Today the only Christians in the Arabian Peninsula are migrants, and the pope’s visit is a cause of great joy for them.

A Saudi Arabia-led coalition, of which the U.A.E. is a member, has so far not respected international accords to help end a crisis in which 10 million people risk starvation.

Pope Francis will visit Abu Dhabi to attend an international interfaith meeting on “Human Fraternity,” organized by Muslim leaders, and will celebrate Mass for migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates.

The announcement was made from the Jesuit headquarters in Rome in a press communiqué released on Jan. 30.

During a press conference on the flight from Panama to Rome, the pope spoke on a variety of topics, including the situation in Venezuela, the issue of married priests, sex education in schools and the Vatican's sex abuse summit.

During his visit to La Casa Hogar El Buen Samaritano where he lead the Angelus, he also prayed for the victims of the terrorist attack today in a cathedral in the Philippines and a recent terrorist attack on a police academy in Bogota, Colombia, as well as for those who died in tragic accidents in

He told them, “Dear young people, you are not the future but the now of God and he invites you and calls you in your communities and cities to go out and find your grandparents and elders; to stand up and with them to speak out and realize the dream that the Lord has dreamed for you.” 

The presence of the pope at W.Y.D. was something of the utmost importance, an invaluable gift, and a source of immense inspiration and affirmation of the pilgrims' faith.

The cardinal described W.Y.D. as “an extraordinary event in the life of the church."

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley believes that Venezuela’s interim president, Juan Guaido, “has come up with a formula that could avoid a civil war, could avoid bloodshed” in the country, and he regrets that the country’s military have “not yet” sided with him.