The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has launched a nationwide prayer campaign calling on Filipinos to seek truth, accountability, and national renewal amid deepening divisions and moral challenges confronting the country.
The prayer, titled “A Nation’s Prayer for Enlightenment, Conversion and Renewal,” was approved during the CBCP Permanent Council meeting on May 20.
According to CBCP News, the prayer will be recited in churches beginning Pentecost Sunday and continuing “at least through July.” Approved translations in Tagalog, Bicolano, Binisaya, Ilocano, and Ilonggo were also released to encourage wider participation across the country.
In the text, the bishops described the Philippines as standing “at a difficult crossroads.”
“We see truth being cast aside, justice delayed, and division weakening the fiber of our society,” the prayer reads.
The bishops also prayed for public officials, urging them to return to “the sacred duty of their office” and to serve with “honesty, justice, and compassion.”
“Grant them wisdom to act with discernment, strength to persevere with integrity, and humility to seek not revenge, but righteousness; not personal ambition, but the common good,” the prayer says.
The prayer further acknowledged what the bishops described as silence and indifference in the face of wrongdoing.
“We confess the many times we remained silent in the face of wrongdoing, when we chose convenience over conscience, fear over courage, and apathy over responsibility,” it says.
Calling for spiritual and social renewal, the bishops urged Filipinos to move “from indifference to compassion,” “from silence to faithful action,” and “from division to unity, and from despair to hope.”
The prayer also asks God to “heal what is broken, restore what is wounded,” and raise “a people who will not trade truth for comfort, nor surrender goodness to fear.”
It concludes with invocations to Mary, “Mother of the Filipino people and Queen of Peace,” as well as Filipino saints Lorenzo Ruiz and Pedro Calungsod, and St. Michael the Archangel.
