President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday attacked the Catholic Church for its “creeping influence” on policies that government believes beneficial for Filipinos, Philstar Global reports. This critical statement came just days after Duterte vowed to be silent about his issues with the Church and his spokesperson urged a “ceasefire” between the two sides. Duterte has provoked a storm of outrage after he called the Christian god “stupid” and a “son of a bitch”.  Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said on Monday that he was not ruling out the possibility that Catholic Church leaders were conniving with communists to oust Duterte. Malacañang is making these claims about the Church at a time when it is trying to dialogue with religious groups and setting up a meeting between the CBCP and Duterte.