More than one thousand people attended the civil inauguration ceremony of the new St Francis Xavier Church, Salalah, which is located around ten minutes from the City Centre, Oman, on Sept 7.

Most of the parishioners comprise of Indian and Filipinos migrant Catholics.

The new church, which took around 18 months to complete, has a seating capacity of 600 people, and it also has a balcony with a view to the main altar and a multipurpose hall, thus bringing the total seating capacity of 1000 people.

Dignitaries present at the celebration included the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Francisco Padilla, and His Excellency Ahmed Khamis Masood Al Bahri, Director of the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs.

The Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia, Bishop Paul Hinder OFM Cap was responsible for the Catholics in the UAE, Oman and Yemen, and several priests and religious sisters of the Vicariate were also present at the event.