Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has renewed his attacks on bishops in the Catholic majority country by describing them as “sons of bitches.”

The outspoken leader has been criticized by the Church for his war on drugs in which 5,000 people have been killed by police since 2016. “Only I can say bishops are sons of bitches, damn you. That is true,”

Duterte said in a speech during a groundbreaking ceremony for a school north of capital Manila on Jan. 10, Reuters reported. Duterte also suggested that most bishops are homosexual. “Most of them are gay,” he said. “They should come out in the open, cancel celibacy and allow them to have boyfriends.”

The president, who is not a regular churchgoer, said early in his presidency that he was sexually abused by a priest when he was a boy. Almost every time he addresses a crowd, he starts by acknowledging that his staff prepared a speech for him — but he never calls it his own. He always makes a point of putting some distance between him and his speechwriters.

Camillus Perera’s father was so impressed with his son’s sketches and cartoons in his younger years that he told him: “One day you will capture the attention of the world.” The comment proved prophetic.

Now Perera, a devout Catholic, is one of the most famous cartoonists in Sri Lanka — a country in chaos as it reels from a constitutional crisis inspired by a power play by President Maithripala Sirisena and two competing prime ministers.

The artist, whose pictures are often inflected with political messages, now ranks among the top four cartoonists in the country, joining the elite ranks of compatriots Aubrey Collette, Wijesoma and S.C. Opatha.

He lives in Negombo, near capital Colombo, and has spent more than half a century perfecting his art.

His vocation began when he was a schoolboy as he liked to draw cartoons and caricatures of his friends and teachers.

Even though his principal disapproved when he first saw Perera’s caricature of him — sitting by a table with a bottle of liquor on it — the older man was wise enough to recognize the boy’s talent, and he encouraged him to keep developing his skills.

Singapore may be known as a fast-paced financial centre but its growing Catholic community is spreading the word of God even at work.

Established in 2008 as a non-profit organization under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Singapore, the Catholic Business Network (CBN) brings together thousands of “friends” willing to serve the community and promote Catholic morals, values and ethics in the workplace.

President Goh Teik Poh said that business owners can be the voice and face of Christ by embodying Catholic social values in the workplace and showing how they conduct their business with integrity and care for their staff, AsiaNews reported.

Goh, a 59-year-old managing director in the maritime and logistics industry, said entrepreneurs and professionals play a prominent role in their families, companies and communities.

“We don’t have to look very far to see individuals, perhaps within our own families or communities, who need a listening ear or a helping hand to get out of a difficult situation that they find themselves in,” he said.

Singapore’s Christian community is on the rise. Catholics number about 383,000 or 9% of the population and are active in the country’s political and economic life. CBN’s motto is “Shepherds in the Marketplace.”

“We spend a good part of our lives at work. Living our faith therefore must imply that we live out our faith at work as well,” said vice-president Chan Beng Seng.

For the first time in nine years, Asia Bibi will be with her husband on Christmas.

But many of her fellow Christians in Pakistan are afraid of a backlash this holiday season in the wake of Bibi’s on October exoneration by the nation’s Supreme Court on blasphemy charges.

Recent cases of abductions, allegations of blasphemy and hate crimes against Christians, who make up 2 percent of the South Asian country’s population, have led churches to beef up security as parishioners sing carols around bonfires and watch Nativity dramas.

“This is the best time for us. We plan the Christmas play throughout the year and arrange several programs in the festive season,” said a 17-year-old college student in Lahore. “But it is a tense situation in the country. We hope that the government will facilitate us in marking our religious season.”

A mother of five, including three stepchildren, Bibi was arrested on blasphemy charges in 2010 after she allegedly insulted the Prophet Muhammed during an argument over whether she should have drunk from the same water bucket used by her Muslim co-workers on a farm.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court acquitted her of the charges. That sparked unrest in Pakistan as Islamic hard-liners called for her death. She and her husband are now in hiding in a government safe house.

The backlash has led many Christians to tone down their celebrations this year.

“We used to conduct carol singing in our neighborhood every Christmas,” said Natasha Joseph, a 31-year-old housewife in Karachi. “This year we are scared to use loudspeakers as some Muslims might complain.”

Some Christians will stay inside this Christmas.

As Christmas approaches, officials in China have requested strict controls on festive celebrations as the country continues its crackdown on religions at the end of a year that has seen stepped -up persecution of Christians.

Shops and street vendors alike are reportedly being banned from selling wares considered “controversial” by the state in various parts of the country.

Meanwhile, some underground churches — including those organized at people’s homes, and others not sanctioned by the officially atheist, communist government — have been warned not to hold any gatherings.

A notice issued by the Urban Management Bureau in Langfang city of Hebei province in northern China on Dec. 15 that was circulated online requires all local law enforcement agencies to “comprehensively ban all Christmas items such as Christmas trees and Santa Claus placed along the street.” Moreover, they have been instructed to “clear away all Christmas stickers, banners, signs, light-box advertisements and other related promotional items.”

Two Christian brothers have been sentenced to death in Pakistan on blasphemy charges, the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) announced on December 14.

Qaisar and Amoon Ayub, from Lahore, were arrested in 2015 after one of the two was accused of posting offensive material against Islam on their website. Qaisar and his wife Amina have three children, whilst Amoon is married to Huma, a teacher at Lahore Cathedral School.

The allegations surfaced in 2011 when they were accused of posting disrespectful material on their website; however, the accused say that their website was not active since 2009.

The two brothers have been held in Jhelum District Jail since their arrest. Additional Session judge Javed Iqbal Bosal informed them of the sentence directly in the prison for security reasons.

CLAAS, an interdenomina-tional organisation dedicated to the victims of religious intolerance, has been representing the accused and now plans to appeal the sentence before the Lahore High Court.

Blasphemy charges tend to trigger violent reaction among Islamic radicals, who interfere with the proper operations of the court system and threaten judges.

A church in Dubai has cut down on its golden jubilee celebrations and donated 10 million rupees (Dh 542,643) to the flood-ravaged south Indian State of Kerala, church officials said. Announcing the details of the valedictory function of the 50th anniversary celebrations of St Thomas Orthodox Cathedral scheduled on Dec. 28, church officials said many programs in the year-long celebrations were called off to divert the money for flood relief. Worshipers, majority of who hail from Kerala, also generously contributed to the church’s management which donated 200,000 rupees to the state Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund and directly helped 130 families affected by the deluge in August.

While many would search online for wallpapers and images of Jesus Christ on special occasions like Christ-mas, this Indian expat has one of the largest collections of Christ’s images on the wall of his Dubai accommodation.

Lorence Maman Neriam-parampil, 45, proudly owns a collection of over 25,000 unique pictures of Jesus. He has displayed all of them in a massive fabric banner measuring 33×8 feet on the wall of his apartment in Al Ghusais.

Hailing from the south Indian State of Kerala, Lorence was born in a family with strong connections with the Catholic Church, with 10 priests and 31 nuns belonging to the family.

“We had the rare privilege of Mother Teresa visiting our ancestral home. My family has built a church as an offering in my name in Eenthumkari village in Kannur district,” Lorence, a Dubai resident for 15 years, told Gulf News.

His cousin, Fr George Alumkal, who has a mammoth collection of crosses and statues and figurines of Jesus and Mother Mary in Kerala, was the inspiration for Lorence to start a collection of Christ’s images. That was when he was just 20.