A THOMASIAN bishop has called on the Church to act as a moral guide to the laity as the country combats degradation of the environment, economic injustice, and government failures, during a conference held at the University from Jan. 14 to 16.
Speaking before climate advocates, labor groups, and civil society representatives, Caritas president and San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza stressed the importance of the Church acting as a voice of conscience.
“Silence in the face of injustice allows harm to continue. The Church [acts] as conscience, not comfort. [She] is not called to replace political institutions but called to be a conscience,” Alminaza said in his keynote address during the “Hayuma: Mending the Broken” conference at the Buenaventura Garcia Paredes O.P. Alumni Center Building.
Alminaza emphasized that the Church should continue its active role in addressing interconnected issues of the environment, the economy, and government.
“The poor are not poor by chance, not by fate, nor by lack of effort. They are made poor by arrangements that benefit some, while burdening others,” he said.
Alminaza stressed that environmental destruction continues in the name of progress, which increases local communities’ disaster risk.
“When land is damaged, livelihoods weaken. When livelihoods weaken, families struggle. When families struggle, dignity is placed at risk. This is not a collection of separate problems. It is one wounded reality,” he said.
For him, injustice quietly becomes part of life when communities are continually displaced, low wages are treated as usual, and government corruption is expected rather than challenged.
“To be the ‘Church of the Poor’ is to stand with communities as they organize, discern, and struggle for life. It is to defend participation, transparency, and accountability. It is to insist that governance exists to serve the common good, not private accumulation. This does not mean turning the church into a political party. It means allowing the gospel to shape how power, wealth, and decision-making are judged,” Alminaza said, reflecting on Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic exhortation, Dilexi te.
He said the greed of a few had forced many Filipinos suffering and left them susceptible to circumstances that the government could have helped alleviate.
“When decisions are imposed without participation, vulnerability deepens. Corruption, lack of transparency, and political exclusion are not merely administrative failures. They are moral failures that multiply suffering,” Alminaza concluded.
Caritas Philippines, the Conference of Major Superiors of the Philippines, and the Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development organized the three-day convention. Yuvshenka Andrea R. Osea
