Philippine economy

HOAX: Pope Francis ‘agrees’ with Duterte, ‘slams’ abusive priests

Rappler.com

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

HOAX: Pope Francis ‘agrees’ with Duterte, ‘slams’ abusive priests
The claim as contained in a blog post's headline is not supported by the article text itself

Claim: Pope Francis “agrees” with President Rodrigo Duterte’s tirades against Catholic priests, and has told abusive priests that they are “all [a] disgrace to God.”

The blog insiderph.com posted the claim on December 10, with the headline, “Pope Francis agrees to Du30 of priest abusers: ‘You are all disgrace to God.'” The post has minimal social media engagement.

A reader submitted this claim to Rappler for verification.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The claim in the headline is not supported by the article text itself.

The blog post only copied the text of an August 20 BBC News report about Pope Francis’ letter addressing reports of child sex abuse leveled against abusive priests.

In the letter, also dated August 20, Pope Francis condemned such “atrocities” and attempts to cover up these abusive acts. The pontiff also called for an end to the “culture of death” and asked for forgiveness, reported BBC News.

“With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives. We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them,” wrote Pope Francis.

The supposed quote in the claim, “You are all disgrace to God,” is only written in the headline and nowhere in the blog post’s body. Duterte wasn’t mentioned in the blog post either, except in the headline. In addition, the headline was poorly constructed.

The blog insiderph.com is similar to other blogs Rappler has checked. It does not declare its editorial board, contact details, or company profile. It also has improper bylines. Its content is mostly pro-administration and anti-opposition.

According to a whois lookup on ICANN, the blog was created only on September 21, 2018. Miguel Imperial and Michael Bueza/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

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