New pope, renewed hope: Amid transition, PH Church confronts corruption in 2025
January 2, 2026 – 7:00 AM
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The Philippine Church entered 2025 amid deep uncertainty, carrying the banner of the Jubilee Year of Hope as it confronted political turmoil and massive corruption.
The year was marked by the death of Pope Francis, the election of Pope Leo XIV, historic Filipino participation in the Vatican conclave, and a leadership transition within the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
These developments unfolded alongside forceful pastoral calls for accountability and justice, and the recognition of modern-day martyrs.
Church leaders repeatedly urged the faithful to seek hope, uphold the truth and live the Gospel in solidarity with the poor and disadvantaged.
A Jubilee Year
In a pastoral letter, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David urged Filipinos not to be overcome by fear or despair, warning that hopelessness can paralyze or enslave people.
“We pray for courage, so that we may always freely stand up for truth, and uphold the good and the rule of law, as we protect democratic institutions and processes,” David said. “Let us hold power to accountability… May we never tire of caring for the most vulnerable members of our society.”
9 pastoral letters, statements
In 2025, the CBCP issued nine pastoral letters, calls, and statements addressing the country’s intertwined moral, social, and governance crises.
Central to the messages were repeated appeals against corruption and calls for public accountability, including a condemnation of online gambling that culminated in a nationwide Day of Prayer and Accountability on Sept. 20.
Alongside concerns over massive theft of public funds, the bishops also advocated for nutrition and early childhood development, indigenous peoples’ rights in Palawan, and an end to violence in Gaza.
In an October circular, he urged Filipinos to wear white to church on Sundays as a symbol of the call for transparency and accountability.
Lipa’s Garcera is new CBCP president
Filipino bishops elected Archbishop Gilbert Garcera as CBCP president during their 130th plenary assembly in Anda, Bohol on July 5. Garcera, 66, succeeds Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, and will serve a two-year term beginning Dec. 1, 2025.
A former bishop of Daet and archbishop of Lipa since 2017, Garcera has held key leadership roles within the CBCP and the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, including commissions on mission and the family.
Archbishop Julius Tonel, 68, was elected vice president, replacing Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara. Tonel, a former bishop of Ipil and archbishop of Zamboanga since 2023, chairs the CBCP Committee on Bishops’ Concerns.
Seven ‘new martyrs’
The names of seven “new martyrs”—priests and lay Catholics killed for their faith and Gospel witness, most of them in conflict-affected areas in the southern Philippines—were submitted to the Vatican’s Commission on New Martyrs for Jubilee Year.
The list includes Fr. Rhoel Gallardo, abducted and killed by Abu Sayyaf in Basilan in 2000; Fr. Marcelito “Tito” Paez, slain in Nueva Ecija in 2017 for his human rights advocacy; and Alberto Pinagawa, a lay leader murdered in 2009 for opposing illegal logging and mining.
Also included were four lay Catholics — Junrey Barbante, Janine Arenas, Evangeline Aromin and Riza Daniel — who died in the 2023 bombing during Mass at Mindanao State University in Marawi.
Death of Pope Francis
Jose Cardinal Advincula, the archbishop of Manila and one of three Filipino cardinals created by Pope Francis throughout his 12-year pontificate, led the tribute to the beloved “Lolo Kiko” of Filipinos.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, in a message titled “Message of Sorrow and Hope,” recalled the late pope’s assurances to him amid persecution during the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs.
Cardinal David said the pope’s vision for a more welcoming and listening Church must be sustained.
3 Filipinos in conclave
On May 6, Filipino clergy in Rome sent off the three Filipino cardinals eligible to vote in the papal conclave. Cardinals Luis Antonio Tagle, Jose Advincula and Pablo Virgilio David concelebrated Mass at the Pontificio Collegio Filippino on the eve of the conclave.
The 2025 conclave saw the largest number of Filipino cardinal electors in history, underscoring the Philippines’ growing influence in the universal Church. Previous conclaves had included only one or two Filipino electors.
Pope Leo XIV, first US-born, Augustinian pontiff
The new pope, Robert Francis Prevost, is an American cleric from the Augustinian order.
The election of Prevost, 69, the first pope from the United States, was announced by the Cardinal Proto-Deacon, Dominique Mamberti, on May 8 at past 7 p.m. Rome time, about an hour after white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel chimney.
A native of Chicago and a naturalized citizen of Peru, where he spent years as a missionary, Prevost took the name Leo XIV, a signal that he would take off from the legacy of Leo XIII, under whose long reign from 1878 to 1903 promulgated the Church’s social doctrine with the encyclical Rerum Novarum.
A former superior general of the Augustinians from 2001 to 2013, Prevost appeared to signal a recalibration in Church leadership.
Inaugural Mass
Pope Leo XIV called for a Church united in Christ’s love as a model for global reconciliation and peace during his inaugural Mass on May 18.
“In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalizes the poorest,” he said.
Pope Leo referenced the motto on his papal coat of arms: “In the one Christ, we are one,” a phrase drawn from a homily by St. Augustine and reflective of his vocation as an Augustinian missionary.