MANILA, Philippines—The country’s bishops have formally invited Pope Benedict XVI to visit the Philippines in January and grace the National Congress of the Clergy.

But the local Church leaders are not very optimistic the 82-year-old Pontiff would be coming since there has been no word from the Vatican.

“Who knows, he has been to Africa, Australia, the US and Latin America, and they say Asia might be next,” said Imus Bishop Luis Chito Tagle at a press conference over the weekend for the 5th Asian Youth Day to be held in Cavite on Nov. 20-27.

Tagle said the Philippine Bishops’ Conference formally extended the invitation to the Pope.

He said it was actually their second invitation to him. The Pontiff was earlier invited to visit after his trip to Australia for World Youth Day in July 2008.

“But January is too close and we don’t know if the Pope will come,” said Tagle.

The University of Santo Tomas last year also formally invited Benedict to grace its 400th founding anniversary in 2011.

As a pontifical university, UST is under the authority of the Vatican.