About 1,000 Catholics in Bahrain attended Mass to mark third anniversary of the opening of Our Lady of Arabia Cathedral

14 December 2023

About 1,000 Catholics in Bahrain attended a special Mass on Dec. 10 to mark the third anniversary of the opening of Arabian peninsula’s biggest cathedral and welcomed the relics of Christian martyrs and saints.

During the ceremony, Bishop Aldo Berardi, the Vicar Apostolic of Northern Arabia, urged Catholics to make time to visit Our Lady of Arabia Cathedral to pray and worship to find peace, Fides new agency reported on Dec. 12.

“When you come to the cathedral, you can feel at home. Here you can pray, think, meditate. People come to church to find themselves, to find peace,” Berardi said.

The cathedral serves as the seat of the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia, covering Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, opened the cathedral in 2020.

The cathedral “is a place of spirituality, of welcome, where we can find someone who listens to us. We are the true temple because true worship is in the heart,” Berardi said.

During the ceremony, Berardi blessed two sets of relics of Christian martyrs and saints presented by a group of Catholics. The relics were placed at the altar by Father Saji Thomas, the cathedral’s rector.

The first set contained relics of Saint Arethas and his companions who were martyred in 523, according to Church records.

They were Arab Christians from the ancient city of Najran in ancient Yemen (present-day Saudi Arabia) who were victims of a multifaceted conflict between the ancient kingdoms of Himyar (in Yemen) and Axum (in Ethiopia).

According to tradition, it is believed that Arethas played a prominent part in Najran’s political life, perhaps as a governor or sayyid until his martyrdom at between 80 to 95 years of age.

The two apostolic vicariates in the Arabian Gulf are celebrating the jubilee in honor of Saint Arethas and companions from Oct. 24, 2023, to Oct. 23, 2024.

Pope Francis has also granted a Plenary Indulgence during this period on condition that people visit the Cathedral Church of Our Lady of Arabia and the Parish Church of Saint Arethas in the form of a pilgrimage.

The second set of relics included that of Saint John of Matha, founder of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity (Trinitarians), and Saint Josephine Bakhita, who was freed from slavery and subsequently baptized.

Berardi also consecrated the crosses placed on the walls of the cathedral as part of the liturgical celebrations.

“The place becomes holy because it is consecrated; we, in turn, are consecrated as Christians,” Berardi told the congregation.

As of 2020, the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia served about 2.7 million Catholics, mostly migrants from up 100 countries including the Philippines and India.

About 80 percent Catholics belong to the Latin Rite while the rest belong to the Eastern Rite, according to the vicariate’s latest data.

The Prefecture Apostolic of Kuwait was established in 1953, splitting territories from the Apostolic Vicariate of Arabia. It was elevated to an apostolic vicariate in 1954 and was renamed the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia in 2011.

There are about one million Catholics in Saudi Arabia alone, according to the Vicariate’s website.

Kuwait has an estimated 350,000 Catholics, Bahrain has around 80,000, and Qatar has between 200,000 to 300,000 Catholics.

*The original article published by Vatican News online can be accessed here.