This week, the prelate made his first pastoral visit to the Christian place of worship located in the Abrahamic Family House, which includes also a mosque and synagogue. Dialogue with people of different faiths "is not only desirable, but necessary." The local Christian community is “multi-ethnic and multicultural ever since its origin”. The prelate stressed that bearing witness to the faith "excludes any form of proselytism.”

The first World Children's Day is being celebrated over the weekend, at the initiative of the Holy Father. Bishop Martinelli met with a group of children, answering their questions, and inviting them to put "their joy, their enthusiasm" at the service of the Church. About a hundred young people met in Hong Kong to share experiences and expectations.

Bishop Aldo Berardi, head of the vicariate that includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, comments on Pope Francis' decision to grant the Syro-Malabar Church jurisdiction over Indian migrants. "This is not a secondary element, it concerns areas that go beyond rituals" and will have to be defined. The problem of places of worship, relations with the State and interlocution with the Muslim world. "Too many voices" can create "confusion".

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First pastoral letter by Bishop Martinelli, who urges the faithful not to be "slaves, but sons". The faith must be transmitted "no longer by convention, but with conviction" by communicating "the reasons why one believes". The call for an 'intercultural' path that allows the different Church realities present in the Gulf to interact, to get to know each other, and to train for cooperation.

For Card Sako, the time of fasting and prayer offers a “new horizon" that invites us to let "the Holy Spirit change us from within." The vicar of southern Arabia speaks of a "path" of hope, mercy and forgiveness. The Maronite patriarch asks the faithful to pray for the "divisions, conflicts, hatred" in Lebanon. Mar Younan mentions the "process of repentance through the Holy Spirit.”