Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

People on the Move

N° 109, April 2009

Apostleship of the Sea

Regional Coordinators Meeting

(Rome, 16- 17 February 2009)

The Apostleship of the Sea Regional Coordinators of the nine Regions of the world - 1. Africa Atlantic, 2. Africa-Indian Ocean 3. East/South East Asia 4. Europe 5. Gulf States 6. Latin America 7. North America and the Caribbean 8. Oceania & 9. South Asia - met at the office of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People for their Annual Meeting and for the AOS International Fishing Committee. All Regions were represented but because of Mr. Ted Richardson’s, (Australia) absence, a substitute in the person of Mr. Anthony Phillips was sent.

16^th February 2009

After the morning prayers led by Fr. Edward Pracz, C.Ss.R., H.E. Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, President of the Pontifical Council, gave his introductory address and welcomed the Regional Coordinators to Rome during the Jubilee Year of St. Paul offering words of encouragement and support for their work. The President also expressed gratitude for the service done by Msgr. Jacques Harel who, after five years, had returned to Mauritius and welcomed Fr. Bruno Ciceri, who had come to take over his responsibilities here in the office. In conclusion, he expressed solidarity to the people in Australia where recent fires and flood caused many victims and destroyed many properties.

Coordinators Reports

The Regional Coordinators presented their reports and shared in the pastoral initiatives and projects of their regions. The following are the main points & suggestions:

Strengths

Generally AOS enjoys good relations and is well supported by the different Bishops’ Conferences.
In USA there is a strong commitment and love for the ministry done by Chaplains, pastoral team members and volunteers and a growing awareness in the local Church of the activities of AOS in their community, with a clear understanding of individual roles.
The Cruise Ship Priest Program by AOS-USA is a strong resource for AOS Chaplains and the promotion of AOS into the local community and provides a very much appreciated service to the cruise industry.
AOS is strongly involved in the fishing sector.
AOS collaborates ecumenically with other Christian denominations. In North America there is a close link with the North American Maritime Ministry Association (NAMMA).
Several new seafarers’ centres were opened in previous years in the Latin American Region and there is a plan to have more of these centres.
AOS social, pastoral and legal services have been the key ingredient for seafarers’ welfare work.
In India the initiative of ICSW to establish Port Welfare Committees (PWC) is creating an awareness that cooperation should be fostered between government, seafarers’ mission, port authorities, ship owners and the larger community to be able to advance seafarers’ welfare. All Chaplains continue to be on the local PWC organized by the ICSW.
There is also a growing engagement of the clergy, lay pastoral agents and volunteers in some countries of the region like South Korea, Philippines and Indonesia.
There exists a growing capacity to intervene in a moment of crisis as and when required, e.g. case of piracy in Somalia, October 2008, involving Indian ships and crew.
AOS Spain received a national award for the commitment and the work done with the marine society.
Good use of IT technology.

Weaknesses

Recruitment of volunteers and some form of training for those already in the ministry for several years.
AOS has not a certain priority for most of the dioceses and chaplains are multitasked.
Insufficient funding for activities is felt strongly in most of the countries especially in the so-called third world countries.
Seafarers are still vulnerable to unscrupulous ship owners and manning agents as there is still no strong legislation to protect them from abuse.
The non-existence of PWC in some areas of the regions.
The global economic downturn that will inevitably affect the job security of seafarers.
There is an absence of communication of what is happening to each of the individual countries among members in the regions, maybe because there is no need felt for regular sharing.
No need felt in some cases to have regional cooperation among members in the regions.
Personal contact between the regions where the number of flights is not regular and they are expensive.
Written communication: all have postal addresses, e-mails and phones. But frequently when the mails are sent they bounce back and are not delivered. Is it because people change their addresses and e-mails so often, or don’t they have time to look at their electronic mail?
Lack of IT equipments.
Lack of/aging Volunteers.
Lack of translation into more languages of the AOS Manual for Chaplains and Pastoral Agents.
We have often good social workers, but not real apostles.

Challenges

The work of the Regional Coordinators is being made increasingly difficult because of the rising costs of communication and transport. In some regions it is practically impossible to organize regional meetings because of the social and financial situations; unless there are subsidies from outside sources.
Because of the economic downturn which also affects diocesan finances, some Bishops have cut back on personnel including diocesan supported AOS chaplaincies.
ISPS Code implementation continues to create problems regarding access to the ports in different areas.
Some major ports across the region do not have a Port Chaplain whilst other ports have one who does not or cannot actively do his job – due to age, physical limitations, or too many external responsibilities (parish, school/jail/ hospital/nursing homes/ etc), or due to lack of funding from the local Church.
Lack of training for some Port Chaplains and their pastoral team members especially in the area of pastoral care to face the new and more complicated challenges and achieve stability and continuity of the centres and services offered.
Need for the local Church to provide financial support and allow time for the Chaplain to attend training courses.
More cruise lines should join the Cruise Ship Priest Program.
The recent loss of very dedicated AOS Chaplains.
Lack of communication among Organizations that operate for the seafarers’ welfare.
Safety is a subject of importance and concern that we cannot ignore; it is not only for the seafarers but also for each and every person who is part of the team.
Volunteers are a human potential indispensable our welfare work, because they are an example of commitment and love to the mission.
Obtain Bible and New Testament copies in different languages for free distribution.
To improve quantitative and qualitative cruise chaplaincy reporting.

Opportunities

AOS involvement in the Ship Welfare Visitors Course, though it should be integrated with a specific pastoral formation.
The openness and eagerness of the Archbishop of Nassau (Bahamas) to establish AOS in the Caribbean.
The Regional and National Newsletters together with the websites are important medium to promote awareness and develop support for the ministry.
The AOS Manual offers opportunities to Chaplains and volunteers to be more specific in their pastoral outreach.
In India, three Catholic magazines have agreed to serialize the AOS Manual, starting from May 2009.
Regional Conferences and seminars have been very effective to improve the communication and motivate Bishop Promoters, Chaplains, employees, secular and pastoral agents.
An interchange of volunteers has started in Stella Maris Centres (Latin America and Philippines). For the year 2009, the Region counts on two pastoral agents coming from the Philippines to train and share their expertise, with the support of ITF.
Interest in seafarers’ welfare among government agencies is a positive development.
Organizing cooperatives among seafarers’ family is an emerging means to find financial support for work among seafarers.
Participation of seafarers’ families and women is an encouraging sign.
Refusal to enter the port and to visit vessels should mean more creative onshore pastoral services offered.
Participation in the WYD Exhibition held at the Sydney convention Centre during the WYD celebrations (July 15-22, 2008). A good number of people expressed their interest in AOS by leaving their e-mail addresses. It is necessary now to maintain contact and provide additional information.
Newly formed National Council.
The interchange of personnel should be a new phase to strengthen the Stella Maris Centres in the Region.
Engaging the Bishops into a more supportive role, not only to promote seafarers’ well-being, but providing them with information on a more regular basis on the activities in their port.
Providing parishes with more newsletters on the work of the AOS and getting articles into Catholic Newspapers.

Threats

Changing chaplains and pastoral agents affect their development and strengthening.
The Center has become unattractive for seafarers as it does not answer to their needs.
Indifference of some sectors of society to seafarers’ welfare.
Lack of resource or expertise in newly appointed personnel to AOS work.
Political situation in Sri Lanka and Pakistan has been tense over the past two years.
Presence of fundamentalist sects.
Loss of balance between business and ministry
Global economic downturn.

Projects

To extend and strengthen the coverage of the ports in Latin America by opening new Stella Maris Centres.
To make CELAM more involved, as well as Episcopal Conferences, local Churches and organizations working with seafarers.
In Latin America to organize a meeting with Bishop Promoters, National Directors and Chaplains.
Streamline email/communication facilities among Chaplains.
Look at specific counselling services.
Trying to create a three-way relation between: State-port authorities, ships owners and shipping agents.

Recommendations

The Pontifical Council has been requested to send letters of encouragement and provide information materials to AOS Bishop Promoters to increase their awareness and dedication to this ministry.
Suggestion was made that in India the Bishop Promoter be another Bishop, besides the Chairperson of the Labour Commission.
Given the increase in piracy and risk of being terrorized, the AOS Manual should contain an additional section on this to inform and ‘train’ AOS personnel in matters of direct counselling and assistance in this field.
Because of the problems experienced by some AOS in regards to grants received by ITF, a reflection should be made on how to avoid future difficulties.
It was recommended to make wider use of Skype and other forms of IT communication not only for seafarers but also among the Regional Coordinators and the Pontifical Council.

AOS Questionnaire on the implementation of the

“Projects and initiatives” of the Gydnia Final Document

Fr. Ciceri presented the result of the Questionnaire sent in July 2008 to Bishop Promoters, Regional Coordinators and National Directors. Only 14 answers where received, some being a simple “Yes” or “No”, while others were a little bit more articulated and explicative. The questions touched a variety of topics.

The relations with AOS Bishop Promoters and Bishops’ Conferences are maintained in different ways and means in a regular base, while maintaining contact with the countries of origin of the seafarers is more difficult and few were able to do it.

Many AOS have national websites where news for chaplains, volunteers, seafarers and fishers are posted, together with newsletters in electronic form and with links also to other websites providing maritime welfare information. The newsletters that are in hard print format are slowly disappearing for practical and economic reasons. Information regarding several National AOS websites were also presented.

The Regional Coordinators being aware that sometimes National Directors do not reprint copies of the AOS Bulletin to be distributed to chaplains and volunteers because of lack of means and resources, strongly suggest that the Bulletin be sent in electronic form to all those who have an e-mail address.

For the formation of lay leaders and ministers aboard ships usually locally available programmes are used, while most of the chaplains will attend the Ship Welfare Visitor Course (SWVC), Houston Maritime Chaplaincy Training and the Seafarers Ministry Training (SMT) of ICMA. During the discussion it was agreed that the SWVC is a good training instrument but only for practical and technical aspect. Therefore, it should be integrated with a more specific AOS and spiritual training.

The Regional Coordinators suggested that SWVC should be integrated with one or two days of training based on the AOS Manual.

The AOS Manual for Chaplains and Pastoral Agents has been circulated and well received. It could be an excellent tool for formation and training during Regional and National Meetings. In several countries it has been reprinted. While most of AOS Chaplains and Pastoral Agents will understand basic English, this is not enough for many of them to fully grasp the contents of the Manual.

The Regional Coordinators expressed the necessity of having translations in other languages of the Manual, aside from the ones provided by the Pontifical Council (English, French and Spanish). One of the main obstacles is the lack of funds and qualified people (or volunteers) capable of translating it.

The majority would not plan any new AOS activity/opening also because of the difficulty to maintain operational the already functioning ones.

To increase awareness on HIV/AIDS among the seafarers and fishers, mostly AOS rely on educational material prepared by their government. Worth of note is the “Fitness programme” done in Goa for seafarers, that is self supporting by letting local people use it for a fee.

Eucharistic Celebrations are done regularly in the ports with special prayers of the faithful including seafarers and fishers. It is difficult, however, to find and recruit Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist because of lack of time for training but also because an unwillingness to act as a leader on board also for fear of being ridiculed by the other crew members.

Once a year, almost in every port there is a special recurrence for the people of the sea that not necessarily coincides with the date of the Sea Sunday.

The Regional Coordinators suggested to continue the tradition to celebrate Sea Sunday on the second Sunday of July with a message from the Pope or the Pontifical Council. The Regional Coordinators added that fishers and their families should not be forgotten and a message from the Pontifical Council on World Fisheries Day (November 21) will be very much appreciated.

The ILO Maritime Labour Convention 2006 and the Work in Fishing Convention 2007 were in the agenda of several AOS Regional Conferences. Some AOS did direct lobbying by writing letters to legislators and Prime Ministers. Information regarding NGO’s and ILO training material were provided to the Regional Coordinators.

Regional and National Conferences are on the drawing board, some people in charge are waiting the opportunity to have them back to back with other meetings in order to save on expenses.

Other initiatives were done to promote AOS, such as the presence with a stall at the World Youth Day in Sydney (July 2008) and the cooperation with others NGO’s to provide Faith resources such as Bibles and scripture booklets in different languages.

At the conclusion of this first day, H.E. Cardinal Martino expressed his gratitude to everyone for the work done. He appreciated all the initiatives and stressed the importance that the AOS website be separate from the Vatican one, in order for it to be more dynamic and complete. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace had created an “independent” website to which all Commissions for Justice and Peace contribute with material and information, making it a “common place for everyone”. The Dicastery for Justice and Peace was doing it “in house”, and this didn’t involve excessive expenses and made it “ everybody’s initiative”, the property of everyone and assured its universality. In fact, they are planning another website for Cardinal Van Thuan.

17^th February 2009

The second day’s meeting after the morning prayer led by Deacon Albert Dacanay, was chaired by Msgr. Novatus Rugambwa, Under-Secretary, who expressed gratitude for the practical work done by the Regional Coordinators in the field. AOS is an important Work of the Pontifical Council, because it has a very practical approach as illustrated by its wide network. Now that we are experiencing a global crisis, our ministry becomes even more important because we have to meet people’s expectations during a difficult period.

AOS and maritime crisis

The issue of how the AOS could be present in time of crisis, catastrophes and piracy was discussed at length, listening to the different experiences. Particularly stressed was the importance of being near the families affected providing spiritual support and guidance.

A suggestion has been made by the Regional Coordinators to prepare some guidelines with a few important reminders that must be considered by AOS Chaplains and volunteers whilst dealing with victims and families of maritime tragedies and piracy.

Code of Practice for Cruise Ministry

Fr. Sinclair Oubre, from USA, Fr. Giacomo Martino, from Italy, and Fr. Arnaud de Boissieu, from France, gave a presentation highlighting the specific characteristics of the “Cruise Ministry Programme” in their countries. Fr. Romeo Yu Chang also shared his experience as a sailing chaplain in Singapore. Clarifications were asked and suggestions made to be incorporated in the final draft of the Code of Practice in Cruise Ministry.

AOS International Website

The Regional Coordinators had the opportunity to see the statistics provided by Google Analytics (from February 11, 2008 to February 10, 2009) about the performance of AOS International Website.

Then they were updated as to the developments of the last few months:

AOS-GB informed the Pontifical Council that it would not continue to be in the service of AOS International Website.
The domain name <www.stellamaris.net> has been renewed by AOS-GB for another 2 years (February 22, 2011) at the cost of £8.99 per year.
The site has been “frozen” since July 2008.
The contract with Ichamaleon will expire on 22^nd February 2009 unless it can be renewed (cost £423 per year), the hosting of the AOS International Website by Ichameleon on their web server will be terminated and AOS International Website will disappear from the internet and the site will be lost.
Ichameleon “hold intellectual property rights on the website or own intellectual property of the design of the site”. Ichameleon practically owns the way that the site is designed (menus, buttons, structure etc.) but not the content.

After an exchange of opinions in which was emphasized the need for AOS to have an international website, it was agreed to keep the “AOS International Website” for another year (the Pontifical Council will pay the £423). During this time the long term future could be evaluated by a working group under the direction of the Pontifical Council, composed by: representative AOS-Canada and AOS-Australia. Before the next Regional Coordinators Meeting (2010) an assessment will be made and a final decision will be taken during the meeting.

The working group will try to clarify the followings:

Technical aspects (server, layout, etc.).
What are the objectives of the “AOS International Website”?
Who is the target population (chaplains, volunteers, seafarers, fishers, etc.) that we would like to reach with the “AOS International Website”?
Search for benefactors? AOS International is willing to write letter of support to potentials benefactors.
Advertising our work?
Others

New Websites

The new ITF website targeting only the seafarers was presented together with the new look of ICMA website.

Calendar of regional meetings

As the cost has become prohibitive, AOS meetings should be organized whenever feasible back to back with other meetings. The Regional Coordinators were asked to provide the schedule of their Regional Conferences for 2009.

Africa Atlantic:

May 4-5, Sub-Regional Meeting Abidjan, Ivory Coast

November, Central Africa Sub-Regional Meeting Louanda (Angola) or Douala (Cameroon)

South Asia:

November 21-24, Regional Meeting, India

Oceania:

November 13-15, Regional Meeting, Brisbane, Australia

Indian Ocean:

August 2-8, Regional Meeting, Durban, South Africa

Latin America:

October 25-29, Meeting CELAM for AOS, Lima, Peru

Europe:

to be decided

East Asia:

July (third week), Regional Meeting, Pattaya, Thailand

Suggestions were made for possible topics: Ship Welfare Visitors Course (SWVC), Introduction to the AOS Manual, ILO Conventions: MLC and Work on Fishing.

Financial situation

Financial matters are always very difficult and delicate to deal with specially in this time of crisis. The budget with a deficit was presented to the Regional Coordinators. It was explained that the contributions for their regional activities would be given when Propaganda Fide will remit the funds to the Pontifical Council (around July or August).

In spite of the explanation given, the Regional Coordinators, once again (as they did last year) expressed the desire to receive the funds while in Rome, as had been done in the past, in order to avoid loosing money on bank charges and facilitate their ministry of coordination.

AOS International

Taking as example the invitation to attend the meeting of CELAM and the project of Handbook on Cultures and Religions of ICMA, the Regional Coordinators were informed that when an initiative or an activity goes behind the national or regional boundaries and involves cooperation with other NGO’s, organisms, etc., the Pontifical Council has to be informed first. In addition materials produced by any national or regional AOS office (prayer books, images, etc.) must clearly print the place of origin.

90^th Anniversary celebration

The Regional Coordinators had also a brainstorm on the celebration of the 90^th Foundation Anniversary of AOS that will fall on 4^th October 2010. Everybody agreed that is an important opportunity to rediscover the roots and the origins of AOS and to renew its spirit. Some proposals were made:

Special message of the Pope/Pontifical Council.
Pilgrimage to Glasgow, place of birth of AOS.
Regional Coordinators Meeting in 2010 to be held in Glasgow.
Special publications on the subject.

Msgr. Rugambwa closed the meeting thanking all for their active participation. A special word of appreciation went to the three representatives for the Cruise Ministry. Msgr. Armitage from UK was invited, but could not be present for previous engagements.

Rev. Fr. Bruno CICERI, C.S.

Official of the Pontifical Council for the

Pastoral Care of Migrant and Itinerant People