Pope Francis blesses bawling babies and little children in Bahrain


Ramola Talwar Badam
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LIVE UPDATES: Pope's landmark visit to Bahrain

It was a special moment for some Catholic families when his vehicle stopped and Pope Francis blessed young children before a Mass in Bahrain.

Some of the babies cried when security personnel held them up to the Pope, who was in the popemobile ― as his official car is known.

He chuckled and gently kissed the little ones.

There were close to 30,000 people at the Bahrain National Stadium on Saturday for the second public Mass celebrated in the Gulf region by the head of the Roman Catholic church.

Hala Fayez, a Bahraini parliamentarian, was holding her grandson Mark Metry when the Pope noticed the 4-year-old and stood up in the open white vehicle.

She said she would treasure the quick seconds when the Pope blessed the child.

“It felt like I was holding the whole world in my hands,” she said.

“I felt blessed when he touched my grandson.

“It was amazing, no words can describe my feelings.

Unlike the toddlers who wept when they found themselves taken away from their parents, Mark, who is a little older, stayed quiet.

“It was the most joyful time.”

“He did not cry but he was surprised, he didn’t understand what was going on,” Ms Fayez said.

Her family belongs to a small Arab Catholic community who are Bahraini citizens.

The cheering crowds were quiet and attentive when the Pope led the Mass.

The pontiff preached love, forgiveness and acceptance of people from other nations and faith.

“The whole Mass was very touching, it touched our hearts,” Ms Fayez said.

“Not only Christians, even Muslims who were with us felt this.

“The words in his homily were so true. He said we should be kind to others and there is no point in accepting [only] people who accept us but it is important to love people who are different from us.

“This is what we really need to observe so we can live in peace.”

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Uefa Nations League: How it works

The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.

The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.

Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.

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The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.

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Premier League results

Saturday

Tottenham Hotspur 1 Arsenal 1

Bournemouth 0 Manchester City 1

Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Huddersfield Town 0

Burnley 1 Crystal Palace 3

Manchester United 3 Southampton 2

Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 Cardiff City 0

West Ham United 2 Newcastle United 0

Sunday

Watford 2 Leicester City 1

Fulham 1 Chelsea 2

Everton 0 Liverpool 0

Pharaoh's curse

British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
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Updated: November 05, 2022, 10:58 AM`