Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and the Catholic Church are back at each other's throats.
The latest clash was apparently triggered when a prominent bishop from Manila blasted Duterte's all-out war against illegal drugs, calling it a "bringer of death," Rappler reported.
Speaking on Wednesday at the World Apostolic Congress on Mercy in Manila, Bishop Teodoro Bacani assailed Duterte's war on drugs that has killed more than 6,700 people. Bacani, 77, is the spiritual adviser of the Catholic charismatic group El Shaddai.
Duterte's response was swift. Addressing a batch of newly promoted police officers at the Malacanang presidential palace on Thursday, Duterte furiously revived old accusations against the Church, accusing its priests of molesting children, condoning and even participating in alleged homosexual acts, corruption, and failing to understand the country's problems, as reported by the Philippine Star.
"When you commit mistakes, it's okay but when we do, no [expletive]? That's stupid," Duterte barked.
"What is your moral ascendancy in the Philippines? Religion? What is the meaning of it? You do not help us. You just keep on talking," he added.
He recalled the time when a group of bishops asked former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to provide them luxury vehicles.
Duterte also raised doubts on what the church is doing with the millions of pesos it collects during masses every week.
He also cited clergy sex abuse and the illicit affairs of some priests.
He then challenged the church to a "showdown."
"You mend your ways. If you cannot even give justice to the small boys that you have molested in the past, you do not have that moral ascendancy to lecture (me) on what to do," Duterte said.
He also cited the alleged homosexual acts happening inside seminaries and the alleged failure of the church to improve the lot of its faithful.
"What will you do with the homosexuality in your seminaries? What have you done to the children there?" he asked. "You are in palaces while your faithful are in squatters' areas and then you talk about sanctity [of life]? Look at your mirror."
Ironically, Duterte's no-holds-barred attack on the church came a day after one of his top advisers met Pope Francis at the Vatican and said the Pontiff had told him he would bless the Philippines, and "also bless your president," Reuters reported.
Reacting to Duterte's latest tirades, Archbishop Ramon Arguelles defended his fellow priests and bishops, saying, "Even a sick doctor must still try to cure ailments of others and, of course, his [Duterte] too."
In an interview quoted by the news service of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines on Friday, Arguelles explained: "Churchmen are not perfect. Nevertheless, they are supposed to proclaim what is right and proper even if they themselves fall short of what they teach."
"The fault of some should not be blamed on all," he added.
