MANILA – Vatican’s representative to the Philippines invited President Rodrigo Duterte to the “Day of the Pope” celebration in the former’s Manila residence on Friday, a pastor said.
The supposed invitation from Italian Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, the apostolic nuncio to the Philippines, came on the heels of the President calling God “stupid.”
“The papal nuncio has invited the President on Friday because it’s the Day of the Pope,” Pastor Boy Saycon said in a press briefing televised on ANC and livestreamed on the official Facebook page of Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque.
At the time Saycon was meeting with Roque and Foreign Affairs undersecretary Ernesto Abella. They were part of a three-man panel Duterte formed to initiate talks with the Roman Catholic church and other religious leaders on Wednesday at the Greenhills Christian Fellowship headquarters in Ortigas in light of his tirades against the church.
According to Roque, the invitation was coursed through the Department of Foreign Affairs – but he was not certain.
“I think there’s an invitation issued for the President to attend the eve [sic] of the Pope’s Day celebration at the papal nuncio’s residence,” Roque said.
“But I will check first because apparently the invitation was forwarded to the Department of Foreign Affairs, so I will call the office if there’s any information on this invitation,” he added.
Another thing Roque was not sure about – if Duterte’s schedule would allow him to attend the celebration.
“I do not know if the schedule of the President will permit it, and I do not know if the President will ask the three of us to go to represent him,” said the spokesman.
Saycon said the three-man panel was set to speak with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines before the bishops’ enclave in Tagaytay over the weekend.
Duterte formed the panel after several religious leaders took notice of his scathing remarks about God and the Roman Catholic church in a speech at the National ICT Summit in Davao City. (PNA)
