Rodrigo Duterte flummoxes the Philippine church

“WE NEED A national exorcism,” says one celebrant at a mid-week mass in Manila’s San Carlos Seminary. The faithful see the devil’s work in the assaults on the Catholic church made by none other than the Philippine president. For almost three years Rodrigo Duterte has lambasted the institution and its symbols, calling God “stupid”, the Holy Trinity “silly” and saints “drunkards”. Bishops are “useless fools”, he said in December. “Kill them,” he went on—several priests have indeed been murdered on Mr Duterte’s watch. He says he was molested by a priest as a boy. “I told you so,” he said on February 20th, on the eve of a summit on clerical sexual abuse in the Vatican.