By Christopher Khoo
SINGAPORE — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore has released an Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan describing its goals and priorities for the next 10 years. Titled “Communion in Mission”, the plan was released on the archdiocesan website on Sept 8, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In its summary, the Archdiocese said that the 2025-2035 plan is the fruit of a synodal journey that began with a collective discernment exercise in 2021 and which culminated in the Archdiocesan Assembly in March this year.
The plan was developed through extensive consultations with more than 1,000 clergy, Religious, laity, Church organisations, Catholic schools and parishes.
The Archdiocese said that “the Plan is a rallying call for unity across the Church to realise the mission that Christ has entrusted to us. It provides a common language for meaning-making, guiding us toward becoming more vibrant, evangelising, and missionary.”
The plan describes five pastoral priorities which provide a framework for pastoral action across all levels of the Church. These are:
- Lifelong formation of clergy and laity for evangelisation and mission
- Building communities of faith in and across parishes for different groups
- Enhancing differentiated co-responsibility of clergy and laity
- Building unity in diversity across all levels
- Embracing synodality as a way of being Church
In a pastoral message, Cardinal William Goh, Archbishop of Singapore, said the plan comes at a crucial time in the Archdiocese’s history. “Like the rest of the world, we are ministering the Gospel in increasingly complex and divisive situations,” he said. “As Church, our present times are marked by deep division and polarization, which at times seem irreconcilable.”
He said he hopes the plan “will provide us with common language and tools to make meaning of the situations we face”, that it will serve “as a rallying call for unity across the Church” and that it will “guide us towards fullness of life in Jesus Christ”.
In addition to a 22-page summary of the plan, a detailed 97-page version is also available for study on the Archdiocesan website (catholic.sg/pastoralplan2025).
Christopher Khoo is a Singapore-based freelance journalist and educator.
