President Rodrigo Duterte again assailed the Catholic Church on Saturday for allegedly interfering in affairs of state, even as he expressed skepticism toward Church teachings, including the belief in the Holy Trinity.
“There is only one God … God the Father. Period. There is no other God,” the President said in a speech at Kidapawan City in Cotabato province, where certificates of land ownership were awarded to beneficiaries.
“You pray to one God. You cannot divide God into three. That’s silly,” he said.
The President also questioned Church documents that he said were written 3,000 years ago. Who wrote them, and why would they matter to the lives of people now, he asked.
Mr. Duterte also slammed the idea of hell. Heaven was where people go after they die, but there was no hell, he said, wondering aloud: “Why would God throw you to the fires and how will you burn?”
Reacting to the recent report of a priest hurting a child for failing to feed his pet labrador, the President compared the priest to Padre Damaso, a Spanish friar and villainous character in Jose Rizal’s novel “Noli Me Tangere,” which was written during the Spanish colonial era.