ASIA/OMAN - From 50 faithful to 100,000: the Sultanate’s first Catholic church celebrates its Golden Jubilee

Muscat (Fides News Agency) – When it first opened its doors in 1977, there were around 3,500 Catholics in Oman. A generation earlier, in Muscat, there were barely fifty. Today, their number is estimated at around 100,000. It is against this backdrop that the Golden Jubilee of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Ruwi takes place; this was the first Catholic church built in the Sultanate, opened on 6 November by Bishop Paolo Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia, a circumscription based in Abu Dhabi which encompasses the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen.
The Jubilee Year will conclude on November 5, 2027.

The opening ceremonies marked the beginning of this Year of Grace. On November 5, before the celebration of Vespers, the Jubilee flag was raised. The following day, Bishop Martinelli blessed the Jubilee altar erected outside the church, lit the Jubilee candle and blessed the entrance door, before celebrating Solemn Mass. The Apostolic Penitentiary has granted a plenary indulgence to the faithful who visit the church, subject to the usual conditions.

It is the story of a Church a Church born from mission and grown through migration. Following the establishment of the Apostolic Vicariate of Arabia in the late nineteenth century, and until 1938, Catholics in Oman received visits once or twice a year from Capuchin or Carmelite missionaries serving in the region. The visits were suspended during the Second World War and resumed afterwards with Capuchin friars from Bahrain, who travelled to Muscat every two months. A turning point came in 1973, when Sultan Qaboos granted a plot of land near the capital for the construction of a church and a residence for a priest.

The church's consecration on November 4, 1977 also bears the mark of Propaganda Fide. The ceremony was presided over by Archbishop Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy, then Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and President of the Pontifical Mission Societies, together with Capuchin Bishop Giovanni Bernardo Gremoli, Apostolic Vicar of Arabia.
The rapid growth in the Catholic population soon made the original building inadequate. In 1995, it was demolished and rebuilt on a larger scale. Three more churches were subsequently established, in Ghala (Muscat), Sohar and Salalah.

Today, around 10,000 faithful of different nationalities, languages and liturgical traditions regularly attend the parish. Most come from India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Spread across a vast territory, they are served by four priests. The community is made up almost entirely of migrant workers, for many of whom Ruwi Church has been a point of reference and almost a second home over the past fifty years.
To ensure that everyone can take part, the Jubilee Year, whose theme is “Built on Rock, Guided by the Spirit”, includes monthly celebrations dedicated to different groups, ministries and communities.

In his homily, Bishop Martinelli invited the faithful to allow the mercy offered during the Jubilee to “purify us and help us keep Christ at the centre of our lives”.
The parish priest, Father Stephen Lewis, expressed his gratitude “to the rulers, officials and people of Oman for their benevolence towards the Catholic community, and for the peace, security and freedom to practise our faith”.
Relations between the Catholic community and the Sultanate reached a significant milestone on February 23, 2023, with the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Oman.
(MLK) (Fides News Agency, 8/11/2026)

Share:

local churches

---

---

mission

---

---

migrants

---

---

islam

---

---