Up from the underground: the church in Qatar.

Doha, Qatar -- Catholics in this Muslim state no longer have to practise their religion clandestinely but actually are being provided with the land to build a church on. For seven centuries Catholics in Qatar, a tiny Emirate (population 800,000) on the Persian Gulf, were officially prohibited from holding religious services, as they still are in Saudi Arabia.

A new constitution was approved by the government in April 2003, promising freedom of expression and of religion. Since then, the government has donated a tract of land on which five Christian churches will be built--Catholic, Anglican, Protestant, Coptic, and Orthodox.

Father Lester Mendonsa, parish priest for the 48,000 Catholics in Qatar, hopes to see the foundation stone for the new Church of Our Lady of the Rosary laid on her feast day, October 7, of this year. Each faith community is responsible for the design, building, and funding of its own church. The new Catholic church should be ready to open its doors eighteen months after building has commenced.