Doha: Thousands of worshippers, including some Indians, gathered in a long and emotional ceremony for the consecration of the first Roman Catholic church in the Gulf state of Qatar, ending decades of underground Christian worship in this Sunni Muslim and deeply conservative country.

A Cardinal presented the parish with a chalice offered by the Pope during the five-hour mass yesterday, and many worshippers wept when a relic of Catholic Saint Padre Pio da Pietrelcina was introduced in the church, dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary.

The 2,700-seat church was built on land donated by Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and five other buildings are under construction nearby for other Christian denominations in this oil-rich state where over 70 percent of the population are expatriate workers.

"I convey very special greetings from the Holy Father to the Emir," said Cardinal Ivan Dias, the envoy of Pope Benedict XVI and the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Qatar follows the rigorous Wahabi teachings of Sunni Islam, and like neighbouring Saudi Arabia had not previously authorized Christians to practice their faith openly.

Some 150,000 Christians of all denominations live in the emirate, over 90 per cent of them Catholic expatriate workers from the Philippines, India and other Asian nations.

"It is a wonderful day for us, we have been waiting for many, many years to have a proper place of worship," said Indian resident Robert Rodriguez, one of about 10,000 people who gathered for the ceremony according to church estimates.

Three dozen bishops and priests had gathered to celebrate the mass, which was conducted in English with prayers in the Tagalog language from the Philippines, Hindi, Arabic and other languages.

Source : PTI