Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday, February 20, once again lashed out on the Catholic clergy amid the Vatican sex abuse summit which started last Thursday, February 21, to Sunday, February 24.
“Was I wrong all along? I told you so,” Duterte gloated as he proved that he was right when he criticized the clergy of committing malicious acts. The president earlier revealed that he was molested by a priest in the past during confession.
“Every Friday, Friday mass, magkumpisal tayo. Eh, mag-confess kayo, yung b**** mo jina-jumble -jumble. Dalawa kaya yan. ‘di nila alam yung akin tatlo (We hear confession. We confess. Your testicles are jumbled. I have two. They did not know I have three),” he said.
The strong-mouthed leader hurled those criticisms on the eve of the episcopal conference entitled “The Protection of Minors of the Church.” He even claimed that the Vatican issued a data noting that “four out of five priests are gay.”
“Right after we were abused and the pope now is calling for a summit to address this particular problem because four out of five, according to Rome, of priests are gay,” he said as reported by The Philippine Star.
However, the chief executive wrongly attributed the said figures that originally came from the book “In the Closet of the Vatican.” In an article from The Guardian, it noted that “80 percent of priests working at the Vatican are gay, although not necessarily sexually active.”
Tagle to speak at the summit
In a report from The Manila Times, clergies from all over the world will attend the said summit. They are scheduled to discuss issues on responsibility, accountability, transparency and communication, synodality and collegiality.
Caritas Internationalis president and Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle will discuss “Smell of the sheep. Knowing their pain and healing their wounds is at the heart of the shepherd’s task” among the 190 participants.
Among the archbishop speakers are Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Adjunct Secretary and Malta Archbishop Charles Scicluna; Latin American Episcopal Council President and Bogota Archbishop Cardinal Rubén Salazar Gómez; Bombay Archbishop Cardinal Oswald Gracias; Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich and German Bishops’ Conference Chairman and München und Freising Archbishop Cardinal Reinhard Marx.
They will also be joined by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life Undersecretary Linda Ghisoni; The Society of the Holy Child Jesus Elected Leader Sister Veronica Openibo and a Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki.
Pope calls church accusers “friends of the devil”
In a recent speech to the pilgrims from Benevento at the St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis linked “those who spend their lives accusing” the church as “friends, cousins and relatives of the devil.”
“One cannot live a whole life accusing, accusing, accusing the Church. Whom does the office of the accuser belong to? Who is he that the Bible calls the great accuser — the devil!” Pope Francis said as reported by The Vatican News.
“And those who spend their lives accusing are — I won’t say — children, because the devil doesn’t have any – but they the friends, cousins and relatives of the devil,” he added.
The church leader recognized that the flawed system of the institution. However, he noted that the manner of correcting the defects should be done out of love.
“Well, when things are not right, one has to report the defects to correct, but when you report the defects, you make known the defects, you love the Church. Without love is something from the devil,” the Pope said.
He urged the public to “live as Christians” as he noted that “love is more beautiful than hatred, friendship is more beautiful than enmity and brotherhood among us is more beautiful than war.”
Palace: Pope statement a “hyperbole”
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that the Pope’s statement does not allude to Duterte despite his criticisms to the Catholic church. He defended the president noting that it could be hyperbole.
“One of the better critics of the Church is the Pope himself. He criticizes the members of the Church who are engaged in what he perceives to be immorality which is outside the teachings of Christ or internal discipline of the Church,” Panelo said.
“If I agree with that then the Pope will be referring to himself also because he is a critic. It doesn’t also mean that when you criticize, you are evil. You’re just expressing concern and opposition to certain irregular behavior,” he added as reported by The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
