Reaction to Archbishop Lagdameos's blog post

From the blog of Jaro Archbishop Lagdameo, Moral Recovery? Do it, I posted the following in its comments section.

Moral revolution or moral recovery is quite elusive in our only Christian nation in Asia. Has the Church failed in building a moral foundation to lead us Filipinos on what is right and just? In spite of its strong influence, not just at the pulpit but even on our political life, the Church was unable to lead its people to the righteous path. Why? Because the Church has failed to capture the imagination of our people.

Going to Church and attending masses is just a routine among most Filipinos. More often than not, religion has barely influenced our behaviours. We often see public officials attending masses and yet we suspect corruption from these officials. But it in not only the public servants who are guilty. It is also us the public. If we as a people, will only practice what the Church teaches, we may not be in this quagmire we are in now. We will not cheat on our taxes. We will follow the traffic rules. We will be more frugal and practice discipline. We will be more caring to others. We will not bribe our way out. We will reports wrong doings. We will return what is not ours. We will not sell our votes.

We have been a Christian nation for almost five centuries and yet we have not become an ideal Christian nation. The Church must also assess itself on where it has failed. Personally, my assessment is that, as I mentioned earlier, the Church has failed to capture the imagination of our people.

For moral recovery to happen, it has to be a collective experience. It must not be an isolated cases such as the Marikina or Naga phenomenon. Change can happen in this country if we do it collectively. We regularly read from the news on calls for moral recovery but unfortunately, there is not a single entity that takes up the challenge to truly push for such recovery. It is nothing but lip service and left to the readers on what they would do about the call.

My personal advocacy is good citizenship. What we need is a sustained and faceless campaign that will capture the imagination of our people in order to influence our collective mindset. We are all part of the problem We, then, should also be part of the solution.