BANGKOK (UCAN): The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences [FABC] must restructure itself to make the Church “relevant and responsive” to the people of Asia, Oswald Cardinal Gracias of Mumbai, said at the opening of the federation’s two-week general conference and golden jubilee celebration on October 12 in Bangkok, Thailand.
More than 150 bishops from 29 Asian nations and 50 guests from the Vatican were slated to attend the golden jubilee celebrations.
Cardinal Gracias said that there was a great need to restructure the Asian bishops’ federation and model it on CELAM, the Federation of Latin American Episcopal Conferences—the FABC’s Latin American counterpart. He added that suggestions for the restructuring of the FABC have the approval of top Vatican officials, including Pope Francis.
By the end of the two-week meeting on October 30, along with its final document, “plans for a restructured FABC will also have been finalised, or at least a direction for them set,” Cardinal Gracias said.
“I cannot stress how vital our role at this general conference is. We are undertaking to become and remain a prophetic, relevant, and responsive Asian Church at the service of the people of Asia,” he said.
The question, therefore, arises: isn’t it time for the FABC to have something similar in Asia? What helped South America can surely help Asia
Cardinal Gracias
“All participants at recent global ecclesial events will have noticed how bishops in South America have invariably been referring to Puebla, Medellin, and now Aparecida in their reflections,” Cardinal Gracias said referring to CELAM decennial conferences.
Pope Francis, formerly Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, was the main architect of the final document of Aparecida, which has influenced him as pope, as evident in the many references he makes to Aparecida in Evangelii Gaudium, one of the papal documents, the cardinal said.
“The question, therefore, arises: isn’t it time for the FABC to have something similar in Asia? What helped South America can surely help Asia,” said the Indian cardinal, who heads the organising committee of the jubilee programme.
He said a restructured conference would help Churches in Asia “to renew and revitalise our pastoral thrust” and make it “a vibrant Church working for a better Asia.”
The call to restructure the FABC comes amid criticism that the federation has remained practically inactive for almost two decades. It began in the 1990s after the Vatican reportedly expressed doubts over the theological patterns developed by Asian theologians purportedly to help the Church’s mission in Asia’s inter-religious situation.
I cannot stress how vital our role at this general conference is. We are undertaking to become and remain a prophetic, relevant, and responsive Asian Church at the service of the people of Asia
Cardinal Gracias
Leading Asian theologians were investigated by the Vatican to see if they diluted the concept of “the uniqueness of Christ” and considered him as one of the gods in their attempt to develop a theology without rejecting the gods of Asian religions and their teachings.
CELAM went through a similar crisis in the 1960s when the Vatican condemned the liberation theology it supported. It regained the Vatican’s approval only with some leadership changes but without compromising on its basic mission priority—the preferential option for the poor.
Cardinal Gracias stressed the primary aim of the general conference, which he said was the first such organised by the FABC, is to create a system to help the Asian Church to respond in an effective way to the social-political realities that affect the poor in the region.
He said he had discussions with past presidents of CELAM, and took on board their suggestions on how to organise a general conference such as the decennial ones organised by CELAM.
Since such an international conference needed the Vatican’s approval, he shared the proposal with Pope Francis and the pope “enthusiastically gave wholehearted support and encouragement” for the general conference for Asia.
Cardinal Gracias said the idea was shared with Luis Cardinal Tagle of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.
“Ideas got crystallised and it was pointed out that we were going to meet” on the 50th anniversary of FABC, the cardinal said explaining how the general conference became part of the golden jubilee programs.
Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Tagle, the first Asian to head the Vatican congregation overseeing mission work across the world, as his representative to the general conference. He will formally conclude the general conference with a closing Mass on October 30.
