SUBSCRIBE NOW

SIGHT

Be informed. Be challenged. Be inspired.

More than 1,000 people celebrate opening of new Catholic Church in Oman

More than 1,000 people attended celebrations surrounding the inauguration of a new Catholic Church in Oman last weekend, Agenzia Fides reports.

Located in the southern city of Salalah, construction of the 600 seat church, which is dedicated to St Francis Xavier, was completed in just 18 months.

The Catholic news agency reports that among guests at a civil celebration last Saturday were Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla, Apostolic Nuncio in Yemen, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Qatar, Bishop Paul Hinder, Vicar Apostolic of Southern Arabia, and Dr Ahmed Khamis Masood al Bahri, director of the Ministry of Religious Endowments and Religious Affairs of Oman.

Archbishop Montecillo Padilla thanked Oman’s sultan, Qaboos bin Said al Said, for granting permits for the construction of the church, noting that Oman enjoys peace because of its commitments taken to preserve religious tolerance.

The archbiship invited those present to see the new church as a sign “that God always walks beside us in good and bad times, even if our prayers are not fulfilled immediately”, according to Fides.

The civil ceremony was followed with a service on Sunday night.

About 60,000 Catholics reside in Oman which currently has five parishes including two in Salalah. The new church will reportly servce a community of foreign workers.

 

Donate



sight plus logo

Sight+ is a new benefits program we’ve launched to reward people who have supported us with annual donations of $26 or more. To find out more about Sight+ and how you can support the work of Sight, head to our Sight+ page.

Musings

TAKE PART IN THE SIGHT READER SURVEY!

We’re interested to find out more about you, our readers, as we improve and expand our coverage and so we’re asking all of our readers to take this survey (it’ll only take a couple of minutes).

To take part in the survey, simply follow this link…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.