MANILA (SE): The Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines [CBCP] is hoping that plans for a personal prelature for Filipino migrants will come to fruition, CBCP News reported.
Bishop Narciso Abellana, chairperson of the commission, said in a message for National Migrants’ Sunday on September 24 that it would be particularly beneficial in reaching out to overseas Filipino workers [OFWs], especially those in territories without Catholic chaplaincies.
“So it becomes the work and responsibility of the prelature to provide services to these migrants. we hope that this idea of prelature for migrant workers prosper also,” Bishop Abellana said.
“This may have a wider scope in reaching our migrant workers since it does not depend solely on the present chaplaincies,” the bishop said.
The CBCP has been discussing the proposed prelature for at least three years [Sunday Examiner, 10 July 2022], with a special committee being set up to study the initiative, CBCP News reported.
During its plenary assembly in July, the bishops once again agreed on the need for additional time and further study before submitting the matter to the Vatican for a decision, CBCP News reported.
“This extension was deemed necessary to give for more consultation with the other episcopal conferences, especially in countries where Filipino migrants and itinerants are present,” CBCP president, Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, said.
“The working committee was also asked to anticipate such concerns as logistics and the formation of priests for ministry to OFWs as well as the formation of migrant Catholics as missionaries especially in countries where Christians are a minority,” Bishop David said.
