MALACAÑANG on Wednesday said the Catholic faithful should not be offended but instead “welcome” statements made by President Rodrigo Duterte against the Church, as these are his ways of triggering “intellectual discussion.”

Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said such pronouncements of Duterte, who days earlier called the biblical teachings of the Holy Trinity as “silly,” were his “way of shaking long-held religious tenets and beliefs that instead of molding them (the faithful) into being righteous individuals make them cling to religion as an opium.”