The National on Thursday hailed the bold steps taken by Pope Francis to help people in need across the world. In an editorial, the paper stated that in the early days of his papacy, Pope Francis urged Catholics around the world to leave the cloisters and serve people in the "peripheries". 

"It was a bold attempt to warn against the excessive introspection into which grand institutions such as the Catholic Church can occasionally fall," the English daily said in the editorial. 

The paper added that Pope Francis's defining sayings became crucial at a time when countries across the world were battling the COVID-19 pandemic. The global health crisis saw many countries extending a helping hand to other nations in need. 

"For governments, whose foremost responsibility remains crisis management at home, it has been even more complex. Rather than continue vital aid programmes to help those in need abroad, some donor countries have cut budgets. Others have not," the editorial read. 

The Abu Dhabi-based daily hailed the international recognition achieved by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. The Foundation Gravissimum Educationis has presented Sheikh Mohamed with the Man of Humanity award. The Foundation Gravissimum Educationis is a Vatican organisation promoting education as a key to strengthening peace and development across the world.

The award appreciates Sheikh Mohamed’s role in promoting universal values and recognises the ongoing international humanitarian aid and assistance provided by the UAE to countries across the world. 

In this regard, the paper explained that the UAE has provided tonnes of medical and food aid to a total of 135 countries in the peripheries over the past year.

"In May, Emirates airline transported 100 tonnes of materials to help India in its fight against Coronavirus, including tents to shelter patients as hospitals overflowed and canisters of oxygen as supplies ran dangerously low," the paper added. 

It also lauded the UAE's 40 tonnes of aid sent to the Amazon region in collaboration with the Vatican Department of Education. It noted that the aid shipment is an indication of another long-term focus of the global aid community and assisting children's educational needs in countries both rich and poor. 

According to UNESCO, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in partial and full closure of about half of the schools across the world. It has also estimated that about 100 million children are at risk of falling below minimum literacy standards, which is a major threat to the personal progress of young people and to the prosperity of the nations. 

"Sheikh Mohamed has overseen philanthropic work in a number of similar areas, from education to public health initiatives that focus on the elimination of polio and malaria," the paper underlined. 

In the editorial, the daily further talked about the growing partnership between the UAE and the Vatican in recent years to boost religious and societal tolerance in both regions. Pope Francis's visit to the UAE in February 2019 was a historical event as it was the first papal trip to the Arabian Peninsula. During the trip, both sides signed the 'document on human fraternity for world peace and living together' alongside the Grand Imam of Egypt's Al Azhar mosque.

In conclusion, the daily stated that the UAE-Vatican relationship has emerged as a strong bond between one of the world's youngest and fastest-developing countries and one of the world's oldest and smallest.

"They might seem a unique, perhaps even an unlikely duo, but they are helping to develop a growing consensus around the world on the need for leadership even – and especially – when a challenge as great as this pandemic tempts countries to look only inward," the editorial concluded.

WAM