President Duterte: Catholic Priests Should be Allowed Boyfriends, 'Most Are Gay'
Filipino President claims almost 90 percent' of the clergy are homosexuals
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Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte delivered a hate-fuelled speech at a ceremony for a school close to capital Manila on Friday where he attacked the Catholic church claiming 'most priests are gay.'
Duterte then called on the Catholic church to allow priests to have boyfriends.
The President then doubled on his accusations calling 'almost 90 percent' of the clergy are homosexuals.
'Only I can say bishops are sons of b*****s, damn you. That is true. Most of them are gay,' he said.
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'They should come out in the open, cancel celibacy and allow them to have boyfriends.'
Duterte had previously spoken about his abuse at the hands of a priest when he was a child.
The attack comes a month after the Filipino president slammed Church leaders as "useless fools" during a speech on Wednesday in response to opposition to his controversial policies from high-ranking clergy members.
After the Catholic bishops cast doubt on Duterte's extrajudicial drug war, the outspoken politician branded the religion as "the most hypocritical institution."
He also claimed that 90 percent of priests are homosexuals who lack any standing to "postulate on my morality," before exhorting his people to "kill them" during the fiery speech.
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Duterte's strong remarks seem to be in response to the Catholic church's opposition to his government's ongoing war on drugs, which has left many dead.
Duterte's comments were made at his speech in the presidential palace on December 6, According to local reports.
'These bishops that you guys have kill them. They are useless fools. All they do is criticize,' Duterte said.
He has also called the church 'the most hypocritical institution.'
Duterte has slammed the church for high-profile international sexual abuse scandals involving priests like Cardinal George Pell, the Catholic Church's third highest-ranking clergy member, was found guilty of sexually abusing two young boys by an Australian court.
Cardinal Pell was unanimously convicted of child sex abuse by an Australian jury on Tuesday, during the final verdict of the historic trial which began in the Summer of 2017.
The 77-year-old Vatican treasurer is the most senior Catholic to be charged with sexual offenses, in the case involving the sexual abuse of two choir boys in Australia while serving as Archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.
