With caution, church in Qatar opens
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 07:56:00 03/17/2008
DOHA, 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 amid warnings by Western embassies to their nationals to be vigilant.
Cardinal Ivan Dias presented the parish with a chalice given by Pope Benedict XVI during the five-hour Mass, ending decades of underground worship in this Sunni Muslim and deeply conservative country.
Many worshippers wept when a relic of Saint Padre Pio da Pietrelcina was introduced.
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 over 70 percent of the population are expatriate workers.
Some 150,000 Christians of all denominations live in the emirate, over 90 percent of them Catholic workers from the Philippines, India and other Asian nations. The church of the Our Lady of the Rosary will be staffed by Filipino priest Tomasito Veneracion.
“I convey very special greetings from the Holy Father to the emir,” said Dias, the envoy of Pope Benedict XVI. “Without his precious gift of a land to the Catholic community, we would not be here today.”
Islamic website
The American, British and Australian embassies warned the church might be a target of attack and urged their nationals to remain cautious after an Islamic militant website referred to the opening of the church.
“The authorities are aware of this and are taking appropriate security measures,” the British Embassy said, without indicating what the unidentified militant website said.
British citizens should “maintain a high level of security awareness, particularly in public places … you should avoid large gatherings and demonstrations,” it said. Similar warnings were issued by the US and Australian embassies.
“Extremists may elect to use conventional or non-conventional weapons and target both official and private interests. Examples of such targets include … the new Christian Church complex in Doha,” the US Embassy said.
Suicide bombing
The Australian Embassy in the United Arab Emirates said it was aware of the militant website’s reference to the church. “We advise you to exercise a high degree of caution in Qatar because of the high threat of terrorist attacks,” it said.
In March 2005, a suicide bombing in Doha killed one Briton and wounded 12 people. The attack was claimed by a shadowy Islamist group calling itself the “Jund al-Sham Organization,” or Organization of Soldiers of the Levant, in Internet statements in which it also threatened strikes against oil facilities, churches and Western military bases in the Middle East.
Qatar is a close ally of Washington and hosts the command headquarters for US forces in the Middle East.
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.
Dream come true
“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.
“It is a wonderful day for us, we have been waiting for many, many years to have a proper place of worship,” said Indian resident Robert Rodriguez, one of about 10,000 people who gathered for the ceremony according to church estimates.
Some 3,000 worshippers were packed inside the new domed building, which does not expose religious symbols such as a cross or a bell tower out of respect for the local sensitivities.
Three dozen bishops and priests had gathered to celebrate the Mass, which was conducted in English with prayers in Tagalog, Hindi, Arabic and other languages.
“This is a historic day for the Christian community,” said Filipino Imelda Ilotin.
“It signifies that people can live together in peace and diversity if they are guided by illuminated rulers,” she said.
Reports from Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
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