By Matters India Reporter
Jakarta, July 23, 2026 : Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle called on Asian bishops to embrace synodality, saying it calls believers to be present to one another through listening, encounter, and a willingness to adjust their pace for others.
Speaking at Hotel Mulia in Jakarta during the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences’ Day of Prayer and Recollection on July 22, Cardinal Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, reminded delegates that “the ladder suggests Jesus as the bridge in whom God and humanity—and I would say creation—are held together.”
He cautioned against focusing only on “strategies, structures, or pastoral plans,” urging instead that “Jesus is God’s way of showing us who God truly is. And Jesus is also the human way of showing us how to be fully human.”
Turning to the Assembly’s theme of synodal conversion, he compared the Church’s journey to a child learning to walk. “Walking needs skills, balance, coordination, the capacity to stand up,” he said. “We say synodality means walking together. But have we studied well the phenomenon of walking?”
He asked participants to consider what “spiritual muscle strength” the Church needs, what forms of trust and mutual support enable communities to journey together, and what fears prevent believers from taking those steps.
Bridge-building through presence and love
Cardinal Tagle drew from personal experience, describing his parents, both 96 years old. His father can no longer walk, while his mother remains mobile but needs assistance. “How do you walk with someone who cannot walk?” he asked. His answer: “You stay. You touch the hand. You whisper to his ears, and he is assured he is not alone.”
He warned against pastoral attitudes that suggest superiority, saying, “That’s not incarnation. That’s not kenosis.” Christ’s self-emptying love, he explained, was not condescension but love for “his own.”
He also challenged modern distractions, noting that “the growing tendency of people to move through life absorbed by their mobile phones” undermines authentic communion. Synodality, he said, calls believers to be present to one another “through listening, encounter, and a willingness to adjust their pace for others.”
Delegates spent the day in silent prayer, meditation, and Conversation in the Spirit, a discernment method central to the Church’s synodal journey. Cardinal Tagle encouraged prayer with biblical images such as “bridges, ladders, walking together, and open heavens,” symbols that reveal deeper dimensions of God’s mystery.
“Maybe before we strategize how to be bridges and bridge-builders, we can again look at Jesus, touch him, see him, behold him, and learn from him,” he said.
The retreat underscored the Assembly’s conviction that authentic synodal conversion begins not with programs or structures, but with listening to the Holy Spirit and deepening one’s relationship with Christ, “the bridge who unites heaven and earth.”
(Photo courtesy FABC)