The crowd of about 30,000 that filled Bahrain’s National Stadium was the second largest gathering for a papal Mass in the Arabian Peninsula, after more than 100,000 in the United Arab Emirates in 2019. “This is a miracle,” said Mary Grace Fortes, 36, a Filipina who works at the front desk of a hotel in Bahrain. “So important to us.” Like many Filipinas working outside their country, Fortes is married and sends money back home to support her family, including her husband and 16-year-old son. Hundreds of Catholic foreign workers were bussed to the 25 km. (16 miles) King Fahd Road connecting Bahrain with Saudi Arabia, where there are no churches and where Catholics cannot worship openly. “Bahrain arranged everything perfectly for us,” said Jos Chazoor, 53, who is from Kerala, India and works as a manager at a medical equipment company in Saudi Arabia. Chazoor’s 75-year-old mother was too emotional to answer a reporter’s questions shortly before the pope arrived at the packed stadium to a rapturous welcome from worshipers waving yellow and white Vatican flags. “She’s too excited to talk,” said Chazoor, who regularly drives with his mother over the trail from Saudi Arabia to attend service at one of Bahrain’s two churches, which provide pastoral care to about 160,000 Catholics in Bahrain. In his homily, Francis appeared to praise Bahrain’s relatively open policy towards non-Muslims. [1/5] Pope Francis greets people as he attends a divine service at the Bahrain National Stadium during his apostolic trip, in Rifa, Bahrain, November 5, 2022. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed “This very land is a living image of coexistence in diversity, and indeed an image of our world, which is increasingly characterized by the constant migration of peoples and by a plurality of ideas, customs and traditions,” he said. Foreign workers, many of them from Asia, form the backbone of Gulf economies, working in sectors such as construction, hospitality, transport and the oil and gas sector. The International Labor Organization says Gulf migrant workers have long faced problems including exploitation by recruitment agencies and employers, poor working conditions, limited access to justice and limited or no freedom of association. Francis urged his listeners to be kind even to those natives in the Gulf region who do not treat them well, saying this was key to the Gospel message of loving your enemies. He said they should always “persist in good even when harm is done to us, breaking the cycle of revenge, disarming violence, demilitarizing the heart.” As Francis was led in an open casket through the crowd on the stadium field just before the start of the Mass, a speaker on the altar platform shouted “God bless the Pope, God bless the royal family.” A Bahraini government spokesman said 111 nationalities attended the Mass in the island nation, where foreigners make up about half of Bahrain’s population of about 1.5 million. The prayers of the faithful during the Mass were read in languages ​​spoken by foreign workers, including Tagalog, Swahili, Malayalam, Tamil and Konkani. The service was attended by one of the king’s sons Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and several government ministers. Additional reporting by Ghaida Ghantous in Dubai. Editing by Michael Perry and Mark Potter Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.