National Catholic Register, Edward Pentin: In a historic papal first, Pope Francis completed a four-day apostolic journey to the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain, during which he sought to deepen dialogue with Islam and Christians, especially the Orthodox.
Francis, already the first pope to set foot on the Arabian Peninsula, became the first head of the Catholic Church to visit Bahrain, a small archipelago in the Persian Gulf that has a total population of 1.5 million, 70% of whom are Muslim.
Catholics number 161,000, many of whom are migrants from Asia, particularly the Philippines and India, according to 2020 Vatican statistics. The country is home to two Catholic churches and 20 Catholic priests. Report is here.
