Pope Francis was officially received in the UAE on Sunday, Feb. 3 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. His three-day stay spanned from Feb. 3 to Feb. 5 and marked the first ever Papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula.

After the official welcome on Sunday, Feb. 3, a separate ceremony was held in the Presidential Palace on Monday, Feb. 4. Later that evening, the pontiff attended a gathering with the Muslim Council of Elders at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, followed by an interfaith meeting at the Founder’s Memorial where the Human Fraternity Document was signed.

Approximately 180,000 people attended the Pope’s mass on Tuesday, Feb. 5 in Zayed Sports City with 50,000 of the UAE’s almost 1 million Catholics sitting in the stadium while the rest stood outside.

The subject of the Papal sermon was the perseverance of faith in states of weakness and impoverishment. It was delivered in Italian with translations in Arabic.

NYU Abu Dhabi received 90 tickets to distribute among its students. Several students from the Catholic Student Interest Group were present at the ceremony.

“It was history being made,” said the President of the Catholic SIG Tomasz Bachosz, Class of 2019.

“Both [Muslims and Christians] were hugely involved in conflict [throughout history]. After all these years we see this [success] on a religious level, whereas on the political level many bad things are happening around the world. This is a true sign of where the world should go in the 21st century,” Tomasz added.

The pontiff’s stay was organized in conjunction with the Year of Tolerance to promote peace and harmony. The Pope’s presence sent a message to both the Middle Eastern region and the rest of the world that a country with a diverse ethnic and religious population such as the UAE’s can worship, work and co-exist together.

“It was a huge, historical event,” Scout Satterfield, Class of 2021 said. “It really was about the different cultures that exist in the UAE. The people organizing the event really recognized the different populations within the UAE itself and allowed that to be represented in the event… This was truly about tolerance, inclusion and cultural diversity.”

The UAE holds 200 different nationalities, over 40 churches and about 700 Christian ministries. The UAE seeks to promote religious tolerance in a turbulent region by designating 2019 as the Year of Tolerance. The pontiff’s invitation to the UAE was a symbol of hope and humanity for years to come.