Rodrigo Duterte is sharing more words on homosexuality and the clergy.
According to local news source PhilStar Global, Filipino president Duterte is sharing his thoughts on how to solve the continual sex scandals springing up from religious organizations (and specifically Catholic churches).
"Allow them to marry. Same-sex, go ahead. Live together. The Catholics…the Muslims can only have four. The Catholics can have up to three wives. I’ll add more for us because there are those who have not been married yet," the president said while distributing grants to cash transfer beneficiaries in Cebu on Sunday.
"Priests should be allowed to marry. That’s the only solution there. Even the gay ones, allow them to marry, same-sex marriage. I am in favor of that to put an end to the problem," he added.
It appears Duterte believes several problems in the Catholic Church would cease if clergy members were openly allowed to have sex and be gay. He shared similar sentiments, though more hostile, last month by saying:
“Only I can say bishops are sons of b*****s, damn you. That is true. Most of them are gay. They should come out in the open, cancel celibacy and allow them to have boyfriends.”
Back to this month, President Duterte then spoke on the latest sex scandals happening in Catholicism.
"Those bishops deceive people. It’s as if they are the only ones who are knowledgeable. Look at this now, Pope went to Dubai. What did he say? He said that the abuses are true. The sisters are being used by the priests," Duterte said.
At the start of February, Pope Francis admitted that nuns have historically been used as sexual slaves by clerics in the Catholic Church. He said that his predecessor, Pope Benedict, was forced to shut down an entire congregation of nuns who were being abused by priests.
Duterte then retold the story of how a priest allegedly abused him and his classmates when he was in high school at the Ateneo de Davao.
"I already shared that priests abused us when we were in high school. We were in the confession room but the priest’s hand would be there on our b****, squeezing them," he said.
"Good thing I have three b****. They weren’t bruised that much although it was held tight. I have three anyway. Who wants to count?"
At times, Rodrigo Duterte has been surprisingly supportive of LGBTQ people and same-sex marriage.
Back in 2017, Duterte expressed support for same sex marriage by saying, “I said I am for [same-]sex marriage if that is the trend of the modern times. If that will add to your happiness, I am for it.”
He then added, “Why impose a morality that is no longer working and almost passed. So I am with you.”
That said, he has also expressed anti-gay sentiments such as insisting that prisoners were “beyond reform” because time in prison had turned them gay.
It seems, though, that Rodrigo Duterte will always support LGBTQ people if it’s conveniently in opposition of the Catholic Church.
h/t: PhilStar Global
