BANGKOK (UCAN): Churches in Asia need to play an active role in addressing pressing realities including migrants, refugees, indigenous peoples, climate changes, family issues, women, and youth, the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences [FABC] said in its continental synod document, released during an online launch on March 15.
The 40-page Bangkok Document, is a compilation of the discussions held during the federation’s general conference in Bangkok, Thailand last October.
The October 12 to 30 gathering, which also marked the federation’s golden jubilee, drew Church leaders and delegates from about 29 countries. The meeting was followed up with the Asian Continental Synod Assembly, which ran from February 24 to 26 [Sunday Examiner, March 5 and 19].
The document is to be presented during the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican next year.
FABC president, Charles Cardinal Bo of Yangon, said that the document highlights Asian Church’s “journey together by responding to the call of ideality, reflecting on the various emerging realities confronting the Church in Asia, and envisioning new pathway for the future.”
Oswald Cardinal Gracias of Bombay, past president of the federation, said the document is not a “finished product [but] the beginning of [the] journey” and urged all to approach it as “a spiritual document. To my mind, it is a spiritual document, a document for prayer, for discernment, for spiritual conversation.”
…the document highlights Asian Church’s ‘journey together by responding to the call of ideality, reflecting on the various emerging realities confronting the Church in Asia, and envisioning new pathway for the future’
Cardinal Bo
Federation secretary-general, Archbishop Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi, of Tokyo, clergy, laity, and media personnel from across the globe joined the online launch.
Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, the Philippines, the coordinator of the documentation committee, said the Bangkok Document is divided into five parts based on the biblical narrative of the three Magi who are journeying together, looking, discerning, offering gifts, and making new pathways.
The first part titled, Journeying, draws inspiration from the Synod on Synodality, he said.
“Synodality’s basic principles of communion, participation, and mission have actually given a fuller expression and affirmation to FABC’s long-standing affirmation to triple-dialogue: namely with religion, culture, and the poor of Asia,” Bishop David said.
The second part titled, Looking, takes a “serious phenomenological look at the emerging realities confronting the Churches in Asia,” he pointed out.
The section deals with nine of the most impactful realities in Asian societies—migrants, refugees, and indigenous people displaced from their homelands, families, gender issues, the role of women, youth, the impact of digital technology, promotion of an equitable economy, climate crisis, and interreligious dialogue.
The third part titled, Discerning, deals with the answer to the question of “what the Spirit is telling the Churches in Asia in the present times.”
The synod identified 10 challenges that require special attention: accompanying migrants, refugees, and indigenous people, attention to family, gender issues, new women leadership roles in the Asian Church, youth, effective use of digital technology, an economy based on inclusive growth, care for common home, dialogue and reconciliation, and clergy formation.
The fourth section, Offering Our Gifts, reflects on what Asia can contribute to the universal Church specifically focusing on Asian culture and spirituality drawing inspiration from Pope John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation, Ecclesia in Asia.
Synodality’s basic principles of communion, participation, and mission have actually given a fuller expression and affirmation to FABC’s long-standing affirmation to triple-dialogue: namely with religion, culture, and the poor of Asia
Bishop David
The last part titled, Following New Pathways, aims to “articulate the new directions that the federation feels it is called to undertake in the wider dynamics of the life and mission of the Church in Asia.”
In the last section, the continental synod identified five pathways that it aims to take.
The pathways are: from dominative to inculturated evangelisation, from basic Christian communities to ecclesial communities that promote basic human communities, from dialogue to synodality, from proclamation to storytelling, and from beaten tracks to new pastoral priorities.
Bishop David pointed out that the Bangkok Document “underscores the new pathways that had been taken by the 16th century Italian Jesuits, Matteo Ricci, and Alessandro Valignano.”
Ricci, Valignano, and other missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries “chose to follow a different pathway in their approaches to mission,” thw bishop said.
He said the FABC seeks to follow the footsteps of figures like Ricci who chose “interreligious and intercultural dialogue” rather than the more convenient way of “royal patronage” for evangelising the newly found peoples.
The Bangkok Document will be circulated across all dioceses and parishes in Asia, and it is open for further improvements, FABC officials said during the press conference.
