OCR Text |
Show BISHOP POTTER'S CHARGES. A statement has been teeued by Rev. John J. Wynne in reply to Bishop Potter Pot-ter and Rev. Percy S. Grant, who visited vis-ited the Philippines. The request that it be published is made by Rev. Joseph M. Alque, director of the observatory at Manila, who is now at Washington engaged in official business for the government. gov-ernment. Calling attention to the published interviews in-terviews in which the Bishop and hie secretary are quoted as having declared that the taxes and fees for honestly administrations ad-ministrations in the Philippines are excessive, ex-cessive, the writer remarks that the Bishop and his secretary were in tht Philippines but a very short time, not over three or four days; that it was j impossible on account of the war for them to get information outside of Manila, and that the more serious Filipinos ignored their presence there. The Bishop was quoted ae saying that the religious orders, "except perhaps the Jesuits, have robbed the people." The writer says the Jesuits have missions mis-sions in only the southern islands, and General Bates, in a report of Dec. 27 last, stated that the people there had declared that the missionaries had taken neither money nor property. The writer wants the Bishop to explain ex-plain his use of "perhaps." Further quoting his interview he calls upon Bishop Potter for facts to prove "such a grave and serious charge." That "thousands of the people live in practical concubinage," as charged by the Bishop, is denied, although the writer admits that some do live that way, but asserts that it is true "that there, as everywhere, are found a few-instances few-instances of this." Thet it was the Church taxes which caused the people to revolt ia emphatically emphatic-ally denied. In proof of this it is stated that many of the most important parishes in the archipelago are administered admin-istered by the natives themselves as priests, including the cathedral at Manila, Ma-nila, Naraquina, San Roque of Cavite and all the parishes on the western coast of the island of Leyte: that in these pariehe3 "the earne ecclesiastical law as to taxes was enforced by these secular priests-, and it is a matter of history that nobody objected to it.' |