Pope Francis arrived in the UAE on 3 February for a 48-hour trip, the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula, birthplace of Islam, where he will meet leading Muslim clerics and hold an open-air mass for some 135,000 Catholics.
Pope Francis was welcomed by Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan upon his arrival at Abu Dhabi International Airport in the UAE capital on February 3, 2019.
This is the first such visit for any pontiff. He will celebrate mass in Abu Dhabi with 120,000 of the more than 1 million Catholics who live in the UAE, and visit the local Catholic Cathedral that opened in 1965 on land donated by the government.
The Pope's visit will send a strong signal across the region and world: People with different beliefs can live, work and worship together. Reverence, respect and compassion are core common values. Prayer is both uniting and unifying.
