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First Catholic church opens in Qatar

Thousands of worshippers gathered in a long and emotional ceremony on Saturday for the consecration of the first Roman Catholic church in the Gulf state of Qatar, ending decades of underground Christian worship in this Sunni Muslim and deeply conservative country.

A cardinal presented the parish with a chalice offered by the Pope during the five-hour mass, and many worshippers wept when a relic of Catholic Saint Padre Pio da Pietrelcina was introduced in the church, dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary.

The 2,700-seat church was built on land donated by Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani, and five other buildings are under construction nearby for other Christian denominations in this oil-rich state where more than 70 percent of the population are expatriate workers.

"I convey very special greetings from the Holy Father to the Emir," said Cardinal Ivan Dias, the envoy of Pope Benedict XVI and the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

"Without his precious gift of a land to the Catholic community, we would not be here today," Dias said.

Qatar follows the rigorous Wahabi teachings of Sunni Islam, and like neighboring Saudi Arabia had not previously authorized Christians to practice their faith openly.

A priest operated in Qatar since the 1960s without official approval, and the opening of the church on Saturday appeared to be another sign of Qatar's efforts to open up to the West as it seeks a bid for the summer Olympic Games in 2016.

"It is a dream coming true," said Bishop Bernardo Gremoli, a former vicar of Arabia who initiated the church project more than 20 years ago.

Some 150,000 Christians of all denominations live in the emirate, more than 90 percent of them Catholic expatriate workers from the Philippines, India and other Asian nations.

"It is a wonderful day for us, we have been waiting for many, many years to have a proper place of worship," Indian resident Robert Rodriguez said.

Church estimates placed the number of people at the ceremony at about 10,000.
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