Journeying together in Synodality: A Call to Conversion

A Catholic Bishop urged to reflect on more concretely on the call to synodal conversion based on the final document of the Synod on Synodality as Mindanao priests with their respective bishops and archbishops gather during the 47th Diocesan Clergy of Mindanao in Zamboanga City.

At the conference proper, Most. Rev. Jose Ramirez Rapadas, III. D.D., Bishop of Iligan February 11, 2026, Wednesday, declared that ‎“To listen to the Word until it wounds and heals our hearts and to listen to the concrete stories in the BECs,” as he confessed his state of mind coming from the wounds of his people ravaged by floods brought about by typhoon Basyang.

“I feel a mixture of feelings and emotions and thoughts – lingering anxiety due to the magnitude of the effect of the typhoon,” he said after sending an appeal to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines for humanitarian aid.

‎Theme of the gathering is ‎Journeying Together in Synodality, he emphasized that the call to deeply listen to the Word of God as it challenges and heals the heart, while attentively hearing the lived experiences and concrete stories of the Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) as part of the Church’s synodal journey.

‎Bishop Rapadas who chairs the CBCP- Episcopal Commission on Basic Ecclesial Community also expressed his feeling of guilt and asked “have we done enough as stewards of creation as a moral voice of society? Maybe we are also part of the complacent society or maintenance church.”

He added that “we have to be reminded that Jesus is journeying with us like the road to Emmaus; the disciples were in fact walking away from the mission that the Lord has for them; confused with fear and disappointments and only recognized Him in the breaking of the bread. They recognized Him and with opened hearts and renewed hearts they returned to Jerusalem.”

“What kind of Journey are we really talking about? If we are honest, this journey does not begin with structures – in Emmaus road, its synodal only with the transformative encounter with the risen Lord,” he added.

As an introductory to the Conversation with the Spirit, Bishop Rapadas asked, ‘some sectors in the Catholic Church even bishops do not agree with synodality – asking where is Christ in that?’

It has to start with the transformative encounter with Jesus. “Are we willing to be converted together; transformed with Christ?”

In order to allow Christ to be in that road, Rapadas said, “conversion has many levels and dimensions: interior, pastoral, relations, structural” because journeying in synodality “is a call to conversion.”

Though before the late Pope Francis called for Synodality in the Church, Bishop Rapadas explained that it is not totally new in the Church in the Philippines, especially in Mindanao, “long before the word synodality – the Risen Christ is already walking with us in the Mindanao Sulu Pastoral Conference and the PCP II {Second Plenary Council of the Philippines).”

The Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (PCP II) was a significant event in the history of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. It was held from January 20 to February 17, 1991, and was a response to the changes in the Church and society since the First Plenary Council in 1953. The council’s avowed theme was Church renewal and evangelization in the spirit and vision of the Second Vatican Council. The council included 490 delegates, including bishops, priests, religious, and laity, and was a pivotal moment in the Church’s journey of renewal and transformation.

He described this as a “Synodality already in our DNA – called us to a Church of the Poor, justice and peace.”

The BECs, according to Rapadas, are the “pathways and schools of Synodality where Christ walks with His people; listens to their stories; opens the Scriptures; and sends them back as renewed witnesses.”

This, he quipped, is “more than just a slogan, or words, our BECs are among our primary pathways to synodality.”