Catholic leaders confront internal challenges, push collaboration
January 29, 2026 – 7:00 AM
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The country’s Catholic bishops and religious leaders acknowledged deep internal challenges while calling for stronger unity to confront Church failures and national crises.
The unusually frank remarks were made during a joint gathering of bishops and major religious superiors at De La Salle University in Manila on Jan. 23, aimed at fostering dialogue, discernment and cooperation.
The gathering marked only the second meeting of its kind since the first was convened in 2018.
Archbishop Gilbert Garcera, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said the Church continues to struggle to live out its mission.
“The journey toward becoming a true Church of the poor remains wounded,” Garcera said, citing “fragmented communion” and “socially indifferent ministry.”
He also pointed to “entrenched clericalism and patriarchy, weak accountability and evangelical witness” as problems undermining the Church’s credibility.
Garcera stressed that the meeting was not symbolic. “What we do today is not merely a meeting. It is an act of fidelity to the Church’s present journey,” he said.
He said the encounter responds directly to Pope Leo XIV’s call for synodality, or listening and deciding together as a Church.
Collaboration between bishops, religious
Bishop Elias Ayuban Jr. of Cubao, chairman of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Mutual Relations Between Bishops and Religious, said participants openly acknowledged challenges in collaboration.
“Today, we acknowledge the challenges in the areas of mutual relations and collaborative ministry,” Ayuban said, referring to bishops, clergy and consecrated persons.
He said tensions often receive more attention than cooperation.
“A tree that falls makes more noise than a forest that grows in harmony,” Ayuban said.
The bishop, a Claretian, said genuine collaboration requires humility, dialogue and listening, warning that “there can be no true collaboration where dialogue is absent.”
Garcera urged bishops to be more open to collaboration with religious congregations in dioceses and parishes nationwide.
“Let us welcome their charisms, their prophetic insights, and their dynamic pastoral energy,” he said, calling them gifts to local churches.
Unity urged amid national challenges
Dominican Sr. Cecilia Espenilla, co-chairperson of the Conference of Major Superiors in the Philippines (CMSP), said the gathering showed growing unity.
“This is a beautiful gathering that will strengthen the Catholic Church in the Philippines,” Espenilla said, pointing to communion and collaboration.
She acknowledged tensions but urged solutions, saying unity is urgently needed as the country faces corruption and other social problems.
“Our oneness is very much needed,” she said, citing national concerns including corruption.