Davao City Mayor and Presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
DAVAO CITY—Bishop Romulo Valles of the Archdiocese of Davao has confirmed that Mayor Rodrigo Duterte did receive a response from the Vatican to his letter seeking forgiveness from Pope Francis for cursing him earlier.
Valles said the letter was signed by Angelo Becciu, one of the Pope’s secretaries.
“His Holiness Pope Francis has received your letter of 21 January 2016, and he has asked me to respond on his behalf. He appreciates the sentiments which you expressed,” the Vatican letter to Duterte said, according to Valles.
“The Holy Father offers the assurance of his prayers for you, as he invokes upon you the divine blessings of wisdom and peace,” the letter also said.
The two-paragraph letter was dated Feb. 24, 2016.
Valles, in a hastily called press conference, said the letter was coursed through the office of the Papal Nuncio in Manila, which forwarded it to his office.
“We were so busy with the Holy Week activities that we did not have time to go through the mail,” he said, adding that they spotted the letter from the Vatican in the pile of mail only last week.
Valles said it was nice to know that the Pope found time to respond to a letter from a member of the flock.
“As it is nice to know that a member of the flock would write to the Pope to ask for forgiveness,” he added.
Earlier, Duterte’s told reporters he had received a letter from Pope Francis, forgiving him for cursing the Pontiff.
A Church official said this was an “empty claim” unless the Vatican confirmed it.
“It’s hard to comment on the veracity of such reports. Unless the Vatican confirms the existence of such a letter purportedly expressing forgiveness for Duterte’s cursing, then it’s just an empty claim by the camp of Duterte,” said Fr. Jerome Secillano, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines public affairs committee executive secretary. With a report from Tina G. Santos
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