Pope Francis first pontiff to visit Kingdom; Bahrain Declaration is important document for respect of human rights, dialogue

Vatican, Oct. 29 (BNA): The visit of His Holiness Pope Francis to Bahrain in November represents a precious step along the path of fraternity and interreligious dialogue, the Director of the Holy See Press Office has said. At a press conference at the Holy See Press Office ahead of the historic trip to the Kingdom on November 3-6 at the invitation of HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Matteo Bruni offered reporters an overview of the papal visit. Pope Francis will be the first Pope to visit Bahrain, the Director of the Holy See Press Office said. He will attend the closing ceremony of the first-ever “Bahrain Forum for Dialogue: East and West for Human Coexistence”, which will see around 200 interfaith leaders gathered to promote fraternity. As the shepherd of the Universal Church, Pope Francis will meet with the Catholic community, Bruni said Four meetings of the Pope’s seven public encounters on the four-day visit will be with various sanctions of the local Catholic Church, including young people, clergy and religious, and Catholics from neighboring countries, Bruni said. “As Pope Francis visits Bahrain next week, local Catholics and leaders of other religions await his words of hope and encouragement on the path to peace in our world currently marred by conflict,” Bruni was quoted by Vatican News as telling reporters. He noted Bahrain’s interest in serving humanity, and stressed that an international conference on dialogue among civilizations and cultures was held in Manama in 2014, during which the Declaration of the Kingdom of Bahrain was adopted. The Declaration is an important document that reaffirms respect for human rights and calls for strengthening dialogue, serving peace and promoting pluralism. The visit to Bahrain will be Pope Francis’ 39th Apostolic Journey abroad and it will bring him to his 58th country visited as Pope. The Kingdom is a country where different ethnic and religious groups coexist, and has a long tradition of religious tolerance and is open to interreligious dialogue as shown, amongst other things, by the fact that Bahrain is home to several non-Muslim places of worship, with two Catholic churches among the 18 officially-registered churches. The first Catholic church to be erected in modern times in the Gulf region is located in Bahrain: The Church of the Sacred Heart was built in 1939 in Manama, on a plot of land graciously donated by the Emir to the Catholic Church. A second church was erected in Awali, 20 kilometers south of the capital Manama, on a 9,000 square-meter plot of land given to the Church by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa in 2013. The Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia is presently the largest Catholic church in the region, seating 2,300 people. The project, which was strongly advocated by the late Bishop Camillo Ballin, at the time Apostolic Vicar of Northern Arabia, was launched in 2014. The modern-style church was consecrated on December 10, 2021 by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, who on that same day conveyed a letter from Pope Francis to HM King Hamad who reiterated his invitation to the Pope to visit Bahrain. A special logo will mark the historic visit by Pope Francis. It consists of the flags of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Holy See in the shape of two hands jointly raised to the Creator in a plea for peace. The olive branch in the middle symbolizes the fruit of peace as the two different nations encounter each other in the spirit of human fraternity and goodwill. The branch also demonstrates their earnest desire to spread the fruit of peace in an increasingly fragmented world. In the logo, the words “Pope Francis” are colored in blue to denote that the Papal Journey is entrusted to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title “Our Lady of Arabia”, the patroness of the Cathedral, gift of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the Catholic church in the country.