Pope Francis to begin historic four-day tour to Bahrain
Pope Francis will begin a four-day trip to Bahrain on Thursday, his second official visit to the Gulf following his journey to the UAE in 2019.
He will lead a public Mass at the Bahrain National Stadium on Saturday morning and meet parish workers at the Sacred Heart Church in Manama, the Gulf’s oldest.
He will also meet Dr Ahmed Al Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar on Friday and address a meeting of members of the Muslim Council of Elders.
There are about 80,000 Catholics in Bahrain. More than 1,500 of them are Bahraini citizens, counting it among a few Gulf states with a local Christian population.
Pope Francis has departed Rome for the start of an historic four-day tour of Bahrain.
The pontiff’s flight from the Italian capital took to the skies shortly before 1pm, UAE time.
He will send telegrams to the leaders of each country the flight passes over, taking in Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, in a show of global friendship.
The Pope’s arrival in the Gulf is highly anticipated, coming only three years after his milestone trip to the UAE.
He will meet Dr Ahmed Al Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al Azhar, on Friday and address a meeting of members of the Muslim Council of Elders.
The Pope will pray for peace at the Our Lady of Arabia Cathedral, the largest in the region, with members of Christian churches.
He will lead a public Mass at the Bahrain National Stadium on Saturday morning and meet parish workers at the Sacred Heart Church in Manama, the Gulf’s oldest Christian church.
How to track Pope Francis’s flight to Bahrain
Pope Francis is to land in Bahrain on Thursday afternoon for his second Gulf tour in three years.
The pontiff is flying to the region from Rome, for a tour that will shine a light on the importance of inter-faith harmony.
Flight number AZ4000 departs Terminal 5 at Rome Fiumicino Airport at 9.40am, Italian time (11.40am in the UAE).
The Pope will not fly to Bahrain International Airport in Manama. Instead, he is expected to land at the country’s single-runway Sakhir airbase at 4.45pm on Thursday afternoon.
