Pope T-shirts axed from Philippine stores after backlash

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/29/pope-francis-tshirts-philippines

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The Philippines’s largest broadcaster has withdrawn souvenir T-shirts for a forthcoming papal visit from its stores after coming under fire from Catholic bishops irked by the words “no religion” emblazoned on them.

Pope Francis, who has been praised for being reform-minded regarding long-contentious issues such as remarriage, divorce and homosexuality, will visit the predominantly Roman Catholic country next month.

The T-shirts, printed by the ABS-CBN television network, bore the statement “No race. No religion. I embrace diversity” and were marketed with the hashtag PopeTYSM – meaning “Thank you for the compassion” in Tagalog.

While acknowledging that the statement was intended to convey the pontiff’s “openness”, the message was “misleading and quite frankly erroneous”, said Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines. “We urge our Catholic faithful not to patronise items with misleading posts and statements.”

“Francis has never said and taught that religion and race do not matter, because they most certainly do. It is what selfish, uncharitable and judgmental people do with religion and race that is a problem.”

ABS-CBN apologised on Monday and pulled the T-shirts from its shops and those of its retail partners. Three of the broadcaster’s other designs, which bore the statements “Who am I to judge?”, “Thank you for the compassion” and “Speak less, act more” remained on sale.

Pope Francis will arrive in Manila on 15 January for a four-day visit during which he will meet President Benigno Aquino, survivors of super-typhoon Haiyan in Leyte island, and celebrate mass in the capital’s largest outdoor park.