BEYOND THE FOUR WALLS | ‘Paring Bukidnon’ and opening a space for dialogue through music

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews /1 August 2026) — Back in 1990, a group of theater performers from the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) came to Malaybalay for a youth workshop. At the end of the workshop, the young participants performed a play about protecting the forests and the wider environment.

Our high school social studies teacher also taught us to listen to the concerns of ordinary people. She once brought us to the side of a highway where parishioners were protesting logging concessions. From these experiences, I learned that social concerns could be communicated through creative and unconventional forms.

I remembered those experiences as I entered the covered court where Paring Bukidnon was performing for a local parish fiesta. Like the theater workshop and public protest of my youth, the concert showed how creative communication can bring social and spiritual concerns into spaces that people find accessible.

I first learned about Bukidnon’s singing priests in 2012, when they held concerts to help raise about P10 million for the Diocesan Pastoral Center. According to the organizers, the group’s more recent performances have raised funds for a retirement facility for diocesan priests, while proceeds from this concert would also support a mini-covered court for the local parish.

The concert accomplished more than its announced fundraising purpose.

In the opening segment, the priests wore traditional Bukidnon attire and performed a medley that included Jayson in Town’s “Idana” and Joey Ayala’s “Karaniwang Tao.” Their performance was accompanied by cultural and environmental images and a presentation on Laudato Si’. Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical calls for an “integral ecology” linking environmental protection with social justice, human dignity, and responsibility toward the poor and future generations.

They also showed a short video on Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti, his 2020 encyclical emphasizing fraternity, dialogue, solidarity, and commitment to the common good. One limitation was that the videos remained in English. Cebuano dubbing or subtitles could have made their messages more accessible to a wider local audience.

Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song,” “Heal the World,” and USA for Africa’s “We Are the World,” together with Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” invited reflection on environmental responsibility, solidarity, and human indifference.

Themes of friendship and love followed through Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me,” the Bee Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love,” Ben&Ben’s “Leaves,” and “Till There Was You.” The rendition of the hit song from the Beatles ended poignantly with an image of Jesus among a crowd on the LED screen.

A personal favorite, the priests’ performance of “Leaves” deepened the concert’s message of reconciliation and hope through its assurance that difficult seasons pass, wounds can heal, and genuine love requires forgiveness.

The concert then turned to commitment and self-giving with the “Eternal Love” theme, All-4-One’s “I Swear,” Sakdap’s “Barkada,” and “Never Enough” from The Greatest Showman.

After the intermission, the priests, now clad in their vestments, shifted the atmosphere toward worship with David Campbell’s “Better Than I,” “Our Father,” “For Thine Is the Kingdom,” “I Believe,” the iconic “Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo,” Bukas Palad’s “Amare et Servire,” and the Jesuit composition of “Ave Maria.”

The evening concluded with Smokey Mountain’s “Paraiso,” performed in traditional Bukidnon attire, symbolically returning the audience to the themes of creation, cultural identity, and hope.

Throughout the program, the local parish priest entertained the audience during intermissions with Original Pilipino Music through videoke, adding a warm, familiar touch to the evening’s main event.

Malaybalay Bishop Noel Pedregosa also joined the performance, playing Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and the Beatles’ “Yesterday” on the violin. The bishop gave a final blessing at the end of the event.

Taken together, the performances created more than an evening of entertainment. Through music, images, humor, and informal interaction, they brought religious teaching, popular culture, and local identity into one shared experience. As a Development Communication educator, I could not help viewing the concert as an example of how culturally familiar forms can make institutional messages more accessible and relatable.

Paring Bukidnon thus offered a culturally grounded form of pastoral communication—different from, but complementary to, the homily. Research suggests that shared musical experiences can foster connection and belonging (Van der Merwe & Morelli, 2022). At the concert, familiar songs appeared to create such a space across generations.

Its significance may therefore extend beyond the funds raised. The concert introduced Church teachings and social concerns through familiar cultural forms, creating an initial encounter with parishioners.

The concert illustrates one way the Church seeks to meet people where they are—not only in chapels and churches but also in concert halls, community centers, and public spaces where faith can be encountered through familiar cultural forms. These spaces complement, rather than replace, the Mass, the homily, and other forms of parish life.

Today, the Catholic Church seeks to reach people whose attention is pulled in many directions and whose beliefs, values, and ways of finding belonging have become increasingly diverse. The Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication (2023) notes that the digital environment now shapes how people seek information, belonging, and affirmation.

Pummerer and colleagues (2026) found that solidarity, satisfaction, and identification were associated with people’s intentions to remain in or leave the Catholic Church. McKinney (2023), meanwhile, highlights young Catholics’ desire for meaningful participation and a stronger voice in Church life. Together, these studies suggest that people’s relationship with the Church involves not only belief and doctrine but also connection, belonging, and participation.

Research also suggests that music can foster social connection and create shared emotional experiences across cultural differences (Putkinen et al., 2024; Savage et al., 2021; Van der Merwe & Morelli, 2022). These findings do not establish what this particular concert achieved, but they help explain why music can provide an entry point for renewed relationships. Music may therefore offer an entry point for reconnecting with parishioners, including those distant from parish life.

In Development Communication, communication is understood not simply as delivering messages but as building relationships, creating shared meaning, and enabling people to act together. Molale and Fourie (2023) explain that participation becomes genuine when people are involved through dialogue and empowered to help shape what follows. Applied to evangelization, this means treating parishioners not merely as listeners but as partners.

The concert created an encounter, but whether that encounter develops into dialogue, participation, or renewed involvement in parish life depends on what happens afterward.

A song cannot resolve environmental degradation, social division, or estrangement from the Church. But it can interrupt indifference, soften distance, and begin a conversation. The singing priests have already done their part.

In 1990, theater taught me that protecting forests could become a public concern, while a roadside protest against logging showed me that ordinary voices could reach beyond institutional walls. Decades later, Paring Bukidnon offered the same lesson through music: when the Church enters the cultural spaces people share, communication can become encounter. The melody of the final song, Smokey Mountain’s “Paraiso,” may have ended, but the greater question remains: What dialogue—and collective action—will follow?

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Walter I. Balane is a faculty member of a state university’s development communication department. The views he presented here represent only his personal insights.)