In Qatar’s Cathedral City, Sunday comes to Friday

DOHA, Qatar — Behind closed doors on Friday, in small rooms normally used for catechesis, the children celebrated Christmas.

There’s food, drinks and songs. Wreaths and socks decorate the walls. A few adults wearing red Santa hats.

Nearby, across the complex of almost unmarked sand-colored buildings, a Mass is being celebrated in a 2,700-seat cathedral, altars supported by painted angels and God. Jesus on the cross. There will be another Mass every hour, 15 Masses on Friday, spoken in 10 different languages: English, Tagalog, Indonesian, Korean, Urdu, Malayalam, Tamil, Konkani, Thai Sinhala, Arabic.

Rev. “We make as many crowds as possible, to make people feel like they belong somewhere,” says Rally Gonzaga.

Friday’s busiest place in Doha may not be at any World Cup football stadium. It could be this chastised Christian island – the only island in the country – on the dusty southern edge of Doha.

The Qataris and their road signs cryptographically call the Religious Complex. Most others call it Church City.

And at the heart of the eight churches founded here, from Anglican to Greek Orthodox, are Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church. Father Rally, as the parishioners call him, is a 52-year-old from the Philippines. He led a team of 11 priests.

The church is estimated to have about 200,000 parishioners – or Father Rally said, before the coronavirus pandemic, and possibly before Qatar completed or suspended construction projects related to the World Cup that were labor intensive. immigration. Now, it’s probably 100,000. He’s not quite sure. He just knew that they came in droves.

“Most people are social creatures, so they want community,” Father Rally said. “They want to belong.”

Qatar is a country deeply rooted in Islam. The call to prayer can be heard five times a day throughout Doha. World Cup stadiums have prayer rooms for fans, and some staff at matches will stop what they’re doing to kneel to pray.

But there are only about 300,000 Qatari citizens in Qatar, a country with a population of nearly 3 million. It’s a segregated and stratified society, where nearly 90 percent of the people come from somewhere else: mostly the southern hemisphere — places like India, Nepal, the Philippines, but also parts of Africa. : Egypt and Kenya, Uganda and Sudan.

They are laborers, servants, butlers. Their treatment or mistreatment in doing the dirty work of building this gas-rich nation has been a main plot around this World Cup.

Migrants still work in every corner of the labor market. At football stadiums, they are the door openers, the gatekeepers, the franchisees, the ticket collectors. In many ways, they are the mass face of Qatar, going through every visitor’s experience.

To have an official presence in Qatar, non-Muslim religious groups must register with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Only eight Christian faiths have been approved.

The country has no approved Hindu or Buddhist temples, no synagogues.

“Unregistered religious groups are illegal,” the State Department said in a report on international religious freedom, “but authorities often allow them to practice their faith in private. “

For Christians looking for community, there is Church City.

It was built away from the city center, amid sprawling vacant lots and cramped residential areas with grim names like Industrial Park. The buildings are not decorated, as if camouflaged. There are no crosses or other Christian symbols visible on the outside. The spire of the Catholic church rises straight into the sky, but there is no cross at the top.

That’s part of the deal. Icons visible to the public, even in advertising, are not permitted.

“It was a way for us to respect the country because they gave us a place of worship,” Father Rally said. “We don’t think they will be offended, but we will respect the culture.”

The rules give the complex an air of mystery, despite its size and reach. The Anglican Center, for example, lists 85 congregations that use the building, providing specialized services in dozens of languages. Another part of the complex is for the Syrian Orthodox, another for the Coptic Orthodox. An interdenominational church is a big draw.

All follow the Qatar working week, where Friday is a normal holiday and Sunday is a working day. So while Our Lady of the Rosary celebrates Mass at least four times a day from Sunday to Wednesday, and about twice on Thursday and Saturday, Friday is, by far, the biggest day of the year. week.

“There are Islamic traditions, and we have to adapt,” Father Rally said. “Friday is our Sunday.”

The Catholic leadership in Vatican City, he said, had given special permission to Our Lady of the Rosary to celebrate Sunday liturgy two days earlier.

Last Friday, the parking lot was packed with cars. Buses, taxis and Ubers come, go and get stuck in traffic. People flocked to the complex through security gates and metal detectors. Some have walked miles from the surrounding neighborhoods. Many people wear their best Friday.

It’s not all about attending Mass. In Church City, there is a steady flow of life, death, and everything in between.

This is where children are baptized, at least 20 per week. (During the early months of Covid, when in-person services were suspended, there was a backlog, so Father Rally and another priest ended up conducting 200 baptisms at once.)

This is where people get married. A large part of a priest’s job is to call the sick and conduct last rites and funeral services, complicated by the long distances that most people are away from home.

All wrapped up in Catholic customs and rituals, flavored with differences in nationality, language, and culture. The church is both a gentle wharf and a crossroads.

“During my time as a priest, that was the hardest thing,” said Father Rally.

Father Rally has been at Our Lady of the Rosary for a decade and was given a leadership role in 2017. When he led a parish in the Philippines, most of the people were from the same country, the same community. local and most of the parishioners are women.

Here, he guides people from all over the world, although most of his congregation is from India and the Philippines. Most of them are men, many of whom work in Qatar to support their families back home.

On Friday, he walks around the yard in a white coat. He noticed the line of people gathered at the stone cave to pray, long queues outside the chapel door for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. He wandered into a large shady spot where people gathered, receiving free tea and bread. Inside a building marked as the “Hall of Our Lady of Arabia,” he came across a room marked as a “canteen” that smelled of curry and pastries.

Up some stairs, a hallway with doors is a real-life adventure calendar; Opening each one reveals a surprise. Here there were dozens of people singing with their arms raised. There were 40 people here listening attentively to someone preaching. This is a band of 15 members and a room full of singers. When their doors opened, their music flooded the hall.

Some, especially those from the Philippines, smiled at Father Rally, bowing so he could bless them with the back of his hand.

The children are most excited. A group of 15 10-year-olds were celebrating Christmas in a small room when Father Rally appeared in the doorway. The children came to him, smiling and receiving a quick blessing. Then, they dragged him into the room to pose for a group photo.

“Merry Christmas!” said the children.

“Merry Christmas,” he replied.

Soon they were back outside, under the bright sun, and out the exit toward the parking lot, back into the desert world they called home. Many people poured in to take their place.

At the same time, throughout the rest of Doha, loudspeakers called on Muslims to pray.