POPE Francis is now in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the first pontiff to set foot on the Arabian Peninsula. The UAE is one of the smaller Arab states – with Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen, and Oman – in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea east and south of giant Saudi Arabia.
Many overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) live and work today in the UAE and the other Arab states, which is one of the reasons the papal visit is of great interest to us in the Philippines. This part of the globe today hosts more OFWs than any other part of the world, including the United States and Europe.
Pope Francis attended an inter-faith conference Monday and led a papal mass yesterday in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAR and home to nearly a million Catholics, most of them from India and the Philippines. The Pope welcomes the opportunity to set foot on the Arabian Peninsula, which he described as a new page in the history of relations between religions.
“Faith in God does not divide,” he said in his video message in advance of the historic visit. “It draws us closer despite differences. It distances us from hostilities and aversion.”
The US today is the favorite goal of Filipinos seeking work overseas, but because of the rapid economic development of the Middle East countries, they now host the biggest concentration of OFWs in the world.
Many of our OFWs in the Middle East are Muslims from Mindanao but a great many of them are also Catholic Christians from all over the Philippines. The UAR, along with Kuwait, is said to be among the most tolerant of the Gulf countries towards other religions. But Christian and other non-Muslim places of worship are banned in Saudi Arabia in which are located the holiest sites of Islam – Mecca and Medina. Filipino Christian OFWs thus cannot openly practice their faith.
It is hoped that Pope Francis’ historic visit to the UAR will encourage inter-religious dialogue in the region. This would be a first step towards greater freedom of worship, which so many Filipino overseas workers are denied today, adding to the difficulties they face as they strive to support their families at home.
