Pope Francis began a four-day trip to Bahrain on Thursday, his second official visit to the Gulf following his journey to the UAE in 2019.
He will lead a public Mass at the Bahrain National Stadium on Saturday morning and meet parish workers at the Sacred Heart Church in Manama, the Gulf’s oldest.
He will also meet Dr Ahmed Al Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar on Friday and address a meeting of members of the Muslim Council of Elders.
There are about 80,000 Catholics in Bahrain. More than 1,500 of them are Bahraini citizens, counting it among a few Gulf states with a local Christian population.
