Bishop Hinder said he had been unable to reach Yemen because of the war, but that working on specific cases “behind the curtain” sometimes yielded positive results. He added that a public statement by Francis on Yemen was possible, but “I am quite sure that he will speak about the drama in a more discreet way.”
The pope and the rulers of the United Arab Emirates have been more outspoken in their proclamations of their shared commitment to tolerance and interreligious dialogue.
Pope Francis, who will reside during his stay at the Al Mushrif Palace, has called the Emirates a “land that tries to be a model of coexistence” and began a video message about the trip last week with the Arabic salutation “as-salamu alaikum,” or peace be with you. “I am happy for this occasion the Lord has given me to write, on your dear land, a new page in the history of relations between religions.”
The government here has gone out of its way to welcome the pope.
“They are surely proud to be the first here in the region to receive him as a sign of recognition of their tolerance and their openness,” Bishop Hinder said. “The recognition of the tolerance in this country should be an encouragement maybe for certain countries in the neighborhood,” he added, referring to Saudi Arabia. Analysts said that the pope also most likely intended for his message to reach Iran, just across the Persian Gulf.
In January, Francis told ambassadors to the Holy See that the visit to the Emirates represented an opportunity to improve understanding and relations between the faiths, especially as this year “marks the 800th anniversary of the historic meeting between St. Francis of Assisi and Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil” of Egypt.
On Monday the pope will meet with the Council of Muslim Elders, at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, the country’s largest. The Council of Muslim Elders has come to specialize in interfaith dialogue.
But “the worry is the dialogue is just part of an image,” part of the efforts by the rulers of the United Arab Emirates to project a modern image to attract business, said Daniel Philpott, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame and the author of the forthcoming book “Religious Freedom in Islam.”
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