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May 23, 2016

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Duterte blasts Catholic church as ‘hypocritical’

Source: AP | May 23, 2016, Monday | Print Edition

THE presumptive Philippine president-elect has blasted the country’s dominant Roman Catholic church as “the most hypocritical institution” and accused some of its bishops of corruption for allegedly asking favors from politicians, including him.

In a late-night news conference that dragged on into yesterday’s early hours in southern Davao city, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte questioned the relevance of Catholic bishops, citing his overwhelming victory in the May 9 presidential election based on an unofficial count despite efforts by them to persuade Filipinos not to vote for him.

Such harsh public condemnation of the influential church and its bishops by a top politician is rare in the Philippines, Asia’s bastion of Catholicism. It presages a potentially thorny relationship between the church and the incoming president, who shocked bishops in November when he cursed Pope Francis for sparking a huge traffic jam that trapped him for hours during a visit to Manila.

Duterte later apologized.

During the campaign, Duterte said he warned Catholics they may go to hell if they voted for him because bishops have criticized him as immoral partly for advocating the killing of criminals. Millions of Filipinos, however, still voted for him in the election, which he said served like a referendum.

“Look, were you able to stop me?” Duterte asked, citing his lead of more than 6 million votes over his closest rival.

The foul-mouthed mayor then turned to the bishops, accusing some of them of violating their vow of celibacy by getting married or keeping women and seeking favors such as cars from politicians. Once, he said without elaborating, church officials he did not identify forced him to take steps as a mayor so they could obtain real estate in a residential enclave.

Those acts amounted to corruption and violated the Philippine constitutional edict of separation of church and state, according to Duterte, who is known for his vulgarity, sex jokes and devil-may-care irreverence.

“Some people here in the Philippines can’t even afford to have food to eat or get medicine while you’re enjoying the money of the goddamn people,” Duterte said. “Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves, you sons of bitches?”

“You know,” Duterte said, “the most hypocritical institution is the Catholic church.”

Until the day before his inauguration as president on June 30, Duterte said he would continue to publicly disclose “the sins of the Catholic church and whether or not you are still relevant,” promising to be more circumspect after his proclamation. Duterte says he believes in God but doesn’t believe in religion.

Church officials were not immediately available for comment. They have, however, criticized Duterte for cursing the pope, his public vows to kill criminals, his publicly acknowledged adultery and vulgarity.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas, who heads the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said killing people, adultery and vulgarity were all forms of corruption.

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