(OSV News): As the US and Iran face off over the Strait of Hormuz continues, Catholic maritime ministry leaders are calling for prayer and support for the thousands of souls trapped at sea amid the war.
“We have organised prayers of intercession, and many of our chaplains are trying to reach out to see how we can advocate,” said Sister Joanna Okerke, the US national director of Stella Maris.
An estimated 20,000 seafarers are currently stranded in the Persian Gulf, according to the International Maritime Organisation [IMO], the United Nations agency responsible for maritime safety, security and environmental compliance.
IMO secretary-general, Arsenio Dominguez, shared that figure in an interview with CNN on 16 April, describing the seafarers’ situation as “terrible.”
Dominguez said, “It is the mental health, it’s the fatigue that these innocent seafarers are actually going through.” He said he was “very grateful to the countries in the region, because they continue to provide the essential supplies, even with the challenges that exist.”
We invite the entire Apostleship of the Sea family to pray, for those in high-risk areas, for their safety and protection from harm, and for the families who wait at home with concern
Bishop Luis Quinteiro Fiuza
But, he warned, “the longer that this conflict goes on,” the more the situation at sea “becomes a crisis.”
Iran officially closed the Strait of Hormuz on March 4, days after the US and Israel launched joint February 28 attacks that killed several of Iran’s top officials, including supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
US Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said at an April 24 press briefing that the stoppage would remain in place “for as long as it takes.”
At least seven seafarers were killed in March as ships came under attack, with Dominguez issuing a March 6 statement calling the blockade “unacceptable and unsustainable.”
At the outset of the war, Bishop Luis Quinteiro Fiuza, interim president of the Apostleship of the Sea, wrote to the Stella Maris bishop promoters worldwide, with the text summarized in an April 17 Facebook post by Stella Maris in the United Kingdom.
The post quoted from the bishop’s letter, saying, “We invite the entire Apostleship of the Sea family to pray, for those in high-risk areas, for their safety and protection from harm, and for the families who wait at home with concern.”
This issue is affecting many people … Many are still at sea, and their families are worried. This is disintegrating families
Sister Joanna
Sister Joanna, a member of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus order said, “This issue is affecting many people,” adding, “Many are still at sea, and their families are worried. This is disintegrating families.”
Father Paul Makar, a Ukrainian Catholic priest from the Archeparchy of Philadelphia who is in training for Stella Maris ministry, said that it is essential to provide the stranded sailors “with at least some sort of relief.”
The priest—a former naval officer and licensed merchant marine engineer—said the crews caught up in the blockade are grappling with an array of stressors compounded by the conflict.
With more than 80 per cent of the world’s goods shipped by sea, Father Makar explained the work entails long months on the open water and demanding port loading schedules.
Crews sometimes work “24 to 36 hours straight just to meet deadlines for loading and offloading,” he said. Other anxieties he named were storms, piracy, safety issues and “ship abandonment.
Now, said Father Makar, seafarers impacted by the blockade are “worried about where they’re going to get their next meal from, and whether they’re going to have air conditioning and enough fuel. There are some ships out there that have not been able to receive fuel.” He urged prayer for all affected.
“It is a very dangerous profession, and has been since the dawn of time,” said Father Makar, adding that Stella Maris and other maritime ministries “always reach out” to let seafarers know “they’re not alone.”
