杏MAP导航

By Linda Bordoni - Abu Dhabi

There are not many Catholic churches in Abu Dhabi, only two to be precise! One is the relatively recent St. Paul鈥檚 built in 2011 to cater to the spiritual needs of the large Catholic community who live in the industrial area of Musaffah.

The other is St. Joseph鈥檚 Cathedral, and that鈥檚 where I wanted to go because it鈥檚 where 杏MAP导航 Francis will stop, pray, and meet with some members of its community before celebrating Mass on Tuesday morning for tens of thousands of faithful at the Sports City.

The 杏MAP导航鈥檚 stay in Abu Dhabi is short and the list of places on his programme is not a long one. So, apart from the just mentioned Sayed Sports City, it includes:

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

The magnificent Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is where 杏MAP导航 Francis will meet with the Council of Elders.

Breathtakingly decorated, it is designed to reflect and celebrate the wide diversity of the Muslim world with architectural references to all of the main Mosques of the East. With its 82 domes, its 1.100 majestic columns, 4 minarets, dozens of crystal chandeliers and the largest hand-woven Persian carpet in the world, it can host up to 40,000 worshippers. It鈥檚 easy to find thanks to its perfectly proportioned domes that are well visible from afar, attracting crowds of Emiratis and tourists every day.

The Founder鈥檚 Memorial

The Founder鈥檚 Memorial is three hectares of luscious landscaped gardens and houses an enormous installation entitled 鈥淭he Constellation鈥� created by the American artist Ralph Helmick.

It鈥檚 where the 杏MAP导航 will meet privately with the Council of Elders and inevitably pay his respects to the beloved Founding Father of the Nation, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nayhan, who shaped the United Arab Emirates and bestowed upon it a legacy of tolerance and peaceful coexistence making it the prosperous nation it is today. It鈥檚 also easy to find with its allure of green foliage and birdsong: a place of tranquillity and calm in the midst of the row of metallic skyscrapers that define the city skyline.

St. Joseph鈥檚 Cathedral

And then there is St. Joseph鈥檚 Cathedral whose foundation was laid in 1962 thanks to the far-sighted vision of Sheikh Shakbut.  

I had read that the Church welcomes some 100,000 Catholic migrants from all over the world, and with the growing economy it continues to witness a steady increase in the number of its flock who pack the Church to capacity thanks to a tight schedule of Masses in different languages.

鈥淵ou want to go to the Christian鈥� mosque?鈥� the taxi driver said to me showing that everyone here knows of its existence. But it proved extremely difficult to find!

After a long drive through a somewhat lifeless urban landscape, Google Maps took us to the right address, but I still had to look hard to pinpoint the building itself which turned out to be a simple, rather squat rectangular cement edifice, squashed in between a series of other buildings, and only a few meters from a Mosque and its towering minarets.

Modest is how I would define it: modest and prayerful, with a joyful crowd of faithful thronging the courtyard outside to pick up their free tickets for the papal Mass, and with a handful of devoted Catholics inside, sitting in silence, praying the rosary on their knees, and reaching out to touch the religious images portrayed inthe simple mosaics with intense love and trust.

That鈥檚 why, I think, 杏MAP导航 Francis will love it!