PHILIPPINES
Bangkok Post
MANILA – Catholic bishops in the Philippines lashed out Tuesday at a presidential candidate popularly known as “Dirty Harry”, after he made a rambling and obscenity-filled speech cursing the pope.
Rodrigo Duterte, whose hardline anti-crime reputation has seen him compared with Clint Eastwood’s no-nonsense enforcer, sparked the ire of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, which questioned if he deserved to be president.
“When a revered and loved and admired man like Pope Francis is cursed by a political candidate and the audience laughs, I can only bow my head and grieve in great shame,” said a statement, issued by the group’s president, Archbishop Socrates Villegas.
The comments are a rare personal criticism of a presidential candidate from senior church leaders in the largely-Roman Catholic nation.
Duterte, the longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, declared his intention on Monday to run for president in the 2016 election, referencing a January visit to Manila by Pope Francis, whom he blamed for a massive traffic jam.
“Pope, you son of a whore, why don’t you go home,” he said, to the guffaws of a crowd of supporters.
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