American mother of 8 to receive catechist ministry from Pope Leo XIV

Vatican City, Sep 26, 2025 / 16:58 pm (CNA).

An American mother of eight who has spent nearly 30 years in the Arabian Peninsula helping form Catholics in their faith will receive the ministry of catechist from Pope Leo XIV this weekend during the Vatican’s Jubilee of Catechists.

Catherine Miles-Flynn, who has served as director of Christian formation for the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia for two decades, said there is “a lot of joy” in her work in Abu Dhabi, where she gets to “talk about Jesus all day.”

The Jubilee of Catechists, running Sept. 26–28, has drawn more than 20,000 Catholics from 115 countries to Rome. 

In a press conference Friday at EWTN’s Vatican bureau, she described the vitality of Catholic life in Abu Dhabi, where “churches are packed all the time,” including at daily Masses. “For an evening Mass on a Wednesday, you would have to get there early to get a seat.”

In St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Abu Dhabi, Masses are offered in Arabic, English, French, Malayalam, Urdu, Tamil, Konkani, German, Italian, Korean, Ukrainian, and other languages for its 100,000 expatriate parishioners.

“People are very hungry to understand more about their faith,” she said. 

Miles-Flynn, who has lived in the United Arab Emirates with her husband since 1995, will be among 39 Catholic men and women upon whom Pope Leo XIV will formally confer the lay ministry of catechist crucifix during a Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday morning. 

Pope Francis established the lay ministry of catechist in 2021 as a lifelong vocation of teaching the faith. Catechists from Brazil, India, Mozambique, South Korea, England, and other countries will receive the ministry from the pope on Sunday along with a crucifix as a sign of their mission. 

The American mother said she accepts the ministry “with humility and gratitude.”

“For me, it means a lot … because I will do this on behalf of all of these more than 3,600 catechists [in the UAE] from … at least 80 different nationalities,” she said.

The vicariate, which covers the UAE, Oman, and Yemen, has fewer than 100 priests but nearly 3,800 catechists. “And we need a lot more catechists,” Miles-Flynn added, citing the demand for more faith formation programs “from womb to tomb.”

She recalled her first Christmas in Abu Dhabi when Muslims outside a mosque next to the church greeted worshippers with “Merry Christmas.” She also noted how during Pope Francis’ 2019 visit, authorities canceled schools so Emirati families could attend the papal Mass. The mosque near her parish is now named Mary, Mother of Jesus Mosque.

Bishop Paolo Martinelli, apostolic vicar of Southern Arabia, also highlighted the challenges facing Catholics in the region. In the UAE and Oman, he said, “we have the freedom to celebrate Masses and to have catechism … we are free to communicate faith with our people.” 

But in Yemen, he said, after 10 years of civil war and the murder of four Missionaries of Charity, “the situation is very, very delicate.”

Martinelli described the UAE church as “very unique” because it is made up of about 1 million Catholics from dozens of countries. “Never we can take for granted faith. Always we have the task to deepen our faith,” he said.

“When I meet our catechists, I always say to them, you are pillars of our church,” the bishop added.  

“Parents, first of all, have the first task to communicate faith to the new generations,” he said. Speaking of catechists, he said there is a “long tradition in the church to have people dedicated for helping families in the communication of faith.”

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/266809/american-mother-of-8-serving-church-on-arabian-peninsula-to-receive-catechist-ministry-from-pope-leo-xiv