Pastoral Message
“The Closing of the Fourth Synod
of the Archdiocese of Manila”
November
03, 1979
To my dear People of God in the Archdiocese of Manila:
With a heart overflowing with
joy I want to address you a short message as we close the Fourth Synod of
the Archdiocese of Manila. I want to share with you both my happiness and
my hopes, while exhorting you to praise the Lord for the blessings He has
abundantly poured on us during these days of grace.
After many months of hard work
shared by the laity, religious and priests of the Archdiocese, the delegates
to the Manila Synod began their deliberations in the Pre-Synodal
Convention. For three solid weeks, and with selfless,
determined, constant and continuous dedication they evidenced their love of
God and their concern for His children and People in the Archdiocese.
After the Pre-Synodal Convention, there followed a still more intense week
of work for the celebration of the Manila Synod proper, after having extended
the plenary sessions to nine full hours everyday.
Proposals approved by the Pre-Synod
were not merely read again pro-forma and routinarily
re-approved. They were subjected again to scrutiny, discussion and amendment.
In the name of the Archdiocese, in the name of the People of God for whom
the delegates laboured hard and silently, I wish
to thank them most sincerely.
A normal outcome of the Synod
is updated legislation. But legislation comes about in two stages: the first
is deliberation, consultation; the second is legislation proper. With the
closing of this Synod, the first phase, that of deliberation and consultation,
is over. I have asked for the views of the People of God, for the views of
the delegates and they have given them to me honestly and sincerely. I have
sat in on the plenary sessions every day, and I am grateful for the insights
I have gained from the various trends of thought that have come to the surface.
These insights will be very useful to me in the second phase, which is that
of legislation proper. I wish I could also pass this duty on to you. But I
cannot. It is part and parcel of the episcopal office,
which as you all know, is not of human, or even ecclesiastical, origin. It
is of divine institution, an office which links me — unworthy as I am — to
the sacred college of the apostles, an office placed like a cross on my shoulders
by the Lord Jesus himself.
The delegates have for the
past month kept their night candles burning. While now they can extinguish
theirs, I must light my candle now. They have done their homework; I begin
mine.
The Synod delegates, and you
with them, have helped me a great deal with your suggestions, ideas, deliberations. I ask you to continue helping me, at least in
three ways:
The first
with your patience. During
the first plenary sessions of the Pre-Synod, the assembly was looking for
and insisting on specifics as it examined the documents presented by the Commissions.
But that temper progressively changed, until the emphasis shifted from specifics
to general long-range policies. That is significant, very significant. And
so, what has emerged finally is a demand for over-all archdiocesan planning
and programming, and for the creation of bodies to undertake such action.
But creating the bodies suggested
by the Synod cannot be done immediately either. There is the problem of personnel,
logistics, financial and otherwise, of which you are very much aware. I promise
not to sleep on the implementation. But I cannot promise that it will be done
tomorrow, or the next month. So help me with your patience.
Help me next with your understanding.
Different, and even contrary views, have emerged in the preparatory phase,
at the parish and grass-roots levels, during the Pre-Synodal
Convention, and during the Synod proper. The man on the
top needs to know the view as seen by the people below. But the view
from the top is necessarily different from the view from below. And the trouble
is here. The man on the top can come down to look at things from below — because
nobody is born to a bishopric, as one can be born heir apparent to a throne.
We bishops were all once simple faithful and simple parish priests. But the
man below cannot see the view from the top, until he is brought up there.
The two views — from top and from below — do not always coincide.
I promise to take all proposals
approved by the Synod into most careful consideration and to base my decisions
on what, according to my best lights, I judge to be for the common good of
the Archdiocese which I very dearly love. But what is beyond my power to promise
and guarantee is that whatever I decide will please each and everyone. God
is all-wise and all good: and yet not even He can please everyone.
And lastly, you can help me
very, very much with your obedience. And I wish to ask for your obedience
with the words of Vatican II in its dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium. The Constitution speaks specifically of the laymen
but the words apply not simply with equal, but with even greater force to
religious and priests because they have taken a public vow of obedience. After
indicating that everyone “is permitted and sometimes even obliged to express
his opinion on things which concern the good of the Church” ... although always
“in truth, in courage, and in prudence, with reverence and charity toward
those who by reason of their sacred office represent the person of Christ,”
the Council immediately adds: “With ready Christian obedience, laymen as
well as all disciples of Christ should accept whatever their sacred pastors,
as representatives of Christ, decree in their role as teachers and rulers
in the Church” (L.G. 37).
The bishop, according to the
same Council, is the visible symbol externalizing the inner unity of the People
of God. That unity entails the Christian obedience, which I ask of you in
the name of Christ, whom you profess to love and serve, and whom I represent
by the office which was imposed on me, without my asking for it.
The Synod has ended. But your
responsibilities and my responsibilities have not ended. We began the Synod
by invoking the help of Mary the Immaculate Mother of Christ, and the Immaculate
Spouse of the Holy Spirit, to intercede with her Son, and her Spouse. To me
it is obvious that She has done so, and as always
her intercession has been efficacious. The Holy Spirit, to use a human expression,
has been working overtime, or else we could not close the Synod.
Yes: we have officially closed
the Synod. But let me tell you in all frankness that this is not the end,
it is just the beginning. Much work is to be done if the Synod is to produce
the fruits of spiritual renewal of individuals and structures it is expected
to achieve. The most difficult period is the period of implementation. Once
the Synod statutes will be published, our first task is to dedicate ourselves
to their serious study so that with proper understanding and motivation we
may be able to carry on the work that the Lord Himself has begun. Much prayer,
much time, much dedication will be needed. The Lord will not fail us. Let
us ask His grace that we may not fail Him in this great work of Evangelization
and renewal, so that the motto of the Quadricentennial
“Live the Faith, Share the Truth” become at the same time a challenge
and a reality.
Before ending, let me thank
from the bottom of my heart all those who with their prayers and sacrifices
from the sisters in their hidden monasteries to the sick in their sufferings,
from the faithful to the pastors, from the old to the youth, for the wonderful
cooperation they have extended to the work of the Synod. May
the Lord from whom all good things come bless you all and in you the whole
Archdiocese of Manila.
(SGD.) + JAIME L. CARDINAL SIN, D.D.
Archbishop of Manila
Manila, November 03, 1979
