This video is made possible by MORNING BREW.
Morning Brew is an email newsletter sent every morning.
You will wake up with the most relevant, curated and informative business news from Wall Street
to Silicon Valley.
Delivered right to your inbox, Morning Brew cuts through the business news delivering
high quality business newsletter.
If you like what we do at VisualPolitik with politics, you will like what Morning Brew
to business.
I´ve been subscribe from a few months and, there lots of stories that come every day
that are genuinely interesting.
This not an easy feat but Morning Brew absolutely delivers the best stuff.
Whether you want to learn about start up news from Silicon Valley or investment news from
Wall Street…
Morning Brew has you covered.
And its quick and, it is easy to read from your coffee cup in the morning, in your commute
or… whatever you prefer.
Click the link in the description below to sign up to morning brew.com and get the most
informative and witty news from around and… now let’s get into Today’s video.
Religion and politics always go together in the Arabian Peninsula: the birthplace of Islam.
Every year, over 2 million muslim pilgrims go to Saudi Arabia to visit Mecca.
And in neighbouring ABU DHABI, you will find the most modern architecture combined with
the most ancient traditions.
In this part of the planet, Islam is the law.
Nonetheles… … what if I tell you that this area of the
planet is the one with the fastest growing christian population?
Yeah, dude, I’m not kidding… while Europe is caring less and less about the catholic
church, here, at the core of the Islamic world, we have the fastest-growing catholic population.
How is that even possible?
What on Earth happened so the Pope Francis has made an official visit to Abu Dhabi?
Times are a-changing or… maybe not so much?
In this video we will tell you all the story.
If doesn’t matter if you are catholic or not.
It doesn’t matter if you like soccer or not… because everybody knows them and everybody
has heard about them.
Because, let’s be honest here…
Catholicism is not on its best moment both in Europe and Latin America.
Where are they having a bigger presence, then?
Exactly!
In the Arabian peninsula!
Countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar or United Arab Emirates have more and more catholics.
And I know what you are thinking right now…
How is this even possible?
I mean… yes, of course, we all know that both Qatar and United Arab Emirates have allowed
catholics to build their own churches but… just look at the Abu Dhabi cathedral…
Do you notice something funny here?
Of course!
There are no crosses whatsoever!
The truth is, in this country you can go to mass but you can’t evangelize.
And if you are a Muslim and you happen to convert to Christianism… watch out, because
it is considered as a crime!
As you can imagine, this growth of Catholicism in Arabia is explained by one word and one
word only: IMMIGRATION.
If you’ve been following VisualPolitik for a long time, you already know that the oil
rich Arabian monarchies have more immigrants than locals.
Places like Qatar or UAE have more than 80% of foreign born population.
And, of course, most of those immigrants are muslim.
They come from countries like Bangladesh or Pakistan.
But you also have lots of Americans or Philippines that are catholic.
And this explains news like this one.
Papal visit: Pope Francis lands in Abu Dhabi for historic first Gulf trip
Yep.
You heard that right.
For the first time in history, a Pope has visited the Arabian Peninsula.
And it was not a small visit.
More than 180 000 people attended to his mass.
To put this in context, this is more than twice the number of people who went to his
latest mass in a catholic country like CHILE.
In other words… yes, Catholicism is a bigger thing that what you’d expect in Arab countries.
So now you might wonder…
How did the Abu Dhabi authorities allowed such an event on their country?
Why did the Pope go?
Is it a strategic move?
What does Pope Francis want to achieve with this?
Today we are going to answer to all of this questions but, before we do, let’s take
a look back at the history.
FACTA NON VERBA Pope Francis and Messi have lots of things
in common.
They are both the captains of their organizations.
But… well… in fact, Pope Francis is the leader of 3 organizations at the same time.
Yes, you heard this right.
Look, on one hand, Pope Francis is the head of the Catholic church.
This is a religious role where we are not going to enter because this is a channel about
politics, not about religion.
But… don’t worry, because the Pope has other two political jobs.
First, he is the head of the World’s smalles state: Vatican city.
And, if this was not enough, he is the head of the Holy See.
And oh boy!
Vatican City might be a really tiny nation, but the diplomatic influence of the Holy See
is infinite.
They have embassies in almost all the World’s countries and they played a major role in
history.
For example, Pope John Paul II was a key player to defeat communism, both in Poland and the
Soviet Union.
He also fought against the war in Iraq.
His successor, Benedict XVI was way less political.
His legacy is all about theologican ald philosophical essayes.
But the current Pope, Pope Francis… he is the most political of all of them.
And this is why he is so controversial.
To some, he is an evil communist.
To others, he is the champion of dignity and human rights.
A man who can speak up clearly against capitalism…
Pope Francis on economic inequality: ‘Such an economy kills’
If Jesus Christ liked to talk in parables…
Pope Francis likes a more straight ahead style.
Look at his tough words to Donald Trump.
Pope: Donald Trump ‘is not Christian’ if he wants to build a border wall
But, as we say in latin…
‘FACTA NON VERBA’, which means, Facts are different than words.
If we go to the facts, we discovered a totally different Pope.
Actually, he has more things with Donald Trump than what he thinks.
If Trump summarized his political views with the motto ‘America first’, we can summarize
Pope Francis views as ‘catholic first’.
Yes, I know this doesn’t sound very spiritual but… we could compare the Catholic church
as a multinational corporation, with presence all over the place.
In this light, Catholicism is losing ground on their traditional markets.
The number of believers in Europe is getting smaller and smaller.
And Latin America is the scenario to a fierce competition with the Evangelic churches.
So the new Vatican administrative board has a clear strategy: find new markets.
One of those markets is CHINA.
During decades, Catholicism was forbidden there.
But, as you know, the Chinese communist party is very creative.
So, instead of fully banned religion, what they did was… creating a fake copy of Catholicism.
A religion that was equal on everything to the real thing but with one exception: bishops
were not appointed by the Vatican but by the communist party instead.
Of course, those Catholics that kept their loyalty to the Pope of Rome were sent to concentration
camps where they would be tortured and, even worse: they would have their organs taken
away for the Chinese transplant system.
In this situation, a Pope like John Paul II would have, surely, adopted a confrontational
view.
But Pope Francis knows hot to apply the ‘Art of the deal’ better than Donald Trump himself.
So what did he do?
Well… this is where the Chinese transplants system comes into play.
During years, Chine has been taken organs from political prisoners for their transplants.
This is called ORGAN HARVESTING.
As you can imagine, there are all kinds of pressure from the International Organizations
across the board to stop this massacre.
Meanwhile, China denies all the accusation despite the evidences proving otherwise.
They even have a doctor who tries to go to all the international conferences to pitch
the official Chinese narrative.
And no country accepts him to speak because it would be pure propaganda.
No country except by one: THE VATICAN.
The Vatican was the first and only county, outside of China, that accepted this doctor
to participate in an event and sell his story.
He could pitch to the whole world the peerless advantages of the Chinese transplant system.
The only one that, miraculously, can find organs to be transplanted in a matter of days!
A system that, of course, meets all the human rights and stuff because…
Dude!
Since when China has been violating human rights, huh?
Come on... the Chinese communist party is the biggest fan of democracy, human Rights
and all that stuff.
Needless to say that this Vatican conference raised a lot of criticism in all over the
World.
But just a couple of months later, Pope Francis got what he wanted.
China and Vatican Reach Deal on Appointment of Bishops
There you go, dude!
Just a diplomatic gamble and boom!
Catholic church has now 12 million followers more.
Only with this, they have already compensated the lack of new faiths in a country like Spain.
And where does the Pope go now?
Exactly!
The Arab world!
While Benedict XVI critized openly Islam, Pope Francis has made a dramatic shift.
For example…
Do you remember the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks?
All the World leaders condemned them with no remorse.
Nonetheless, in this case, the straight talker Pope Francis went to the parables for once…
You can’t insult other people’s faith (…) for example, if Dr. Gasbarri sais a
bad word against my mum, he can expect me to punch is face!
This is normal!
–Pope Francis Yeah!
This is a big statement… isn’t it?
But the good will gestures towards Islam don’t stop here.
Here you have another example!
On this picture we can see the Pope Francis and the AL AZHAR IMAN, one of the biggest
representatives of Sunny Muslim.
They are together, summoning everybody to build a more tolerant world, with less violence.
And you might wonder now…
Why this strategy?
What does the pope want to achieve here?
Let’s have a look, shall we?
TOLERANT SLAVERY There is another thing that Pope Francis and
Messi have in common: their family.
They are both Argentinian buth both of them come from Italian ascent.
Their families were immigrants who came to Argentina looking for a better life.
And, do you know where do we have lots of immigrants now?
Yes, the Arabian peninsula.
But look, not all the immigrants are born equal.
Cynical as it sounds, we should make a distinction.
On one hand, you have the expats and on the other hand, the immigrants.
An expat is an American who comes to Abu Dhabi to work for Exxon Mobile with a 6 figures
salary.
An immigrant, instead, is a Philippine that shares a room with other 10 people, works
in 12 hours shifts and has a miserable salary.
Most of those immigrants work in construction or cleaning houses.
They usually have their families on their country of origin and they send them money
regularly.
Many of you might think ‘OK, Simon, don’t exaggerate… if they don’t like their working
conditions, they can always go back to their homes, right?’
Well… is not that easy.
You see, in the Arabian Peninsula there is a system called KAFALA.
According to KAFALA, immigrants are linked to a local called the PATRON.
Do you want to change your job?
You gotta ask your patron for permission.
Do you want to work for another company?
You gotta ask your patron for permission.
Do you want to leave the country and go back to your homeland?
Of yes… you gotta ask your patron for permission.
And if you don’t have that permission… then you will have to keep living in this
country, working as a slave.
So well… just in United Arab Emirates, there are more than ONE MILLION catholics who live
under those conditions.
Most of them come from the Philippines and some parts of India.
And, as you can imagine, in such a desperate situation, many people stick to their faith
more than ever.
Nevertheless, despite the slavery conditions, this workers are crucial to the economy.
Who else would build those skyscrapers?
In other words, building a cathedral in Abu Dhabi is a cheap way to keep those workers
moderately happy.
They might be exploited, but at least, they have a place to pray.
And you might wonder…
How is that possible that the authorities of these countries, being so hardliners with
Islam, allow them to build a cathedral?
Well, my dear viewers, the enemy of arab monarchies are not Christians, nor Hinduists.
The main enemy of arab monarchies are… other muslims!
For example?
The Muslim Brothers.
Think about it.
What is more dangerous for an Emir?
The Philippine immigrants praying inside of a cathedral… or the Muslim brothers, who
claim no loyalty to anything that the Koran?
The answer is pretty clear.
This is why, in UAE they have better things to do than prosecuting Christians.
This is why they are so tolerant… but then again, they violate their human rights systematically.
And now is when Pope Francis comes into the picture!
THE POPE IN ABU DHABI I know what you are thinking.
It is OK that they build a church in Abu Dhabi but, hey, a Pope’s visit is another thing,
isn’t it?
Well, truth being said, this is great for Abu Dhabi.
On one hand, they improve their outside image.
Out of a sudden, a country that was associated with religious fanaticism is hosting the leader
of another religion.
Who can say they are fanatics now, huh?
But this is not all!
With a little effort, Abu Dhabi government has given a great joy to those catholic immigrants.
The visit is good news, both for those Philipines working for pennies and those expats with
6 figures salaries.
So everyone is happy.
But the question is… what does the pope want to achieve with this?
Well, think about it.
Pope Francis came to a place where evangelizing is forbidden.
And then, he organized the mother of all masses.
180 000 people and this AMAZING cross that you could see from everywhere in Abu Dhabi.
Yes, this is raising a flat.
Now they have sit a big precedent for a would be change in the arab legislation.
And all of this explains why the Vicar Apostolic in Arabia, Paul Hinder, said all this beautiful
things about the Government of UAE.
Pray for the rulers of this country who make the visit possible.
I thank the UAE government for their generosity, not only have they made the visit possible
but have wholeheartedly given us a venue to celebrate Mass.
And what about Pope Francis?
Yes, he was so hard with Donald Trump.
But, when it comes to Abu Dhabi authorities, he didn’t have a word for KAFALA or the
war in Yemen.
In fact, this is what he said.
Your country is a land that wants to be a model of coexistene, human brotherhood and
gathering of different cultures and civilizations.
After these gestures, if wouldn’t be hard to imagine the United Arab Emirates lifting
the ban on other religions.
Or, at least, those who concern Catholicism.
This would be a giant step for the Chuch in a market yet to be untapped.
So now this is your turn…
Do you think the Pope is a deal making genius?
Or maybe he should care a little bit about human rights?
Please, leave your answer on the comment section below.
Also, visit reconsider media.com, the podcast that provided the voices on this episode that
were not mine.
If you liked this video, give us a thumbs up and, as always, I see you next time.