Pope Leo XIV has granted the title of minor basilica to the Church of Our Lady of Arabia in Ahmadi, Kuwait, the first of its kind in the Arabian Peninsula.
This historic designation followed a formal petition submitted by Bishop Aldo Berardi, Apostolic Vicar of Northern Arabia.
“The title, granted by Pope Leo XIV in a decree promulgated by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, highlights the deep Marian devotion that animates our parishes and communities, despite the many challenges we face in the region,” Bishop Berardi said.
He added that this milestone is a tangible sign of the vibrant spiritual life of the Catholic Church in Kuwait and throughout the Gulf. The date of the solemn declaration will be announced later.
The Church of Our Lady of Arabia is the first Catholic church in Kuwait and the “mother church” of the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia. Its origins trace back to a provisional chapel in an old power plant in Al-Ahmadi dedicated to the Mother of God in 1948. In 1952, the Kuwait Oil Company granted permission for the construction of a permanent church.
The church’s cornerstone was gathered by members of the Carmelite Mission in Kuwait from the ruins of an old Dominican abbey in Aylesford, Kent, England, and brought to Rome, where it was blessed by Pope Pius XII.
On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1956, then Bishop-elect Teofano Ubaldo Stella, the first bishop of Kuwait, led the blessing and dedication of the church. It was also granted a spiritual affinity with the papal basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome.
“The Church in Ahmadi has come to mean many things to many people,” the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia wrote on its website. “The day-long Eucharistic Adoration in various languages on the First Friday of every month is well attended by many Catholics in Kuwait. Equally important, the ‘little’ church in Ahmadi will always be regarded as a center of pilgrimage for all Marian devotees.”
The church also houses the original image of Our Lady of Arabia, a replica of the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in her basilica, blessed by Pope Pius XII in 1949.
The Marian image received a pontifical coronation on January 16, 2011, and was later proclaimed the Principal Patroness of the Gulf.
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