Archdiocese holds month-long Synod

AT LEAST 68 priests, religious women, laities and bishops gathered on Monday at the St. Augustine Cathedral in Cagayan de Oro for the opening of the 1st Archdiocesan Synod.

Cagayan de Oro City Archbishop Antonio Ledesma said the Synod will review the guidelines on pastoral policies in the diocese as a response to the needs of the present times.

The Synod, or the canonical term of assembly, is a month-long gathering aimed at setting new directions following the New Era of Evangelization.

In a pastoral exhortation of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), it stated that in 1991, the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (PCP-II) “envisioned a renewed Church, a participatory community of authentic disciples of Christ, a Church of the Poor, a Church-in-mission...thus declaring to achieve the vision by embarking on a renewed integral evangelization.”

Msgr. Elmer Abacahin, parish priest of the Holy Cross Parish in Alubijid, Misamis Oriental and president of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC), said the Synod will set directions in the archdiocese and the total life of the Church.

Abacahin said among the topics to be tackled in the gathering include education, social practices, the Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC) and the Church’s sacraments.

The month-long activity started on Monday with a mass and a pledge of commitment to the service of the Church.

Among the participants to the synod, the first to be held in the diocese, are 40 selected priests out of the more than 100 priests from the archdiocese, 13 women religious and 15 lay people.