Pope in UAE: ‘Make me a channel
of your peace’
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| Fr. Martin Stewen, a priest of St. Joseph's Cathedral parish. |
Government and Church authorities have been working together
to make sure Pope Francis’ historic visit to Abu Dhabi is a success on all
levels. A Catholic priest at St. Joseph’s Cathedral provides us with some
interesting insights.
By Linda Bordoni – Abu Dhabi
Everyone has been working hard in Abu Dhabi to make sure the
papal visit unfolds without a hitch. The government has shouldered most of the
organizational work and the costs of the visit, but the Catholic Church has
also been hands-on in preparing the faithful, the Mass, and St. Joseph’s
Cathedral where the Pope will visit.
Fr Martin Stewen spoke to Vatican News about life in Abu
Dhabi for Christian leaders and about the crucial importance of receiving the
Pope as a herald of peace.
Martin Stewen is a priest from the Diocese of Chur in
Switzerland. He has been working at the Abu Dhabi Vicariate since 2015 as a
“Fidei Donum” priest, which means he carries out his mission abroad but remains
attached to his Diocese.
Fr Martin describes this moment of preparation and
expectation for Pope Francis’ visit to the United Arab Emirates as
“outstanding” and “historic”.
The St. Joseph Parish where he works as Moderator of
Christian Formation is located right next to a handful of Christian Churches of
other denominations and across the road from a Mosque.
Fr Martin spoke about the kind of relationship he and the
faithful have with their religiously diverse neighbours, all of whom are free
to practice their faith in this nation that upholds tolerance as a key pillar
for prosperity and wellbeing.
Good collaboration among pastors
Fr Martin says that, at a leadership level, contact and
collaboration with other Christians is good with all the pastors of the
different denominations who work assiduously together.
He talks of how he has just flown in from Oman together with
the director of the Al Amana Centre, the interfaith institute in Muscat. Not
only, he says, do they know each other very well, but they collaborate
actively. And he explained there is a so called ‘Christian Church Fellowship’
in the area that is made up by the community of Church leaders.
However, “on the level of the parishes and parish councils”,
he concludes, “contact is not very intensive and we do not work together in an
ecumenical way”.
No contact with Muslims
As for the Muslim community in the Mosque, Fr Martin says
Christians have no contact at all, “even though there are only a few meters in between,
which is a bit of a pity; that is true.”
Maybe, he says, this papal visit will change things and
allow them to “increase and improve our contact” with the Muslims.
With a tinge of wistfulness, Fr Martin also reveals there is
no contact between the faithful of various Christian denominations in the area,
saying they do not even know each other.
So, he says, there are many hopes and expectations regarding
this historic visit, but “what its meaning will be in the future, only in the
future we shall find out”.
Right now, Fr Martin says, everyone is just excited.
No matter, he says, whether they are Christians or Muslims
or non-believers or whoever. “And not only because the head of the Catholic
Church is coming to visit, but for who Pope Francis is”.
Everyone wants to welcome a herald of peace
“Everyone is amazed by this man”, he says.
Everybody, he explains, is following the news and “the
papers are full of Pope Francis, because of the person he is in public; and
everyone wants to get to know and to meet this man”.
The visit, he says, comes at a crucial time. The theme of
the journey is “Make me a channel of your peace”. Fr Martin observes that peace
is necessary in any part of the world, and here we are close to an area of war.
“Peace,” he concludes, “does not mean only an absence of
weapons. Peace means friendship and considering one another as neighbours: I
think his visit will increase that attitude very much, yes!”
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