva il Papa" and "We love you" accompanied him as he waved to the crowd.

Organizers said Catholics from about 100 nations were expected to attend the Mass, along with about 4,000 Muslims, including government officials.

The pope, who arrived on Sunday at the invitation of Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, has used the visit to condemn regional wars, including that in Yemen, the poorest country in the Peninsula, where the UAE is involved as part of a Saudi-led military coalition. He also called for greater cooperation between Christians and Muslims.