Philippines: Bishops Pledge To Work With New President, Despite His Cursing Pope
By UCA News
Hours before the presidential runner-up conceded defeat to Rodrigo Duterte, the head of the Philippines’ bishops’ conference revealed the church’s “great promise” to winning candidates: “vigilant collaboration.”
“The greatest promise the church can offer any government is vigilant collaboration, and that offer, we make now. We will urge our people to work with the government for the good of all, and we shall continue to be vigilant so that ever so often we may speak out to teach and to prophesy, to admonish and to correct — for this is our vocation,” Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan said in a statement.
He credited God’s will in the election results, saying soon-to-be winners should recognize their victory as the Lord’s doing.
“God’s hand is to be recognized in the events of history. Credit then, your victory, neither to fame nor popularity but to God who calls you to service and to care for the weakest and the most distressed in our midst,” stressed the bishops.
Last November, the presumptive winner of the May 9 election, Rodrigo Duterte, cursed Pope Francis in a speech on national television.
