THE REBELLION LARGELY THE WORK OF A SECRET ORGANIZATION.
Secret societies, and, above all, that great guild known as
Freemasonry, are certainly foremost, if not controlling, factors in
the warfare made upon throne and altar during the last one hundred
and fifty years.
In saying this we do not intend to express any opinion for or against
the sentiments of Protestant Freemasons in England and the United
States, numbers of whom, no doubt, reprobate the anti-Christian spirit
this association shows on the Continent and in Spanish America. They
have been brought up to regard it as a perfectly harmless and
beneficent institution, and cannot understand the attitude taken with
regard to it by the Catholic Church.
It is quite true that Freemasonry may have in these countries kept to
its original constitution, which, we may admit, was of a beneficent
nature. But what Catholic writers on the subject urgently insist
upon is, that on the Continent it very soon assumed a political and
dangerous character. For a long time it was not condemned by the
Church, and many good Catholics of rank and position gave their names
to it. It was only when its dangerous tendencies came to light that it
received solemn ecclesiastical condemnation, and that Catholics were
forbidden to join it. For more than a century this secret guild has
been at the bottom of the revolutions that have desolated the modern
world. Some years previous to the French Revolution, German envoys
of the Society of the Illuminati advised the French Masons to form a
political committee in each lodge; and in time, as Robison remarks,
these committees led to the formation of the Jacobin Club. "Thus were
the lodges of France," says this writer, "converted in a very short
time into a set of affiliated secret societies, corresponding with
the mother lodges of Paris, receiving from thence their principles
and instructions, and ready to rise up at once when called upon to
carry on the great work of overturning the State. Hence it arose
that the French aimed, in the very beginning, at subverting the
whole world. Hence, too, may be explained how the revolution took
place almost in a moment in every part of France. The revolutionary
societies were early formed, and were working in secret before the
opening of the National Assembly; and the whole nation changed,
and changed again and again, as if by beat of drum."
In Spain, since its introduction it assumed a sanguinary and virulent
character; it brought about revolutions and civil wars, embittered
classes against one another, wronged and starved the clergy, robbed,
turned adrift, and banished the religious Orders.
There is, indeed, a good deal of difficulty in tracing all these evils
to the action of the Freemasons; for on the Continent, especially in
Spain, the society has been always of a more secret nature than in
these countries. Members of the Craft in England and the United States
are generally well known to belong to it; their halls and lodges in the
larger towns are imposing and conspicuous; their emblems and badges
are often seen in the light of day. But on the Continent we see very
little of all this; it is a thoroughly secret society; the members and
their movements are carefully veiled from sight. As we said before,
Freemasonry, on its introduction to the Continent, at once assumed a
political character. The Deists and free-thinkers of the last century
utilized it as a potent means of combining against the Church, and of
carrying on their evil propaganda. In this way they were aided by the
Jansenists, with different motives it is true, but still, when it was
a question of opposing the religious Orders, with a whole heart. The
working of the society in Spain in this century has necessarily been
more stealthy and insidious than in France, for there it was face to
face with a truly Catholic population devotedly attached to the Church.
By means of atheistical French literature, the works of Voltaire and
other unbelievers, translated into Spanish, brought across the border
in large bales, and disseminated through the Peninsula, the Freemasons
had already indoctrinated a large number of active and restless spirits
with revolutionary and anti-Christian ideas, when the troubles and
civil war of 1834 gave them the opportunity they desired of making an
onslaught on the religious Orders. At such times the minds of men are
in a ferment, and the most incredible reports may be spread abroad,
and will be implicitly believed by the populace. Accordingly, on the
awful visitation of cholera, which swept over Europe at that time,
desolating cities and towns, and leaving thousands upon thousands of
families in mourning, in Madrid the report was industriously spread by
the Masons that the Monks and Friars had poisoned the wells, and were
the cause of the sickness among the people. In a mad fit of rage the
populace rose on all sides, rushed to the convents and monasteries,
and murdered all the inmates they could lay their hands upon. This
awful event is referred to in the Memorial.
Such a state of things may seem hardly possible in the nineteenth
century; and yet a similar catastrophe nearly happened in Lisbon a
few years ago, the circumstances of which were related to the writer
by one of the Dominicans who was living there at the time. It appears
that the Dominican nuns had opened a dispensary for the relief of the
poor. Strange to say, the frightful report soon went abroad that the
nuns were stealing children, and killing and boiling them down to make
a healing ointment out of their remains. The city was in an uproar;
it was unsafe for priests and nuns to be seen in the streets; and
the populace who really believed the absurd story, being in a furious
state of excitement, were on the point of burning down the convent,
and maltreating the nuns.
To return to Spain, the popular rising in Madrid was utilized by
the revolutionary party in carrying out, the following year, the
suppression of all the convents and monasteries in the country. The
religious were driven out into the world; and their lands, goods,
libraries, and art-treasures were sold for the benefit of the public
debt, and to supply means to carry on the civil war. The bishops
and secular clergy as well were also robbed, numerous episcopal
sees were suppressed, and the goods of the Church declared to be
national property. The Freemason Government promised to look after the
interests of the Church by paying salaries to all ecclesiastics. As
a result, Spain was filled, in a few years, with a poverty-stricken
and starving clergy, and ruined churches and mouldering abbeys were
to be seen on all sides. The effects of that great spoliation are
still felt in the Peninsula; for though the religious Orders have
revived in the meantime, and numerous convents and monasteries have
been built, the priests are not in sufficient numbers for the needs
of the population, which thereby, in many places, is suffering great
spiritual destitution.
The policy of robbery and confiscation was boldly advocated for
the Philippines, just before the late war, in one of the leading
reviews of Madrid. Juan Ferrando Gomez, in a series of articles
[3] bitterly hostile to the Philippine Friars, proposed their
entire suppression. They should be turned out of their convents and
missionary houses by a secret decree, of which they were to be kept
in ignorance till the execution actually took place. Their convents
in Manila would be useful as barracks and Government offices, their
country estates could be divided amongst their tenants, and the rents
formerly paid to the Friars could be commuted into a tax to be paid
to the State. Moreover, the Archbishop of Manila, and any others of
the bishops belonging to the religious Orders, should be forced out
of the country. Besides that, the schools and university belonging
to the Friars should also be either suppressed, or taken out of their
hands. Reading these flagrantly unjust proposals in the light of recent
Spanish history, and with the help of the Memorial, we are inclined
to believe that, without much further pressure from the Freemasons,
the Spanish Ministry would have carried them out. Fortunately for
the Friars, as well as the natives, they have no voice in the matter
now. Under the American flag the religious will be treated as citizens,
having the common right of citizens, neither to be molested in their
persons nor robbed of their property. The President of the United
States has declared this in clear terms to the Holy See.
With regard to Freemasonry in Spanish or Latin America, the Rev. Reuben
Parsons has recently written on the subject (see Appendix III.),
substantiating all his assertions by quotations from Masonic organs
or other unprejudiced sources, and clearly exposing the systematic war
which the lodges in South and Central America have carried on against
religion. He shows how it has started revolutions, assassinated the
leaders of the people, exiled the clergy, and persecuted the Church
in other ways.
We will now endeavor to trace the history of Freemasonry in the
Philippines and its connection with the insurrection there. In the
Philippines Freemasonry found itself face to face with a simple
native population, mostly Christian, and an active body of Spanish
missionaries belonging to various religious Orders, loyal to their
native country, possessing unbounded influence over their flocks, and
rapidly bringing under the yoke of Christ the tribes who were still
Pagan. The religious were a power that they could not hope to cope with
for a long time; and so at first they were left unmolested, while the
members of the Craft were gathering converts, and strengthening their
position, among a class more suitable to their nefarious designs, viz.,
the mestizos, or half-breeds; the Filipinos, or those who, though born
in the country, consider themselves the pure-blooded descendants of
the early colonists; and the Spanish officials, numbers of whom were
already Masons before they went to the Archipelago.
That the Freemasonry in the Philippines has shown itself of
a distinctly sanguinary nature is not to be wondered at when we
consider its close connection with Spain. The Lodge of Action, or
Red Lodge, composed of determined revolutionists ready to use the
dagger, and prepared to wade through a sea of blood to accomplish
their designs, represented by Mazzini and the Carbonari in Italy, has
a large following in Spain, and was presided over, a few years ago,
by Zorilla, the Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Spain.
The following account of the growth of Freemasonry in the Philippines,
taken from the Rosario, an organ published in Rome, the editor of
which has access to special information, and is in close touch with
friars who have been living for many years in the archipelago as
missionaries, will be of profound interest. In or about 1860 many
of the strangers who frequented the Philippines were Freemasons, and
members of the lodges of Singapore, Hongkong, Java, Macao, and the open
ports of China. This was at a period when England, Holland, France,
the United States, for colonial reasons of their own, showed hostility
to Spain. It was therefore quite natural that, in those lodges,
an anti-Spanish spirit gradually arose in the Philippines. Seeing
this spirit arising, two officials of the Spanish navy, Malcampo and
Mendez Nunez, Freemasons themselves, determined to oppose Freemasonry
to Freemasonry, by founding lodges that would uphold the Spanish
interests; they therefore established, at Cavite, the Lodge Primera
Luz Filippina, placing it under the Grand Orient of Lusitania, and
a little afterwards another lodge at Zamboanga, for the officials,
seamen, and civil functionaries who held positions in Mindanao.
In opposition to these, the strangers residing in the Philippines
established at Manila itself a lodge of the Scottish rite, as a
point d'appui for the enemies of Spain. They thus moved the centre
of conspiracy against Spain to the islands themselves, and tried to
draw the natives into their nets by giving them important positions
in the Craft. The two opposing factions of Freemasonry also increased
their numbers largely by taking in the political exiles who were
sent to the Philippines as a result of the part taken by them in the
various civil wars in the Peninsula, most of whom gave their names
and services to one or the other. It is remarkable that these two
bodies, guided by opposite political principles, one depending on
a Spanish centre and directed principally by Spaniards, the other
directed principally by Germans, English, and Americans, and opposed
to Spanish interests, found, at least in one direction, a point of
concord, namely, in opposition to the religious Orders. Although
the Spanish Masons were actuated by a love for their mother-country,
still the well-known anti-clericalism of Freemasonry prevailed over
every other consideration, blinding them to the fact that the best and
most influential representatives of Spain in the Philippines were to be
found in the religious Orders, who were the only civilizing force able
to deal with the natives. They thus indirectly paved the way for the
insurrection; for it is well known that from the ranks of the opposing
factions, and principally by reason of their anti-clerical tendencies,
arose the sanguinary society of the "Katipunan," which made it its
direct aim to expel the friars, and overturn the Spanish government
in the islands. The Grand Orient, the organ of this society, declared
that one of the first articles of its programme was the extermination
of the religious. And here it may be noticed that the ninth term
of the proposals made by the insurgents to America was as follows:
"There shall be a general religious toleration; but measures shall be
adopted for the abolition and expulsion of the religious communities,
who, with an iron hand, have hitherto demoralized the actual civil
administration."
In the meantime the lodges increased in number, so much so that two
years ago there were at Manila sixteen lodges affiliated to the Grand
Orient of Spain, and one at least in every pueblo in the province
of Luzon, and also lodges in Zamboanga and the Visaya Islands; an
Anglo-German club-lodge, on the books of which were inscribed the
names of a great part of the Government officials; also the German
Union, affiliated to the Grand Orient of Berlin; the society of
S. Giovanni del Monte, a centre common to Swiss, French, Belgian,
and Dutch Masons. In all, according to reliable statistics, there
were a hundred lodges and 25,000 initiates. When the Freemasonry
of the Philippines had gathered these numbers under its banner, the
insurrection broke out; and of its 25,000 members, at least 20,000
were to be found in the ranks of the rebels. Could any clearer proof
than this be found that the insurrection in the Philippines is the
direct work of Freemasonry?
We will here call the attention of our readers to two of the
illustrations. The first is a collection of various seals and stamps,
forty-one in number, in use by the various branches of the Katipunan,
the sanguinary secret society of the natives. Masonic emblems, the
compass and rule, the triangle, the keys, etc., are to be found on
almost all of them, proving beyond doubt the Masonic direction and
constitution of the society. Turn now to the other illustration,--a
Masonic apron, worn at secret meetings and also in battle, which was
found on the body of an insurgent after an engagement. No concealment
here of methods to be used,--the head dripping with blood, one
hand grasping the bleeding head, and the other holding the dagger,
sufficiently attest to all beholders the work of the Red Lodge.
The position of the religious Orders in the Philippines, just before
the war broke out between Spain and America, had become so perilous
and unbearable, that they addressed a long Memorial to the Spanish
Government, exposing their grievances, explaining the cause of the
rebellion, and suggesting remedies suitable for the situation.
This Memorial is more than a mere appeal to the Spanish Government. It
is a challenge to the civilized world, made by men whose dignity and
honor have been outraged by awful and unjust charges levelled at them
by their foes, and spread far and near by the press. The Memorial has
been put into print by the Friars, and scattered through Spain; it
has been translated into French, and now it appears (in a condensed
form) in an English dress. Up to the present, at any rate, it has
not drawn forth an answer from those whose calumnies were the cause
of its appearance. From another point of view it is of interest,
giving us valuable information as to the causes of the rebellion,
and incidentally throwing a lurid light upon the dark places and dark
workings of Freemasonry. Its importance as an authoritative exposition
lies in the fact that it emanates from the combined heads of all the
religious Orders in the Philippines, men having under their spiritual
care more than five out of the six millions of Christians in the
country. It is signed by Father Manuel Gutierrez, Provincial of the
Augustinians; Father Gilberto Martin, Commissary-Provincial of the
Franciscans; Father Francisco Ajarro, Provincial of the Recollects;
Father Candido Garcia Valles, Vicar-Provincial of the Dominicans;
Pio Pi, S. J., Superior of the Missions of the Society of Jesus.
We doubt whether any official notice was taken of the document by the
Spanish Government. It was on its way to Spain when, on the declaration
of war by America, Admiral Dewey stole into Manila Bay by night,
shattered the Spanish fleet the next morning at Cavite, and laid siege
to Manila. In the meantime, too, the Spanish Ministry had resigned;
and when the documents arrived at its destination, a new Ministry was
in office, under Senor Sagasta, with a new colonial minister. Facing
bravely, but ineffectually, one of the greatest powers in the world,
the new Ministry was entirely taken up with cares and interests on
which depended the existence of Spain as a nation.
A striking characteristic of the memorial is its outspoken insistence
upon Freemasonry as the principal cause of the Rebellion, a position
not unwarranted in view of the evidence presented on previous pages. So
much has been heard from the opponents of the religious Orders, that
a word from themselves, in their own defence, will have all the air
of novelty. We reprint the memorial, quite confident that it will
not suffer by comparison with what has appeared from the other side.
The Memorial of the Philippine Friars to the Spanish Government,
April, 1898.
TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE COLONIAL MINISTER.
In addition to the telegram sent to His Excellency, the
Governor-General and Viceroy, on the first of this month, that
he might bring it officially under your Excellency's notice,
which the said authority informs us has been done, we, the
Superiors of the Congregations of the Augustinians, Franciscans,
Recollects, Dominicans, and Jesuits, have the honor of presenting
this Statement to his Majesty, King Alfonso XIII., and, in his
royal name, to Her Majesty the Queen Regent, Dona Maria Christina,
to the President and Members of the Crown Ministerial Council,
and more especially to your Excellency as Colonial Minister. We
address this Statement directly to your Excellency, according to
law and custom, that you may deign to bring it under the notice of
the exalted personages already mentioned, and even if it appears
desirable before the nation, duly assembled in the Cortes of
the kingdom.
The time has come for us faithful and constant upholders of Spanish
rule in the Philippines to break our traditional silence. The hour
has also come to defend our honor, which has been so much assailed,
and our holy and patriotic ministry, which has been the object
of the most terrible and unjustifiable accusations and calumnies.
We have borne patiently with the Freemasons and insurgents,
known and unknown, who in their newspapers, clubs, and public
meetings, have for the last eighteen months insulted and vilified
us, accusing us, among other things, of having fostered the
rebellion. We have discovered to our sorrow that a number of
Spaniards, having resided in these islands for a longer or shorter
period as the case might be, on their return to the Peninsula have
spoken of us in terms which they would not have dared to employ
if in place of being priests and friars we had been laymen, or
if instead of being ecclesiastical congregations we had belonged
to civil or military bodies.
The religious of the Philippines, far away from Europe, alone
in their ministry, scattered to the furthermost corners of the
Archipelago, and without any other companions and witnesses
of their labors than their own dear and simple parishioners,
have no other defence save right and reason. Conscious that we
have always been loyal and patriotic subjects, and have always
fulfilled our duties and the obligations to our holy ministry,
we have borne patiently and silently, according to the advice
of the Apostle, insults and calumnies from the very persons to
whom we had offered our services in all Christian sincerity. We
have kept silence under insults from persons calling themselves
forsooth Catholics, but who are infected with the practical
Jansenism of certain latter-day reformers. We even suffered
in silence certain false information, most dishonoring to the
religious Orders, to be brought before the Cortes last year. It
was asserted, not only in private, but in important, centres,
that the prestige of the religious Orders in the Philippines was
so shaken that it would be necessary to drive them out by armed
force. It was also declared, as most dishonoring to a great nation
like Spain, to have commissioned friars to furnish information
about the Philippines, and to have asked their advice in the form
of a memorial presented to the Senate. In addition to all this,
the gravest accusations, some directed against a worthy prelate,
were brought against us, veiled, however, under the guise of
impartiality and gentle correction. Before long the clamors will
be renewed in a different tone; and we shall see the reproduction
in the Archipelago, with more or less cruelty, of that historical
period in the Peninsula of 1834-1840.
REASONS FOR OUR SILENCE TILL THE PRESENT TIME.
We believed that a wise and prolonged silence, added to that
prudence and magnanimity which should always distinguish religious
orders, would have sufficed for good and discreet persons,
and that they would have repelled the accusations, and formed a
judgment that would be proof against these repeated attacks. But,
instead of calming down, the storm appears to increase daily. The
Treaty of Biac-na-Bato has furnished to many the opportunity of
renewing the crafty insinuation, nay, bold affirmation, already
made by the rebel chiefs, that the religious institutes were
the sole cause of the insurrection. One of the chiefs of the
"Katipunan" secret society has declared in his paper, The Grand
Orient, which, like a plague, is still scattered over the islands,
that one of the first articles in his programme is the expulsion
of the religious Orders. In the Peninsula as well as here, the
Freemasons and others who second their efforts have recommenced
the war against us. They have published manifestoes at Madrid,
in which, misusing the name of the Philippine natives, they demand
vexatious and disgraceful measures against the clergy.
If under these circumstances we still remained silent, our silence
would be attributed, and rightly so, to fear or to guilt. Our
patience would be called weakness; and even sensible and solid
Catholics, who recognize the injustice of the attacks made against
us, might be led to believe that we were really stained with guilt,
or that we had fallen into such a state of moral prostration,
that we could be ill-treated with impunity.
THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS PERSECUTED BECAUSE THEY UPHOLD RELIGION.
On what grounds are the religious bodies persecuted? Simply because
they uphold true and sound doctrine, and have never shown a weak
front to the enemies of God and of their country. If we had shown
ourselves pusillanimous in sight of the works of Masonic lodges,
and in presence of the propagation of the politico-religious errors
imported from Europe; if we had given the faintest mark, not of
sympathy, but even of toleration, to the men who were scattering
broadcast false notions of liberty condemned by the Church;
if patriotism had cooled in our hearts, or if the innovators
had not found in each Philippine religious an intractable and
terrible adversary to their plans,--the religious congregations
would never have been disturbed. On the contrary, we should have
been extolled to the skies, the more so because our enemies do not
ignore the fact that, were we to help them in the Archipelago,
were we to give them our support, or at least were we to remain
silent, we should thereby give them an undisputed victory.
But they know well that our standard is no other than the Syllabus
of the great Pontiff, Pius IX., so frequently confirmed by Leo
XIII., wherein all rebellion against the powers is so energetically
condemned. Yea! truly they hate us, and under different names
and on divers pretexts they are making such a cruel war upon us
that it would seem as if the Freemasons and Revolutionists had
no other enemies in the Philippines than the religious bodies.
THE RELIGIOUS PERSECUTED AS LOYAL SPANIARDS.
Apart from their essentially religious character, the regular
clergy of the Archipelago are the sole Spanish institution,
permanent and deeply-rooted, which exists in the islands--a
vigorous organization well adapted to these regions. While the
civil and military officials on the one hand, who come from Spain,
live here only for a time, fulfilling their duties more or less
wisely according as it is for or against their private interests,
and yet are ignorant of the languages of the country, and have only
a superficial intercourse with the Islanders, we, the religious,
come over here to sacrifice our whole existences, dispersed often
one by one amongst the remotest tribes. When we bid an eternal
farewell to our native shores, we voluntarily condemn ourselves,
by virtue of our vows, to live forever devoted to the moral,
religious, and civil education of the natives; and we have waged
many conflicts in their behalf.
CRAFTINESS OF THE INSURGENT CHIEFS.
Seeing that we were the most deeply rooted, influential, and
best-respected Spaniards in the country, and that we would come to
no terms with them or their projects, the rebel chiefs determined
to demand our expulsion from the Government. They were aware that
they would be backed up in their demand by many among the Spanish
residents in the Archipelago, who, led by passion and ignorance,
lend a willing ear to all who declaim against the religious Orders,
especially when the watchwords used are "Free Thought," "Liberty
of the Press," "Secularization of Education," "Ecclesiastical
Liquidation," "Suppression of the Privileges of the Clergy."
Thus the password among the rebels became, especially since the
Treaty of Biac-na-Bato, the emancipation of their country. They
declared they had no dislike to Spanish administration, nor
any intention of separation from Spain; what made them rise in
rebellion were the abuses of the clergy, and their only demand
was the expulsion of the religious Orders. But these were lying
declarations, as numerous judicial and non-judicial documents
containing the plans of the conspirators have proved. They
made these false professions because they knew that if they
declared that the insurrection was brought about by the numerous
abuses of power which have been committed by civil and military
functionaries, they would have all the Spanish element in the
Archipelago leagued against them, and would have the door closed
to all their means of propaganda.
ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.
We ask, in the first place, where are these abuses which are always
the subject of their declamations in the clubs and lodges? We
preach the Gospel, and not only do we draw to a civilized life
the barbarous tribes of the Archipelago, whom we have preserved
peaceful and happy for three centuries, as the whole world knows,
but we have always been the defenders of the natives, who are
subjected to a thousand vexations on the part of the Spanish
lay residents. At all times we have watched over the purity of
the Faith and the preservation of good morals, showing ourselves
inflexible against illegal exactions, immoral games, and those who
lead scandalous lives. After all that has been written against
us for so many years, we defy our calumniators, and do not fear
an honest and impartial examination of our lives and works. Let
those who murmur and speak against us, prove by exact dates and
authentic documents that their accusations are well founded.
They say we are enemies of education and of the diffusion of
knowledge; if by education they mean the teaching of doctrine
condemned by the Church, we are at one with them; but there is no
education in the ordinary sense of the term, primary, secondary,
or superior, in the islands that has not been founded, encouraged,
and sustained by the clergy. It is well known that very few of the
native officials who went through their course in our schools have
taken part in the rebellion; and the proclaimers of "Free-thought"
are, for the most part, individuals who failed in their career,
and were the refuse of our classes.
As to the accusations of immorality which are recklessly levelled
against us, all we have to say is that everyone can see our
monasteries and convents and ourselves, and can form a judgment
on our lives; the parish priests and missionaries are alone,
surrounded by a multitude of natives; everyone can see what we
are doing, and hear what we are saying; our European figures
and sacerdotal character bring us into such prominence before
the people that it would be stupid to imagine that we could hide
our doings.
We consider, as not worthy of reply, the impudent assertion that
in the country parts we are despots; that in a thousand ways
we suck the blood of our tenants; charges often before refuted
by the most explicit documentary evidence. Neither is it worth
while speaking of the abominable calumny of attributing to us the
passage through the country with armed force, and the imprisoning
and torturing of those implicated in the first revolt. All this
is part of the absurd fable that we are absolute masters, not
only of the consciences of the people, but of the Archipelago
itself; statements contradicted by the very men who make them,
when they declare in the Cortes that we have lost all influence
and all prestige in the islands.
CAUSE OF THE REBELLION.
The utter want of religion to be found among a great number of
the Spanish residents, the facility with which the ancient laws
of the Archipelago were changed, the instability of the public
functionaries, a fruitful source of abuses, contributed for several
years to discredit the Spanish name. But Freemasonry, as the world
knows, has been the principal cause of the social disorganization
of the Philippines. The Hispano-Philippine Association of Madrid
was Masonic; the Masons were almost alone in the work of urging on
the natives to make war on the clergy and the Spanish residents;
they authorized the founding of lodges in the Archipelago. It
was the Masons, too, who formed the "Katipunan" society, so
essentially Masonic that in the terrible "compact of blood"
they make, they are actually imitating the Carbonari of Italy.
In consequence of the teaching of the Freemasons, the voice of
the parish priest has no longer any effect on numbers of the
natives, especially at Manila and in the neighboring provinces,
where they are accustomed to give themselves airs of importance
and independence; and the prestige of the Spanish name has grown
considerably less, and disappeared entirely in many places. What
wonder, then, if the powerful instincts of race awoke, and that,
pondering on the fact that they had a language and climate and
territory of their own, the rebels should try to build a wall of
separation between the Spaniards and the Malays? Is it not natural
that having been brought to believe that the friar is neither
their father nor the pastor of their souls, nor their friend and
enthusiastic defender, but, on the contrary, a spoiler, and that
the Spanish resident is only a money-grubber, having more or less
power and authority, they should have desired to free themselves
from the Spanish authority?
Six months ago the "Katipunan" society was limited to the mountains
of Langua and Bulacan, where the rebel chiefs had taken refuge,
and also counted some adherents among certain tribes in touch with
the insurgents. But now the plague is widespread; the insurgents
violating the promise made to the gallant Marquis of Estella,
and at the call of a secret signal, have scattered themselves over
the central provinces, and by means of cruelty and terrorism have
succeeded in enrolling in their ranks a great number of natives
who after the submission at Biac-na-Bato gave pledges of fidelity
to Spain. They have also succeeded in intrenching themselves at
Capiz and in other parts of the Viscayas. The rising in Zambaies,
Pagasinan, Iloco, and Cebu are all of recent origin; and the same
may be said of the "Katipunans" discovered at Manila.
However, the greater part of the country is not yet perverted; a
wave of hallucination and fanaticism has passed over it, but the
heart of the people is still sound, and with careful management
they will return to their usual habits of peace and submission. The
move wealthy classes are also sound, and are against the rebellion.
We frankly tell the Government that if it does not aid the
Church, the revolutionary movement will increase every day, and
it will be morally impossible for the religious to remain here
any longer. What good is it for us to do our duty to the people
when others are allowed to undo our work at the same time? Of
what use is it for us to teach the people to be docile and
submissive when their worst passions are excited by others, who
tell them to make nothing of our teaching? What professor could
teach successfully if his pupils were met outside the classroom
by respectable persons who told them to despise his lessons? The
civil authority, according to the teaching of the Church, ought
as far as possible to be a bulwark to religion and morality. If
the Government, therefore, does not protect us from the avalanche
of insults hurled against us; if it does not root out the secret
societies; if it allows our sacerdotal character to be trodden
under foot while our enemies destroy the fruit of our labors,--we
regret to say that we cannot continue our ministry in the islands.
Spain has bound herself very stringently to obligations of
this nature. One of the laws of the Code of the Indies says
expressly on this point: "We command the Viceroys, the Presidents,
the Auditors, the Governors, and the other functionaries of the
Indies, to favor, and aid, and encourage the religions orders who
are occupying themselves in the conversion of the natives to our
entire satisfaction."
The spirit that moved Philip II. was seen in the answer he made
to those who advised him to abandon the Archipelago, in view
of the little revenue they brought to the Crown. He said: "For
the conversion of only one of the souls that are there I would
willingly give all the treasures of the Indies, and if they were
not enough I would add those of Spain. Nothing in the world would
make me consent to cease sending preachers and ministers of the
Gospel to all the provinces that have been discovered, even if they
are barren and sterile, for the Holy Apostolic See has given to us
and our heirs the apostolic commission of publishing and preaching
the Gospel. The Gospel can be spread through these islands, and the
natives can be drawn from the worship of the demon by making known
to them the true God, in a spirit alien to that of temporal greed."
UNJUST CONTEMPT SHOWN TOWARDS THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS IN THE
PHILIPPINES.
An idea has spread since the Revolution in Spain of 1868 that the
Philippine Friars are a necessary evil, an out-of-date institution
which has to be kept up for reasons of state. This unworthy idea,
manifested sometimes with frankness, sometimes with a certain
reticence, and which wounds us to the quick, has been constantly
brought forward by our enemies. The natives who have been to Spain
are fully aware of it; without leaving the Philippines, a great
number of natives have observed it, and are at present trying to
propagate it in the Archipelago. Very numerous, too are the Spanish
residents who are hostile to us, owing to an anti-clerical spirit
or to jealousy; in fact, we have enemies in all classes of society.
Many people, in consequence, think that our very existence in
the country is simply owing to pity and condescension on the
part of the Government; that we are merely tolerated, and are of
less value in the eyes of the civil authorities than the members
of any lay profession. With a marvellous facility all the evils
that affect the country are laid at our door; and every time a
governor makes a gross blunder in dealing with the natives, the
evil consequences which flow from it are put down to us. Now,
every class of society has a right to ordinary respect and fair
treatment; we receive neither one nor the other, but are treated
with absolute contempt. This humiliating situation, as individuals
obliged to greater perfection than other Christians, we patiently
bear with; but as religious orders we cannot put up with it any
longer, for we see only too well how this treatment injures our
ministry, and destroys our influence with the people committed
to our care.
If the Government through an error to which we cannot give
unqualified respect, since it is contrary to the real interests
of religion and of our country, believes that the mission of the
Orders in the islands has come to an end, we nevertheless say
to them: "We await your dispositions with sincerity, but do not
flatter yourselves that in adopting measures against our religious
professions you can burn a light both before Christ and before
Belial." If, on the contrary, we are to remain in the islands,
no one can deny that it is necessary to protect our persons,
our prestige, and our ministry; our country must show that she
is pleased with us, and treat us as her children; we must not be
abandoned to our enemies as a thing of no value, and made victims
of the resentment of the Freemasons. We do not fear martyrdom,
which is an honor we do not feel ourselves worthy of; on the
other hand, we do not wish to die as criminals abandoned by their
friends and protectors, and deprived of all honor.
It is incredible that religious men placed in our position could
be the cause of the woes of the Archipelago. We prefer to resign
our ministry, and see ourselves expelled, rather than continue
our mission in the islands, if the situation does not better
itself before long. We have done our work well in these islands,
and we feel sure that we shall be able to do our duty quite as
well elsewhere with the grace of God.