Bishop on latest Rody rant: We’re not perfect

MANILA, Philippines - Batangas Archbishop Ramon Arguelles admitted yesterday priests and bishops are not perfect, but called on the faithful to instead follow Christ’s teachings and expose erring clergymen to help the Catholic Church cleanse its ranks.

Arguelles was reacting to President Duterte’s most recent tirades against the Catholic clergy’s misdeeds, including falling short of helping drug addicts while criticizing the government’s unrelenting war against illegal drugs.

“Churchmen are not perfect. Nevertheless, they are supposed to proclaim what is right and proper even if they themselves fall short of what they teach,” Arguelles said.

While there are clergymen who taint the image of the Church with their wrongdoing, he said these erring men do not represent the entire Catholic Church hierarchy.

Arguelles encouraged the public to report wrongdoing committed by any member of the clergy.

“Bishops and priests who hide serious misdeeds are harming the Church with their infidelities. If anyone has concrete evidence of misdeed, the authorities better know it and clean its ranks. But the fault of some should not be blamed on all,” he said.

Arguelles compared an erring priest to a sick doctor, who still has to attend to people suffering from illnesses.

The Batangas prelate said the faithful should follow the teachings of Jesus Christ to put more weight on what their priests say rather than their actions.

“Christ is right: do what they say, not what they do,” he said.

Last Thursday, President Duterte dug up old controversies surrounding the Catholic Church, whose officials have been critical of his anti-illegal drugs campaign.

Duterte said church leaders had only complained but not done enough to help eliminate the drug problem in the country.

He said Church officials have no moral ascendancy to criticize his campaign because it has its own indiscretions, such as the issue of the “Pajero bishops” when some prelates reportedly received vehicles from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) during the time of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is now a representative of Pampanga.

He also recalled past reports of priests having illicit affairs and sexually molesting young boys. Duterte has claimed a priest had sexually molested him during confession when he was a young boy.

Duterte also noted that despite the millions of pesos worth of donations it receives every week, the Catholic Church has not spent anything to build even just a five-room drug rehabilitation building.

The President suggested that since 80 percent of Filipinos are Catholics, priests could preach from their pulpits about the evils of illegal drugs, which actually kill people.