By Felipe Salvosa II | CBCP News
October 29, 2023
Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, CBCP president, and other bishops process into St. Peter’s Basilica for the closing Mass of the first assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 29, 2023. ROY LAGARDE
ROME— The head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) is offering the local church’s “national synodal council” as a template for Pope Francis’ bid to widen participation and make the global Church more inclusive.
Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, CBCP president, said the synodal council was formed to discuss an Asia-wide report based on consultations at the parish, vicariate, diocesan, metropolitan, and national levels beginning October 2021.
“I think we were sort of in a consensus that we want the other sectors of the Church to also participate in leadership and we set a trend towards that direction already in the Philippine church,” David told CBCP News.
“We have to hear the voices that are not heard within the Church,” he added.
David said a synodal council would be an exercise of “co-responsibility in mission,” one of the priorities of the “Synod on Synodality” convoked by Pope Francis two years ago to chart pathways to make the Church more participative and listening.