Bishops ask Duterte to name abuser

Philippine Catholic leaders have urged Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to identify the priest who abused him as a teenager, as they urged him to stop making controversial statements at the expense of the Church.

“If there’s a mistake committed against him, he must reveal it immediately,” Manila Auxiliary Bishop Roderick Pabillo said yesterday.

Earlier, the 70-year-old Duterte, who is running for president, said the reason he had little respect for priests was because he had been abused by one while he was in high school, when he was still studying at the Ateneo de Davao, a Jesuit institution.

Duterte had drawn condemnation from Filipinos — the majority of whom are Catholics — when he blamed the visit by Pope Francis in January for worsening traffic jams in Metro Manila. He laced his statement with a profane remark.

The mayor later on retracted his statement and said he got carried away by emotions stirred up by the seeming incapacity of the national government to do something about the horrendous traffic situation in Metro Manila.

He also said his deepseated contempt against clerics was because he had been abused by a priest when he was in high school.

Duterte said the incident had happened a long time ago and it would be useless to identify and punish the priest. By this time, the priest would have been more than a century old.

Duterte also said he was wiling to give up his run for the presidency if the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines asks him to do so.

Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, for his part, said Duterte would be of help to the Church is he would identify his abuser.

If Duterte is a true reformer, the mayor should pursue the issue and correct injustice, he said.

“It will also help clean our ranks,” he said.