In Abu Dhabi, the first land for a Catholic church was donated as early as the early Sixties by Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan, then ruler of the emirate. A new site in the Al Mushrif district was granted, according to some sources in 1977, at the wish of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The foundation stone was laid on 19 March 1981, and Cardinal Angelo Rossi consecrated the present cathedral on 25 February 1983. The apostolic vicariate of Southern Arabia, heir to an apostolic prefecture erected in 1875 and then to the vicariate of Aden from 1888, originally had its seat at Aden, in Yemen. According to Wikipedia, though the primary sources it cites can no longer be verified online, the seat was moved to Abu Dhabi in the Seventies, at the time of the Yemeni political instability that followed the British withdrawal of 1967 and the subsequent takeover by a Marxist government that closed churches and nationalised Catholic schools. The exact year of the move, 1973 or 1974 depending on the source, remains uncertain. A vacancy of about six years, from 1969 to 1975, preceded the vicar apostolic Giovanni Bernardo Gremoli, in office from 1975 to 2005. The present vicar apostolic is Paolo Martinelli, a Capuchin, in office since 1 May 2022, who succeeded Paul Hinder, head of the see from 2005. On 5 February 2019, during his historic journey to the United Arab Emirates, the first visit by a pope to the Arabian Peninsula, Pope Francis paid a private visit to this cathedral, meeting around three hundred faithful there according to a primary Vatican document. A few hours later he celebrated the first papal mass in history on the peninsula, at the Zayed Sports City Stadium, before a crowd estimated by press sources at between one hundred and thirty-five thousand and one hundred and eighty thousand people, a figure the Vatican never published officially in exact form. According to converging estimates the vicariate has between nine hundred thousand and over a million Catholics, largely Filipino and Indian migrant workers, in a country where federal law formally bans visible crosses and bell towers on churches. Some churches in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah display them anyway without the ban being enforced systematically, according to US State Department reports; whether this specific cathedral displays such symbols cannot be verified. At Christmas 2023, according to a local news outlet, the cathedral celebrated twenty-two masses in thirteen languages, from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day, to welcome its community.
About St. Joseph’s Cathedral
In Abu Dhabi, the first land for a Catholic church was donated in the early 1960s by Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan Al Nahyan, then ruler of the emirate; a new site in the Al Mushrif district was granted, per some sources in 1977, at the instruction of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, with the foundation stone laid on 19 March 1981 and the current cathedral consecrated on 25 February 1983 by Cardinal Angelo Rossi.
Key facts
- 19 March 1981: foundation stone laid on the Al Mushrif site.
- 25 February 1983: consecrated by Cardinal Angelo Rossi.
- 5 February 2019: Pope Francis privately visits, hours before the first papal Mass on the Arabian Peninsula.
- Seat of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia, once based in Aden, Yemen.
- Vicariate serves an estimated 900,000 to over 1 million Catholics, mostly migrant workers.
- Christmas 2023: 22 Masses celebrated in 13 languages.
History
Rebuilt on land granted by Abu Dhabi’s ruling family after an earlier Aden-based vicariate was disrupted by Yemen’s political instability in the 1970s, this cathedral became, on 5 February 2019, the site of a private papal visit hours before Pope Francis celebrated the first Mass ever said by a pope on the Arabian Peninsula, at Zayed Sports City Stadium nearby. It now anchors a vicariate of roughly a million Catholics, almost entirely foreign workers, whose Christmas schedule alone runs to 22 Masses in 13 languages.
What you see
A modernist white facade bears bilingual English-Arabic signage identifying it as a Catholic cathedral, above wooden entrance doors and a mosaic image near the forecourt where a palm tree and paved plaza greet visitors and parishioners.
Practical information
- Opening hours: generally open daily outside services; check current hours before visiting.
- Address: Al Mushrif, Abu Dhabi, UAE (exact street address disputed across sources).
Getting there
The cathedral stands in the Al Mushrif district of Abu Dhabi. GPS: 24°26′57″N, 54°23′07″E.
Nearby
- Zayed Sports City Stadium — site of Pope Francis’s 2019 Mass, the first ever on the Arabian Peninsula.
Sources
- Wikipedia — “St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Abu Dhabi” and “Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia”
- Vatican.va and press.vatican.va — official itinerary and bulletin, Pope Francis’s February 2019 UAE visit.
- Catholic-Hierarchy.org and GCatholic.org — Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia records.
- Khaleej Times — “Abu Dhabi church to mark Christmas with 22 masses in 13 languages,” December 2023.
- US State Department — International Religious Freedom Report, United Arab Emirates.
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