(by Maurizio Giannotti) In difficult moments like the ones we are going through, imbued with strong intolerance if not deep hatred, I think it is right and proper to remember those who in the recent past have worked to lay the foundations of civil coexistence.
This has certainly happened at all latitudes and I was personally struck by how literally built in the 1967 in Dubai.
In 1978 I was in UAE and in a very casual way I met Father Eusebio Daveri a Capuchin who told me that he chose in the early '60 to carry out his mission in MO passing from Kuwait to Qatar and finally reaching Dubai where he told me he had been welcomed as never any Christian could have imagined.
He came into direct contact with the Emir who was curious to know this industrious missionary and a respectful friendship was born between the two.
In the 1966-67, just before Dubai began to benefit from the proceeds from oil extraction, HH Sheik Rashid Bin-Said Al-Maktoum the Emir of Dubai asked Father Eusebio Daveri how he was carrying out the work of evangelization and he he pointed out that not having an appropriate office he encountered objective difficulties.
At this point the Emir promised that in some way he would solve the problem because he was really curious to see how many Muslims the Capuchin coming from distant Italy, more exactly from the Casentino valley in Tuscany, would be able to convert.
It seems a joke but it is the truth as told to me by Father Eusebio Daveri and I am sure because between the two characters, in addition to the deep esteem and respect, there was a good confidence that allowed us to also access the female majlis where he could talk about theology with the emir's wife and her friends.
The solution was found and the Emir gave Father Daveri land near the Dubai Creek.
Galvanized by this great availability, our Capuchin father immediately set to work to build the -St. Mary's Chu.
7 April 1967 Dubai Ruler HH Sheik Rashid Bin-Said Al-Maktoum and Father Eusebio Daveri inaugurated St. Mary's Church in the presence of the emirate's notables and population.
When I met Father Eusebio Daveri 11 years had passed since the foundation of St. Mary's Church and the year before there was a solemn ceremony for the anniversary of the ten-year anniversary in the presence of HH Sheik Rashid Bin-Said Al-Maktoum who from 1971 was became vice president of the constituted Federation of United Arab Emirates.
With the expansion of Dubai, what was a modest little church in the middle of the desert is today an important ecclesiastical building with an adjoining religious institute that is located in the center of Dubai, a few steps from the palace of the current Emperor's son of the tolerant, generous and far-sighted Sheik Rashid Bin-Said Al-Maktoum.
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- 1967
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- 1977
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- today
A visit to the site is recommended http://www.stmarysdubai.com/ per capire quel seme piantato nel deserto oltre 50 anni fa cosa ha prodotto.
Since the early '80 I have not heard Father Daveri, after the 2010 I returned to the UAE where I learned of the honors paid to his death by the Emirate authorities and then told me that he had been buried in his church so strongly desired.
I wanted to tell this story because we talk about Men, about their will, about the profound respect for ideas, tolerance, feelings that have led to deep relationships of friendship between different and distant peoples long before the advent of so-called globalization. to say the truth for now has not really succeeded well, especially for our country.
Father Daveri entered unknown lands on tiptoe and made himself known and appreciated at the highest levels, he did not arrive in the Trucial Coast or Pirates' Coast occupying the first unattended building making it an illegal center for the spread of his cult; if he had done such a thing, knowing the modalities of the place that are the exact opposite of ours, I really believe that it would have lasted very little.
Father Eusebio Daveri and HH Sheik Rashid Bin-Said Al-Maktoum two people to always remember and take for example.