‘Saudis want new image for country’: Vatican and Riyadh sign pact to build

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#1 [Permalink] Posted on 4th May 2018 22:29

www.rt.com/news/425888-saudi-arabia-churches-cardinal/

‘Saudis want new image for country’: Vatican and Riyadh sign pact to build churches in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia will no longer be the only Gulf state with no public Christian places of worship, after an agreement was signed between local Wahhabi leaders and a Vatican cardinal to establish a cooperative relationship.

“This is the beginning of a rapprochement… It is a sign that the Saudi authorities are now ready to give a new image to the country,” one of the most senior Catholic officials, President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, told the Vatican News website after returning from Riyadh.

Tauran was in Saudi Arabia for a week in the middle of last month, in a visit that was widely covered by local media, and mostly ignored by the English-language press. He met with the de-facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and with multiple spiritual leaders.

The final accord signed between Tauran and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdel Karim Al-Issa, Secretary General of the Muslim World League, a leading Wahhabi NGO, paves the way not only for building projects, but has outlined plans for Muslim-Christian summits once every two years and for greater rights for non-Islamic worshippers in the Gulf kingdom.

Saudi Arabia has a reputation as one of the most religiously intolerant regimes in the world. Non-Muslims are punished for any displays of their religion outside of their homes, while any Muslim who decides to convert to another faith is subject to a death sentence for apostasy. Islamic religious law is imposed uniformly on all those resident in the oil-rich state, regardless of beliefs, while a dedicated religious police oversees compliance.

Nonetheless, there has been an influx of migrant workers to the kingdom in the past decades, and more than 1.5 million Christians are thought to be in the country, mostly from the Philippines.

Attempts to negotiate a more visible status for Christianity by the Vatican date back years and, in 2008, it also announced a potentially “historic” agreement to construct the first modern-day church, a plan that was eventually shelved.

But the possibility of at least a cosmetic display of tolerance appears more likely in the reign of the image-conscious Mohammed bin Salman, who has already abandoned several landmark customs, such as those forbidding women from driving, or requiring them to be under the constant supervision of their guardians.

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#2 [Permalink] Posted on 5th May 2018 14:10

saw this a few weeks ago but no where did it actually say they will open church just more coperation and tolerance but wudbt b surprised. give it few years ul see nightclubs, bars, stripclubs and casinos. Mbs nt joking when he says he wants to diversify

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#3 [Permalink] Posted on 5th May 2018 19:16

mkdon101 wrote:

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within a matter of weeks saudi has changed so much. but people seem oblivious.

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#4 [Permalink] Posted on 6th May 2018 10:56

just seen on bloomberg business news saudi is going to relax laws on intermingling of genders and make it non compulsory for businesses to close for salah

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#5 [Permalink] Posted on 6th May 2018 11:55

Can the city of Makkah and medina be given independent status like the Vatican City.

For those of you who don't know;

Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. Encircled by a 2-mile border with Italy, Vatican City is an independent city-state that covers just over 100 acres, making it one-eighth the size of New York's Central Park. Vatican City is governed as an absolute monarchy with the pope at its head.

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#6 [Permalink] Posted on 6th May 2018 20:19

mkdon101 wrote:

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Old news

vision2030.gov.sa/en/qol

4.A.7 Develop regulations

Individual protection laws are necessary to open up the venues around the Kingdom to everyone, from both genders, who wants to participate in arts, culture, entertainment, sporting and other activities, and ensure that these activities are acceptable and appropriate

10.4.1 Laws and regulations initiative

Encourage both gender’s equal participation in sports activities

Rajab wrote:

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Catholic Church Money:

money.cnn.com/2015/09/24/news/pope-francis-visit-vatican-...

The Vatican Bank has $8 billion in assets
The Vatican had over €1.1 billion off its balance sheet
It costs how much to become a saint?!

It's not cheap to get a priest canonized. To wit: The Our Lady of Victory National Shrine & Basilica in Lackawanna, New York, has raised over $250,000 in an effort to canonize its former priest, Father Nelson Baker.

Can anyone see familiarity between Saudi regime and Catholic Church?

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There is no Plan B!

http://www.central-mosque.com/

‘Saudis want new image for country’: Vatican and Riyadh sign pact to build

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