Nearly four decades after the EDSA People Power Uprising, the head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines warned Thursday that Filipinos face a new threat he called ‘moral fatigue.’
Archbishop Gilbert Garcera, CBCP president, delivered the warning in his homily during the fourth day of the novena Mass marking EDSA’s 40th anniversary at the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of Peace in Quezon City.
“The greatest danger today is not only historical distortion, but moral fatigue,” Garcera said, urging citizens to actively safeguard freedom and truth.
He explained moral fatigue arises when freedom is remembered only as a memory, faith becomes devotion without courage, and peace is sought without justice.
“When freedom is treated merely as a memory and not a duty, the spirit of EDSA slowly dies,” Garcera said, recalling the lessons of 1986.
Reflecting on the February uprising, when millions of Filipinos gathered at EDSA to protest the dictatorship, he stressed that the movement was sustained not only by collective action but by prayer, with rosaries in hand and hymns in the air.
The archbishop drew parallels to today, urging Filipinos to confront modern challenges with the same courage, responsibility, and moral conviction that shaped the People Power Revolution.
“Freedom has a cost. Peace has a price. Faith demands responsibility,” he said.
Garcera also called on the Church to remain a prophetic voice — “not comfortable, not silent, but faithful” — and warned that staying silent in the face of injustice is complicity, not holiness.
“As a people and as a Church, may we once again choose—just as we did forty years ago—faith with courage, freedom with responsibility, and peace founded on justice,” he said.
