Hundreds of young Catholics across the Philippines gathered in June for public acts of penance and prayer, participating in what organizers called “humility marches” in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Raven Castañeda told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, that he witnessed an LGBT “pride” event at his Catholic school, Ateneo de Davao University.
“I could not understand how it was possible for a Catholic university to allow an event that promotes vice and pushes for an ideology that is contrary to the truths of our faith,” he said.
After Castañeda saw the event he went to the school’s Our Lady of the Assumption Chapel and prayed. At that point, he said he was moved by the Spirit to take a vow: “I will publicly wave the banner of his most humble and most Sacred Heart to remind people that in his heart is the love that saves.”
Castañeda helped lead volunteers door to door to different parishes to promote their event to reclaim the LGBT-centric “pride month” for God. Young volunteers have coordinated with parishes across the country to organize similar marches and Eucharistic processions, the Register reported.
Catholic groups including the Missionary Families of Christ, Singles for Christ, Youth for Christ, Pro-Life Philippines, and the Philippine Social Conservative Movement joined efforts to promote and support the marches.
In some cases, former “pride” marchers have joined the humility marches. One attendee, Xyril — who previously identified as a lesbian — told the Register that she converted to the Catholic faith from Protestantism amid her feelings of “emptiness.”
After seeing a vision of a “glowing heart of Jesus” during transubstantiation, the experience moved her toward the Catholic Church.
She characterized the humility marches as “reverent and sacred,” adding that it felt like a “homecoming to the heart of Christ.”
Leo, another attendee, told the Register: “I used to struggle with sexual sins, and even try to excuse it or justify it, telling myself it’s not really wrong because ‘everyone’s doing it anyway.’”
“But then I realized that’s what pride is. Pride says, ‘I will follow my own will, make my own rules, redefine gender, marriage, and sexuality the way I want it’ — rather than following God’s will and God’s design for sexuality. It’s ‘My will be done’ not ‘Thy will be done.’”
“Jesus must be Lord over every aspect of my life — including my sexuality — [or] else he is not Lord at all,” Leo told the Register.
Father Joel Jason, a Filipino priest who promotes St. John Paul II’s theology of the body teachings, told the Register that pride is the product of original sin.
“Pride says, ‘I am not a creature; I am my own creator.’ It is the original sin of the first man and woman that separated them from God,” the priest said.
After the march, youths signed a promise statement that reads: “We are the young Church of the Philippines. We are committed to promote and grow in our devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Eucharist; to walk with the poor, finding ways to serve them and champion their cause — for, in them, we see the Sacred Heart; to build a society where truth reigns and is guided by Christ’s teachings; and to evangelize boldly, even when it’s uncomfortable, strengthening communities that are formed in the orthodox Catholic faith.”
Organizers told the Register they plan to continue expanding the event annually and hope it will encourage more young Filipinos to live lives of humility, reparation, and faithfulness to Church teachings.
