St. Mary’s Catholic Church

St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Oud Metha is one of Dubai’s foundational Catholic institutions. The parish’s official history states that Fr. Eusebio Daveri secured a suitable site in the mid-1960s and that Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum laid the foundation stone on 25 May 1966.

The first church, known as the Church of the Assumption, was blessed and dedicated to Mary Assumed into Heaven on 7 April 1967. As Dubai’s Catholic community grew, the original building was demolished in 1988 to make way for a larger church on the same site. The present church was inaugurated on 3 November 1989 by Cardinal Josef Tomko.

Today the complex remains an active Roman Catholic parish under the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia, offering Mass, confession, the sacraments, catechetical programmes and other parish ministries in a highly international setting. Its religious importance comes from continuous parish life and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of the Assumption, rather than from a documented apparition or miracle claim.

The church is on Oud Metha Street opposite the Indian High School, close to Oud Metha Metro Station and served by public buses. Current contact details are published on the parish’s official website.