CBCP president issues statement on Duterte's Pope-cursing act

Below is a statement of CPCP president Archbishop Socrates Villegas on presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Monday. What the world desperately needs now is leadership by example. We have so many leaders in office and many more aspiring to sit in office but are they examples of good citizenship? If the leaders we choose are to be leaders for national progress they must be visionaries AND exemplary.Corruption is indeed a great scourge of Philippine politics.The usual face of corruption that we recognize easily is stealing from public funds. Corruption, like a monster, is a devil with many faces. Killing people is corruption. Killing is a crime and a sin whether it is done by criminals or public officials no matter what the intention. Adultery is corruption. It makes married love cheap and uses people for pleasure. Adultery corrupts the family it destroys children and victimizes the weak. Vulgarity is corruption. When we find vulgarity funny, we have really become beastly and barbaric as a people. When a revered and loved and admired man like Pope Francis is cursed by a political candidate and the audience laugh, I can only bow my head and grieve in great shame. My countrymen has gone to the dregs.Is this the leadership by example that Mayor Duterte excites in us? Is this the leadership by example that makes a public official deserving of the title Honorable”?+SOCRATESVILLEGASArchbishop of Lingayen DagupanCBCP President