On Thursday afternoon (July 23), delegates to the 12th Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) presented the fruits of their Table Conversations, offering a panoramic view of the hopes, struggles, and aspirations emerging from local Churches across the continent. Although each table reflected different national contexts and pastoral realities, a remarkable consensus emerged: the Church in Asia is being called to become an ever more credible bridge builder in a world increasingly marked by division.

The reporting session followed several hours of small-group discussions in which cardinals, bishops, priests, religious, and lay delegates reflected on two questions that have become central to the Assembly’s discernment: How can the Church respond to today’s geopolitical, social, and cultural realities as a builder of bridges? And what conversion is required for local Churches to become more missionary and synodal?

The answers, though expressed in different voices, revealed a common awareness that Asia stands at a critical moment.

Across the continent, delegates described societies struggling with war, political polarization, aggressive nationalism, religious extremism, forced migration, environmental degradation, widening economic inequality, and the rapid transformation brought by artificial intelligence and digital communication. Many also spoke of fractured families, declining trust in institutions, misinformation amplified through social media, and young people searching for meaning in an increasingly fragmented world.

Yet the reports were strikingly hopeful. Rather than allowing these realities to define the Church’s future, delegates repeatedly described them as invitations to renew the Church’s missionary vocation.

Cardinal Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo, Secretary General of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, reflects on the fruits of the FABC Plenary Assembly, highlighting faith, the protection of human dignity, and an urgent pastoral response to migration as shared priorities for the Church across Asia.

“Through these three days, we had the opportunity to deepen our understanding of our own reality in Asia and our understanding that we exist across really diverse realities but are united in one faith, one Body of Christ.”

Cardinal Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi, SVD, Archbishop of Tokyo and Secretary General of the FABC, expressed this as he reflected on the FABC Plenary Assembly which opened on Monday in Jakarta, Indonesia, and concludes Sunday, in an interview with Vatican News. More than 120 Cardinals and Bishops from across Asia have gathered to pray and reflect on the Church’s mission across the continent.

Cardinal Kikuchi presided over the Eucharistic Celebration on the Assembly’s opening day. The days have been full of mutual sharing, and, on Thursday, delegates participating in the Assembly presented the results of their table discussions.

As the plenary continues, Vatican News spoke with the Archbishop of Tokyo about the Assembly, but also about the Church in Japan, and Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica humanitas.

As the answer to the question: Your Eminence, what do you see as the main fruits of the FABC Plenary Assembly so far? What have been the principal themes and priorities of your discussions? Cardinal Kikuchi said, The Church in Asia exists in the diverse realities of culture, language, politics and economy, but one thing is common among most of us: we are an absolute minority in society, except in the Philippines. So far, we have only had three days, from Tuesday to Thursday, of reflection and sharing our experiences. We had members share three-minute video presentations on the first day, a day of prayer and Conversation in the Spirit led by Cardinal Tagle on Wednesday, and on Thursday, a day of learning about the changing socio-political landscape of Asia and sharing the reality of our local Churches.

Through these three days, we had the opportunity to deepen our understanding of our own reality in Asia and to deepen our awareness that we live in really diverse realities but are united in one faith, one Body of Christ. We shared the challenges and opportunities for mission based on local realities and found some common elements, especially the importance of dialogue. We are searching for the best way to be bridges ourselves, but also bridge-builders among people and together with people through dialogue—with diverse cultures, with people, especially the poor, amid the diverse reality of numerous religions and in responding to the ecological crisis.

Asia is an extraordinarily diverse continent. What have you learned from your brother Bishops during this assembly?

Drastic waves of migration in Asia call for immediate pastoral attention in many countries. Also, the protection of human dignity is a priority in many countries. Though each country has its own situation and problems, we can seek ways of cooperation among the Church communities in Asia. What the respective Church communities in Asia need is mutual understanding of each other’s realities and mutual cooperation. All my brother Bishops, despite their diverse realities, are asking for recognition of their circumstances and for support, especially spiritual support, from one another. (NB. There were also questions and answers which are not presented here).

Israel: Fr. Ibrahim Faltas, Head of Schools of the Custody of the Holy Land, deplores the situation in the West Bank and issues a warning both to those who fuel the violence and to those “who fail to intervene to stop this endless spiral.” He expresses hope that the elections announced in Israel and Palestine will bring “new balance and genuine justice to both peoples.”

  Once again, violence is intensifying in the Holy Land—a violence that has never left this land. It escalates into further acts of revenge, lengthens the lists of the dead and the destruction, narrows the prospects for peace, and shuts minds and hearts behind barbed-wire fences.

The West Bank is burning, bleeding, crying out in pain and suffering.

Like Gaza, the West Bank has become a territory that has lost its scale and its spaces, a place that is no longer recognizable—a land physically and socially divided, scarred by deep wounds, and affronted in its historical identity.

Every corner of this land suffers violence and destruction every day; every inhabitant endures deprivation, restrictions, suffering, and humiliation that grow worse with each passing day.

People are dying in an unofficial war, undeclared but that continues, constant and widespread. There have been countless fires in homes and on land. It is no longer possible to travel from one city to another – even if they’re very close – whether for medical emergencies, to work, to help relatives, or to defend small family properties that have been illegally occupied and seized by aggressive and violent settlers. They suffocate the hopes of young people, who can no longer even imagine their own future. They destroy the expectations of those who worked hard to build the past and the present. They shatter the smiles and dreams of children who see their land burned, restricted, and drained of colour.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle and Cardinal Jose Advincula urged Catholics at the 12th Philippine Conference on the New Evangelization to embrace authentic friendship and patient accompaniment as essential paths to evangelization, Christian discipleship, and communion.

Authentic friendship is not simply a human relationship but a privileged path for evangelization, one that makes the face of Jesus and the Church visible in people’s lives, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle said during the 12th Philippine Conference on the – New Evangelization (PCNE XII).

Speaking at the “Heart-to-Heart: Friendship and Accompaniment with Cardinal Chito Tagle” dialogue at the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas in Manila, the Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization encouraged Catholics to cultivate friendships marked by truth, charity, and faithful accompaniment.

Throughout the dialogue, Cardinal Tagle emphasized that genuine friendship requires openness, patience, and the courage to speak the truth with love.

“Do not be afraid to build friendships,” he said. “The seeds of friendship that you sow now will become the harvest of vocation in the future.”

He noted that authentic friends are not merely sources of comfort but also companions willing to offer honest guidance.

“Sometimes, a true friend has the courage to tell you the things you do not want to hear,” he said.

Cardinal Tagle stressed that friendship also has a missionary dimension. “We should not discount the role of friendship in making the face of Jesus, the face of the Church, real to people.” He also linked friendship with Christian stewardship, describing care for creation and for one another as a concrete response to God’s love. “Caring for creation and for each other as a response to the Creator—that is an act of friendship.”

Concluding the dialogue, the cardinal reminded participants that every authentic Christian friendship begins with Christ.

“What brought us together here is our common friendship with the Lord, who was the first to consider us His friends,” he said. Now in its twelfth edition, the Philippine Conference on the New Evangelization brings together bishops, priests, religious, and lay faithful to reflect on friendship as an essential expression of Christian discipleship and mission.