POPE Francis has been the subject of his habitual cursing, but President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday sought to improve his ties with him by sending out a letter thanking him for visiting the country in 2015.
“With profound respect, I have the honor to extend my own and my people’s warmest greetings to your holiness,” Duterte said.
“Our countrymen remember Your Holiness’ apostolic visit in 2015 with deep appreciation, knowing that it was made with the most sincere regard for the welfare of the Church’s flock.
“The Philippines values its special relations with the Holy See and regards with gratitude Your Holiness’ gracious stewardship of the Catholic faith.”
Duterte made his statement even as he renewed his attacks on the Catholic Church by telling its leaders to try out shabu to understand the gravity of the drug menace amid their criticisms of the alleged summary killings being committed under his administration.
“I really cannot understand the Church. If a person is high, they really fight,” Duterte said during the inauguration of a privately-owned hospital in Nueva Ecija.
“These priests really should try shabu so that they can understand. Get one, two or three of the bishops [to try it.]”
Peace Process Secretary Jesus Dureza, who is in Rome for the continuation of the peace talks with the communist rebels, said Duterte had tasked him to give a letter to the Pontiff whom he cursed for the traffic his visit had caused.
“Tomorrow, we will be at the Vatican in the morning to hopefully meet the Pope and possibly hand to His Holiness a personal letter of President Duterte thanking Him for the Philippine papal visit,” Dureza said in a social media post.
During PDP-Laban’s formal declaration of Duterte as their presidential candidate in November 2014, Pope Francis became the object of Duterte’s expletives after claiming that it took him five hours to reach a mall from his hotel while in Metro Manila.
“Pope, you son of a bitch, go home. Don’t visit here anymore,” the then Davao City mayor said.
Pope Francis, who visited Metro Manila and the typhoon-battered Leyte province in January 2015, is well-loved by the Filipinos.
Duterte has since called his statement a “mistake” and a “stray bullet,” saying his cursing was actually directed at the traffic woes caused by the government mismanagement of the Pope’s visit.