ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Pope Francis received a grandiose, pomp-filled welcome on Monday as he opened his historic visit to the Arabian Peninsula with a meeting with Emirati leaders ahead of an address to faith leaders gathered in a Muslim region known for its restrictions on religious freedom.
Francis arrived at the Abu Dhabi presidential palace in a simple Kia hatchback but was greeted with an artillery salute and military flyover by a country now at war.
Even for a nation known for its excesses, the Emiratis’ red-carpet welcome was remarkable for a Pope who prides himself on simplicity. It featured horse-mounted guards escorting the Pontiff’s motorcade through the palace gardens while the flyover trailed the yellow and white smoke of the Holy See flag and cannons boomed.
Francis stood somberly between Abu Dhabi’s powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the Emirati Vice President and Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, as the Vatican and Emirati anthems played and delegations were introduced in the courtyard of the domed palace.
In a message to the prince, written in the palace book of honor, Francis assured the people of the UAE of his prayers and “the divine blessings of peace and fraternal solidarity.” The prince gave Francis a framed notarized decree from June 22, 1963 in which the then-ruler of Abu Dhabi donated the land for the construction of the first Catholic Church in the Emirates.
Francis’ speech to the gathering of faith leaders on Monday evening is to be the highlight of his brief, 40-hour visit to Abu Dhabi, the first to the Arabian Peninsula by a Pope. His trip culminates on Tuesday with the first-ever papal Mass on the Arabian Peninsula – a gathering expected to draw some 135,000 faithful in a never-before-seen display of public Christian worship here.
