Interviewing is a fine art, and one of the best on the Vatican beat is Gianni Cardinale, whose Q&A pieces with cardinals and other newsmakers in 30 Giorni are required reading.

In the January-February issue, Cardinale talks with Bishop Giovanni Bernardo Gremoli, a Capuchin and former Apostolic Vicar for the Arabian Peninsula, a territory that includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Yemen. He said there are currently 48 priests in the vicariate and about 3 million Catholics, with half in Saudi Arabia and half scattered across the remaining nations. Most are migrant laborers, with the largest groups being Filipinos and Indians. There are roughly one million Filipinos in Saudi Arabia alone.

Outside Saudi Arabia, Gremoldi said, there is a surprising degree of openness to the Catholic presence. There are 11 churches and parochial structures in the region, he said, the majority in the Emirates, but with four in Oman and one in Bahrain. A 12th church is going up in Qatar, which has never had a Catholic place of worship. There are also eight Catholic schools, seven in the Emirates and one in Bahrain, with more than 16,500 students, roughly 60 percent Muslim.

The improved climate is reflected in the fact, Gremoldi said, that the Holy See opened diplomatic relations with Yemen in 1998, Bahrain in 2000 and Qatar in 2002. In the Emirates, he said, the apostolic vicar is considered the pope's representative and takes part in diplomatic functions.

The situation in Saudi Arabia, however, Gremoldi described as "reminiscent of the catacombs." Neither priests nor celebration of the Mass is legally permitted except in embassies. Catholics may only pray at home, never in groups, even with friends or relatives. The religious police, called the mutawa, whom Gremoldi described as "very efficient," intervene whenever there is suspicion of a non-Islamic religious assembly. Gremoldi attributed this climate to Wahabi Islam, which sees the entire Arabian Peninsula as sacred territory and thus closed to any cult except Islam.

Even so, Gremoldi said he manages to make a pastoral visit every year to administer confirmations and the other sacraments, and to celebrate Mass for various groups. From time to time, he said, "visiting priests" manage to reach different Catholic communities.

Gremoldi downplayed long-standing complaints that the Saudis were able to build a $65 million mosque in Rome while Catholics are subjected to such tight restraints in Saudi Arabia.

"It's good the mosque is there," he told Cardinale. "For one thing, even though it was financed mostly by the Saudis, many Muslims from countries where we are permitted to have places of worship use it. In addition, authorization was requested by then-King Faisal, a sovereign …who was killed precisely for his openness."

Gremoldi rejected suggestions of a "clash of civilizations," which he called "useless and dangerous."


Comment: These observations are shown here to give readers up to date facts and figures about an important aspect of Islam. The Gulf States' relative openness to Western Christian religious life and services show that Islam is not monolithic. This report says nothing about the struggles by muslim clergy in those Gulf States to prevent this openness. Readers can be assured that the struggles were fierce. International politics entered into the decisions to allow Christian churches to function.
The Saudi case is special. This country is the heartland of Islamic Fascism. The Wahhabi cult that controls the country, although not the Government,is the main source of money for muslim groups and clergy in the West. They are the target for the West. Many mosques and imams in australia are directly or indirectly operatives of Wahhabi Islamist Fascism.