Thousands were dubbed ‘living stones' by the Vatican's head of evangelisation as they celebrated the consecration of the church of Our Lady of the Rosary last week in Qatar, the latest Arabian Muslim state to permit the opening of a dedicated place of Catholic worship
When a mosque was built in Rome the authorities ruled that the minaret could not be taller than St Peter's. Similarly the architect designing the first ever Catholic church in the Arabian Gulf state of Qatar had to be mindful of the Islamic laws of the host country. Hence Our Lady of the Rosary in the capital, Doha, has no steeple, bell or cross or indeed anything else on the outside that advertises it as a Christian place or worship.
At the festivities last Saturday to mark the consecration there were yet more reminders that this church is not welcomed by all in this conservative Islamic state: stationed at each entrance of the building was an armed security guard supplied by the Government.
Inside, however, the mood was one of joyous celebration lasting almost four hours. The 2,000 or so seats were filled, the aisles packed and hundreds more people stood outside watching the service on TV screens. On the altar were parish priests, bishops and nuncios past and present, and Cardinal Ivan Dias, head of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and former Archbishop of Bombay. Before them were rows and rows of uniforms: children in feather-winged angel outfits, eucharistic ministers in white robes, men in dark suits, more in jeans, Indian women in saris.
The church is a vast, light, airy semi-circular chamber with vaults that fan out from a circle of golden light in the ceiling. The blue walls, which pale near the top to represent an ascent heavenwards, are stencilled with angels, the Holy Family and saints, and behind the altar are stained-glass windows brought over from an old church in France with the help of Bertrand Besancenot, formerly France's ambassador in Qatar and now representing his country in Saudi Arabia.
In his homily Cardinal Dias told the congregation they were all "living stones in the house of God", and to loud cheers held up a chalice he has brought as a gift from Pope Benedict. Many Catholics have come to work in Qatar over the last 15 years since the discovery of large reserves of petroleum and natural gas fuelled the country's rapid modernisation and a building boom. This has produced jobs for Western oil workers, jobs for Indian engineers, Indian taxi-drivers, Bangladeshi stall-holders, Filipino labourers, Filipina maids. Of Qatar's 900,000 population, more than 500,000 - some say 800,000 - are foreign.
At the consecration this demographic was celebrated by a "parade of nations" - representatives from some 60 countries who processed altarwards in national dress. There was Indian dancing and African singing and drumming. Later, prayers were said by a dozen or so people in as many different languages, among them French, Italian, Arabic (for the Lebanese), Sinhalese from Sri Lanka, Tagalog from the Philippines, Malayalam and Tamil from India, and Urdu from Pakistan.
The former parish priest, Californian Fr John Van Deerlin, told the congregation that the church had been a long time coming -eight years since permission was granted - and there had been long discussions about the risks attached to making their worship public. After the Mass, a former Apostolic Vicar of Arabia, Bishop Bernardo Gremoli, told The Tablet that the new church was "a dream come true". He said he had befriended the current Emir before he came to power in 1995 and the church is in large part the fruit of their relationship. Our Lady of the Rosary was built at a cost of more than £7 million on land donated by the Emir. On the same compound a Syrian Orthodox church has been built and will be consecrated shortly, and permissions have been granted for Anglican, Coptic and multi-denominational churches.
According to Bishop Gremoli the previous Emir was much more hardline. But today Qatar is the home of Al Jazeera and of an annual interfaith conference. Although apostasy is still illegal for its majority Muslim citizens, Qatar is receptive to people from minority faiths. In many speeches at the consecration, and at a diplomatic reception the night before, the church reiterated its gratitude to the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. At the reception, which included a non-alcoholic cocktail party, vice-Prime Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said the Emir urged "people to accept the good features of every religion for one's own betterment and for the improvement of relations between communities and people of different cultures".
The consecration and a diplomatic reception made front-page news in three main papers; an editorial in The Peninsula pointed out that while some had criticised the Government for granting the churches permission to build, there was "widespread approval" for the projects. The Gulf Times went further, including a feature acknowledging Qatar's pre-Islamic - Christian - past and adding that in the main the gradual mass-conversion to Islam in the country occurred "peacefully".
It is believed that churches existed in Qatar until 1,400 years ago, perhaps even later. The country was part of the Church of the East, the Church of the Persian Empire, which today exists as the Ancient Church of the East and the Assyrian Church of the East. Both branches are currently in talks with the Vatican. In the seventh century, Qatar was an important Christian centre. There was a bishopric and it was the birthplace of the mystic and writer Isaac of Nineveh. At the time Christians were followers of Bishop Nestorius, whose view of Christ as two persons were declared heretical at the Council of Ephesus (431). Though historical records are scant it appears that Islam and Christianity co-existed in Qatar for a few centuries before increasing social, economic and political pressure forced more and more Christians to convert to Islam and by the eleventh century the faith had disappeared.
Nine centuries on, the first Catholic priest in Doha arrived in 1976. Now there is a community of Capuchins and a team of seven priests led by Fr Tomasito Veneracion, a Filipino, to minister to expatriate workers. For the last 10 years or so Catholics coming to Qatar have worshipped in a modest parish centre on the outskirts of Doha, where up to 20 Masses have been celebrated in various languages, and even in various Oriental Rites, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. With the Muslim day of rest being Friday, Saturdays and Sundays are regular weekdays with most people attending Mass before or after work.
Aref Ali Nayed, an adviser to the Cambridge Interfaith Programme and one of the 138 Muslim scholars who signed a letter addressed to the Pope inviting more Christian-Muslim dialogue, said the opening of the church was not so much evidence of a shift in attitude towards non-Muslims as a shift in demographic due to the movement of workers in the oil and financial sector. He said delays in granting permission to build churches or restrictions on architecture should not be seen as hostility towards Christians.
"People get the wrong impression that Muslims are preventing Christians from worshipping. You try getting a permit to build anything in Arabic or Western countries." Commenting on the ban on a sign outside the church, he said: "In non-Muslim countries, most mosques are not allowed to use loudspeakers for the call to prayer. You can't come in from outside and dictate how people should do things in another community. When something good happens, like this, the press wants to criticise the Emir's father or the Government. Given the situation in the world today, it's not very fair or wise. We need to encourage positive developments where they occur."
After the service excited Indians grabbed the Mumbai-born Cardinal Dias to join them in their family photos. "I can't express how excited I am to have a church," beamed a parish-council member, an engineer from Kerala who has lived here for more than 20 years. "All this time we've been ‘roaming Catholics'," joked another council member.
Just two days after the consecration of the Qatar church, Vatican Radio reported that discussions were taking place between the Vatican and the Saudi Government to build the first Catholic church in Saudi Arabia. The country has a Catholic population estimated at 800,000 - almost all of them migrant workers. At present they are forbidden to hold public services, or possess Bibles, rosaries or crucifixes. As the spokesman for the Holy See, Fr Federico Lombardi, pointed out last Tuesday, opening a church in Saudi Arabia would indeed be "a historic achievement".
Fonte: The Tablet, 22.03.08.
