Cleric who championed religious harmony in the Gulf to depart after decades of change
Paul Hinder is to leave his role as Roman Catholic Bishop to Southern Arabia after almost two decades of championing interfaith harmony.
Bishop Hinder, 80, has served as the highest-ranking Catholic official in a jurisdiction that covers the UAE, Yemen and Oman.
He will be replaced by Paolo Martinelli, who is currently Auxiliary Bishop of Milan.
The departing cleric urged worshippers to show his successor the “same love and support that I experienced from all of you for the last 18 years”.
His resignation from the post was accepted by Pope Francis on Sunday.
Bishop Hinder has seen the Catholic community increase in the Emirates, Yemen and Oman in recent years, guiding a growing flock of about two million worshippers.
About half of this number are understood to be in the UAE, many having arrived from the Philippines and India.
Bishop Hinder spoke of the significance of the milestone visit by Pope Francis to Abu Dhabi in February 2019, describing it as “a step forward in the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Muslim world”.
At the conclusion of his historic tour, the pontiff led an open-air Mass attended by tens of thousands of people at Zayed Sports City Stadium.
His visit also gave rise to the International Day of Human Fraternity after he signed the declaration known as the Document on Human Fraternity alongside Dr Ahmed Al Tayeb, Grand Iman of Al Azhar. Bishop Hinder has dedicated much of his life to his faith. He was the youngest of four sons raised in a “good, practising Catholic family” on a small dairy farm in Switzerland. He said he felt a “kind of calling” to join the clergy.
“The simplicity of the life, the simple life of the Capuchins, had an appeal,” he told The National in 2017, referring to his religious order, which is known for its austerity.
In that interview he spoke of his work to help secure the release in September of that year of an Indian priest who was kidnapped by ISIS.
Father Tom Uzhunnalil had been held captive in Yemen since March 2016.
“We didn’t know for many months what had happened to him,” Bishop Hinder said. “Of course, we hoped he was alive, we worked on it.”
Bishop Hinder moved to Abu Dhabi in 2003 and was appointed auxiliary bishop of Arabia. The following year, he took over from Monsignor Giovanni Bernardo Gremoli, who retired.
Bishop Hinder will continue as administrator of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia until his successor arrives.
Bishop Martinelli is a member of the Capuchin order and holds a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
He has written several books on spiritual life.
Bishop Paul Hinder has seen the Catholic community increase in the Emirates, Yemen and Oman in recent years