Abu Dhabi (AsiaNews) – Bishop Paolo Martinelli, apostolic vicar of Southern Arabia (United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen), released a pastoral letter on the occasion of the Jubilee of Hope. In it, he calls on Catholics to use this opportunity to reflect on the peculiar traits of the local Church, encouraging them to be “pilgrims of hope”, migrants always on the move.
Although largely made up of economic migrants, and despite hardships and problems, local Catholics must not lose sight of their mission as witnesses of hope.
As the Year of Hope proclaimed by Pope Francis for 2025 gets underway, the vicar’s pastoral letter outlines the characteristics of the Church in the Gulf, of migrants on the move, with the Jubilee as a source of grace and reconciliation.
In Abu Dhabi the inauguration ceremony was held on 28 December and represented a moment of celebration for the entire Vicariate of Southern Arabia.
The letter, sent to AsiaNews, notes that Christian hope, based on God’s love rather than on mere optimism, remains, resisting all hardships. For migrant Catholics, this is particularly important since they face further challenges and critical hurdles, like separation from their families, adaptation to a new place, and precarious lives, waiting to return to home.
Bishop Martinelli urges the faithful to consider their condition as migrants, a trait specific to the vicariate, as part of our spiritual journey towards the Kingdom of Heaven, placing our hope only in Christ.
“If we fix our hope on things that pass away, we expose ourselves to disappointment because everything changes. But if we recognize that Christ is our hope, we will also be able to live difficult situations with patience and tenacity, knowing that the Lord always brings to completion the good that he began in us.”
On such a journey, the Vicar of Southern Arabia encourages Catholics in the Gulf to support one another and walk together in faith and unity, as expressed in the Nicene Creed, 1,700th years after the Council of Nicaea, is celebrated in this jubilee year.
At the end of the letter, Bishop Martinelli calls on the faithful to make a pilgrimage to one of the local shrine churches to “experience the mercy of God,” and “to participate in the meetings that will be held in the parishes to deepen the content of our faith.”
Christian joy, Bishop Martinelli notes, is based on faith and hope, and rooted in love. The Lord is near, Saint Paul tells us. This is the foundation of Christian joy. It is a joy that is possible even in moments of difficulty, because it is rooted in God's closeness. It is precisely this closeness of God that we will celebrate in the Jubilee 2025.
It is important to remember once again that, “The Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14); it did not just happen in the past, but happens among us every day.
For the prelate, local Catholics can move from the joy of the Jubilee of St Arethas and his companion martyrs, celebrated last year, to the greater joy of the Jubilee of the “Holy Year of the Lord,” whose themes are hope and migration, helping thus “discover how the Christian faith changes life, renews our heart”.
For the prelate, the jubilee will change “our way of understanding and feeling daily life, in the light of the love of God who revealed himself in Jesus and in the gift of the Holy Spirit”.
