In less than twelve months, Rodrigo Duterte will be stepping down as the sixteenth president of the Philippines. He will have spent six years trying, among other things, to change the course of history between the Philippines and the United States, China and the rest of the world. Has he succeeded or failed? The jury is still out.
These, I think, are some of the first things that should be done to make our flawed elections—and our floundering democracy—work. Therefore, instead of simply calling on our Lord to lead good and honest “servant leaders” into the light, I believe we should all try to do the smallest things each of us can do to produce, first of all, an electoral system that will help manifest our genuine faith in God and in ourselves, as we seek to establish a just, honest and truly humane government.
I don’t believe the situation can be improved by shutting down our churches and suspending the celebration of the Holy Mass for the duration of the Covid-19 crisis. We need the Church to pray more, not less.
Whether we are looking at the councilors or the congressmen today, what we are seeing is simply a portent of bigger things to come.