Pope Francis celebrated a historic mass in the United Arab Emirates in front of 170,000 faithful

Francisco officiated Tuesday for Mbad for the flourishing Catholic community of the United Arab Emirates at the end of his historic visit to the Arabian Peninsula. In the first papal homily of the region, the pontiff asked the faithful to remain humble before God.

One day after launching a broad appeal to Christian and Muslim leaders to work together for peace and against war, Francisco celebrated what some saw as the largest public manifestation of the Christian faith in the peninsula, the cradle of Islam.

In an Arab region where public samples of non-Islamic beliefs are restrictedThe broadcast of the Hallelujah hymns by the speakers was a milestone and proof of Emirates' claims of tolerance of other religions.

Cheers erupted inside and outside Zayed Sports City stadium when Francisco arrivedand he came across the crowd, estimated at some 135,000 people, between the songs of "Viva il Papa" and "We love you!"

According to the organizers, At mbad, faithful from 100 countries and some 4,000 Muslims will be present, testifying to the great diversity of the 9 million inhabitants of the country.

"We have to say that it's really a big event that we never expect"said Sumitha Pinto, a native of India and living in the UAE for 20 years. She attended with her husband and four children. The youngest had a sign with the image of the pontiff saying: "Welcome, Pope Francis, make me a channel of your peace."

The Catholic community in the UAE is a kind of anomaly in the region: It is vast, diverse and flourishing at a time when, in most of the Middle East, there is an exodus of Christians fleeing persecution by the extremist group "Islamic State" and others.

The Catholic Church estimates that nearly 9 million inhabitants of the Emirates are Catholics, almost all the foreigners who went to the rich oil federation to fill all kinds of jobs, from executives to construction workers. The majority of them are Filipinos and Indians, many of whom have left their families and may face precarious conditions regularly denounced by human rights groups.

In his homily, pronounced in Italian and translated into Arabic with English subtitles on giant screens, Francisco made a direct reference to the suffering that some suffer.

"The safest thing is that it's not easy for you to live far from home, to miss the love of your loved ones and perhaps also to feel an uncertainty as for the future ", he said. "But the Lord is faithful and does not abandon his people."

The Pope also told his records, mostly poor and manual labor, that they did not need to lift them.r great "superhuman" works to be faithful. The message preaches humility in a country that has the world's tallest skyscraper and is known for its opulence and excesses.

Jesus, said the pontiff, "He does not ask us to build great works or to draw attention to us with extraordinary gestures, he asked us to produce a unique work of art, possible for all: our own life".

The crowd was euphoric and appreciated the words of Argentina.

"He is almost divine, he has a special charisma that touches everyone," said Raphael Muntenkurian, a 64-year-old former Indian seminarian who has been living in the UAE for more than three decades.

"Everyone is really fascinated by his call for peace and tolerance", he added. "His simplicity and humility are always worthy of admiration."

In a sample of the diversity of the Catholic communityMbad prayers were read in several languages ​​and dealt with the range of problems that concerned him.

A prayer from the Konkani Indians called on public officials to "enlighten" and promote the dignity of all; one in Tagalog, from the Philippines, prayed for the migrants and workers of the country so that "their sacrifice and their work could flourish and support their families", while another in French asked those who fomented violence to change and "end wars overcoming hate and help forge bonds of justice and peace".

On Monday, The pope met the UAE leaders and signed a document promoting "human fraternity" with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the great imam of Al-Azhar, the famous Egyptian center of learning of Sunni Islam, 1,000 years old. He also urged religious leaders to work together to reject the "miserable hardness" of war and to resist the "logic of armed power (…) to build borders, to build walls".