Top left clockwise: 1) Bible enthronement to mark the opening of the program for SHC parish pastoral assembly on Apr 23. 2) Fr Paul Lo, rector, shared on the readings of the day. 3) Archbishop John Wong gave his concluding Exhortation. 4) Anthony Lim gave a flashback on Synodality of being Church for the third millenium as advocated by Pope Francis. 5) Group photo of the assembly.
By Catherine Wan
Apr 30 2022
KOTA KINABALU – KK prelate Archbishop John Wong issued a challenge to the Sacred Heart Cathedral (SHC) parish pastoral assembly to “make an impact not only to the parish of Sacred Heart and sub-parish of Church of Mary Immaculate, but also to the whole of the Archdiocese” Apr 23.
SHC parish priest, Fr Paul Lo called for the parish pastoral assembly to close the parish Synodal Process officially on 23 April 2022. Invitations were sent out to leaders of communities/group/ministries who had participated in the process to attend the closing of the parish synodal process.
The SHC parish synod process was launched on 22 October 2021, spanning a six-month long journey of listening to the experience of the grassroots Catholics about being Church – as companions journeying together, in their participation in promoting collaboration between the groups and dialogue with society, and their understanding about mission and sharing responsibility in the mission of Church.
Fr Paul informed that reports from the synodal consultations of various communities (LJCCC, Neo-catechumenate, OCDS, FSIC, CFC, Filipino Community), parish groups (Caritas, Women’s League, Prayer Meeting, Catholic Nurses Guild, KTM, PFPN, SHC and CMI PPC) and ministries (liturgical and catechetical) had been submitted to the parish office for compilation and synthesizing, which would be forwarded to the Archdiocesan office by end of April.
Coordinator of the Archdiocesan Team for the Synod Process, Anthony Lim recapped the Synod of Bishops 2023 on Synodality, which is about “journeying together” through communion, participation and mission.
He quoted Pope Francis “It is a mutual listening in which everyone (the laity/religious/priests, the bishops and the Pope) has something to learn from each other, and all listening to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17) in order to know what He is saying to the Church.”
Lim also stressed that the Spirit of Synodality must continue to become the way of life for the parishes/archdiocese to move forward in building the Kingdom of God (as stated in the Archdiocesan Vision).
He believed that God would bless all who had participated in the parish synodal process and who had laid claim on their sense of belonging to the parish.
Fr Paul then presented a throwback on the parish synod processes of the various parish groups. He highlighted that the youth and children from the Neo-catechumenate and Chinese Faith Formation were also involved in the process with the guidance of the teachers.
The synodal syntheses which contained both the positive and negative aspects of the synod conversations were presented by Bernard Liew (SHC) and Patrick Tan (CMI). The synthesis reports could be obtained from the parish offices.
An open session was provided after the presentation of the syntheses for spontaneous sharing. Among the views shared were: the local church had already begun the journey of synodality with the Archdiocesan Vision and Mission under the Diocesan Organisational Pastoral Plan (DOPP) 25 years ago; pastoral care for the blind and the physically handicapped to be improved, social teaching of the church to be more visibly promoted, media technology to be tapped as a way to reach the youth, etc.
As the assembly concluded, Archbishop Wong commended the active participation of all in the synod process to reflect on their faith journey from baptism in which one shares the threefold mission of Christ, namely the priestly, kingly and prophetic.
In sum, he said, they were to be congratulated for being chosen to be witnesses of the Risen Christ, who promised to be with His Church throughout the ages.
