The lasting legacy of Pope Francis in the Middle East

Editor-in-Chief Mina Al-Oraibi meets Pope Francis in Abu Dhabi. Photo: @AlOraibi / X

“Dramatic and deplorable”. That is how Pope Francis described the situation for Gazans in his sermon on Easter Sunday, a day before his death. Pope Francis was a great advocate for Palestinians – Christians and non-Christians – and called for a ceasefire to end Palestinian and Israeli suffering.

In the past 18 months, Pope Francis was among the loudest voices calling for the end of the war in Gaza, and it is among the proponents of peace that he will be most missed. His calls for peace and protecting the rights of the most vulnerable during the 12 years of his papacy are among what made Pope Francis a beloved figure in much of the Arab world.

In 2019, Pope Francis made history by becoming the first Catholic Pope to come to the Arabian Peninsula when he visited the UAE. In addition to signing the Human Fraternity Document with the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Ahmad Al Tayyeb, and meeting UAE leaders led by President Sheikh Mohamed, Pope Francis had a private audience with a number of people. I was fortunate to be among them. He was as friendly as he was thoughtful. We spoke about Palestine, refugees and Iraq – the latter, he said, he was determined to visit, a promise he fulfilled in 2021. He also felt he had a role to play in highlighting the importance of migrants, from those making a life in the UAE to those refugees who escaped conflict.

Pleased at seeing The National’s special front page with a message of welcome dedicated to him, Pope Francis was touched by the attention and devotion shown to him during his visit to the UAE. Authorities declared the day of his Mass a holiday for the private sector – to ensure the 150,000 devotees who attended the ceremony would not be held back by their employers.

The Mass, which I was also lucky to attend, was held in a packed Zayed Sports Stadium. For those who could not attend, screens broadcast the sermon in Al Rawda area outside the stadium. Water bottles, umbrellas to shield from the Sun and transportation were all made available to those attending. And while a mood of jubilation and excitement took over ahead of his sermon, when the Pope spoke, the entire stadium fell silent. Sighs and sounds of crying could be heard as he spoke of the sacrifices of those who leave their families to go to work in a foreign land to provide for their loved ones – he seemed to understand the pain of so many in attendance.

His ability to address the pain of his congregation was often on display – never more so than in his address in Mosul. My father’s hometown suffered terrible evil at the hands of ISIS but also in the brutal war to get rid of them. Mosul’s beauty is in its people’s mosaic of different ethnicities and religious beliefs – which ISIS targeted directly. “How cruel it is that this country, the cradle of civilisation, should have been afflicted by so barbarous a blow … Today, however, we reaffirm our conviction that fraternity is more durable than fratricide, that hope is more powerful than hatred, that peace more powerful than war."

Pope Francis’s visit to Iraq in 2021 was a major milestone in the country’s recovery from the dark days of ISIS. Watching Pope Francis arrive in Baghdad, to be met by cheers, music and joy, made many Iraqis cry tears of joy. His visit to Ur reminded the world of Prophet Abraham’s place of birth, while the Pope’s sermon in Mosul, among the rubble of destroyed buildings, again put a spotlight on a forgotten city in need of recovery.

From Iraq, Pope Francis said: “The road to a full recovery may still be long, but I ask you, please, not to grow discouraged. What is needed is the ability to forgive but also the courage not to give up.” That message holds true for many parts of the world but none more so than the Middle East.