Beyond walking together, cardinal says synodality also means knowing when to stop

OZAMIZ City— A truly synodal Church is defined not only by walking together but by stopping for people living on society’s margins, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan told fellow bishops Monday as they concluded their annual retreat.

Speaking during Mass at the Parish of the Holy Child in Clarin, Misamis Occidental at the end of the bishops’ annual retreat, he said Jesus showed compassion by allowing another person’s suffering to interrupt his journey and urged bishops to do the same.

“My brother bishops, after these days of retreat on synodality, I believe this is the conversion the Holy Spirit asks of us,” David said in his homily. “Synodality is not only about walking together. Sometimes it is about knowing when to stop, whom to notice, and whom to draw near.”

David reflected on the Gospel account of the woman suffering from hemorrhages, describing her as someone forced to live at the laylayan, or margins, because society and religious law had excluded her for years.

He said many poor Filipinos feel excluded from the Church, but Jesus showed that dignity comes first by calling the woman “Daughter” before healing her.

“What strikes me most is that Jesus allowed his journey to be interrupted by another person’s suffering. He was on his way to a dying child, yet he did not consider the woman an inconvenience. He stopped because compassion always has time,” David said.

The cardinal said the Church must imitate God’s own initiative, recalling the biblical description of the Lord as “gracious and merciful.” A synodal Church, he said, seeks those who have drifted away instead of waiting for them to return.

“A synodal Church is gracious because she takes the initiative, going in search of those who have drifted away without waiting for them to come back first,” he said.

“A synodal Church is merciful because she refuses to pass by those who have been left at the laylayan. She listens before she speaks, accompanies before she judges, and restores dignity before asking anything in return,” he added.

The CBCP held its three-day retreat in the Archdiocese of Ozamis as spiritual preparation for its 132nd plenary assembly, scheduled for July 8 to 10.

The Mass also marked the opening of the visit of the international pilgrim image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the Archdiocese of Ozamis, the eighth stop in its monthslong nationwide pilgrimage across the Philippines.

Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo of Kidapawan, spiritual director of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Pilgrimage 2026, invited Catholics to embrace the visit as “an extraordinary moment of grace” for the local Church and the nation.

“As Our Lady of Guadalupe graciously visits the dioceses of the Philippines, let us not allow this extraordinary moment of grace to pass us by,” he said. “Come before her with faith, pray through her loving and powerful intercession, and entrust to her our families and our beloved country.”

He prayed that the Blessed Virgin would “lead us to her Son, Jesus Christ, and obtain for us the healing, conversion, hope, peace and renewal that our nation so deeply needs.”

The image arrived from the Diocese of Dipolog and will remain in the archdiocese until July 8 before continuing to the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro. (CBCP News)

A version of this article was first published by CBCP News.