Pope encourages faithful to rebuild church

POPE Francis has encouraged the faithful to journey together to rebuild the church, according to the Catholic Bishops Conference (CBC) of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
This was shared during a second instalment of the social communication department school of formation recently via Zoom.
Member of the Vatican’s communication sector in Rome Fr Harris Pakkam said Pope Francis encouraged all the people not just the bishops and all those in authority to “journey together” for the renewal of the church as part of synodality.
He said the Holy Father, on the revival of synodality, proposed three approaches through verbal images as illustration, sound decentralisation in the church that would rebuild the relation of the centre and the periphery, an inverted pyramid to depict a reversal of ways that the papal and episcopal hierarchy exercise authority to God’s people from diverse cultures of poor and a polyhedron to reconceive the status of distinctive parts in relation to the unifying whole.
He also shared the pillars of synodality which were communion, participation, and mission, as well as some challenges that threaten synodality today.
Bishop Otto Separy of Berina Central said listening was an essential element.
“It needs to be practiced by bishops, priests and all in authority that the journey together and beyond will be fruitful,” he said.
The session, titled “Synodal dimension of communication”, was facilitated by Pakkam and CBC social communication coordinator Fr Ambrose Pereira.
The participants were representatives from the different countries of the East Asia and Oceania included Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Timor-Leste, Myanmar, Mongolia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and 45 Salesians, lay mission partners and youth participants in the country.