A church in the works in KSA?

Baby steps towards some semblance of religious freedom in in KSA.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Vatican-Saudi talks on churches

The Vatican is holding talks with Saudi Arabia on building the first church in the kingdom, where some 1.5m Christians are not allowed to worship publicly.

This comes after the opening of a church in Qatar, which leads the cynic in me to wonder this is the latest a new example of the scourge of intra-Khaleeji competition. If so, I’m glad to see phenomenon inspiring something positive and meaningful as opposed to shallow and materialistic for a change.

The disclosure of talks between the Vatican and Saudi Arabia, which do not have diplomatic ties, came soon after the first Roman Catholic church in the Qatari capital, Doha, was opened in a service attended by 15,000 people.

In an unrelated note, I was told when I lived there that in Qatari slang “going to church” means to pay a visit to one’s mistress. I guess there’s now a touch of ambiguity to that expression.