Kuwait’s Catholics witnessed a historic moment as Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, presided over Mass at Kuwait’s Our Lady of Arabia Church on Friday as it was raised to a minor basilica. Source: OSV News.
The Cardinal said that the church built on the desert stands is a reminder that “Mary herself once found refuge in those same desert lands.”
The title of “minor basilica” that the church now holds is conferred on churches that have special liturgical or pastoral importance and stand out for their historical, spiritual, or architectural value.
In his homily, delivered to a congregation including local Catholics, politicians, diplomats, and representatives of the Kuwaiti Oil Company, Cardinal Parolin described the occasion of elevating the church to a minor basilica as “truly historic,” not only “for the Church in Kuwait, but for the Church throughout the entire Arabian Peninsula”.
“Built upon the sands of the desert,” the Cardinal said, “this basilica reminds us that Mary herself once found refuge in those same desert lands, where she cared for, raised, and safeguarded the one Mediator between God and the human family, Jesus Christ.”
In 1948, a small group of Catholics – foreigners who had recently arrived in Kuwait to work in the burgeoning oil industry – opened a small chapel in Al-Ahmadi, the country’s second city. Just a few years later, a church took its place and was decorated with an image of the Virgin Mary blessed by the Pope himself.
As the oil industry took off, and ever greater numbers of foreign workers began to arrive in Kuwait, the church – dedicated, as the original chapel had been, to Our Lady of Arabia – continued to grow in importance.
The church was completed in 1957 “as a generous gift of the local donors, whose care and support for the church complex continue to this day,” the Vatican said in a January 15 press release.
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‘Truly historic’: Kuwait’s first church elevated to minor basilica (By Joseph Tulloch, Vatican News via OSV News)
