VATICAN CITY (UCAN) -- Church environments should be "child-friendly rather than childproof," and the local parish and Church should serve as an extended family, the only delegate from Brunei told the Synod of Bishops for Asia.

"Children must feel they own the Church as much as we do. If they don't start owning it now, it's a pretty good chance they won't in the future, either," said the head of the apostolic prefecture of Brunei-Darussalam.

"We speak about dialogue with all the different cultures of Asia. We need a dialogue also with the youth culture of our time," said Monsignor Cornelius Sim, who made his synod remarks in a written intervention released May 7.

"I believe that dialogue can be much facilitated if we begin to relate to our children properly before they reach their turbulent teenage years," he said, adding that his intervention concerned children up to age 12.

Monsignor Sim recalled an incident during World Youth Day in Manila in 1995. He said that after he and his group of boys and girls had reached Luneta park for the night vigil, one of the girls noticed a woman crying.

The woman, from Papua New Guinea, had been robbed. The girls in his group consoled her while the boys took up a collection, the apostolic prefect said.

The incident "opened my eyes to young people and their great capacity to be big-hearted and generous," he concluded. "Since then, I have been very conscious of young people and their position in the Church."

"Ultimately, it is a question of justice," he wrote. "They have a right to be brought into a living personal saving relationship with Jesus Christ ... because it is to them the kingdom of God belongs."

Monsignor Sim also said some 60 children fill his rectory several times a year preparing for First Communion and Confirmation.

"Through it all, I realize that if you treat kids with respect and honor them, they reciprocate in kind," he added. "I believe they now begin to experience the Church as their home, not as alien territory."

-- The Church in Brunei includes some 3,000 local Catholics, largely Chinese, Dusuns and Ibans. The local Church also serves the pastoral needs of some 27,000 Filipino migrants.

Besides two priests to serve three parishes and one mission center, the apostolic prefecture has four full-time catechists, one woman Religious in formation and two seminarians.

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