It does exist, and it is growing:
Bahrain will donate a plot of land to build a new Catholic church in the country. The decision by King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa comes in response to a request Pope Benedict XVI made to the Gulf State when its new ambassador presented its credentials last 18 December.
“Everyone is aware today that because of the rising number of Catholics, it would be desirable for them to have more places of worship,” the Pope said during the audience with Naser Muhamed Youssef Al-Belooshi, first representative of the Arab kingdom to the Vatican.
About 80 per cent of the 800,000 people living in the country are Muslim (60 per cent Sunni and 20 per cent Shia). Catholics represent about 10 per cent, mostly foreign workers from Asian nations.
Bahrain became the first country in the Persian Gulf to build a Catholic church, the Sacred Heart Church, which will celebrate its 70th anniversary this year, since it was inaugurated with a Christmas Midnight Mass in 1939.
Relations between the Holy See and the Gulf kingdom saw significant progress in 2008. Not only did the Vatican receive the first ambassador from Bahrain, but King Hamad met Pope Benedict XVI as well. After the meeting on 9 July the sovereign issued an official communiqué inviting the Holy Father to visit the country.
Over the past year, we’ve had as our associate pastor a foreign priest who has spent time in the Gulf Region and it was he who first brought to my attention the tacit approval given to Christian worship in some of the Gulf States – the Gulf States have imported a great deal of labor and, as it turns out, a lot of it hails from Catholic areas of Asia. Meanwhile, Evangelicals have also been busy and have, indeed, gained converts in the Islamic world. Boiled down, the concept of the Arabian penninsula being entirely Moslem is rapidly collapsing in the face of the demographic facts of Christian immigration. And for these Moslem nations, its either become tolerant or lose their labor force. Most are turning towards toleration – and there is even some discussion about opening a Catholic Church in Saudi Arabia, something which would have been entirely unthinkable even just a few years ago.
A good deal of this progress is resultant upon the quiet diplomacy of the Holy See – patience and tact do go a long ways. But, additionally, there are also the winds of change blowing…including those winds brought forth by the US actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The times, they are a-changing, and wise Moslems know they have to bend a bit with the wind, or break. The Islamo-fascists, of course, refuse to bend – but they are more and more being marginalized as Islam begins to develope hope for a better tomorrow, and becomes ever more familiar with the inhuman and, indeed, un-Islamic savagery of the Islamo-fascists.
There should be no turning back from this, and only the most cowardly surrender on the part of the United States can undo the good work well begun.
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