The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has created a service arm to help move dioceses toward a stewardship model, a church official said. The development was reported by CBCP News.
Msgr. Bernardo Pantin, CBPC Secretary-General, said the decision was made during the bishops’ 122nd plenary assembly on Friday.
“One of the decisions that came out from the plenary assembly is the creation of the Episcopal Office on Stewardship,” Pantin said.
The priest said among the functions of the new office is to assist the dioceses in implementing the abolition of the arancel system.
“One of the tasks of this office is to help the dioceses implement that pastoral letter issued last January about the spirituality of stewardship, which would lead to the abolition of arancel in the celebration of the sacraments,” Pantin said.
At the same time, the assembly also voted Bishop Broderick Pabillo to head the new office effective immediately.
Pabillo, who will be installed as the new bishop of Taytay on Aug. 19, is also the outgoing chairman of the Episcopal Commission on the Laity.
In the January pastoral statement, the CBCP assured it is committed to education, formation, and catechesis in the spirituality of stewardship for the clergy, religious, and laity.
The commitment was made in view of adopting a concrete stewardship program in the dioceses to replace the arancel system as soon as possible.
Arancel is a system of fees for church services, such as baptism, confirmation, weddings, and Masses.
The CBCP said the new office primarily aims to help the dioceses that are having difficulty in implementing the program.
The Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines on March 31, 2021, commemorated the 500th anniversary of the earliest recorded Mass in the country.
Led by Bishop Prescioso Cantillas of Maasin, hundreds of people flocked to Limasawa Island off Southern Leyte province to mark the quincentennial of the first Easter Mass.
In his homily, he called for more aggressiveness in proclaiming Christ by word and example, “as the world and the evil are so aggressive in drawing us and humanity away from God”.
“The church that Jesus established and we who are his disciples should also be aggressive in proclaiming God’s loving and saving presence today and until the end of time in the places we live and work,” Cantillas said.
