GULF – VATICAN – INDIA Vicar of Arabia: the jurisdiction of the Syro-Malabars and the “challenge” to the beauty of unity

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 that will have to be defined. The problem of places of worship, relations with the State and dialogue with the Muslim world. “Too many voices” can create “confusion.”

Milan () – Unity always remains “the challenge” because “it is a source of beauty” even if it “costs effort”, especially in the face of “the uniqueness of each rite” linked to the various communities that make up the local Church. This was highlighted to by Monsignor Aldo Berardi, apostolic vicar of Northern Arabia, priest of the Order of the Holy Trinity and Slaves of which he has been vicar general since more than a year ago, in a territory that includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. A reality made up largely of economic emigrants from different Asian nations, particularly India, and from different rites, one of which is affected by the decision – announced in recent days by Pope Francis – to grant the Syro-Juggling jurisdiction over those who are in the Middle East for work reasons (the vast majority in the vicariates of North and South Arabia).

“For years, the only local, Latin bishop,” explains Monsignor Berardi, “had to promote all the rites and respond to the demands and needs” of each community. The first to define the issue was John Paul II, who had entrusted the apostolic vicariate with “the task of promoting all rites”, then, in 2006, “Benedict XVI began to speak of greater autonomy.” In 2020 a new change “to entrust jurisdiction to the Eastern Patriarchs.” In recent years, priests have been entrusted with the pastoral care of the different rites, to “respond to the demands and needs of each reality.” This meant, the prelate added, that ‘to maintain unity around the Latin bishop, the priests of the Eastern rite had to adapt’ in terms of catechesis, celebrations and sacraments. The same happens with the Syro-Malabars, which today have 16 priests [religiosos capuchinos] in the vicariate.

On May 13, receiving in audience a delegation led by the new major archbishop Raphael Thattil, The pontiff publicly expressed his assent to a request made for years by the Churches of the East, especially for their faithful in the Persian Gulf. The Syro-Malabar Church will, therefore, have jurisdiction over the Indian emigrants belonging to this rite who live in the region, although the issue, as Pope Bergoglio stressed, will have to be defined later “also through the statutes, but from today it is possible. The request for jurisdiction is an issue raised for years by the Eastern Catholic Churches for the hundreds of thousands of emigrants, a mosaic of languages ​​and rites until now led by the two Apostolic Vicariates of Arabia of the Latin rite.

The issue is not only religious, but also has a social implication, just think about the celebration of marriage and its civil recognition. From the Syro-Malabars to the Maronites, from the Coptic Catholics to the Melkites “we come together for festive moments,” underlines the vicar. On the one hand, there is a risk of being too independent,” he warns, “but on the other we have worked to maintain unity, respecting the different Eastern realities.” “They use our churches [latinas] to celebrate mass because they cannot do so outside of permitted and recognized places of worship, as provided by local laws. At the moment, for example, we are drawing up a canonical agreement with the Maronites on marriages, which should also be an example for the other rites of the vicariate.

Monsignor Berardi recognizes that for the moment there is a phase of “uncertainty” that follows the Pope’s decision and that, as he has pointed out, it will have to be defined “on paper.” «We must wait for the instructions – continues the prelate – from the dicastery for the Eastern Churches, from the Secretariat of State. Then with the major archbishop we will make evaluations on how to integrate the new priests, because it already seems that they want to send diocesans from India. We are in an intermediate phase, we will also have to define the question of responsibility before the authorities and the different States, because in the latest indications of Pope Francis it was the Apostolic Vicariate that had to maintain these relations and no other sui iuris Catholic Church has legal personality and will still have to depend for some time on the Vicariate for visas, places of worship, etc.». «As for the Syro-Malabars», he emphasizes, «our interlocutor will be the major archbishop, we cannot discuss with the individual dioceses. He had already planned a trip to India in July and now it will be even more urgent, as well as for Mar Raphael Thattil to visit the Gulf and learn about the service we offer to the faithful of his rite.

The Apostolic Vicariate of North Arabia extends its jurisdiction over four States of the Peninsula, with different situations at the social, political and religious freedom levels: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the latter a nation where no other religion is allowed. the Islamic but where there is -although not officially- a Christian presence. In 2020, at the death of the last vicar, Monsignor Camillo Ballin, who was succeeded as administrator by Monsignor Paul Hinder – formerly vicar of South Arabia -, there were almost 2.8 million baptized people out of a population of about 43 million inhabitants. The territory is divided into 11 parishes, the headquarters is in Bahrain, in Awali, where the cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia is located.

The challenge continues to be that of unity, as a Catholic Church and against the States, each with its own style. And for the different rites, the definition of a hierarchy and of places, of spaces, because they are limited: from the exarchate of the Melkites to the Maronites who planned to build a church in Qatar as the future headquarters of the patriarchal vicar, an idea currently frozen. And again, the jurisdiction over the sacraments: “If a Chaldean faithful marries an Armenian woman,” emphasizes Monsignor Berardi, “it is necessary to decide who celebrates, what rite, the nulla osta of the respective patriarchs, the canonical agreement for the validity of the sacraments… important elements that must be defined. There is also the question of civil recognition» and “the relationship with the Muslim authority, which in relation needs to know who the reference is.”

Too many voices, and too many heads, run the risk of creating confusion, given that until now the person responsible to the State was, and is, the Latin bishop.

Finally, the prelate reflects on his first year at the head of the northern vicariate: “I arrived in a difficult situation with the death of the bishop [Ballin]Covid-19 that greatly limited the administrator’s movements [Hinder] and the pastoral care of the parishes. The first job was to organize the vicariate economically and administratively, to organize the documents, an important and necessary step to be clear and transparent. “We are in a restructuring phase,” he concludes, “because each country is different, but we must find a general vision for everyone, followed by a concrete application that is different, with limitations and internal conflicts. “The important thing for us is to always maintain unity.”