ROME (SE): “Filipinos, especially overseas Filipino workers [OFW], are finding themselves in new situations all over the world and are forced by circumstances to become what we call ‘accidental missionaries,’” Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, the head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines [CBCP], said on the sidelines of the Synod Bishops on Synodality [16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops], CBCP News reported on October 19.
The bishop of Kalookan said that OFWs need to be empowered as they were not specifically trained for this role.
The OFWs account for a tenth of the Philippine population, CBCP News reported, noting that have kept the country’s economy afloat in times of crisis, as they have become a stable source of foreign exchange inflows. Overseas Filipinos sent US$36.14 billion in remittances last year, equivalent to nearly 9 per cent of gross domestic product.
Bishop David recalled that Pope Francis himself had called OFWs “contrabandistas de fe” or “smugglers of faith”.
“When they really witness to their faith in their host countries, they don’t go out to proselytise. It’s the attractiveness of their effort to live the gospel as Christians that sometimes influences other people,” the bishop said.
This role fits within “co-responsibility in mission,” which the synod discussed on October 18, the 15th day of the synod.
“Normally when we say mission we only think of missionary congregations, religious people who are sent abroad you know for mission. But now we’re realising that the whole Church is called to mission and that is really the objective of this synod,” Bishop David said.
However, he warned against romanticising the situation of OFWs, pointing to challenges such as the breakdown of families lured by the promise of migration to pull them out of poverty. He also pointed to the alienation sometimes felt in the host countries as a reason why they “hold on to their faith as their only source of strength and moral courage,” even it is something they did not take previously take seriously.
It was the first time a member of the Philippine delegation spoke to the synod press and also the first time Bishop David spoke since he was elected to the synod’s Commission on Information.
