Filipino cleric, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who was named by Pope Francis as his special envoy for the General Conference of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) in Thailand, offered a message of compassion as he closed the meeting on Sunday.
Tagle - who is seen as representing the Church’s progressive wing - has in the past criticised “harsh words” against LGBT Catholics. A guest at the recent Lambeth Conference, Tagle at the time asked whether Christians in the diaspora “still feel like journeyers, or temporary settlers, or guests?”
Churches, he said, must be hospitable to all, because “ethnic and cultural issues ruin the spiritual home”, and “populist” attitudes were threatening the proper meaning of the word “people”. At the time, he remarked: “We can be so established in our ways and culture that we start behaving like owners of lands”.
Speaking on Saturday at the FABC meanwhile, Cardinal Tagle – who has before warned of the dangers of social media influencing populist ideas - <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2022-10/cardinal-tagle-fabc-evangelize-social-media-bangkok.html">highlighted the importance of reading in the development of young people</a>, focusing on social media and artificial intelligence since they impact the “call to evangelise”.
With a message heavy on inclusion, Tagle said while social media is “a blessing” since it has spread information beyond “elite groups”, its use “changes our view of the human person in a very subtle way”, impacting “involvement in the transformation of society”.
Citing a survey by <em>Gravissimum educationis</em>, Tagle said the study noted that while people are more connected, “paradoxically we care less and less about others”. This, he warned, leads to a lack of empathy towards those we do not know.
According to the Filipino prelate, education is also the setting of the Church’s contact with youth. Warning of a “generation without empathy”, Tagle also asked if reading gets “the attention it deserves”.
Later on Sunday, Tagle <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2022-10/fabc-bishops-message-challenged-voice-marginalised.html">followed up with a message of compassion and against judgement</a>. In his homily at the final Mass, Cardinal Tagle discussed the Gospel reading of Jesus’ encounter with the tax collector Zacchaeus.
Cardinal Tagle said lessons could be drawn for the Church in Asia in the light of the theme of “journeying together”, that “it must be intended, chosen, and willed”, and cannot be left “to chance”. Moreover, Jesus chose as his travel companion “not the purest, not the most upright”.
Tagle told those gathered, “God wants us to journey with those who might differ from us” and that “with Jesus, it will be a journey of mercy and compassion, not of condemnation; of patience, not of destruction”.
Cardinal Tagle – seen as a continuity candidate after Pope Francis – could perhaps have been outlining his vision of an inclusive Church, one welcoming to those whose actions are traditionally condemned by Church doctrine, and one where the Pope’s Synodality message is also emphasised.
Indeed, Cardinal Tagle’s ties to the Pope were seen recently as he defended the extension of the Vatican deal with China. At the time Tagle <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2022-10/tagle-why-holy-see-is-renewing-the-provisional-agreement.html">told <em>Fides</em> news agency</a> that “one always has to dirty one’s hands with the reality of things as they are”, and that “intervention of civil authorities in the choices of the bishops has manifested itself several times and in various forms throughout history”.
With his latest words at FABC meanwhile, Tagle is perhaps offering an insight into what a Church under his leadership could look like. Given that the College of Cardinals very much has Pope Francis’s stamp on it, the chance of a continuity candidate like Tagle has no doubt risen considerably.
Of course, Tagle’s association with Pope Francis could count against him, with some cardinals perhaps looking for a middle-of-the-road successor. Moreover, although there is a great desire in some quarters for an African or Asian pope – one who could reach out to a more global Catholic audience - there are others who could fill that role, such as Singapore’s Cardinal William Goh.
Nonetheless, Cardinal Tagle is clearly making his mark. The Pro-Prefect for the Section of Evangelization of Dicastery for Evangelization is increasingly trusted by Francis, and appears to be articulating a vision for the future.
