Angelus News | April 9, 2021 Vol 6 No 7

ly high, with weekly Mass attendance at about 40% of the
Catholic population. We’re talking about a country where
public office buildings and even shopping malls have chapels,
and where street signs in downtown Manila actually
read, “Caution: Masses and processions always in progress.”
Moreover, the Philippines is also a society in which Catholic
leaders typically enjoy considerable political heft. The
legendary Cardinal Jaime Sin was the spiritual leader of
the 1986 People Power revolution that brought down the
regime of strongman Ferdinand Marcos, for whom Duterte
repeatedly has expressed admiration.
It’s a question that must be haunting Filipino bishops
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. | CNS/PAUL HARING
today as to why the country followed
their lead 35 years ago in sweeping
aside one dictator, but it seems largely
content with another dictator today
regardless of what the Church has to
say.
In an effort
Jesuit Father Albert Alejo
speaks at the launch of
the 1Sambayan coalition
in Manila on March 18.
| ATTORNEY JOSEPH
PETER CALLEJA
to change that
calculus, two
prominent
Catholic clergy
in the Philippines,
Brother
Armin Luistro,
FSC, and Father
Albert Alejo, SJ,
recently joined the conveners of a new
political force called “1Sambayan.”
The term is an amalgamation of three
words in Tagalog, a native language
in the country, which, taken together,
mean something like “a united country in prayer.”
The stated aim of “1Sambayan” is to identify candidates
for national elections in 2022 who will support a radical
break with the policies and philosophy of the Duterte years.
The group is headed by a former Supreme Court justice
and a former foreign minister.
“If you are quiet, if you don’t make a stand against brazen
killings … you have no part in this because you are one
of those who support the killings,” Father Alejo said, who
has previously called Duterte a “serial killer” for his violent
anti-crime crackdown.
The ability of the Church to mobilize anti-Duterte
opposition may have been slightly compromised last year,
when Pope Francis brought Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of
Manila to Rome to head the Vatican’s missionary congregation.
Cardinal Tagle is by far the most popular and prominent
prelate in the country, and he, too, had a reputation as
a Duterte opponent, having famously declared, “We cannot
rule the nation with homicides.”
On the other hand, Cardinal Tagle is also known for a
soft, gentle personal disposition and a preference to avoid
conflict, and perhaps the thought was that a slightly different
approach is needed heading into next year’s election
cycle. On March 25, the Vatican named his replacement:
69-year-old Cardinal José Advíncula of Capiz, known as a
vocal advocate for human rights during his time leading the
smaller Diocese of Capiz.
Whatever the case, Duterte is perhaps the most flagrant
example on the world stage today of a leader who’s made a
career of defying Catholic social teaching, his own country’s
bishops, and the personal witness of the pope.
How Filipino Catholics pick up the pieces from here will
have enormous consequences, and not just for their own
country, but for all those corners of the Catholic world
today shaped to a large extent by Filipino expatriates and
missionaries.
John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux.
April 9, 2021 • ANGELUS • 23