Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Feb 4, 2019 / 11:14 am
On Tuesday, Pope Francis will visit St. Joseph's Cathedral in Abu Dhabi -- one of two total Catholic churches for the Arabian city with a population of 1.42 million.
While few in number, parishes in the United Arab Emirates are remarkably diverse and bring together Catholic traditions and devotions from across the Middle East, South Asia, and the rest of the universal Church.
In St. Joseph's Cathedral, for example, Masses are celebrated in Arabic, English, French, Filipino, Malayalam, Sinhalese, Urdu, Tamil, Konkani, German, Italian, Korean, Polish, and Ukrainian for its 100,000 expatriate parishioners.
St. Joseph's parish was the only Catholic church in Abu Dhabi for more than 50 years, until St. Paul's Catholic Church opened in the city's Musaffah district in 2015.