Pope Francis thrills small Gulf Catholic community with big Mass

Pope Francis said Mass for thousands of Catholics in Bahrain on Saturday, thrilling members of the small foreign Catholic community from around the Gulf and urging them show kindness to their hosts, even if they are sometimes looked down on.
The crowd of about 30,000 people that filled Bahrain’s National Stadium was the second-largest gathering for a papal Mass on the Arabian Peninsula, following one that drew more than 100,000 in the United Arab Emirates in 2019.
“This is a miracle,” said Mary Grace Fortes, 36, a Filipino who works at the reception of a hotel in Bahrain. “So important for us.”
Like many Filipino women who work outside their country, Fortes is married and sends money back home to help support her family, including her husband and 16-year-old son.
Hundreds of Catholic foreign workers were bussed in over the 25-km (16 mile) King Fahd Causeway that links Bahrain with Saudia Arabia, where there are no churches and where Catholics cannot worship openly.