On Missionary Roads by Jozef Cardinal Tomko

Author:Jozef Cardinal Tomko [Tomko, Jozef Cardinal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9781586171650
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2010-09-24T05:00:00+00:00

In early November 1989, I dedicated five days to a visit to the region, and this at the invitation of the vicar apostolic, Capuchin Bishop Giovanni Gremoli. The fitting occasion for this trip was the dedication of a new church in Abu Dhabi, but I was also delivering a personal letter of John Paul II to the president, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan, who had his office in the same city. From every standpoint, it was a great experience for me. The airport is surrounded by a desert that changes to a rocky waste further inland. The real surprise is the asphalt highway, which is fenced on both sides and lined by street lamps and green bushes. These provide a beautiful contrast to the red sandy dunes. Adjacent to the city, a large factory can be spotted. In reality, it houses machinery for changing salt water into fresh, which can then be used in homes. The city itself has several hundred thousand inhabitants. We could see the villas of the wealthy, twenty-story-high skyscrapers, beautiful beaches, and lovely parks with green trees and flowers. All the plants in the city and along the highway are watered by an interesting sprinkler system, which has its pipes hidden underground and which constantly supplies the vegetation with moisture, drop by drop. The water flows by gravity from large cisterns in the mountains or on elevated places. We are talking here about huge investments, which are subsidized by oil resources. The people praise the old Sheik Zayed because he built hospitals and provided very inexpensive health care. Of course, we have also to mention the construction of seven hundred nice, modern mosques. During the past twenty years, Abu Dhabi has become a modern city where the palaces of banks and international oil companies have risen, and where, on a lovely seashore along the Persian Gulf, people of different races and colors walk side by side. The streets are filled with comfortable cars and the parks with throngs of children at play.

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