Jakarta – The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences today opened its 12th Plenary Assembly in Jakarta, describing the gathering as a significant step forward in the Church’s synodal and missionary renewal.
Opening the first press conference of the event, Bishop Marcelino Antonio Maralit Jr., , recalled the origins and mission of the FABC.
The Federation, he explained, “is a voluntary association of the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences and ecclesiastical jurisdictions of South, Southeast, East and Central Asia.” It was established following “the historic meeting of the Asian bishops during the visit of Pope St. Paul VI to Manila in 1970,” while its “statutes were approved by the Holy See in 1972.”
For more than five decades, he noted, the FABC has provided bishops with a platform “to reflect together on the mission of the Church in one of the world’s most diverse continents. It has fostered solidarity and cooperation among the local Churches while promoting evangelization, dialogue with other religions, theological reflection, social engagement, human development and social communications,” and “has served as a forum for addressing the pastoral challenges common to the region.”
The Plenary Assembly, the Federation’s main decision-making body, is “normally convened every four years.” Since the first assembly in Taipei in 1974, assemblies have addressed themes including evangelization, prayer, the mission of the laity, Christian discipleship, the Asian family, the Eucharist and the family as the domestic Church. The last Plenary Assembly was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 2016 under the theme: “The Catholic Family in Asia: Domestic Church of the Poor on a Mission of Mercy.”
This XII Plenary Assembly takes place within the new ecclesial context shaped by the FABC’s 50th Anniversary General Conference in Bangkok , the Final Document of the Synod on Synodality in 2024, the Jubilee Year of Hope, and the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV.
All these steps “have renewed the Church’s commitment to synodality and missionary renewal,” stated Bishop Maralit.
Synodal conversion and mission
The Assembly is being held under the theme: “The call to synodal conversion and the mission of being ridges and bridge-builders in Asia.” The theme points to “a personal and communal conversion that enables the Church to become more participatory, missionary, transparent and docile to the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” while calling ecclesial communities to become “bridges and bridge-builders in Asia, a continent marked by extraordinary cultural, religious, linguistic and ethnic diversity, but also by poverty, conflict, migration, environmental challenges and rapid social change.”
Awaiting Leo XIV’s video message
More than a simple conference, the meeting is intended to be “a genuine synodal experience.”
Throughout the week, participants will engage in “prayer, Eucharistic celebrations, spiritual reflections, discernment, conversations in the Spirit, plenary sessions, regional meetings and roundtable discussions,” with particular emphasis on “mutual listening and communal discernment of what the Holy Spirit is calling the Church in Asia to become.”
The Assembly is expected to produce two main documents: a final document conceived as a practical roadmap for synodality in Asia,” by offering pastoral guidance to the local Churches, and “a message to the Church in Asia, summarizing the Assembly’s reflections and encouraging Catholics throughout the region to continue their journey of synodal renewal.”
More than 120 cardinals and bishops are taking part, representing the 22 Conferences and jurisdictions of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Macau, Nepal, Central Asia, and the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches. They are joined by representatives of the Holy See, theologians, experts, facilitators, moderators, observers and members of the FABC Secretariat assisting the Assembly’s discernment process.
Among the highlights announced are the appointment by Pope Leo XIV of Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop Emeritus of Bombay, as his Special Envoy to the Assembly. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, will lead participants in a day of retreat at the beginning of the Assembly; and a keynote address by Cardinal Mario Grech, Secretary General of the General Secretariat, on the implementation of the Synod.
Participants will also receive a video message from Pope Leo XIV. The closing Eucharistic celebration will take place at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in Jakarta, followed by a visit to the Istiqlal Mosque, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia. The bishops will cross the ‘Terowongan Silaturahmi’ the Tunnel of Friendship, which physically links the mosque and the cathedral and stands as a symbol of Indonesia’s commitment to interreligious harmony.
Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão, Archbishop of Goa and Daman and President of the FABC, underlined that the Assembly’s synodal reflection is rooted in the concrete challenges facing the Church in Asia. Acknowledging that in many Asian countries the Church operates in difficult circumstances, he observed: “For this reason, I believe the Church has the responsibility to build relationships of dialogue” in order to foster “a spirit of reconciliation.”
“A synodal Church is precisely a relational Church, a Church ready to listen and to engage in dialogue,” he said. Recalling the 2022 FABC General Conference, whose final document “Walking together as the peoples of Asia” affirmed that “the Church in Asia believes in dialogue, collaboration and building relationships of harmony and peace through religions, cultures and peoples of Asia,” and that the current theme calls the Church to “be bridges and bridge-builders in Asia.”
A commission to advance Synodality in Asia
To support this process, the FABC has established a Commission for Synodality.
“As a fruit of our synodal journey, we in the FABC have taken the initiative of establishing this Commission to help the local Churches and Bishops’ Conferences in Asia advance along the path of synodal conversion and synodal spirituality, promoting a Church that listens, discerns and is oriented toward the mission of evangelization,” Cardinal Ferrão explained.
The Commission is chaired by Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, Vice President of the FABC, with Father Clarence Devadass of Malaysia serving as Secretary, and “this entire Plenary Assembly has been planned by our Commission for Synodality.” The source of synodality is Baptism.
Reflecting on the Assembly’s motto on the verse from the Gospel of John “You will see greater things” , Cardinal David linked those “greater things” to synodal conversion and bridge-building, echoing Pope Leo XIV’s encouragement ahead of the Assembly.
In his letter appointing Cardinal Gracias as Special Envoy, the Pope asked God for this blessing “so that we may become builders of communion rather than architects of the Babel of this world, servants of the Kingdom to come rather than builders of towers destined to collapse.”
“Our focus is truly on fundamental conversion,” Cardinal David said. “The greater things we dream of through synodal conversion are precisely this call to become bridges and bridge-builders.”
He recalled the FABC’s traditional “triple dialogue,” now expanded into four dimensions: dialogue with religions, dialogue with cultures, dialogue with the poor, and dialogue with creation.
“In all four of these areas, we dream of seeing greater things,” he said, expressing the hope that “the local Churches in Asia may become instruments of communion, hope and service for the peoples of Asia, together with our sister faith communities.”
Clericalism and equality in baptism
When asked how the Church intends to dismantle clericalism, Cardinal David stressed the baptismal foundation of synodality, in continuity with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council.
“How do we respond to the call to dismantle clericalism in the Church?
First of all, we must recognize it as a problem,” he said. “Synodality insists on co-responsibility in the mission… We are not higher-class Christians simply because we are ordained. There is an equality of dignity through Baptism.”
Cardinal Ferrão added: “We are first of all the People of God. Therefore, our dignity, our fundamental equality, comes from Baptism.” In this sense, he concluded, synodality “is not so much a strategy or a methodology. It is a spirituality founded on baptism, in which we are all equal.”
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