There are three things in the world that deserve no mercy, hypocrisy, fraud, and tyranny.
— English theologian Frederick William Robertson

MAYPAJO, Caloocan City — Today we commemorate Rizal Day and, unfortunately, what we see in our country's current situation is contrary to what our national hero has fought and died for at Bagumbayan 128 years ago.

Rizal wanted independence for the Philippines—something that our Spanish overlords were unwilling to give—and in his desire for equality for all, he showed what leaders of the world can do to promote respect for all peoples and spread peace in all corners of the world.

But today's global leaders are not what Rizal had wished to perceive. Their hypocrisy goes beyond what humanity seeks to abolish. And in ushering Jubilee Year 2025, Pope Francis condemned the 'hypocrisy' of global leaders in their messages of peace while at the same time waging war and promoting conflict across the world.

The pope highlighted the wars in Ukraine and the Holy Land as examples of conflicts marked by atrocities that has seen the death of thousands of innocent lives over reasons of political greed and material gain.
Francis sharply criticized nations advocating for peace while profiting from war and conflict even as he called for renewed efforts toward dialogue and reconciliation.

"In the case of Ukraine there is a great hypocrisy," he pointed out. Both Russia and Ukraine are sending many men to the front lines, "but when one begins to talk of peace," he asserted, "they dance (around it) with secondary things."

It is a reality that throughout the world across five continents, there is fundamental hypocrisy as the leaders of several nations, like China, Russia and even the United States, talk about global peace and cooperation while arming wars to promote their influence and exert dominance through a sublime expasionism and invasive policies.

Recently, China’s foreign ministry reverted to a call for a 'peaceful development' amidst claims that the our military's joint exercise with the United States would only bring the risks of an arms race in the Asia-Pacific region. It hinted on a lesser stance in its criticism over the deployment of American-made missile defenses in Northern Luzon, but still, Beijing has been adamant in its greedful claim over almost almost the whole of the South China Sea (SCS) despite a a ruling of an arbitral court against its sovereignty of the vast expanse of the ocean.

And countries like China, Russia, the United States and others who manufacture sophisticated armaments has allowed the arms sales to be an industry "with the best return on investment."
To this Pope Francis has commented the gross irony of the world's leaders attending "peace conferences and meetings on peace" while "manufacturing arms to kill."

But can the pope's advice for dialogue as the only avenue toward peace bear fruit if it is followed?

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