FEATURE: Amid Pandemic, Bishop of Arabia Appeals to Rediscover Life Awaiting Us, for We Are ‘In the World, Not of the World’

by Deborah Castellano Lubov | Oct 14, 2020

As the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic, the Apostolic Vicar of Souther Arabia, has offered his people meaningful and comforting reminders: we are “in the world, not of the world”; we never fall out of the Lord’s protective hands; with Jesus, we are never shipwrecked.

Bishop Paul Hinder, OFM Cap, the Apostolic Vicar, expressed this to all faithful in the Apostolic Vicariates of Northern and Southern Arabia, in a recent pastoral letter. Pope Francis visited Abu Dhabi, Feb. 3-5, 2019, marking the first visit of a Roman Pontiff to the Arabian Peninsula, and the first Mass of a Pope in Arabia. ZENIT English’s Senior Vatican Correspondent was on the Papal Flight, and throughout the events, including for the signing of the historic Document on Human Fraternity signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Al Tayyeb, which has been somewhat of a precursor to the Pope’s recent social encyclical ‘Fratelli Tutti.’

Bishop Hinder, Franciscan, born in Switzerland, is the former auxiliary bishop (from 2003) and Apostolic Vicar (from 2005) of Arabia, namely Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates. In 2011, the Arabian Vicariate was divided and he became the Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia, including Yemen, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. In this territory, Catholics, all foreigners, are about a million. Engaged above all in some sectors (construction, school, services and domestic work), they come from over 100 countries: mainly Philippines, India and other Asian countries.

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