Pope Francis prayed for “so-tried” Lebanon and “martyred Ukraine” on Sunday in Bahrain at the end of his first visit to this small Muslim Gulf country.
The Argentine Jesuit also thanked the authorities for welcoming them during a meeting with Catholic clergy at the Church of the Sacred Heart in the capital, Manama.
“Seeing the faithful of Lebanon here, I assure you of my prayers and closeness to this beloved country, so tired and so tried, and to all the peoples who are suffering in the Middle East,” the Pope said in his last public address Bahrain .
“I don’t want to forget to pray and ask you to pray for Ukraine that has been so martyred and for the end of this war,” he added.
The pope also urged church members to promote dialogue “with brothers of other faiths and denominations” in an “interreligious and multicultural society.”
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After a four-day stay, the 85-year-old pope was due to leave for Rome around noon.
On Saturday, Francis, who was meeting with authorities and Muslim leaders, celebrated mass in front of around 30,000 people gathered in a stadium and spoke privately with King Hamad bin Issa Al-Khalifa.
During his visit, François castigated the logic of the “opposition blocs” East/West and demanded “that fundamental human rights are not violated but promoted”.
Since a quickly crushed revolt in Bahrain in the wake of the Arab Spring in 2011, the country’s Sunni power has been regularly accused by NGOs of pursuing repression of political dissidents, particularly those from the Shia community.
The government assures him that he does not tolerate “discrimination” and has mechanisms in place to protect human rights.
The visit, the Pope’s 39th overseas visit since his election in 2013, is the second to the Arabian Peninsula following his historic trip to the United Arab Emirates in 2019.
Bahrain, which established diplomatic ties with the Holy See in 2000, has around 80,000 Catholics, mostly Asian workers, according to the Vatican.