MANILA, Philippines – Trumpets blared, the smoke of incense billowed, and three men in white vestments marched around the Senate while sprinkling it with holy water and exorcised salt.
Filipino activist priest Father Robert Reyes, 71, led two other priests in exorcising the Philippine Senate on Saturday, two days before senators began the historic impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
The clergy conducted this minor exorcism after Reyes said, in a press conference three weeks ago, that “the Senate is full of demons” and that “it is possessed.”
A minor exorcism involves “prayers used to break the influence of evil and sin in a person’s life,” explained the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Even a simple house blessing is considered an exorcism, Reyes said.
A major exorcism, which is commonly portrayed in the movies, “is employed only when there is a case of genuine demonic possession, namely, when it is determined that the presence of the devil is in the body of the possessed and the devil is able to exercise dominion over that body,” according to the USCCB.
Explaining the ancient weapons of exorcism, Reyes said the fragrance of incense symbolizes prayers rising up to heaven, and can “sweeten the foul environment that has been made stinky by sin and lies.”
“The Senate stinks to high heaven. We want its dignity to return,” said the media-savvy and Jesuit-trained cleric, who is popularly known as the “Running Priest” for running marathons as a form of protest.
Reyes also addressed unnamed pro-Duterte senators, whom he wants to sprinkle with exorcised salt “because your mouths are filthy, your minds are filthy, your hearts are filthy, and your souls are no longer focused on God.”
Duterte’s trial explained
The Senate, the upper chamber of the country’s bicameral legislature, is composed of 24 nationally elected politicians who are collectively considered the country’s most powerful officials, next to the President and the Vice President.
Wearing Oxford crimson robes, the senators are tasked to serve as judges in Duterte’s impeachment trial for at least the next seven months.
The trial, which began on Monday, seeks to determine if Duterte is guilty of misusing about $10 million in discretionary funds, keeping billions of pesos in unexplained wealth, bribing education officials, and plotting to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his relatives.
Catholic priests and religious sisters — including Vincentian priest Father Joselito Sarabia, who joined the exorcism on Saturday — were among those who filed impeachment complaints against Duterte.
If the 48-year-old Vice President is found guilty by at least two-thirds of the Senate, or at least 16 out of 24 senators, she will be removed from office and prohibited from running for president in 2028.
A projection by Rappler, a Nobel prize-winning newsroom in Manila, shows that only 11 senators are inclined to vote to convict Duterte as of July 6. Based on this analysis, 10 Duterte allies are likely to vote to acquit her, while three others are classified as moderate.
High stakes for the Church
For the Catholic Church in general, the stakes are high because hundreds of clergymen want to prevent another Duterte presidency by 2028.
While the official Church leadership often maintains a cautious diplomatic stance, individual bishops and priests have been among the chief critics of the Duterte family. Church leaders have protested against the killing of about 30,000 drug suspects and countless attacks on the Catholic Church under the Duterte patriarch’s six-year term.
The 81-year-old former president Rodrigo Duterte, the Vice President’s father, is currently detained at the International Criminal Court over his bloody drug war, in yet another case closely monitored by the local Church.
Even certain Evangelical groups have been monitoring the outcome of the Vice President’s impeachment trial at the Senate and her father’s legal proceedings at the Hague.
Melba Maggay, a 75-year-old social anthropologist and Evangelical theologian, joined Reyes in praying at the Senate on Saturday. She and other Evangelicals led the Jericho Walk around the legislative building.
During this Jericho Walk, the Christian protesters blew their horns for the collapse of the “walls of injustice” in the same way that the Walls of Jericho collapsed with God’s help.
“We want to remind everyone that even though we are just ordinary people, even if we seem powerless and our institutions look hopeless, the walls of injustice can come tumbling down,” Maggay said. “That’s why we — Catholics, Protestants, and Evangelicals alike — are standing as one. Because enough is enough with all this evil.”
Father Sarabia, one of the impeachment complainants who also joined the Jericho Walk, said he is praying for a positive outcome of the Vice President’s trial.
“In our impeachment trial, I hope that the walls of corruption and injustice would fall,” Sarabia told Crux Now.
Regarding their exorcism ritual, Crux Now asked Sarabia about perceptions by Duterte supporters — who still make up a sizable majority of the population — that Duterte’s critics are the demons who need to be exorcised.
“Even his critics called Jesus a follower of Beelzebul,” Sarabia said. “We all have our different views. But as Jesus said, whoever kills, lies, and brings about evil is the real demon. In the end, you will know them by their fruits.”