I WAS surfing the Net when I chanced upon a priest’s post on Facebook. I remembered the priest because I almost blocked him because of his support for the candidacy of then Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte in the 2016 presidential elections. This priest even ranted against bishops because of his defense of Digong.
The priest’s post reminded me that what we have in the country is not a united clergy. The Catholic Church hierarchy reflects society’s viewpoints. The Duterte candidacy not only won over the poor but also the SUV-riding rich who proudly displayed “DU30” stickers on the body of their SUVs.
But I reckon that, like some Duterte supporters (they totaled 16 million voters), these priests have realized their mistake, especially with the President’s “God is stupid” statement and his continuous assault on the Catholic Church and its priests. Only some of them did.
This could also be true for the bishops. I think some of them voted for Duterte and supported him. Meaning that the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) could also be split. Interestingly, the CBCP members did send a message early on when they chose Romulo Valles as president of their group. Valles is close to Duterte and baptized the President’s grandson, Marko Carpio.
This is one of the reasons it was easy for the team formed by Duterte to seek a dialogue with the CBCP to ease the tension spawned by the President’s tirades. I think it would have been different had the CBCP been headed now by its former president, Socrates Villegas.
I say having DDS priests helped soften the response of the clergy to the President’s “God is stupid” rant. The pro-Duterte priests could have diluted that response. If not, the response could have been harsher. It would be interesting to find out how the dialogue will proceed.
The good thing is that the widespread condemnation of the President’s rant against God and the Catholic Church forced the DDS priests to be silent. Even then, one can ask how Duterte could have gotten the support of some priests despite his faults.
Valles, though, may not be as close as the President is to Apollo Quiboloy, the Davao City-based founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Name Above Every Name. Quiboloy is claiming that he is the “Appointed Son of God.” I even think some of the President’s criticisms of the Catholic Church come from Quiboloy.
Even then, with the recent openness of the President to a dialogue with the CBCP, Valles can reach out to him to further ease the tension. The CBCP head should continue to communicate with the President and soften his views on the Catholic Church.
I don’t buy Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque’s reasoning that Duterte’s rant stemmed from the hurt he carries with him after a priest molested him when he was younger. The President is already in his 70s and from when he was molested to now is already a long time.
To paraphrase a popular Filipino song, he may have remembered the molestation but surely he no longer remembers the feeling.