Advertisement
Advertisement
Rodrigo Duterte
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, Archbishop Romulo Valles (centre) speaks to the press on July 9, 2018, in Manila, Philippines. Photo: AP

Philippine bishops call for three-day fast after President Duterte calling God ‘stupid’

A day of prayers will be held on July 16 to invoke ‘God’s mercy and justice on those who have blasphemed God’s holy name’

Philippine Catholic bishops on Monday called for fasting and prayers after President Rodrigo Duterte called God “stupid” and questioned God’s existence in profane remarks that set him on a collision course with Asia’s largest Catholic Church.

Archbishop Romulo Valles and the association of bishops that he heads called for a day of prayers on July 16 to invoke “God’s mercy and justice on those who have blasphemed God’s holy name, those who slander and bear false witness and those who commit murder or justify murder as a means for fighting criminality”.

Archbishop Romulo Valles. Photo: AP

Starting on July 17, the bishops asked Filipino Catholics to join them in three more days of prayers with fasting and almsgiving without giving other details.

Duterte has had a thorny relationship with Catholic bishops, who have criticised his anti-drug crackdown and vulgar language and expressed alarm over the killings of three priests in brazen gun attacks in recent months. In televised speeches, the 73-year-old leader has often lashed out at Catholic bishops, recalling reports of sexual abuses by members of the clergy, including a foreign Jesuit priest, who, he said, fondled him and other fellow students in a Catholic university.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines did not name Duterte in a carefully worded but highly critical “pastoral exhortation”, but the allusion to the president and his tough anti-crime crackdowns was clear.

To “those who arrogantly regard themselves as wise in their own estimation and the Christian faith as nonsense, those who blaspheme our God as stupid, Saint Paul’s words are to the point: ‘For the stupidity of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength’”, the bishops said, referring to one of the most important saints in the Catholic faith.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaking on independence day in Kawit, Cavite province, Philippines on June 12, 2018. Photo: Reuters

Amid the animosity, Duterte’s office invited Valles for a dialogue with the president, Valles said. Presidential aides later announced that the two met for 30 minutes at the presidential palace, with Duterte agreeing “to a moratorium on statements about the church”.

Duterte was slammed, including by some of his political allies, two weeks ago for calling God “stupid” in a speech, with one bishop calling him a “psychopath”.

Duterte lamented in that speech that Adam and Eve’s sin in Christian theology resulted in all the faithful falling from divine grace. “Who is this stupid God? This son of a bitch is then really stupid,” he said. On Friday, he said he would resign if even one witness can prove God exists.

In response, the bishops cited Saint Paul’s teaching that “when we are persecuted, we bear it patiently; when slandered, we respond gently”. But they added that God’s “peace is never the peace of compromise or capitulation to evil”.

The bishops denied accusations that they were involved in moves to destabilise the government and said the church respects elected officials “as long as they do not contradict the basic spiritual and moral principles we hold dear, such as respect for the sacredness of life”.

Post