A synod to tackle church and clergy problems

Three days of discussion focused on priests' behaviour, vocations and religious. Fr Amalay: "We need to ask ourselves if we are getting the Church's message across effectively in this fast-changing world."

Manila (AsiaNews) – Angel Lagdameo, archbishop of Jaro diocese and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), convened a diocesan synod to look into problems faced by clergy and Catholics. The synod took place in the seminary of St Vincent Ferrer in Iloilo city from 17 to 19 December. It was the third of this archdiocese after one held in 1911, organized by Bishop Denis Dougherty, and another convened in 1933 by Bishop James McCloskey.

Fr Robert Amalay, moderator and assistant secretary-general of the synod, said the sessions tackled three of the 14 concerns raised by commissions of the archdiocese. These were the life and ministry of the clergy, vocation promotions and concerns of religious women. Other concerns will be tackled in succeeding sessions. "We need to ask ourselves if we are getting the Church's message across effectively in this fast-changing world," the priest said. Among proposals included in the Instrumentum Laboris was the drafting of an Unbanidad Ecclesiastica Saracedotal, a manual of a code of ethics for the clergy.

Fr Amalay said the code would serve as a guide in ensuring financial and administrative transparency in parishes and in avoiding behaviour which is not in line with the status of a religious, including sexual misconduct.

A diocesan synod is made up of priests, religious and lay people who support the bishop in the running of the diocese. There were 129 participants in this synod, including 63 priests and 51 lay people. The rest came from religious congregations or represented other Christian groups. Fr Amalay said discussions were "very lively" and often went on into the night. He said: "If the situation does not change, the archdiocese will face a shortage of priests within the next 10 years." At the moment, the priest-parishioner ratio is one priest per 10,071 people, much lower than the ideal – a priest per 4,000 parishioners. "To maintain the current ratio, five priests should be ordained every year but this year we only ordained three."

The synod participants recommended boosting the vocation promotion programme, "that would touch base in parishes, schools and families", apart from a financial subsidy for students in the seminary; financial subsidies were also suggested for parishes in difficulty. Sisters and women in religious groups, meanwhile, called for greater recognition and appreciation of their work. Recommendations will be presented to Archbishop Lagdameo before he promulgates any decrees.

• PHILIPPINES
• Filipino
• Bishops'
• Conference
• CHURCH
• VOCATIONS
• PRIESTS