When Pope Francis came to the UAE earlier this month, he was visiting a thriving Catholic community. Here we are blessed with Catholic churches covering all of the seven emirates and a cathedral in Abu Dhabi. Dubai has two parishes; St Mary’s, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year and has a good claim to be the largest single parish in the world, sits on the edge of the old city, before the glitzy lights and towers along Sheikh Zayed Road.
All Catholics here are among the hundreds of thousands of foreign workers who comprise the backbone of the UAE’s service and construction industries. The largest groups are Filipinos, whose English skills lead to jobs in shops and restaurants and as nannies, and South Indians and Sri Lankans, many of whom build the towers and malls that this country is famous for. Their shift patterns can make it hard to get to Sunday Mass, so there is a dispensation that the obligation is satisfied by attendance on Friday and Saturday.
