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Show CHRISTIANITY INTRODUCED BY CATHOLICS Despite MistaKes of Some Priests. Church Did Lasting Good. MADE CHRISTIANS OF MANY MOHAMMEDANS Hundreds of Convents and Other Schools Maintained in the Islands. tory- of tke islands several priests ia different dif-ferent parte of Luion were murdered by the populace; maov of toes ware arrested ar-rested aad held as prisoners by tha Filipinos. In the month of November IMS, tke late Maj. Oen. ElwelJ 8. Otis made a strong endeavor to secure tha release of the priests who had been taken prisoners prison-ers and a long correspondence took place between him and Aguinaldo on this subject. sub-ject. Aguinaldo refused to release tha prisoners, assigning various reasons for his conduct. He charged that tka religious re-ligious corporations of tha Philippines had acquired large agricultural colonies by means of fraud; the products of these lands, he stated, were first granted, but in the course of time possession waa taken of the lands and thev were held continuously by the religious corporations, corpora-tions, which were aided by tke Spanish authorities. Wanted Friars Expelled. Aguinaldo alao etatea that the privilege of granting absolution oelongsd solely to the secular clergy to which the Filipino priests belonged and that this privilege had been absorbed by the religious orders. He stated that the primary causae of the Philippine revolution were the ecclesiastical ecclesiasti-cal corporations, which, taking advantage of the corrupt Hpanteh government, robbed the country, preventing progress and liberty; he denounced aa dangerous to the Interests of the Philippines the continuance of tha rule of the clergy, believing be-lieving that they would India a counter revolution la the Interests of Spain. The 8churmann commission did not pronounce upon the truth of these allegations. One of the clauses In the Maioloe constitution con-stitution of the so called Philippine republic re-public provided for the confiscation of th property of the friars. The Schurmann commission, which orieinaJly consisted of Jacob (Jould Schurmann of New York, afaj. Oen. Elwell 8. Otis of the I'nlted States army. Rear Admiral George Dewey of the United states navy. Col. Chert as Denby of Indiana, who had been minister to China for thirteen rears, and Dean C. Worcester, professor In the University of Michigan. When this commission Isft the Islands In December. 1st, at which time the revolution against American authority reared, there was In circulation a petition which waa being largely signed by the people praying President McKlnley to expel ex-pel the friars Many charges were popu. larly made against them Involving political politi-cal oppression of the people, extortion and Immorality. Commission Kept Hands Off. The commission did not think that the Investigation of theae charge came with. In the purvtew of He duties. It pointed out that the Filipinos did not antagonise tha church Itself, that they ara faithful and loyal to It; their hostility waa aimed at the religious orders; they demanded that the parishes should be filled with priests who were not friars. They claimed that this Is the law of the church and should be practiced In the Islands. The commission concluded that this was something some-thing with which the state had nothing to do and that this and other questions of ecclesiastic policy should be left to the church authorities. This thorny question of church property area settled In part by the proviso of ths treaty of Paria that there should be no disturbance of the peaceful poaaeealoe of property of all kinds, whether of provinces, prov-inces, municipalities, public or private establishments, es-tablishments, ecclesiastical or civic bodies. It was finally settled by Governor Gover-nor Taft, after personal communications with Pope Leo XIII . In the purchase from the several religious orders of their land holdings, comprising 400.000 acres, for which the Philippine government la paring par-ing 17.500.000 In thirty annual Instsll-menta. Instsll-menta. Ootnpriaaa Five Dioceses In the Spanish days tha archipelago waa divided into five dioceses. One metropolitan, metropoli-tan, that of Manila and four suffragon. those of Neuva Segovia (Vlgan). Nuava Caceras. Cebu and Jaro. These all exercised exer-cised high functions In accordance with the constitutions adopted by tha prelates who founded them and approved by the holy see In subjection to the prerogatives exercised by the king of Spain In virtue of different bulla by the Roman pontiffs. In the archipelago theae functions were exercised by tba governor general In his capacity of vie president and vice royal patron. The archbishopric of Manila waa established estab-lished by Pope Clement VHt in Istt. the diocese of Nueva Caeeraa In UN, the diocese dio-cese of Nueva Segovia la list, the diocese of Cebu about the same time, aad the diocese dio-cese of Jaro In use. The religious corporations cor-porations aa they war successively founded were the Augustine, lias; the Franciscans, IITT; the Dominican, UIT; the Society of Jesus or Jesuit, list; the Recolato. 1IM: the Sisters of Charity. 1M1: the Pautlsts, Is!; the Capuchins. ISM. and tha Benedictines. 1M The Jesuits were expelled front the Islands In ITS! and did not return until ItH. Maintain Mast Schools. The Catholic church maintains la the Islands hundrede of convent, more than a score of reformatories and children's homes and don of hoecWtaia, aohaoss and college. Foremoet among thasi ara St. Psul's hospital aad the hospital of St Juan ds Dlos and tha University of Santo Torn In Manila, which Is Ml years old. being tha oldest university under the American Hag: the A tan so college. La Salle college. Concordia cefleg far girl, the college of Santa Isabel la Nueva Caceras Ca-ceras and the college of St Joe at Jar In the viaayan IsU ads. Worthy of special spe-cial note la the uassi latui In Manila under un-der the direction of Father Jess Algue This Is the greatest weather observatory In the orient and one of tha beet In ths world, while Father Algue I one of the moot distinguished figure In meteorological meteorologi-cal history end the world's greatest Brine Br-ine authority on earthquakes. This ear-vice ear-vice was so well maintained by the Jesuits that the American government took It over bodily and the Jesuits continue in eherge. Because of the close sssoclsllort hstwesu the church end the stats the priests became be-came civil qffltiess of the state aa well as religious leader. This government be- BT FREDERIC J. HA SKIN The Catholic church gave to tba Filipinos Fili-pinos the inestimable boos of Christian ity. It lifted them from idolatry and rescued them from Mohammedanism. But for the toil of the priests during genaratiooM and centuries, the Filipinos today would be the disciple of Moham-nif',1, Moham-nif',1, enrolled in their 8,000,000 under tha black dag and swearing political fealty to the various fanatical Moro datos of Mindanao. Spanish priests gave to the tribes their alphabets and taught them everything they knew. They found them scattered tribes of spirit devotees and idol worshipers. Americana took them over as a'race of Malay Christians. Mistake, Mis-take, of policy, great error in religious polity and many individual lapses occurred oc-curred in time, but the fact remains that everything the American government and the Protestant denominations are doing in the islands today is based upon the toundatious laid by the Catholic church. Catholicism in the Philippines owing to things that happened before American occupation and the dispute about the friar lands, is a subject so delicate that even an impartial historical sketch such as this article aims to be fails to atisfv all readers. This is not due to lack of facta or a writer's prejudice one way or another, but because of the reader's read-er's deep-rooted opinions, whether he be Catholic or non-Catholic. Specific acta of individual priests prior to Americas occupation of the Philippines and economic eco-nomic changes through the centuries of Spanish rule, which certainly were not wnolly of the church's making, operated to involve the Roman Catholie hierarchy in scandals. Did Lasting Good. Nevertheless, the great and lasting good which the church did in the islands in the 300 year that Spain ruled them greatly overshadows such evils aa few priests have been charged with. Furthermore, Fur-thermore, the course of the church sine American occupation has operated whollv for good. Those who so bitterly attack the pre-American history of the church in the islands have been prone to forget that priests are merely human after af-ter all, and to ignore the inroads of primitive tropical life upon sane perspective, per-spective, moral fiber and physical stamina stam-ina of men and women whether they be white, black, brown or yellow. Official American documents bear testimony tes-timony to the mistakes that Catholie priests made, but great human fscts also display the groat good that they have done and still are doing in the islands. This article is based upon the reports of the first Philippine commission, headed by the Hon. Jacob Gould Schurmann, president of Cornell university and now American minister to Greece, the reports re-ports of 1900-1901 of the psrmanent Philippine commission under William H. Taft. a former president of the United States, and upon volume 1 of the census cen-sus of the Philippine islands which was compiled in 1903 under the direction of Msj. Gen. J. G. Sanger, the Hon. Henrv Gannett and the Hon. Victor H. Olni-stead. Olni-stead. which with three additional vol nmee was published by the United Ststet bureau of the census, st Washington is 1905. Priests Were Imprisoned. Volume 1 of the report of the Schurmann Schur-mann Philippine commission, covering the period from January, 199 .to January. Janu-ary. 1900, and transmitted by President McKinley to the American congress, shows that it is a matter of historv that for a long time great antagonism existed in the islands against the class of people peo-ple called by the Filipinos "friars." This hostility was no doubt one of the i causes of the rebellion against Spain in 1 1396. Then for the first time in the his- aaras In due Urns despotic Just sa Ions standi na and uninterrupted rule does the world over, whether It be educational, political, po-litical, or ecclesiastical. To the priests spendlnc their Uvea St their work In an uncivilised and tropical country, their tension te-nsion became merely a matter of form. So they save bitter combat to political Ubarty and retlious liberalism which tried to enter from the outside world They slew the patHot Rlaal aad Bunros. the priest Ttasy Mid for this with the lives of forty priests at ths hands of FUlpIno insurgents. Ths peaes of ths church's riff tn a story of treat and testing ass so well accomplished that there errors er-rors dwtnetts In comparison and will have email place In the chronicles of future historians THS PHILIPPINES XXV. WatUr Spain |