DUTERTE TO SOFTEN ATTACKS ON CHURCH

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday agreed to tone down his tirades against the Catholic Church.

The Church, through the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), apparently reciprocated the President’s move, admitting in a statement on the same day that it has “many weaknesses and shortcomings.”

The President met with Archbishop Romulo Valles, the president of the CBCP, in Malacañang on Monday.

“[President Duterte] agreed to a moratorium on statements about the Church

after the meeting,” Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said later in a statement.

The meeting took place at 4 in the afternoon.

No other details from the one-on-one meeting were bared by Roque.

In their statement where they acknowledged their frailties, the CBCP leaders said they also hold themselves “accountable for wrongdoings of their fellow Church leaders.”

CBCP Vice President Bishop Pablo David also admitted that “we are a Church made of members who are wretched but chosen. We are a Church of sinners called to conversion and holiness at the same time.”

“We bow in shame when we hear of abuses being committed by some of our fellow Church leaders--especially those ordained to act in the person of Christ,” David said.

He invited the public to join the bishops in prayer and fasting for three days from July 17, and invoked “God’s mercy and justice” for sinners.

The one-one-meeting between Duterte and Valles had been preceded by the President’s tirades against God Himself, whom he called “stupid.”

“God cast [ the first humans, Adam and Eve] away for being sinners. And then this theory of idiotic proportions, we are all

born in this world with original sin. You created a perfect paradise. You created perfect human beings, two of them. You gave them all. But why did you have to call the snake to bring an apple to Eve and to tempt both? It would have been perfect,” Duterte said in a speech on June 25 in Cagayan de Oro City.

“Tell me, if it is a perfect God. I will kneel here. I will kneel down and stretch my hands and ask forgiveness. Tell me if it is a very poignant story of the history of mankind or it is really a stupid one. That is why I do not believe it. It is foolishness,” he said

Days later, Duterte promised to

keep silent on his attacks against the Church.

But he was back at it again, saying last Friday he would resign if a person proves the existence of God through a self-portrait.

The President said he would never apologize, “not in a million years,” for his words.

Also on Monday, Roque said the CBCP will also be meeting with the government’s four-man panel that will dialogue with religious groups.

The panel consists of Roque, Pastor Saycon, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ernesto Abella and Cabinet Secretary Leoncio

Evasco, Jr.

“I understand that after [Duterte’s initial one on one with the Church], there will be a meeting arranged between the CBCP and our panel. Perhaps in our subsequent meetings, there will be an agenda to be formulated and agreed upon by the parties, but for now it will really be a one-on-one private meeting between Archbishop Valles and the President,” Roque said in a news briefing