by Margaux Salcedo
Photo credit: Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia
Cardinal Luis Antonio is now in Bahrain for the inauguration of the Our Lady of Arabia Cathedral by His Majesty's Representative HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
At the inauguration, Cardinal Tagle was joined by Archbishop Eugene Nugent, Bishop Paul Hinder and other dignitaries and guests.
Consecration to Our Lady
Tomorrow, December 10, Friday at 10:00 a.m. Bahrain time (3:00 p.m. in Manila), the Cathedral will be consecrated to Our Lady of Arabia. It will become one of the main Catholic churches of the Arabian Peninsula, seat of the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia.
The new Cathedral of Bahrain will be able to accommodate 2,300 people.
About 80,000 Catholics live in Bahrain, mostly workers from Asia, mainly Filipinos and Indians.
The municipality of Awali, where the new church stands, is located on a small island in the center of the Kingdom, was founded in the 1930s by the Bahrain Petroleum Company. The town is mainly inhabited by immigrant workers of various nationalities, mostly employed in oil refining plants.