FABC-OSC Chairman opens 28th annual meeting of Asian “communication bishops”

Cardinal Sebastian Francis of Penang Diocese presided over the opening Mass of the 28th annual “Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC)-Office of Social Communication (OSC) Bishops’ Meet.”

Started in 1996, the meeting serves as a venue for the coordination and networking of bishop-chairmen and secretaries of episcopal communication commissions of the FABC.

Cardinal Francis reminded the group of more than 30 bishops, clergy, and laypersons in his homily that “the Church is mission.”

“Not only does she exist to fulfill a mission; the Church is a mission,” the chairman of the Bishops’ Meet organizer, FABC-OSC, said.

“Every baptized member is part of the evangelizing and pastoral mission Christ has entrusted to His Church.” Living this truth augurs well for the Asian Church’s response to the call for synodality, he added.

This year’s Bishops’ Meet sees representatives from a dozen FABC-member conferences like Korea, Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Laos, Hong Kong, and Myanmar.

The president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences came in person along with the assistant secretary general of FABC, Charles Cardinal Bo of Yangon Archdiocese, and Maryknoll Father William Larousse, respectively.

The Prefect of the Holy See’s Dicastery of Communication, Paolo Ruffini, is present, as is the director of the theological-pastoral department of the Vatican's Secretariat for Communication, Natasa Govekar.

At the end of the four-day meeting on November 24, the bishops are expected to publish new guideposts for the ministry, specifically on this year’s theme, “Communication in the Church in Asia Today.”

The Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences—Office of Social Communication (FABC-OSC) organizes the yearly Bishops’ Meet.