The country’s Catholic bishops will meet in the southern city of Cagayan de Oro for their 128th plenary assembly next week.
This will be the first time that the bishops’ high-level meeting will be held in the Mindanao region.
More than 80 bishops are expected to attend the July 6 to 8 assembly at the Chali Conference Center.
The closed-door meeting will begin with an address by Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
Msgr. Bernardo Pantin, CBCP Secretary General, said the agenda includes electing a chairman for each of the following: the Commission on Catholic Education, the Sub-commission on Retired, Sick, and Elderly Priests, the Sub-commission for Permanent Deacons, and the Office for the Postulation of the Causes of Saints.
He also said that there will be discussions on the proposed activities for the Jubilee 2025 celebrations in the Philippines.
“Let us pray for the bishops as they gather, discuss and pray about the future of the Church in the Philippines,” Pantin said.
Prior to the assembly, the bishops will have a retreat at the Transfiguration Abbey run by the Benedictine Monks in Malaybalay, a city in the nearby province of Bukidnon.
Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, will be one of the speakers at the retreat from July 2 to 4.
The retreat’s theme is “Synod spirituality: Embracing ecology in the light of Laudato Sí and Laudate Drum,” and theologians Fr. Reynaldo Raluto and Vincentian Fr. Daniel Franklin Pilario will also speak at the gathering.
Raluto is the chair of the Diocese of Malaybalay’s Integral Ecology Ministry, while Pilario currently serves as president of Adamson University in Manila.
The CBCP is currently composed of 83 active bishops, 5 priest administrators, and 39 honorary members who are retired bishops.
The plenary assembly convenes twice a year, in January and July. When they are not in session, the Permanent Council acts on behalf of the episcopal conference.
