Pope Francis became the first Pope from the Vatican to pay a visit to an Arab Gulf state. During Thursday’s video address from the Vatican, Francis stated that his trip to the UAE would be marking a new beginning in the histoty of relations between religions, upholding the fact that the UAE and the Vatican are brothers and sisters, although being different.

The staggering majority of Emiratis are Muslim, however, the nation holds a large emigrant population, almost around1.2 million of whom are Christian.

Indians and Filipinos forms the majority of the UAE’s Christian population.

Pope Francis would be spending three days in the UAE’s capital, Abu Dhabi, where he would be attending an interreligious conference with other religious leaders such as Jewish and Christian leaders. The trip which would be kicking off from 3rd February would come to an end on 5th February (Tuesday) with a papal mass at the Zayed Sports City. It is being assumed that the public Papal Mass is going to be to be the single largest assemblage in the nation, which might witness around 135,000 attendees.

Pope Francis, an hour before leaving for his historic trip, prayed publicly for the “weary, hungry” victims of the Yemen war. He added that the people of Yemen is very tired by the long battle and manyt childrten are starving. However, giving them foof aid is not possible. Hence, he would like to request to those inmvolved in the Yemen war as well as to the international community to immediately work on the matter and folowd the so-called agreed agreement, to guarantee the distribution of food and work for the good of the people.

The UAE has anmnouced Tuesday as a holiday for the invitees to the mass.

It would be Pope Francis’s seventh visit to a chiefly Muslim nation, indicating a continuance of upgrading ties between the Vatican and the Islamic world.

The Pope has requested to build bridges with the Muslim world by dismissing to equalize Islam with violence, stating that all religions have zealot elements and religious leaders should be working together to fight all kinds of fundamentalism and violence. Pope Francis is due to meet for the fourth time the head of the Al-Azhar mosque, who is the highest authority holder in Sunni Islam during 4th february’s interreligious conference.