How to respond to bishops’ pastoral letter

The Pastoral Letter of the Bishops of the Philippines is addressed to the “Beloved People of God”. The addressees are the clergy, the consecrated religious and lay, and the lay faithful in general. As recipients of the Letter the people should know its content, the reason why it was written and the message of the bishops.

A pastoral letter of the bishops as pastors, spiritual and moral guides of the people, is one of their teaching instruments. Because of the importance of the Letter’s message approved by the Conference the diocesan bishop is expected, as usual, to make the letter available to the clergy, the consecrated persons and the lay faithful after it was read from the pulpits in the anticipated Masses on Feb 4 and in the Sunday Masses on Feb 5. Each diocesan bishop in special circumstances is of course free to use other ways to bring the message to his people.

Then the people, that is, the faith communities of priests in the diocese, seminaries, monasteries and houses of formation, of consecrated persons, parish basic ecclesial communities and ecclesial movements, should understand the meaning of the message and discern its relevance to their respective situation and discern their communal respond.

The process should be prayerful and the discussion as well as the response should be done from the perspective of faith.