Other government institutions, political parties, and human decency failed to check Duterte. There is one institution, however, that has refused to remain silent: The Catholic Church.
There is a reason why power-centralizing nationalists have always feared the Catholic Church. Regardless of the pressure applied, faithful Catholics refuse to sacrifice their belief in human dignity. The Catholic Clergy has their peers in other countries and Pope Francis in Rome to look to for support and guidance. After local governments and other intermediary institutions are destroyed, the Catholic Church continues to stand between government and people.
The Catholic Response to Duterte
The members of the Warsaw Pact, the government of Mexico, the Spanish Republicans, Otto Von Bismarck, and many others have made the mistake of trying to bend the Church to their will. Communism fell as the Polish Pope inspired Poland and Eastern Europe to rise up. Mexico’s government barely survived a vicious revolution and eventually repealed its laws, while Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass there before this was legal. Republican damage to churches and statues, murders of nuns and priests, and anti-Catholic rhetoric, bound Catholics to the ultimately victorious Franco. Otto Von Bismarck ended his Kulturkampf when the Catholic Church refused to bend.
