MANILA (LiCAS News): Caritas Philippines warned against normalised injustice and called Filipinos to move beyond charity toward systemic change as it launched the 2026 Alay Kapwa Lenten Campaign on February 18, Ash Wednesday.
In a circular, Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos, president of Caritas Philippines, said Lent is a season that demands more than personal devotion, describing it as a time for “communal and structural conversion.”
The campaign theme, “Sulong Padayon: Pananagutan sa Pagbabago, Pag-asa ng Pilipino,” combines Filipino and Visayan terms that translate to “Move Forward: Accountability in Change, Hope of the Filipino.”
A long-running Lenten programme, “Alay Kapwa,” whose name means “offering to one’s neighbour,” is marking its 51st year.
Bishop Alminaza stressed that the most meaningful “offering” during Lent is “not just spare change, but a commitment to be agents of structural change.”
Caritas Philippines warned against normalised injustice and called Filipinos to move beyond charity toward systemic change
The bishop said, “Almsgiving becomes more than charity. It becomes stewardship. It becomes participation in transforming our nation’s future.”
Quoting Pope Leo XIV’s Lenten message, he said, “Lent is a time in which the Church, guided by a sense of maternal care, invites us to place the mystery of God back in the centre of our lives.”
He added, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry.”
Citing the apostolic exhortation, Dilexi Te, the bishop reminded the faithful that the condition of the poor “is a cry that, throughout human history, constantly challenges our lives, societies, political and economic systems, and, not least, the Church.”
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He also acknowledged that “the commitment to the poor and to removing the social and structural causes of poverty… remains insufficient.”
Bishop Alminaza warned of a culture “that discards others without even realising it and tolerates with indifference that millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings.”
Lent is a time in which the Church, guided by a sense of maternal care, invites us to place the mystery of God back in the centre of our lives
Bishop Alminaza
The circular said, “These are tolerated evils,” describing them as “normalised inequalities” and “systems that exclude.”
The bishop also connected fasting to social accountability, quoting the Holy Father’s teaching that fasting “makes it easier to recognise what we ‘hunger’ for and what we deem necessary for our sustenance.”
He added that fasting keeps “our hunger and thirst for justice alive and freeing us from complacency.”
As Alay Kapwa approaches its 51st anniversary, Bishop Alminaza described the milestone not as a conclusion but as “an ‘unfinished symphony’.”
Through seven legacy programmes grouped under themes translated as Forging Hope [Pag-asa], Forging Accountability [Pananagutan], and Forging Transformation [Pagbabago], the campaign seeks to move “from relief to resilience, from charity to transformation.”
The bidhop called on the faithful to “choose hope over despair and action over indifference,” to “fast from complacency,” and to respond in ways that are “faithful, accountable, and transformative.”
