Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church 

Faith via media consumption is “not the Church”

Pope Francis said, “Online Masses and spiritual communion do not represent the Church,” he said in his homily at his morning Mass in the chapel of his residence on 17 April. “This is the Church in a difficult situation that the Lord is allowing, but the ideal of the Church is always with the people and with the sacraments — always,” Pope Francis said.

Masses, prayers and faith-based initiatives have been offered online, and the faithful have been encouraged to make an act of spiritual Communion given their lack of access to Holy Communion, but “this is not the Church,” the pope said.

One’s relationship with Jesus “is intimate, it is personal, but it is in a community,” and this closeness to Christ without community, without the Eucharist, without the people of God assembled together and “without the sacraments is dangerous,” he said. It is dangerous, he said, because people could start living their relationship with God “for just myself, detached from the people of God.”
 
“The Church, the sacraments and the people of God are concrete,” the pope said. The faithful’s relationship with God must also stay concrete, as the apostles lived it, as a community and with the people of God, not lived in a selfish way as individuals or lived in a “viral” way that is spread only online.

“May the Lord teach us this intimacy with him, this familiarity with him, but in the Church, with the sacraments, with the holy faithful people of God,” he said.

I only hope and pray that the members of our parish have not become relaxed in the comfort of online Masses and being used to live without the sacraments. After six months of isolation and the churches being opened with restrictions, still people are reluctant to move out of their houses. As the Pope warns, it is dangerous being detached from the Church and the people of God as a community.

Based on the response these past two days, we are rescheduling our Masses from the coming week. I urge and recommend that as far as possible to attend regular masses that are now available for you to take part and receive the Eucharist.

Yours in Christ Jesus,
Fr. Rajan
Parish Priest
 

His Excellency Bishop Paul Hinder, the Apostolic Vicar, in his commitment to creating a safe environment for all God’s children and to care for them, has established the Office of Care. 

This Office works for the protection of minors and the vulnerable adults by providing them a safe environment within the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia (AVOSA). This involves responding to any allegations of sexual misconduct or abuse of minors or vulnerable adults by priests, deacons, religious, and lay persons who are at the service of AVOSA at the parish or Vicariate level as employees or as volunteers.

Reports of abuse of minors and vulnerable persons or allegations of any sexual misconduct can be addressed to the AVOSA Office of Care. While necessary confidentiality is assured, anonymous information will not be entertained.

If you have questions about the Office of Care or are concerned about a child or vulnerable person at risk,

please contact:
The Director
Office of Care
Bishop’s house
St. Joseph’s Church
P.O. Box 54, Abu Dhabi
United Arab Emirates

Telephone: +971 50 5182270
Email:  care@avosa.org

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