What is happening to
our country, General?
Conclusion

Third, we are the most religious nation in the world, but we are rated No.2 of countries seething with corruption in Asia, second only to Muslim Indonesia.

The Philippines is indeed an ultra-religious country: 85 percent is Roman Catholic; 5 percent is Muslim; and 10 percent is Protestant/Evangelical. Bishop Tindero of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches reports that there are 20,000 congregations in the country belonging to this Council.

But it is not the number, it is the conduct of religion: processions, rituals, retreats, masses, conventions abound. The religious groups El Shaddai and Iglesia ni Cristo can make or unmake presidents of the country as shown in the 2004 national elections. Not to mention the awesome influence of the Catholic Church.

But every Catholic archbishop admits that, in a general way, widespread profession of faith does not translate much into Christian deed. One glaring example: When Pope John Paul II visited the Philippines, there was a warm welcome for him. Millions gathered in the Luneta. No report of any crime was registered in the papers in the four days. Just as soon as he ascended his plane home, crimes including heinous crime went back to business as usual.

A priest of Ateneo, Father Jaime Bulatao, had written a little book years ago-Split Level Christianity-describing the inconsistency. We are tall on rituals; for instance we see pictures of our leaders attending mass everyday, but we are short on Christian living, including Christian governance.

Our Philippine president herself has acknowledged that an entrenched culture of corruption is the root cause of the country's economic difficulties.

What do we need in a country of this paradox? Senator Jovito Salonga, former Trustee of Silliman and the United Board, said recently at the launching of his best-seller book A Journey of Struggle and Hope. What we can do now with passion: 1. good government precisely because of the evil of widespread corruption and graft; 2 a more equal distribution of income and wealth because of the grinding poverty of income and wealth because of the grinding poverty of the masses; 3 an improved system of justice because of inequalities in our society; 4. the promotion of basic human rights, especially the right of every person to a healthy environment because the whole ecosystem of our planet has been destroyed by the migration of organic pollutants and the depletion of the ozone layer.

How to create the passion in our university curricula and programs probably in the humanities, in our churches, is an awesome task. The challenge is an urgent one, for as one verse from Romans 13 puts it, :The night is far gone, the day of judgment is at hand."*

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