Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said his country’s Catholic bishops are “useless fools” and should be “killed”, the latest attack by the controversial leader on the church, which has opposed his deadly war on drugs.
In a speech at the presidential palace on Wednesday, Duterte was quoted in local news reports as saying in a mix of Filipino and English: “These bishops that you guys have, kill them. They are useless fools. All they do is criticise.”
Addressing local government officials, Duterte also blasted the Catholic Church again, calling it “the most hypocritical institution” and saying his God is different from the one Catholics worship.
“I never said I do not believe in God. What I said is your God is stupid, mine has a lot of common sense. That’s what I told the bishops. I never said I was an atheist,” he said in an apparent reference to an earlier statement when he was quoted as saying God is “stupid” and a “son of a whore”.
The Philippines has more than 100 million people, an estimated 90 percent of whom identify as Catholic.
Duterte is known for making off-the-cuff remarks without much consideration for their content.
Earlier this week, he said he used cannabis to stay awake, but later retracted the statement saying he was just joking.
Three Catholic priests have been killed since December last year, raising alarm in the country and prompting the church and opposition leaders to condemn the continued “culture of impunity”.
“They are killing our flock. They are killing us, the shepherds. They are killing our faith. They are cursing our church,” Catholic leaders said in a strongly-worded statement earlier this year.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas also urged Duterte to “stop the verbal persecution” against the Catholic Church, “because such attacks can unwittingly embolden more crimes against priests”.
Duterte, who is a baptised Catholic, has said the church has no moral authority to criticise him, chastising the institution for the sexual abuse scandals involving priests worldwide.
Human rights advocates and an opposition senator allege the death toll in Duterte’s war on drugs has surpassed 20,000 since he assumed office in 2016.
The government, however, claims the toll is much lower. According to its latest report published in October, a total of 4,999 people have been killed since the launch of the anti-drug campaign in 2016.
Rights groups have denounced the killings as extrajudicial executions and say the crackdown is unfairly directed at the poor rather than the kingpins in the illicit trade.
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The country’s Catholic Church has openly criticised the drug war and has extended help to some of the victims and survivors of the extrajudicial killings, earning the ire of the president.
Recently, Duterte threatened to have a bishop’s head cut off.
Although he did not specify the clergyman’s name, he alleged in the same speech that a certain “Bishop David” was engaged in corrupt practices.
Duterte provided no evidence to back his accusation.
Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Caloocan, outside Manila, is one of the most outspoken critics of Duterte’s war on drugs. His district has seen one of the highest numbers of extrajudicial killings in the past two years.
In response to Duterte’s allegation, the bishop was quoted in news reports as saying his parents “never taught me to steal”.
In an interview with Al Jazeera last year, Bishop David said it was his moral obligation to oppose the killing of human beings.
“With regards to the issue on drugs, I think that we will never soften on our stand because it is not about politics for us, it is about the lives of people,” he said at the time.
Nigeria has some useless bishops using poor masses for their selfish purpose. Satan wil demolish them bcos it is Satan they follow and not our Mighty One God.
Are they using you??? so don’t take panadol for some ones headache
?
We have one, who has dangerously gone mad, in Nigeria. Come and help us o.
Nonsense you.get out
Blessing Benjamin They ruin the lives of their ignorant followers.and their devilish acts should be a matter of concern to all of us.
This Man again! the same person who says that if there is someone like God,then let someone prove to him and he will resign,Mr Man,even without any prove,God will kick you out from that throne,because you are a tyrant president!.
useless man,poverty wan kill ur country,fool
I love that man so much. The priest’s are useless indeed.
He always separates divine power from politics. He hates praying for assistance, he believes in reality and crackdown as path of peace. That’s Duterte!
This man need psychological test
God almighty have mercy on your children