Doha Qatar: They speak different languages and hail from different countries, but they are ‘United in Spirit’. Yes, ‘United in Spirit’, was the theme of the celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Rosary Church Doha Qatar, which took place on Friday evening at the grandeur church at Abu Hamour.

‘United in Spirit’, were the multi-lingual Roman Catholic Community of Qatar which celebrated the feast, in true word and spirit of the theme.

Where on earth can you hear people speaking different languages at one meet on one single day, only a select few organizations? 

On Friday, the faithful hear with rapt attention as leaders of different communities owing allegiance to the Rosary church sought the blessings of the almighty in their own native languages.

The representatives spoke in French, Italian, Spanish, Tugaloo, Tamil, Sinhalese, Urdu, Hindi, Malayalam, Konkani and Arabic, while the mass ceremony was conducted in English. African language presence was also there.

The blessings were sought not only for the community and its leaders, but also for the rule of Qatar, The Emir of Qatar and his family.

The Church in Qatar is grateful for the Emir of Qatar for making it possible for the Christian community to construct churches here in Qatar. 

Qatar is a Muslim state.

The permission to build churches in Qatar is not restricted to just the Roman Catholics but for various other Christians groups. 

The present church was inaugurated three years back.

Bishop Camillo Ballin, Roman Catholic Vicariate of the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia was the main celebrant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camillo_Ballin.

A cultural programme presented by different communities delighted the feast day crowd.

The Friday holiday crowd savored the taste of the different cuisines at the food stalls erected around the church premises.

The Hispanic, the French, the Pakistani, Sri Lankan’s, Africans, Arabic, the Filipinos and of course the Indians were in full strengthen trying to impress the visitors with their cuisines.

The Indians, who constitute the largest group in terms of sheer numbers, although divided into different language speaking communities, had the most number of stalls and rightly so. 

Multi-lingual Roman Catholic priest Fransecu bids goodbye to Qatar

 “The apostles, along with other followers of Jesus, meet and elect Matthias to replace Judas as a member of The Twelve. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends on them. The apostles hear a great wind and witness "tongues of flames" descending on them, paralleling Luke 3:16-17. Thereafter, the apostles have the miraculous power to "speak in tongues" and when they address a crowd, each member of the crowd hears their speech in his own native language.”

 Peter and the apostles continue to preach, and Christianity continues to grow. The apostles set out in different regions to propagate the word of the Lord.

Turn to the present day era, you find many people having gained a mastery over a host of languages. It easier said than done. 

Only a few are gifted, one of them happens to be native Arabic speaking Roman Catholic Priest Fransecu. The Beirut-born priest, who served the catholic community in Qatar for the last three years, has since bid farewell to the Christianity community of Qatar.

Qatar is the world richest country in the world. The gas-rich country is home to a hundreds and thousands of expatriate workers who savoring the fruits of the economic boom witnessed in the tiny nation.

Fransecu, besides Arabic and English was equally at ease speaking different languages like Italian, French and Spanish. He also spoke Portuguese.

A multi-talented personality as described by the parish priest of Our Lady of Rosary church Qatar Fr Peter, the ever-smiling priest, has completed specialized studies Church architecture in Rome, and he is also a gifted musician as he knows to read and write music.

Qatar loss will surely be Beirut’s gain. Fransecu will be the vicar at the Cathedral in Beirut.