Vatican Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops Cardinal Mario Grech cited the strong faith of the Filipinos which he was able to personally experience during the recently concluded 10th Philippine Conference on New Evangelization.
The Vatican official said he will relay to Pope Francis his personal experience of the vibrant Church in the Philippines as manifested by the strong and deep spiritual life of the Filipino faithful.
“When I go back to my base and meet with the Holy Father, I will share with him the experience that graciously I was able to experience here . I am sure that when the Holy Father gets to know that there is such an ecclesial community so committed to pray to the Lord, to announce the Gospel in the Church, it will really give him joy,” said Cardinal Grech over Radio Veritas.
Cardinal Grech cited the strong faith of the Filipinos which he said, he personally witnessed during the three-day PCNE X held at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila from Jan. 19 to 21.
The Church leader likewise cited the efforts of Church officials and members of the clergy in the country for their efforts to promote the Word of God.
“I knew but now I am more convinced that the talking and the discussions and the prayers we are doing these days are in line with the main objective of the present Synod. Why? It is true that the theme of the Synod is for a Synodal Church, a Synodal Church to be prepared for a mission, for evangelization,” he said .
“Perhaps in the past our efforts to evangelize were not so much effective and the results were not as much as we desire because we did not act in a Synodal way because not everyone was engaged, invited, involved in the mission of the Church. So, a Synodal Church is a church that really offers the space for all the baptized so that we can together announce the Gospel to men and women today,” Cardinal Grech added.
The theme for PCNE X was: “Salya: Let us cross to the other side” which was taken from Mark 4:35. The first PCNE was held in the country in 2013 and was initiated by then Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle who is currently serving as pro-prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization in response for Pope Francis’ call for New Evangelization