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Christianity Returning to
Arabian Gulf First Church in Qatar in 14 centuries, to be inaugurated in
February 2008
Jenny Coutinho (jenben)
Published 2007-09-22 11:46 (KST)
Christianity is retuning to the Persian Gulf, thanks to the
liberal approach of the current rulers in the Muslim states of Qatar and United
Arab Emirates. While war is
taking its toll in the Holy Land with the number of Christians dwindling in
Iraq and Lebanon, Christianity is returning to the Middle East centering around
the large expatiate population who are working in the oil-rich gulf countries.
The majority Muslim country of Qatar
which has a head count of 100,000 Christian population will inaugurate its Our
Lady of Rosary church on Feb. 2 next year. The church constructed at a cost of
US$15 million has been funded by Catholics throughout the Arabian
Peninsula -- and was earlier scheduled to open at the end of this
year but has been pushed back by one more month.
The land for the Roman Catholic Church center has been
donated by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who came to
power in 1995. The Church center will include conference facilities, temporary
living accommodations, a library, and a cafe.
Catholics in Qatar have been for the last 20 years approaching the Qatari
rulers for permission to build a church in Qatar and the first signs of things
moving came in 2006 when land was gifted for construction of the church
building which lies south of the capital on the outskirts of the capital Doha.
The birth of the Catholic mission in Qatar dates back to 1956. For the
last fourteen centuries the Christians in this part of the land had been
without a place of worship. The Christian communities' majority from India,
Philippines
and Lebanon
have been conducting their activities in schools. The oil rich countries,
economic boom have attracted the Christian expatriates to migrate to the
region.
According to Historical accounts Missionaries brought Christianity to the Gulf
in the second half of the 5th century but it disappeared from most Gulf Arab
states with the arrival of Islam in the 7th century.
Diplomatic relations and exchange of ambassadors between Vatican and Qatar
started only in 2002.
The construction of Christian Church in Qatar
were earlier opposed by the Wahabi majority who saw them as an extension of the
Holy Land.
The church will not have a spire or freestanding cross, like most of the
churches here in the Arabian Gulf. Christians
are forbidden by the Dhimmi laws to display crosses. The government permits
freedom of worship to the Christian but prohibits conversions.
"After over 20 years of making formal requests to the authorities, the
government has finally granted the Christian confessions land to build their
own places of worship. The Catholic community were given the largest piece of
land, because our presence here goes back down the centuries and also because
our community is the largest, now numbering over 100,000 faithful, Father Tom
Veneration, head of the Doha parish centre who has been working in Doha for the
past three years and is originally from Manila has been quoted in AsiaNews as
saying.
Addressing the faithful on the occasion of the Easter celebrations at the Doha
Parish centre in April this year Father Tom had said: "This is the last
time we celebrate Easter at this parish centre. Next year we will finally
celebrate it in the new church."
Qatar
has a population of about 800,000 majority of them expatiates.
Bishop Paul Hinder, Apostolic Vicar of Arabia under whose region comes
countries ranging from Qatar,
United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman,
Yemen, to Saudi Arabia, is looking after the development
of the Qatar Church project.
And in neighboring United Arab Emirates
which consists of seven emirates signs of religious tolerance are showing with
the Holy See establishing diplomatic relations and exchanging ambassadors with
the United Arab Emirates.
This is a country where there are many more immigrants than citizens. Foreigners
now make up more than 70 percent of the more than 4 million inhabitants, coming
from other Arab countries, Pakistan,
India, Bangladesh, Sri
Lanka and the Philippines. Christians account for
more than 35 percent of the population.
In Saudi Arabia, where the
holy city of Mecca
is located an estimated million expatiates Catholics can be found.
And for Christianity which has been facing a backlash losing their members to
other faiths and also the dwindling of congregations across Europe and United
States,
the increasing profession of Christian faith in the Gulf is welcomed sign. But
that apart the religious tolerance in a largely Muslim country argues well for
a world tore apart by religious infighting.
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=380469&rel_no=1
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