Iglesia de San Pablo

🌹 Wonders and anecdotes

• The genesis of the temple began in November 2011, when the municipality of Abu Dabi granted 1.1 acres of land in Mussafah after 18 months of consultations; the first stone was blessed in the same year by Bishop Paul Hinder, OFM Cap., the Apostolic Vicar of South Arabia, whose own name coincides with that of the titular apostle.
• On June 29, 2013, the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul took place the official act of the beginning of the works; the choice of that date was deliberate: Cardinal Parolin and Bishop Hinder wanted to anchor the new church in the foundational memory of Christianity in the ancient Mediterranean.
• The consecration was held in two events on 11 and 12 June 2015: on 11 the afternoon, it was opened by Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Youth, Culture and Community Development, before Cardinal Parolin; on 12 the community celebrated the solemn Mass of consecration with the assistance of about five thousand faithful.
• The temple depends on the Apostolic Vicariate of South Arabia, the same jurisdiction that governs the churches of Oman and Yemen, and whose current bishop is Paolo Martinelli, OFM Cap. The parish serves workers from, among others, Africa, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines.
• The church of St. Paul is the second of Abu Dabi and the newest, after the Cathedral of St. Joseph (1965); the existence of two temples in the emirate reflects the growth of the Catholic community in the last decades and the policy of religious tolerance of the United Arab Emirates.