Archdiocese’s 2nd synod offers ‘communio’ as alternative
DAGUPAN CITY— The clergy of Lingayen-Dagupan Archdiocese, including the faithful from various sectors, celebrated their synod, assembly, under the grieving shadow of the more than 13,000 countrymen who have been killed in the anti-drug campaign.
This was pointed out by Archbishop Socrates Villegas in his post-synodal message issued on September 9 that was read in lieu of the regular homily last Sunday.
It also acknowledged “the terror and destruction that the ongoing war in Marawi has wrought upon our brothers and sisters in southern Philippines.”
It also blamed the presence of trolls in social media and attributed the circulation of fake news to them even as it acknowledged “the deep longing of our youth and children for meaning, a search that is not always answered with satisfaction by us their parents and pastors.”
At the conclusion of their Synod, they offered communio, a Latin word, as “the answer to all the doubts and questions that the faithful face right now as citizens and as Christian believers.”
“Communio is our gift, our mission and yes…. our key. Communio if truly lived has the incredible power remove all the shadows of our lives and make this world a better and more beautiful place where God’s light always shines,” their message said.
Taking on the plight of drug users, they said “love does not kill, love is life giving and love nurtures” and stressed that “the blood of those killed in the anti-drug campaign is the howling symptom that the spirit of communio is lacking if not absent,” it emphasized.
It stressed that when love is forgotten, violence prospers. When God’s face in every person is ignored, death becomes the only way to end criminality, it said.
“If communio is alive, the sacredness of life will always be safeguarded,” it stressed.
It added that the communio that the synod adopted as the main agenda is not just a communio in Pangasinan but acommunio that even goes beyond the borders of the Philippines and also offered the spirit of communio as the healing balm to cure the rampant culture of corruption that all complain about.
It called on faithful to put social media at the service of communio so that it can do great things.
“We have given computers the ability to think like humans but we humans have started to act like computers—without ethics, without courtesy, without truth, without mercy, without decency, without love.”
They warned that people will be judged not according to the “likes” they received on social media but on the imprints of love they have left on one another.”
It may be noted that the Synod of the Lingayen-Dagupan Archdiocese from Sept. 2 to 9 was the second held after 32 years. (Eva Visperas)
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