At Vidal's wake, Duterte expresses hope for good rapport with Catholic Church

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday indicated that he wants a good relationship with the Catholic Church as he paid his last respects to the late Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal.

“So mao na akong gihandom na it could be a good rapport between me and the Church and the people, tanang atong mga kaigsuonan, mga Muslim, mga Moro sa Mindanao, kay kinahanglan gyud ta makig-istorya,” he said. 

[So that’s what I’m thinking about, that it could be a good rapport between me and the Church and the people, all our brothers and sisters, the Muslim, the Moro in Mindanao, we all need to talk.]

Duterte visited the wake of Vidal early Monday morning, which he said was to fulfill his obligation as a member of the Catholic Church, aside from being a Cebuano and a President. Duterte traces his roots to Cebu province.

The President remembered Vidal as a man of peace who was about spreading love. He vowed to declare Vidal's interment on October 26 as a holiday at least in Cebu.

“Sa iyang pagdala sa simbahan… Sa iyang kadugayon niyang pagdala sa simbahan, wa gyud ka’uy masulti kang Eminence,” he said.

“And I’m most grateful for these conciliatory words. So naay deperensya man gyud ‘tang tanan kay ‘di man ta magkasinabot sa tanan,” he added.

[The way he led the Church… In the years that he led the Church, you can never say anything bad about His Eminence.

[And I’m most grateful for these conciliatory words. So we’re all different because we can’t always understand each other.]

Since assumming the presidency last year, Duterte had a rocky relationship with the Catholic Church, which has spoken out about the rising death toll in the war on drugs at the center of his administration. Duterte, in turn, has repeatedly spoken out about allegations of abuse in the Church. —JST, GMA News