Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque today congratulated Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle for being promoted to cardinal-bishop, one of the highest-ranking positions in the Vatican.
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“We are congratulating his Eminence Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle for being promoted to the position of Cardinal-Bishop. This is the highest title of a cardinal in the Catholic Church,” Roque said in English and Filipino in a virtual presser.
“Your victory, your Eminence, is the victory of the Philippine nation. Thank you so much for the honor and congratulations,” Roque added.
Vatican News reported over the weekend that Pope Francis promoted Tagle in an audience granted to Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, Substitute for General Affairs for the Secretariat of State, on April 14. Tagle used to be Manila’s archbishop until he moved to the Vatican in February to become the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Read: Duterte says priests are no better than him, ‘some have two wives’
A month later, President Rodrigo Duterte claimed in a public speech that the Filipino priest was removed from his Manila post by Pope Francis because Tagle was allegedly siphoning the Church’s money to opposition politicians, reported CNN Philippines. Duterte’s piece of gossip was just the latest in a long series of attacks against the Philippine Catholic Church, and at one point he even said its members were “full of sh*t” and “full of corruption.” In 2018, Duterte even said that the Christian god is “stupid.”
