The head of the Pacific bishops conference, Archbishop Ryan Jimenez of Agaña, Guam, has met with Pope Leo XIV, conveying the struggles and joys of life in the Pacific, including the threat of rising waters due to climate change. Source: Vatican News.
Bishop Jimenez was among the 54 Metropolitan Archbishops to receive the pallium – the ancient liturgical vestment that stresses their connection with the Pope – in St Peter’s Basilica last Sunday.
The 53-year-old Archbishop, a native of the Philippines, is also head of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (CEPAC) – which is, by area, the largest episcopal conference in the world.
Composed of 17 dioceses, jurisdictions, missiones sui iuris, and prefectures, it encompasses a vast swath of the Pacific Ocean, from the US territory of Guam in the west to the French-speaking island of Tahiti in the southeast.
“It’s a very diverse region,” Archbishop Jimenez told Vatican News.
Pastoring to this vast territory comes with serious administrative difficulties. Airfare between islands, even those that are relatively close to one another, can be prohibitively expensive, and the bishops of the region meet only once every two years.
Perhaps the biggest problem in the region is climate change, which has led to rising sea levels – a particularly severe problem for low-lying Pacific islands – as well as increased ocean temperatures and a rise in extreme weather events.
Archbishop Jimenez met privately with Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday, a few days after receiving the pallium. Just beforehand, he said, he received a message from a colleague in Tuvalu: “Please tell the Holy Father that we are sinking.”
In the event, climate change did feature heavily on the agenda at the Archbishop’s meeting with the Pope, as did migration.
The Archbishop stressed the close relation between the two phenomena, noting that many Pacific Islanders are being forced to emigrate to Australia.
“There’s a tension,” he said, “because you want to cling on to your roots, because this is home. On the other hand, you have no choice but to leave, because your home is slowly being covered by water. But you always have that longing for home.”
When he received the pallium on Sunday, Archbishop Jimenez said, he had had the chance to speak briefly with the Pope.
“You have many challenges in your Archdiocese,” Leo told him, “but know that God is with you.”
FULL STORY
‘Holy Father, we’re sinking’: Archbishop of the Pacific meets with Pope Leo (By Joseph Tulloch, Vatican News)
