Palace: Evangelicals offer to wash Duterte’s feet as act of humility

Malacañang said Tuesday a group of Christian churches has offered to wash the feet of President Rodrigo Duterte in a bid to help the chief executive heal from his experience of being molested by a priest when he was young.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte willl meet with representatives from the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) in Malacañang but the date is still being finalized.

Roque could not say if the washing of the feet, an imitation of when Jesus washed the feet of his 12 disciples, would take place during the meeting.

“Although it is not the PCEC itself that was responsible for this form of abuse, nonetheless as Christians they felt that perhaps if they do that which is an act of humility, the President will understand that even if the church did him the harm, there is still the church that would want to acknowledge that a harm was done...perhaps that would help in the healing process,” Roque said in an interview with CNN Philippines.

“He [Duterte] doesn’t know what the PCEC wants to do but I’m sure he will appreciate that.”

Duterte earlier claimed that he and several other high school boys were sexually abused by an American priest when he was a teenager studying at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Davao University.

The Palace, meanwhile, attributed Duterte’s tirades against the Catholic Church to the President’s experience of molestation.

Duterte, amid intense criticism over his scathing remarks against God and the teachings of Christianity, had created a four-man committee which would dialogue with religious groups.

He is set to meet with Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president Davao Archbishop Romulo Valles on July 9. — Virgil Lopez/RSJ, GMA News