OUR LADY OF ARABIA The future cathedral of Bahrain, in the Middle East, will soon be under construction. The king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, who has also expressed his wish to help two hundred Christian families from Mosul, has donated a piece of land of about 9000 m² for the construction of the cathedral (the only church he has done so for), which will be dedicated to Our Lady of Arabia. The king presented a model of the cathedral to Pope Francis, whom he met in May this year. Bishop Camillo Ballin, Apostolic Vicar of Northern Arabia, told Vatican Radio that he applauded this gesture of appeasement at a time when religious minorities are persecuted in various parts of the Middle East. The king often asks me about the progress of the construction of the church. When I told him that it would be dedicated to Our Lady of Arabia, he was very happy, the bishop said. The proposed building, which will accommodate 2,300 people, was entrusted to an Italian architect. Its simple design represents the tent of the Hebrews during the Exodus. Costing $30 million, the church will be octagonal in shape and have a single steeple. It will serve the 2.5 million Catholics in the Northern Arabian Peninsula. The peninsulas Catholic population is one of the fastest growing in the world. There are estimated to be 350,000 to 400,000 Catholics in Kuwait and Qatar, 1.5 million in Saudi Arabia, and 140,000 in Bahrain. Most of them are expatriates and migrant workers from the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and other countries. While Catholics and Christians have to worship in private in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain is more accepting of different religions. It is the first country of the Arabian Peninsula to permit the construction of a church since 1939. The devotion to Our Lady of Arabia started on the day on which a chapel in her honor was dedicated in Ahmadi, Kuwait on December 8, 1948. Pope Pius XII gave a grand lead to this devotion, when on December 17, 1949, on the eve of the great Jubilee Year, in the Vatican Palace, he deigned to bless personally the new statue of Our Lady of Arabia, and condescended to be photographed in prayer before it. Earlier, His Eminence Alexender Cardinal Verde signed the document which grants to the Church of Our Lady of Arabia the same indulgences as for visiting the greatest Marian Shrine of the world, the papal basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 14:42:33 +0000
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