CLFC

HOMILY | The Star of the Epiphany and Our Filipino Reality
By: Archbishop Alberto Uy, D.D., Archbishop of Cebu

The Star of the Epiphany is not just something beautiful we admire in the sky. It is a light meant to guide our steps, especially when the road is dark.

And for us Filipinos, the road has not always been easy.

After storms, during difficult times, and in moments of uncertainty, we look for light. We look for direction. We look for hope.

That is why the Star of the Epiphany speaks very clearly to us today.

1. The Star exposes corruption

The Star leads the Magi to Jesus. But when the Star is mentioned inside the palace, Herod becomes afraid. Why? Because light always exposes darkness.

In our country, corruption survives because many leaders are afraid of the light: they fear the truth, they fear accountability, they fear losing their privilege.

That is why money meant for the poor disappears. That is why projects are left unfinished. That is why people feel frustrated and tired.

Let us be honest: the Philippines is not poor because Filipinos lack talent or faith. Our country suffers because too many leaders think first of themselves.

The Star reminds us of a painful truth: when leadership is centered on self, even God becomes a threat.

Epiphany gently—but firmly—calls leaders and citizens alike to choose openness over secrecy, service over power, and truth over what is easy or convenient.

2. The Star helps us understand migration

The Magi were willing to leave home to follow the light.

But many Filipinos leave home today not because they want to, but because they have to.

Millions become OFWs because decent opportunities are hard to find here.
Parents leave children. Families grow up apart. This is not normal. This is not what God wants.

The Star asks us a serious question: Why must Filipinos search for light far away
when our land is rich and our people are capable?

Epiphany challenges our leaders to build a country where people no longer need to leave home just to survive.

3. The Star stops among the poor

The Star does not stop in Herod’s palace.
It stops over a simple home. God chooses to be found among the poor.

This can be painful to hear because poverty remains very real in our country:
families without decent housing, workers with unstable jobs, children without enough food or education.

Poverty is not God’s will. It is often the result of unjust systems and corrupt decisions.

The Star tells us clearly: if we want to find Christ today, we must look where the poor are—and stand with them.

4. The Star speaks to the youth

Many young people today are searching for direction. Some feel confused. Some feel angry. Some feel hopeless.

They ask: Is honesty still worth it? Is faith still meaningful? Is there still a future for us here?

The Star tells our youth: Your life has direction. Your future has meaning.

But the Star also challenges adults and leaders: What example are we giving them?

Do they see honesty rewarded?
Do they see justice practiced?
Do they see faith lived sincerely?

If the light is hidden by hypocrisy,
the young will stop following.

5. The Star calls for a change of direction

After meeting Jesus, the Magi return home by another way.

That is the final message of Epiphany:
meeting Christ must change our direction.

For our nation, this means: rejecting corruption, choosing leaders with integrity, refusing to accept injustice as normal, and teaching the young to dream honestly.

⸻
Final Thoughts

The Star of the Epiphany is still shining over the Philippines today. The question is not whether the Star is there—but who is willing to follow it.

May we stop protecting palaces of power
and start protecting the light of truth.

And may we walk together, guided by Christ, toward honesty, justice, dignity, and hope.

Because when we follow the light of Christ, no darkness—political, social, or moral—can ever overcome us.

Message of Archbishop Alberto Uy, D.D.

A SIMPLE YET HEARTFELT APPEAL: On Sponsorships for the Sinulog Festival | The Sinulog is not merely a cultural event or a tourism activity. It is, above all, a religious celebration, rooted in our faith and centered on the Child Jesus. Its spiritual meaning must be preserved, protected, and respected.

For this reason, I hope that the Sinulog Festival Organizers will refrain from receiving sponsorships from gambling establishments. Such partnerships may generate funds, but they also send a conflicting message to the faithful and to the wider community.

1. It contradicts the values of the Santo Niño

The Santo Niño symbolizes innocence, purity, and trust in God. Gambling establishments, by their very nature, are associated with behaviors and environments that may lead to addiction, broken families, financial loss, and moral confusion.

Aligning a sacred celebration with industries that often contribute to social problems does not honor the values the Santo Niño represents.

2. It creates a moral inconsistency

The Church cannot encourage families to reject destructive habits while at the same time allowing sacred celebrations to be financially supported by entities connected to those habits. Doing so would create scandal—a situation where the faithful might think the Church approves of or tolerates gambling as a lifestyle or form of recreation.

3. It protects the integrity and credibility of the festival

The Sinulog is a powerful tool for evangelization. Thousands of pilgrims, especially the young, look to this celebration for inspiration and guidance.

Accepting sponsorships from gambling sectors risks shifting public perception from a religious feast to a commercial spectacle, weakening its spiritual impact and confusing its true purpose.

4. It upholds the dignity of families and the poor

Gambling disproportionately affects the poor—those most vulnerable to losing what little they have. We cannot ask the Santo Niño to bless our families while inviting support from industries that have, in many cases, contributed to family breakdown and poverty.

5. It encourages responsible stewardship

The organizers are encouraged to seek partners that align with the values of faith, family, culture, and community. There are many institutions—public and private—that can and will support the festival without compromising its moral character.

My appeal is simple yet heartfelt: Let the Sinulog remain a festival that truly reflects the joy, purity, and light of the Santo Niño.

May we honor Him not only with our dances, prayers, and celebrations, but also through the moral choices we make in organizing this sacred event.

+Alberto S. Uy
Archbishop of Cebu

I happen to open our website to see how far back I have neglected it and I found this article that I re-posted there in 2022. It's September 2025. We are still in the same situation.
I hope our people wakes up and express their sentiments for our beloved country!

The Reluctant Activist
Posted on 07/07/2022 by clfcweb

We have to learn how to find the intrinsic rewards of doing and saying what is right.
In a country where the greedy, corrupt, and wicked have successfully done a hostile and unethical takeover of every government branch, practically every government agency from national to local; where they have used technology and mind tricks for massive disinformation to dupe the clueless and those who aspire to the same kind of greed; where they have preyed on the impoverished, desperate, and powerless to manipulate and exploit them; where they have hijacked even media; we’re going to find our wins, if any, to be few and far in between.

We activists, overthinkers, truth warriors, justice advocates, patriots will continue to feel frustrated, sad, angry, revolted, confused, and exhausted. And we will always feel like taking the easy way out—silent submission. Or like the Roques of the world, we’ll tell ourselves, if we can’t beat ‘em, then just join them. Or we’ll just allow them to completely break our spirit. But we won’t, shouldn’t, and can’t.

We don’t know when events would start to arc towards justice and truth. We don’t even know if we’d see the light at the end of this dark tunnel in this lifetime. So we have to find victory and satisfaction in doing what we believe is right; stubbornly adhering to our values, principles, and beliefs. Even when the world and minions want us to feel like losers. Even when they laugh at us, gaslight, threaten, and insult us. Just know in each moment they mock and bully us that we have not sold out, copped out, given up. And we have done what is right for the right reasons. They can’t win over us if that is our standard.

Let the greedy have their money; let the power-hungry have their power. We are not envious nor bitter because we don’t want those things anyway, not at the expense of this country. We don’t want unethically gotten wealth that was earned by oppressing and robbing others. We don’t want the wins that enable injustice and keep the poor, poor, the ignorant, ignorant. We don’t want the kinds of advantages that come with self-loathing and fear because you know you had to cheat, lie, kill, steal, and commit crimes to acquire.

We win every day. Not in the way the worldly defines victory. But in our minds and hearts in the way our wise parents, mentors, leaders, teachers, pastors, friends, our faith, our conscience, our logic have defined and refined for us.

We are not losing. It’s just that the rules of the game have been obfuscated by evil men and women. They are not outwitting us. It’s just that they are playing a different game where they outdo each other in doing what is evil. We can’t win in their games because we have opted not to be part of all that.

Our heroes gave up their lives, their freedoms, and their comforts for this country. For sure, whatever money, power, or fame they might have received as extrinsic rewards were no match to what they have sacrificed. They found the intrinsic.

Don’t be and don’t feel like a loser. You have to tell yourself what’s in it for you. For me, it’s being able to face my parents, my husband, my leaders, my peers, the people who matter most to me and not feeling any shame. It’s being able to pray knowing I pray for what is right. And it is about liking and loving myself. And that is a win.

Note:
The Reluctant Activist is not me (Star) but I share her thoughts and she articulated them well. That is why I am reposting it here.

https://fb.watch/gWmfEiibgb/

unang gi suroyan! 😁

HAPPY 37th ANNIVERSARY of Cebu Lay Formation Center (CLFC)today Oct. 30, 2022! CLFC was blessed by Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Archbishop Manuel Salvador and Bishop Teofilo Camomot on Oct. 30, 1985.

The lot and building were donated to the Archdioce of Cebu in 1989 by the PLUS Foundation. Since then, it belongs to the Archdioce of Cebu.

Estrella Cui del Mar, a PLUS, managed & operated the formation programs, and maintained CLFC building since 1991 without financial support from the Archdiocese of Cebu. Fr. Willi, who supported CLFC financially left in 1991. The benefactors & donors of CLFC also left in 1991 when Fr. Willi left.

Thanks to Abp. Palma who helped us survive by giving a monthly financial subsidy starting 2017 up to the present. Praise God!

Fr. Willi and the PLUS built CLFC for the Lay Formation of the Laity in Cebu & other Dioceses esp. in the Biblical Apostolate and Lay Spirituality.