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May 10, 2025First meeting Pastoral Council of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia
Introduction
Bishop Paolo Martinelli - Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia
Dear Members of the Pastoral Council of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia,
May the Lord give you peace.
First of all, let me express my gratitude for having accepted the invitation to be part of the first pastoral council of our vicariate. My beloved predecessor, Bishop Paul Hinder, had already laid the foundations of this council with the assembly of the lay faithful, which for some years was convened regularly.
Legacy of Pope Francis and the New Pope
I am happy to begin this journey with you and celebrate the first meeting of our council, at a very special moment in the life of the Church. A few weeks ago, the earthly mission of Pope Francis ended, which we feel is particularly significant for our local Church. He was the first pope to visit the Arabian Peninsula, here in Abu Dhabi in February 2019 when he signed the document on Human Fraternity together with the Grand Imam of Al Azhar; he visited our vicariate, visiting the Cathedral of St Joseph and celebrating Mass at the Zayed Stadium.
Beginning our work as the Pastoral Council of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia, I would like to recall the words of the Pope pronounced during his homily at the Zayed Stadium: "You who are here know the Gospel’s tune and you follow its rhythm with enthusiasm. You are a choir composed of numerous nations, languages and rites; a diversity that the Holy Spirit loves and wants to harmonize ever more, in order to make a symphony. This joyful polyphony of faith is a witness that you give everyone and that builds up the Church". Serving this polyphony of faith is the purpose of our Pastoral Council of the Apostolic Vicariate.
We are also happy about the recent election of our new Pope Leo XIV. We assure him of our filial obedience and our prayers. In his first speech at the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome he highlighted the importance of a synodal Church. “We have to look together how to be a missionary Church, building bridges, dialogue, always open to receiving with open arms for everyone, like this square, open to all, to all who need our charity, our presence, dialogue, love.” His teaching will be an essential point of reference for our work.
On the horizon of Synodality
Our Vicariate Pastoral Council certainly has its roots in the Second Vatican Council, in the indications to favor the participation of all the faithful in the mission of the Church. Under the pontificate of Pope Francis, the theme of synodality has been specifically promoted. Continuing the legacy of Pope Francis, Holy Father Pope Leo XIV said from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, “we want to be a synodal church, walking and always seeking peace, charity, closeness, especially to those who are suffering.” Therefore, we are happy to be able to begin this journey of ecclesial co-responsibility.
The purpose of this participatory body is not the division of power within the local Church. You are not representatives of parties that have their own interests to promote. You are first and foremost faithful, baptized, bearers of different charisms and spiritual gifts, different traditions, who are called here to the reciprocity of communion.
As Pope Francis has repeated many times, the Church is not a democracy, and pastoral councils are not parliaments. The Church is a mystery of communion with God and among us in the risen Christ, giver of the Spirit.
We are all baptized in Christ and with him we form one body. We nourish ourselves with the same Eucharist, the body of Christ to become more and more members of his body every day. Each one of us is called together with his own spiritual gifts, to contribute to the bishop's task of guiding the Apostolic Vicariate that the gospel of Christ is lived and witnessed also in this part of the world.
As we know well, our Church in the Gulf is unique. By participating in the recent synodal assemblies of bishops, in October 2023 and 2024, I was able to observe the singular character of our being a Church of migrants, coming from over a hundred nationalities. We are not a parallel series of national churches, one next to the other, who ignore each other. We are called to be a joyful polyphony of faith. The pastoral council of the vicariate is a fundamental instrument of participation to build this joyful polyphony of faith.
Living the Church as a mystery of communion means first living a profound sense of belonging to the Church, as the mystical body of Christ, who lives in this part of the world.
The members of the body are different, but only in unity, the different gifts are valued, otherwise they are elements of division and partiality. We must live the richness of diversity in the unity of the one faith, one baptism.
Being members of one another means overcoming every form of antagonism and competition between the components of our vicariate. It means opening ourselves to the profound logic of synodality, co-responsibility, sharing and mutual love, to taking care of one another.
The uniqueness of Our Local Church
We know how diverse the physiognomy of our Apostolic Vicariate is. Just remember that it extends over three extremely different countries. Most of our faithful are in the United Arab Emirates. After the pandemic it is difficult to give a precise statistical data, but we can certainly say that there are about eight hundred and fifty thousand Catholics for the 9 parishes in the UAE. Four Parishes are in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, two are in Dubai, one parish each in Sharjah, Fujairah and in Ras Al Khaimah. There is a warehouse converted into prayer hall for the celebration in Umm Al Quwain. Only in the emirate of Ajman we do not yet have any place of worship until now. After the great crisis during the pandemic, many of the faithful have now returned to regular visit to the Churches and participate in the community celebrations of the local Church. However, when we look at the whole number of Catholics in the country we can see the number of those who do not come to church is very large.
Among us, there are also some delegates from Oman, where it is even more difficult to estimate the number of faithful, but certainly it is over one hundred thousand. Many of them cannot come to the Church. Oman is a vast territory with only 4 Churches: two in Muscat, one in Salalah and one in Suhar. Many of the faithful are spread-out in places that are too distant to regularly join the Parish community. Thanks be to God, that many of them meet together in their area to pray and a priest goes regularly to visit them. The situation in Oman is so different that I am thinking of creating a pastoral council just for that nation.
Finally, allow me to remember with emotion the presence of the faithful in Yemen. They too are part of our body; they are members of our Church. The number of Catholics is currently unspecified. In fact, since 2016 after the outbreak of the civil war and after the martyrdom of the four missionary sisters of charity in Aden, and the kidnapping of a Salesian priest from our vicariate for almost two years, no priest has been able to remain there until 2020. The nuns have remained, until today, in two communities located in the north of the country, under the control of the Houthis militia, and since 2020, a priest is also present, who accompanies the sisters in the immense work of charity they are doing.
Unfortunately, as you know, recently the situation has gradually worsened since the beginning of the conflict in the Holy Land. However, taking advantage of the improvement of the situation in the south, I hope to soon send a priest to gradually reopen some of the churches, which were destroyed during this conflict, and return to meet and gather the remaining faithful.
Diversity in the Unity
These hints are enough to have in front of us the unique image of our local Church. Given these characteristics, it is clear that we have a special vocation in the Church, that of showing the universality of faith, which knows how to make differences interact and make them fruitful. This means that the figure of our Church is capable of showing the unity in Christ that is expressed in the difference of gifts. Everyone must feel at home in our Church.
We must strengthen in each of our faithful and in all our families, especially in the young, a deep sense of belonging. We belong to Christ, we are his. The love of Christ does not disappoint; his mercy is limitless. Christianity is not the religion of fear and blackmail but of the freedom of the children of God and of joy.
Here we have the unique opportunity not only to maintain our own tradition and deepen it but also to learn about other spiritual traditions and thus enrich each other. We are called in this way to offer a testimony of unity in diversity.
This testimony also opens us to dialogue with people of different faiths, in particular with Muslim believers. The document on Human Fraternity and the presence of the Abrahamic Family House as a powerful sign of reception of that prophetic document push us to recognize dialogue with people of other faiths as part of our journey of faith and Christian testimony. Every day we are called to live side by side with believers of other faiths. The Human Fraternity document declares the adoption of a culture of dialogue as the path; mutual cooperation as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as the method and standard.
We will have the opportunity to return in the next meetings to the key issues of the vicariate on which you will be consulted. I would like to end this introduction with two final observations.
Mutual listening between sense of Faith and charisms
I would like to recall the importance of implementing the synodal process in our vicariate. The pastoral council of the apostolic vicariate is certainly the most important participatory body for us in this process that in itself concerns every believer in Christ.
Following the indications of the new pontiff, we will try to receive the final document of the Synod according to our particular situation.
Allow me to share with you a strong impression that I received when I arrived among you almost three years ago. I came from the diocese of Milan where the synodal process desired by Pope Francis was struggling to grow. Arriving here I noticed the great desire for participation among our faithful and the great work of consultation that had been carried out by my beloved predecessor, Bishop Paul. For this reason, too I think that the condition of the migrant in which we find ourselves favors the rediscovery of faith and the desire to participate actively in the life of the people of God.
I would also like to indicate that mutual listening is the fundamental key to our work. Why is this dimension important? Its foundation is placed in baptism itself. We do not want to live a generic but qualified mutual listening, rooted in our baptism. We listen to each other to listen to the voice of the Spirit and discern together the will of God and allow those who have the task of making decisions to have done so by taking into consideration what the Spirit says to the Churches. It is therefore not a generic comparison of opinions but a shared journey of faith.
From this point of view, the message of the Second Vatican Council remains fundamental: in the dogmatic constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium in chapter II dedicated to the people of God, the prophetic dimension of this people of baptized is spoken of. We listen to each other because we have the anointing of the Spirit that was conferred upon us with baptism and confirmation: we have been given the sense of faith, as a sort of natural instinct that allows us to recognize what is in accordance with the faith, what builds the Church and what instead goes against the truth of the faith.
Certainly, the sense of faith is a gift given in baptism, but which becomes active if we concretely live the life of the Church in all its dimensions. Without an authentic life of faith our sense of faith remains inactive and dull, and we cannot make a significant contribution to the building of the Church.
Let us never forget the four fundamental pillars of Christian life: prayer and celebration of the Eucharist, the word of God and Christian formation; sharing of goods and charity; and finally, the mission as a testimony to all of the joy of the Gospel.
Furthermore, the same conciliar document Lumen Gentium tells us that the faithful express the prophetic dimension through the charisms that the Spirit distributes to the faithful for common edification.
I thank the Lord for the charisms present in the vicariate, personal charisms and shared charisms, such as for example the various ecclesial associations and movements. These are gifts given so that we can live the mission of the Church in this place where the providence of God has placed us.
Vocation, charism and ministries
The final document of the Synod approved in October 2024 by the assembly of bishops and confirmed by Pope Francis has a very interesting chapter in which the intertwining of three fundamental words of Christian life is recalled: vocations, charisms and ministries. They are the ways in which the Lord involves each of us in the life of the Church. Promoting vocations in the Church, first of all discovering and educating to life as a vocation, to the baptismal vocation, the vocation to be children of God, which then takes adult form through the different forms of Christian life: ministerial apostolate, consecrated life and family. This Sunday is the Sunday of prayer for the different vocations. Then there are the different charisms, as we have seen, gifts of the Spirit so that we can deepen our Christian life and spiritually animate our communities. Finally, the ministries, in addition to the priestly one. How many ministries do we have in our parishes, which help us to live our celebrations and our activities in an orderly way. Certainly, in our work as members of the pastoral council of the vicariate you will be called to advise the bishop on how to improve the promotion of vocations, charisms and ministries.
Everyone is called to give his contribution for the good of all and for the greater glory of God: that glory, which as St. Irenaeus of Lyon says is the human person who lives in fullness.
Because Christ came so that we may have life and have it in abundance.