• Bahrain has a majority-Muslim population of 1.3 million people and only 80,000 Catholics.
• Pope Francis will be the first pontiff to visit Bahrain, his 58th country.
• The journey will start with a visit to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

During his next visit to Bahrain, Pope Francis hopes to promote communication between Catholics and Muslims and to send a message of peace across the Arabian Gulf.

From November 3 to November 6, the Pope will be in Bahrain. The journey will start with a visit to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who extended the invitation to travel to the nation, at the Sakhir Royal Palace.

Francis will be visiting this nation for the tenth time, which has a majority-Muslim population of 1.3 million people and only approximately 80,000 Catholics.

“It will also be a ‘sign’ for Shiite Islam, in the framework of a strategy of rapprochement with different branches of the Muslim faith the Pope is following,” Fr Giuseppe Ciutti, an Italian priest who spent time in Iraq and studies the relationship between Islam and Catholicism, told Arab News.

At a press conference, Monsignor Paul Hinder, the apostolic administrator of the North Arabia apostolic region, which includes Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain, said the Pope’s visit to Bahrain followed the path begun with the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Common Coexistence,” which Francis signed in February 2019 in Abu Dhabi with Sheikh Ahmed al Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of al Azhar, a Sunni Muslim leader.

Hinder expects the Pope will pursue a “good policy” of rapprochement with the “various currents” of Islam and invite discussion with other religions.

Pope Francis will be the first pontiff to visit Bahrain, his 58th country.

“It is an ancient land where different national, ethnic and religious groups coexist and therefore it is a precious step in the journey of fraternity the Pope has undertaken,” Bruni said.

A source in the Vatican told Arab News that “the Pope really appreciates the attitude to tolerance for Christians in Bahrain. Most of them are immigrants, poor people who left their countries — mostly Sri Lanka, India, Lebanon, the Philippines — to find a job so that they can sustain their families.”

The Pope will bless Bahrain’s new Our Lady of Arabia Cathedral. King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa donated 9,000 sq m for its opening on December 10, 2021. In 1939, his grandfather, Isa bin Salman Al-Khalifa, gave property in Manama for the Sacred Heart Church, Bahrain’s first Catholic church.

The Pope will give seven speeches in Manama and Awali over four days. The Saturday mass at the Bahrain National Stadium, projected to draw 20,000 people, is the most anticipated event.

In Manama, Francis will participate in the “Forum for Dialogue between East and West.”

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