Amid a wave of corruption scandals rocking the country, Bishop Patricio Buzon of Bacolod has called on the faithful to turn to prayer, conversion and renewal during a rosary rally on Saturday.
The Oct. 11 religious event will bring together clergy, consecrated persons and laypeople from various parishes who will march from different points of Bacolod City toward the San Sebastian Cathedral while praying the rosary.
The gathering also marks the feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, the diocese’s second patroness, and forms part of the local Church’s observance of the Jubilee Year of 2025.
Buzon said the rally is both a spiritual act of penance and a public witness of faith amid widespread frustration over government corruption and misuse of public funds.
“It’s appalling to see how much waste is done at the expense of lives and properties of our people, only to end up in the pockets of a few who are in power,” he said at a press conference Thursday.
The bishop acknowledged the people’s anger over “this big injustice,” saying even Scripture shows that God is angry with injustice, especially when the poor are the victims.
Buzon said the nation’s problem goes beyond those implicated in scandals, describing it as a “culture of corruption and impunity” that has taken root across society.
“This is not just the sin of those identified in investigations,” he said. “It’s our collective problem, because we tolerate a culture of corruption.”
He stressed that genuine reform must begin with personal conversion.
“Whatever change we wish to see in society must begin with us,” he said. “That is the call to conversion.”
Buzon described the rosary rally as a “pilgrimage of hope,” symbolizing the Church’s journey toward moral and social renewal.
“It’s a prayer rally — a prayer for the grace of conversion and for our response to that grace,” he said. “It’s also an act of penance.”
The prelate added that the activity echoes the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ call for national prayer and repentance amid large-scale corruption in infrastructure projects.
“This rosary rally is an extension of that call,” he said. “We want to sustain this. This advocacy has to be sustained.”
