Tens of thousands of Catholics and several thousand Muslims have attended an unprecedented public celebration of Mass by Pope Francis, the first pontiff in history to visit the Arabian Peninsula.
More than 120,000 worshippers packed Zayed Sports City stadium and its surroundings in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, to see the Pope, who is in the Gulf country to promote inter-faith dialogue.
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.
"The Lord specialises 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.
Francis entered the stadium in a white open top jeep to roars from the crowd.
People wearing white baseball caps emblazoned with the visit logo packed the stadium stands and snapped pictures on their smartphones.
"For me as a Christian, this is one of the most important days of my life," said Thomas Tijo, a 44-year-old from India's southern state of Kerala, who lives in the UAE and travelled by bus in the early hours to get to the stadium.
Pope Francis greets the faithfuls as he arrive to celebrate a Mass at the Sheikh Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Source: IPA Milestone
"We are a long way from home and this is like a comforting blanket," he said, holding his three-year-old son, Marcus.
Organisers said Catholics from about 100 nations were expected to attend the Mass, along with about 4000 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.
During the service the Pope spoke in Italian and English, which is widely spoken in the UAE where expatriates outnumber Emiratis nine to one. The congregation prayed for migrant workers and their families and for the ending of wars.
