Vicariate Clergy and Religious Meet for the Annual General Meeting

The AVOSA Annual General Meeting took place online from 10 -13 January 2022. 91 participants from the clergy, religious & the heads of the Vicariate offices participated in the meeting.

The Bishop, heads of Vicariate Offices and ministries and the parish priests presented reports of the various activities in the last year. Reports by Fr. Adam Caroll on the precarious situation in Yemen and a special address by Msgr. Kryspin Dubiel, the newly appointed Charge d’Affaires of the Nunciature in Abu Dhabi were among the highlights.  

Looking into the challenges faced, Fr. Adam mentioned that almost 100% of the parishioners are living separated from their families in Yemen. 

In his presentation, Msgr. Kryspin underscored two main themes, the pandemic and the synod. “The pain, uncertainty, fear and awareness of one's own limits that the pandemic has aroused, resonate the call to rethink our lifestyles, our relationships, the organization of our societies and above all the meaning of our existence”, he stated. 

The Bishop presented a comprehensive report on the opening day covering all the major events that took place during the past year. Yemen was specially mentioned which according to him, “remains an open wound in the body of our Vicariate.” Five priests and two sisters who had served in the Vicariate and lost their lives last year were specially remembered during the report. They include Fr. Paschal Siler OFM Cap. (served in Saudi Arabia), Fr. Reynold Rynda OFM Cap (served in Saudi Arabia), Fr. Fidelis Stöckli OFM Cap. (briefly served as the Secretary to the Bishop), Fr. Silvano Vedovini, OFM Cap. (served in the UAE), Fr. Maroun Basile OFM Cap (served in Dubai and Bahrain), Sr. Berlinda CSST (served in Abu Dhabi) and Sr. Mariangela Losa CMS (served in Dubai). 

Looking into the pandemic and its consequences, the Bishop highlighted the risk of losing the apostolic and spiritual zeal and urged all the participants of the meeting to “accompany especially those who are the most exposed to the risks of the pandemic and give them spiritual and human comfort.” He also emphasized the need to follow government protocols. “We are obliged to observe the rules coming from the Ministry of Health and the Department of Community Development to protect others and ourselves, we should not fall into a status of paralysis.”, he added. The sacraments showed a substantial increase in the year 2021 compared to the past year. The number of Baptisms increased from 1775 in 2020 to 3347 in 2021.

Few key events in which the Bishop participated included the Crown Prince’s Majlis, interreligious meeting of religious leaders of GCC and Expo 2020. Other events that the Bishop participated in, included the Aqdar World Summit, the Interfaith Discourse and the Global Interfaith Summit hosted by the Italy Pavilion in Expo 2020. 

The Bishop also touched upon his meetings with Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, during his travel to Rome in May, where he discussed the situation in the Northern and Southern Vicariates and the construction of the Cathedral in Bahrain. During the visit, the Bishop also met with Cardinal Ayuso to discuss about the work in the dicastery of Interreligious Dialogue and with Cardinal Parolin, the Secretary of State to plan the dedication of the cathedral in Bahrain.

Fr. Valerian Fernandes, the Chancellor and Judicial Vicar,  presented a report of the Chancery and Tribunal office and a report on the activities of the Office of Care. The Office of Care conducted three seminars in three various locations (Abu Dhabi, Jebel Ali and Sharjah) for the priests of the Vicariate, which focussed on best practices of safeguarding and recommendations of working with minors and vulnerable adults.

Fr. Luca Piantanida, the Financial Administrator, presented the Annual Financial Report. All new projects which has been severely impacted by the pandemic, is back to normal. Fr. Luca also briefed the attendees on the completed projects of the Vicariate which included Ruwais Church (opened December 2021) and St. Joseph's School Extension (opened March 2021).

The heads of the other Vicariate Offices - Formation, Communications, Family Ministry and School Management provided brief overviews of the various activities and the challenges they faced in the past year. While Mrs.Catherine Miles Flynn, the head of the Office of Christian Formation highlighted the work done by the office with regard to the courses for Catechists under Dayton University in the light of the pandemic, Fr. Darick, the moderator of the Office stressed the importance of ongoing formation in better equipping the catechists of the Vicariate. He requested all the parishes to explore options to preferably switch back to the mode of in-person catechism from the long-running online mode. He emphasized the need to maintain unity and uniformity in the modes of catechesis in the Vicariate. 

The report of the Office of Communications presented by John E. John highlighted the effectiveness of media and strategic communications in the use of appropriate messaging to key publics and influencing public opinion. He pointed out that the dissemination of timely and right information through the Vicariate and parish website and social channels can act as an antidote to the threat of fake news or polarizing news. 

Mr. Joseph Flynn, the Managing Director of the Schools of the Vicariate gave an overview of the functioning of the schools and various school events. He noted an ongoing plan to upgrade the School of Knowledge to Grade 6 from Grade 8. Fr. Victor Prakash, the Coordinator of Charis, the Charismatic renewal ministry gave a detailed report of the activities of the ministry in the past year. While presenting the Young Adults Ministry report, Fr. Stalin highlighted the proceedings of the Mini World Youth Day (WYD) of the Vicariate celebrated in RAK on 19 November 2021. Over 400 young adults from the Vicariate participated in the event. The Vicariate level preparations for the WYD at Lisbon in 2023 has already begun. Sr. Claudia, the Superior of the Comboni Missionary Sisters, Dubai pointed out the relevance of such events for the Youth especially as they are going through severe stress during the pandemic.

The parish priests in the UAE and Oman presented the reports of the functioning of their respective parishes within the challenges of the pandemic. All the parishes have resumed services and are coming back to normalcy after the lockdown of the churches with the necessary protocols in action.

Fr. Darick, the Vicariate Synod 2023 Coordinator, explained how the synodal process is ongoing in the parishes with the core synodal team implementing various methods for the process of listening. He highlighted that contrary to the beliefs of some people, the synodal process is a listening process and a journeying together that is set in motion by the Pope and would be ongoing beyond 2023.

On the closing day of the meeting, the Bishop gave special communications pertaining to various topics including the celebration of the Liturgy. He stated that considering the new weekend policy of the UAE and the tradition of the universal church, the Sunday Liturgy would henceforth be celebrated on Saturdays after 4:00 pm and on Sundays. Various other matters including the pastoral mission, unity of action among pastoral workers and the impact of “online” liturgies were also discussed.