Asian bishops talk back to Vatican

Meeting in Thailand in early January, 160 bishops of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC) remained committed "to the emergence of the 'Asianness' of the church in Asia," and subjected a Vatican official to sharp questioning about Rome's perspectives on the region.

It was the seventh plenary assembly of FABC in 30 years, and the first since the 1998 Asian Bishops' Synod. At the Synod, and again in his post-synod document, Ecclesia in Asia, a year later, John Paul II insisted that Asian bishops must evangelize mainly by proclaiming Jesus as unique savior. But the bishop-delegates at FABC respectfully disagreed, still insisting that as tiny minority churches in overwhelmingly Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim nations, they should rather evangelize by the unspoken witness of love and humble service, and by dialogue with the other Asian religions.

According to Tom Fox, who covered the Thailand meeting for NCR, Cardinal Jozef Tomko, the Vatican representative, told the Asian bishops their main agenda should be the study of the Pope's Ecclesia in Asia. That never happened. In fact, among 23 workshops, no one requested one to study the papal document. When Tomko criticized the "weak Christology in Asia," several bishops asked him what he meant. Tomko said he meant portraying Jesus as simply a prophet, but not the Son of God. The bishops demanded to know if he had found such a Christology at FABC. He said he had not. One bishop asked, amid laughter, if Rome would recognize an Asian Christ if it saw one.

In a final draft statement that reflected their pastoral autonomy and experience, the Asian bishops dealt with economic globalization and poverty. They called for wider collaboration with the laity, more inclusive- ness toward women and youth, and more small faith communities. They repeated their trademark allegiance to the "triple dialogue" - with culture, with the other religions, and with the poor. They recommitted themselves to "a new way of being Church."