‘Truly historic’: Kuwait’s first church elevated to Minor Basilica

In the year 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.

On Friday, January 16, the Holy See Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, presided at Mass to celebrate the elevation of the church to the status of Minor Basilica. The title is conferred on churches that hold special liturgical or pastoral importance, and that 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 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.”