AROUND 400 Catholic priests in Central Visayas will gather in Parklane Hotel in Cebu City starting tomorrow to come up with a code of conduct for the clergy in the region.
Called “Panagtigom,” the week-long gathering is also the yearly retreat for the priests.
Through its official publication, “Bag-ong Lungsoranon,” the Archdiocese of Cebu said that the code of conduct will be a guide for priests in their work as servants of Christ and the Church.
The code of conduct will cover the entire archdiocese and its suffragan dioceses in the Visayas, such as those in Tagbilaran and Talibon in Bohol, Dumaguete in Negros Oriental, Siquijor, and Maasin in Leyte.
The gathering is also in observance of 2018 as Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons.
Panagtigom has three goals.
First, it’s meant to inspire priests to be servant-leaders in preparation for another big event, the New Evangelization. The Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons is a preparation for the country’s celebration of the 500th year of Catholicism in the Philippines in 2021, the start of the New Evangelization.
Second, the priests will study and review programs on the ongoing formation of priests in the dioceses so these will support the vision of New Evangelization.
Third, the gathering will discuss how to strengthen the Archdiocese’s Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC).
During the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines in 1991, the BEC was made the official program of the country’s Catholic Church to strengthen small communities in the parishes as the foundations of the faith. (SCG)