One of the UAE’s largest Roman Catholic churches is gearing up for its busiest Christmas in years.
St Joseph’s Cathedral in Abu Dhabi is preparing to welcome more than 50,000 people for its Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
About 25 Masses in numerous languages will take place on both days with up to 10,000 people alone expected at a special outdoor midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.
It is the first Christmas since the Covid-19 pandemic that Masses are being celebrated without any restrictions and church authorities have added several extra services this year to cope with the demand.
“Everyone wants to come back,” said Fr Chito Bartolo, parish priest at St Joseph’s. “Everybody wants to make the celebration as happy as ever.”
On Thursday when The National visited, church staff and volunteers were putting the finishing touches to the arrangements outdoors.
Almost 300 volunteers helped to put up Christmas trees, festive lights, temporary stages for the priests and hundreds of chairs. They will also help manage the throngs of people who will pass through St Joseph’s compound at Christmas, with nurses and doctors from the congregation on standby in event of an emergency.
They have also erected projectors and loudspeakers so everyone standing can see and hear the service. The Masses will also be live-streamed.
A chance to give back
“This is my way of saying thank God for everything,” said Rommel Pangilinan, a volunteer who helps with broadcasting the Mass. “We are doing something that gives back to the people.”
St Joseph’s is one of the oldest churches in the Arabian Gulf. The first midnight Mass was held on December 24, 1964 and the church was consecrated the following year. Sheikh Shakhbut, Ruler of Abu Dhabi at the time, attended the opening. Archive photos from the 1960s show the church on the city's Corniche surrounded by nothing but sand, with a cross above the door.
From that small, faithful crew who celebrated a quiet Christmas in 1964, St Joseph’s now has a congregation of between 80,000 and 100,000 people. The church has since moved to Al Mushrif where it sits alongside a cluster of other churches and a mosque. Pope Francis visited the church during his landmark 2019 trip to the UAE.
People milled around the church compound on Thursday with an air of festive expectation in the air. Priests in white robes hurried busily between offices, families took pictures beside the crib, while others lit candles at some of the shrines.
A couple from India ― Alex Mendonca and Joyce Pereira ― are volunteering again this year. “We guide people to where they can sit,” said Mr Mendonca, who is from Goa. “We help with the collections and also show them where to receive sacraments, such as communion.”
Ms Pereira, from Mumbai, said last year they spent practically the whole day volunteering, taking a break only to eat Christmas dinner. “We just love to serve.”
Faith strengthened in face of adversity
Places of worship closed in the UAE in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic raged throughout the world. They were slowly reopened with limits on attendances and worshippers last year still had to use the Al Hosn smartphone app to get access to the church, wear masks and follow social distancing rules. Fr Bartolo said while all restrictions are lifted now, some people still wear masks. The church has decided to hold more outdoor services, but Fr Bartolo said the pandemic had actually reinvigorated people’s desire to celebrate together.
“The faith people have has become stronger since they came back to the church,” said Fr Bartolo, who became parish priest in 2021 as rules were easing. “It is like Wi-Fi, the closer to the router you are, the stronger the signal,” he said with a chuckle.
Fr Bartolo will personally celebrate several Masses over the two days and said his message is one of hope and how God is with people in good and and times.
"God was with us even during the time of the pandemic when we suffered; the time we were in a hopeless situation God was still with us. God has never abandoned us. That’s the theme I am working with this Christmas.”
The first Mass is at 10:15am on Christmas Eve and while the preparations were hard work, Fr Bartolo said now was the time for everyone to come together in a spirit of goodwill. “Everyone wants to see each other and everyone wants to celebrate,” he said.
“Everyone is simply enjoying the presence of each other. You can see it from the faces.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
CONFIRMED%20LINE-UP
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Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
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Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
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Director: Neeraj Pandey
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Company%20Profile
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States of Passion by Nihad Sirees,
Pushkin Press
WHAT%20START-UPS%20IS%20VISA%20SEEKING%3F
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Ads on social media can 'normalise' drugs
A UK report on youth social media habits commissioned by advocacy group Volteface found a quarter of young people were exposed to illegal drug dealers on social media.
The poll of 2,006 people aged 16-24 assessed their exposure to drug dealers online in a nationally representative survey.
Of those admitting to seeing drugs for sale online, 56 per cent saw them advertised on Snapchat, 55 per cent on Instagram and 47 per cent on Facebook.
Cannabis was the drug most pushed by online dealers, with 63 per cent of survey respondents claiming to have seen adverts on social media for the drug, followed by cocaine (26 per cent) and MDMA/ecstasy, with 24 per cent of people.
Greatest Royal Rumble results
John Cena pinned Triple H in a singles match
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Bludgeon Brothers retain the SmackDown Tag Team titles against the Usos
Seth Rollins retains the Intercontinental title against The Miz, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe
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Braun Strowman won the 50-man Royal Rumble by eliminating Big Cass last
Normcore explained
Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
Stree
Producer: Maddock Films, Jio Movies
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee
Rating: 3.5
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
SPECS
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
Global institutions: BlackRock and KKR
US-based BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with $5.98 trillion of assets under management as of the end of last year. The New York firm run by Larry Fink provides investment management services to institutional clients and retail investors including governments, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, banks and charitable foundations around the world, through a variety of investment vehicles.
KKR & Co, or Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, is a global private equity and investment firm with around $195 billion of assets as of the end of last year. The New York-based firm, founded by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, invests in multiple alternative asset classes through direct or fund-to-fund investments with a particular focus on infrastructure, technology, healthcare, real estate and energy.
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RESULT
Valencia 3
Kevin Gameiro 21', 51'
Ferran Torres 67'
Atlanta 4
Josip Llicic 3' (P), 43' (P), 71', 82'
