I have the same problem using Tomcat 7 (JBoss EWS 2.0) in Openshift, I don't know if this could help but with a pure Tomcat 7 (7.0.64) distribution works perfectly, and with the same application deploying in a Tomcat 8 (8.0.26) I got a different error:

{{24-Sep-2015 14:27:34.617 WARNING [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoaderBase.clearReferencesThreads The web application [sisgecont-1.0] appears to have started a thread named [Dispatcher-Thread-5] but has failed to stop it. This is very likely to create a memory leak. Stack trace of thread:
java.lang.Object.wait(Native Method)
java.lang.Object.wait(Object.java:502)
org.apache.log4j.AsyncAppender$Dispatcher.run(AsyncAppender.java:540)
java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
24-Sep-2015 14:27:34.618 WARNING [localhost-startStop-1] org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoaderBase.clearReferencesThreads The web application [sisgecont-1.0] appears to have started a thread named [Mojarra-WebResourceMonitor-1-thread-1] but has failed to stop it. This is very likely to create a memory leak. Stack trace of thread:
sun.misc.Unsafe.park(Native Method)
java.util.concurrent.locks.LockSupport.parkNanos(LockSupport.java:215)
java.util.concurrent.locks.AbstractQueuedSynchronizer$ConditionObject.awaitNanos(AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.java:2078)
java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$DelayedWorkQueue.take(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:1093)
java.util.concurrent.ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor$DelayedWorkQueue.take(ScheduledThreadPoolExecutor.java:809)
java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.getTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1067)
java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1127)
java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
}}

For those who wants the stack on the JbossEWS:

{{SEVERE: ContainerBase.addChild: start:
org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[]]
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:154)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:901)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:877)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:632)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR(HostConfig.java:1083)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployWar.run(HostConfig.java:1880)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:471)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:262)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.jboss.weld.environment.deployment.discovery.jandex.JandexFileSystemBeanArchiveHandler.handle(JandexFileSystemBeanArchiveHandler.java:43)
at org.jboss.weld.environment.deployment.discovery.AbstractDiscoveryStrategy.performDiscovery(AbstractDiscoveryStrategy.java:77)
at org.jboss.weld.environment.servlet.WeldServletLifecycle.createDeployment(WeldServletLifecycle.java:216)
at org.jboss.weld.environment.servlet.WeldServletLifecycle.initialize(WeldServletLifecycle.java:114)
at org.jboss.weld.environment.servlet.EnhancedListener.onStartup(EnhancedListener.java:60)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5456)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
... 10 more}}

I'm going to debug and find out what it can be.