His Lordship Bishop Camillo Ballin, MCCI, speaks with
Francis A. Clifford Cardozo (Staff Reporter)

ARAB TIMES, Kuwait City, July 16, 2007

‘‘Permission not sought for new church, so far’’
Bishop Camillo Ballin clears ‘mixup’

The Roman Catholic Church on Sunday categorically refuted a recent report appearing in a certain Arabic newspaper that claimed that it was denied permission to build a new church in Hawally.

Bishop Camillo Ballin, Vicar Apostolic of Kuwait, told the Arab Times that the Greek Catholic Church has often been wrongly associated with the Roman Catholic Church by certain section of people and that he tried to clear the air surrounding this issue many a time but to no avail. He said the crux of the problem is that the Greek Catholics in Arabic are referred to as “Room-Catholics” and this, in turn, is interpreted by some as “Roman Catholics.”

This is completely wrong, he added. Bishop Ballin observed that there are 900 Greek Catholics in Kuwait while the total number of Roman Catholics stands at 300,000. Of the 300,000 Roman Catholics in Kuwait, some 95,000 are Filipinos and around 6,000 Arabs. “Last year, a similar issue cropped up, which claimed that the Roman Catholic Church was denied permission to build a new church building. Strangely, we never sought permission from the authorities.”

In an interview with the Arab Times earlier, Bishop Ballin had underscored the need for a new church building to accommodate the ever-increasing Catholic Faithful in Kuwait. Bishop Ballin had also said that the present Cathedral in Kuwait City was bursting at its seams and that it could accommodate only 700 parishioners. Besides the Cathedral, there is a church in Ahmadi and a chapel in Salmiya and a large number of the parishioners are from India, Philippines and Sri Lanka, among others.

“The number of Roman Catholics in the country is on the rise every week. We plan to approach the concerned authorities to seek permission to build a new church and would prefer a piece of land away from Kuwait City.” Bishop Ballin noted that owing to the ongoing developmental activity in the country a large number of workers were pouring into Kuwait.

By Francis A. Clifford Cardozo