Three decades ago, amid the national crisis following the 1983 assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr., the present president’s father, the Philippine Church heeded the call of then-Pope John Paul II to declare 1985 a year dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

As Jesuit theologian and Aquino family spiritual adviser Fr. Catalino Arevalo recalls, the country was alone in obeying the future St. John Paul. In December 1985, the month after the Marian year ended, then-autocrat Ferdinand Marcos called snap elections in February to finally put to rest escalating challenges to his rule. But widespread cheating further exacerbated protests, leading to his downfall in the People Power Revolution.

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