Philippine Bishops’ Protest Betrays Church’s Divine Mission for Secular Activism
The Catholic News Agency portal reports on alleged “Catholic” participation in nationwide Philippine protests against government corruption on November 30, 2025. The article describes rallies attended by 90,000 people, including “Cardinal” Pablo Virgilio David and other “bishops,” invoking the memory of the 1986 EDSA revolution that deposed Ferdinand Marcos Sr. The protests demand accountability for $2 billion allegedly stolen through corrupt infrastructure projects. “Cardinal” David is quoted praising the “quiet bravery” of protesters and calling the EDSA monument a symbol of “moral clarity over fear,” while “Bishop” Honesto Ongtioco of Cubao urged Filipinos to “hold accountable government officials.” The report frames these actions as an extension of the Church’s social mission, with activist “priest” Robert Reyes threatening further protests until government accountability is secured.
Naturalism Masquerading as Catholic Social Doctrine
The entire spectacle reduces the Church’s mission to secular activism, directly contradicting Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas which declares: “When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony” (QP §19). Nowhere do these conciliar “bishops” mention Christ’s kingship over nations or the duty to submit civil authority to divine law. Their silence reveals a modernist substitution of Catholic integralism with Enlightenment-derived contractual governance.
“Bishop” Ongtioco’s call for “accountability and transparency” operates within purely naturalistic parameters, ignoring St. Paul’s admonition that “there is no power but from God: and those that are, are ordained of God” (Romans 13:1). The article’s repeated references to “democracy” as sacred ground (“the only soil where genuine change can take root”) constitute blasphemous equivalence with the Kingdom of Christ. This democratist fetish directly violates Pope Pius IX’s condemnation in the Syllabus of Errors: “The State, as being the origin and source of all rights, is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits” (Proposition 39).
Sacrilegious Exploitation of Sacred Spaces
The desecration of the EDSA People Power Monument for political theater exemplifies the conciliar sect’s profanation of holy sites. While true Catholics venerate spaces consecrated to divine worship, these apostates transform a monument to political upheaval into pseudo-liturgical space. David’s declaration that “EDSA is not a relic. It is a living vow” inverts true Catholic piety, substituting devotion to revolutionary myths for the lex orandi of the Roman Mass.
The presence of “seminarians” and “nuns” at these rallies constitutes scandal by confusing the faithful about the Church’s true weapons against injustice: prayer, penance, and the sacraments. St. Pius X’s Lamentabili Sane explicitly condemns such naturalistic reductions: “The sacraments merely serve to remind man of the presence of the ever-benevolent Creator” (Proposition 41). Where are the calls for Eucharistic processions or public Rosaries to implore divine intervention? Their absence proves these “clerics” have abandoned supernatural faith.
Revolutionary Subversion Disguised as Reform
The article’s glorification of Andrés Bonifacio as “Father of the Philippine Revolution” alongside Catholic protests reveals the Marxist underpinnings of this movement. Pope Leo XIII’s Quod Apostolici Muneris condemns those who “excite sedition and revolt” against lawful authority. By tying their cause to Bonifacio’s anti-colonial violence, these “bishops” endorse revolutionary principles condemned by Pope Pius VI in Charitas against the French Revolution.
“Priest” Robert Reyes’ threat of continuous protests until government compliance mirrors the tactics of Marxist agitation. Contrast this with the true Catholic response to corruption exemplified by St. Thomas More, who resigned his office rather than compromise principles, then accepted martyrdom. The conciliar sect’s activists seek not the conversion of rulers but their humiliation – a violation of Christ’s command to “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44).
Omission of the Church’s True Weapons
Nowhere does the article mention the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the sacraments, or devotional practices as remedies for societal ills. This silence proves the conciliar sect’s abandonment of ex opere operato grace in favor of human activism. The true Church wields spiritual arms as codified in the Roman Catechism: “The chief weapons of the Church against all her enemies are fasting and prayer” (IV:13:24).
The protesters’ demands for “justice” stripped of its supernatural dimension become mere class warfare. As Pope Leo XIII taught in Rerum Novarum, true justice flows from observing “the rights and duties of capitalists and proletarians” (§49) under God’s eternal law – not street mobs extracting concessions. By reducing corruption to a political rather than moral problem, these “bishops” deny the necessity of interior conversion.
Source:
Thousands protest corruption in Philippines as Church leaders call for accountability (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 05.12.2025