Filipino bishops to meet Pope Francis during 2019 pilgrimage to Rome

Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino bishops would be meeting Pope Francis at The Vatican to report the state of their diocese as part of their pilgrimage to Rome this year, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said Thursday.

CBCP secretary general Fr. Marvin Mejia explained in an article posted on its website that bishops will be undertaking the “Ad Limina apostolorum” (to the threshold of the apostles) visit to the Italian city from May and June.

Mejia said the ad limina visit will be made in three groups: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

“It will be held in the last two weeks of May and the first week of June so each group will have a week in Rome,” according to Mejia.

The ad limina visit, traditionally scheduled every five years, would be the first for the Filipino bishops under the papacy of Pope Francis, the CBCP noted.

Filipino bishops’ last ad limina visit to Rome was in 2011, when they met with Pope Benedict XVI.

Also part of their visit would be a pilgrimage to major basilicas in Rome and encounters with various dicasteries of the Roman Curia. /kga