COMELEC protest outside of National Museum in Manila | Photo by Patrickroque1 via Wikimedia Commons
The “March for the Martyrs” was a spectacular event when thousands of marching Catholic students filled Taft Avenue in Manila carrying banners and placards, singing fervently the patriotic song Ang Bayan, and demanding justice for students killed by the anti-riot police of President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. when they staged a demonstration against injustice and corruption in 1972. They were the great days of inspiration in 1969-72 when the Catholic faith was expressed with passion for justice and truth, demanding government accountability on the streets and in Church sermons.
The Student Catholic Action movement was Catholic social teaching in action. The youth then marched and rallied, demanding respect for the poor, justice for the oppressed, freedom for political prisoners, and an end to graft and corruption. I had just arrived in the Philippines, and that faith greatly inspired me to take action. The Catholic youth believed with all their heart that they could bring change, and they took to the streets in peaceful but loud protests. They were quiet and influential. The youth leaders took the lead and were joined by priests and religious sisters in their marches. Then, faith in the message of Jesus of Nazareth, which called for social change, justice, and equality for the poor and the downtrodden, was seen as the primary purpose and meaning of Christianity.
The Catholic youth then were Christian activists and advocates for equality, social justice, and real political change. The rich were challenged to repent and believe the Gospel, give up their ill-gotten wealth, and share with the poor. The students were bringing social change and had almost won. However, the wealthy and powerful ruling elite led by President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. could take no more of it. Hence, Marcos declared martial law, became a cruel dictator, and plundered the nation’s wealth, and brought it into dire poverty. All protests were suppressed with the threat of summary execution, and he stifled dissent, but the Catholic youth did not give up their true faith. They firmly believed in the social teaching that the power of truth and justice will move mountains of evil. This faith sustained them.
Nowadays, it is very different. That once powerful faith-in-action has dissipated and weakened. The clergy and students have abandoned the streets for the creature comforts of the rectory and college dormitories. They don’t believe that victory over injustice is possible. The courageous exceptions give hope. They are the magnificent few youth leaders, bishops, and priests, no more than fifty at most, who stood against Duterte and were red-tagged and charged with baseless crimes.
Materialism, vice, drugs, alcohol, sexual promiscuity, pedophilia, and addiction to social media influence many clergy and youth. It dominates their lives, not faith and action for justice or the Gospel values of Jesus of Nazareth. The institutional Church seeks true faith to fight social and corporate evil and government corruption. Saint James writes, “Faith, without action, is dead.”
“As Pope Francis says, unless faithful, active Catholics are thorns in the side of society (and the institutional Church), the institution will be filled with “Sloth of the Heart,” giving consent to evil by silence.”
Despite this cemetery of dead faith, there is a living faith in the hearts of the small bands of true Filipino believers among the People of God who fight on. These brave Catholic advocates and activists fight for the human rights and dignity of the oppressed and the poor. They are being threatened, falsely charged, framed up, and arrested for being the prophetic voice of Gospel values and defending the rights of the poor and the indigenous people. They are the victims of red-tagging, branded as rebels and subversives, as were our very few brave bishops, priests, and lay leaders tagged by former President Duterte, just as was Jesus of Nazareth. Their lives are living symbols of faith in action.
As Pope Francis said this past week during the 50th anniversary of the Italian Church’s social action conference, what Catholics need is “… a faith that awakens consciences from slumber, that puts its finger in the wounds, in the wounds of society… a restless faith that helps overcome mediocrity and sloth of the heart, [a faith] which becomes a thorn in the flesh of a society often anesthetized and stunned by consumerism.”
It is this “mediocrity and sloth of the heart,” inaction, tolerance of evil, and cover-up of crimes of child sexual abuse by clerics and others that weaken the faith of the institutional Church that increasingly believes that only rites and rituals will save the world from evil. They focus on reaching a spiritual paradise and not creating a just world of virtue.
As Pope Francis says, unless faithful, active Catholics are thorns in the side of society (and the institutional Church), the institution will be filled with “Sloth of the Heart,” giving consent to evil by silence.
The courageous students in Cebu, known as the “Cebu 8,” have been acquitted of all the false, trumped-up charges of violating the law when protesting at the University of the Philippines Cebu against the Anti-Terror Act. Presiding Judge Amy Rose A. Soler-Rellin declared them innocent in dismissing the last two charges against them on June 27, 2024. We should be proud of these brave, prophetic Catholic youth, yet institutional religion and government shunned them.
As many as 281 committed students, environmental defenders, rights advocates, and prophets of justice have been murdered since 2012 alone, making the Philippines the most dangerous place to be a defender of the creation and environment and champion of the suffering Indigenous people. A human rights organization, Kalikasan, has evidence showing that from 2001 to 2022, at least 328 defenders were murdered. They, too, were branded, red-tagged, jailed, and mocked, and many summarily executed because of their faith that goodness, love of neighbor, and freedom will one day move mountains of evil and truth and justice will triumph.
That is the faith of Jesus of Nazareth. Recall what the corrupt authorities did to him. He was red-tagged and executed as a rebel, a subversive, and like a criminal condemned as deserving death by crucifixion. So many of our youth suffer the same today. To be a true Catholic and a faithful Christian, we must speak out and stand for justice and truth.
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