AS SOCIETY grows callous and apathetic toward the suffering, a priest and rights advocate has urged Thomasians to allow their conscience to move them to action and uphold the dignity of the marginalized.
During this year’s St. Thomas More lecture, Fr. Flaviano Antonio Villanueva, SVD, told members of the Thomasian community to let their conscience guide their judgment and give them the courage to stand for others even at their own expense.
“Let your conscience disturb you enough to truly notice the poor and the world around you. Let it illuminate you enough to understand why the other person is crying or grieving, strengthen you enough to act boldly yet humbly, humble you enough to care even when it hurts,” Villanueva said.
Villanueva shared that his conscience and understanding of moral responsibility was shaped after struggling with drug abuse during his teens, an experience he framed not as a narrative of failure but one of redemption.
“My experience of addiction is something that I’m not proud of, but it’s also a story of redemption where people could find themselves at rock bottom, but through grace and community and second chances, we rise to the occasion,” he told The Flame.
In his lecture, Villanueva, a 2025 Ramon Magsaysay awardee, spoke openly about his past addiction and eventual recovery, which guides his advocacy for justice among the society’s most marginalized.
“But the more important truth in my story is this. Long before any transformation took place in me, a community took a chance on me. People looked past my history and chose to believe that something good and graceful could still grow. That decision saved my life,” he said.
Villanueva has been aiding the families of those killed during former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, which government records say reached 6,200. Because of his efforts, Villanueva earned the ire of Duterte supporters and has become the subject of an online smear campaign that highlights his past, but the priest remains unfazed by the attacks against his credibility.
Citing Duterte’s presidency, which began in 2016, Villanueva criticized the treatment of dignity as a prize for good behavior or a privilege for the wealthy rather than an intrinsic right.
“This is what happened to us, beginning especially in 2016. Moral dignity or moral collapse begins when we deny a person’s life. And beginning in that life, everything else follows. Moral degradation, democratic institutions fall, and all else,” he said.
The former president is currently detained at a facility of the International Criminal Court for his alleged involvement in 49 incidents of murder and attempted murder during his terms as president and Davao City mayor.
Villanueva called on the University to continue forming the conscience of students who would bring integrity into their work after graduation, adding that ”brilliance without conscience can be dangerous.”
“Universities are not only centers of academic excellence. They are spaces where your conscience is formed…competence without compassion can be barren,” Villanueva said.
“UST has shaped the Philippine intellect and cultural landscape for centuries. But today the challenge is sharper. Will UST form graduates capable of keeping conscience alive in a society that keeps losing it? That keeps compromising it?”
The Catholic priest warned that conscience loses its meaning when it is weaponized and reduced to factional interest, arguing that it must remain “rooted in truth, not in ideology.”
He called on Thomasians to carry courage and compassion along whatever path they take and “bear witness to a conscience that sees truthfully, chooses courageously and cares boldly for the world.”
The priest founded the Arnold Janssen Kalinga Center in 2015 to provide food, bathing facilities, counseling and livelihood support to homeless people.
He also leads the Paghilom Program, which offers psychosocial support to families of the victims of extrajudicial killings during the war on drugs.
Both initiatives, he said, are grounded in restoring dignity through care, healing and community.
The annual lecture for Artlets was held at the Saint Pier Georgio Frassati Auditorium on Monday, Feb. 2. It marked the start of the Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB) week celebration.
Carrying the theme “Conscience in Action, Human Dignity, Moral Courage, and the Politics of Care,” the lecture was the 58th installment of the St. Thomas More Lecture, which is named after the patron saint of AB, statesmen and public servants. F – S. Ty
