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Show I CHURCH PROPERTY IN LUZON. ' The Intermountain Catholic was the first Catholic paper in the United States to call attention to the question of church property in the inland of Luzon. We looked upon this as a matter of infinitely greater importance fhan the looting of churches, for which responsibility respon-sibility could never be located. It it absolutely certain that the non-Catholic non-Catholic missionaries will use all their influence to bring about the alienation of Church property wherever it is pos-K.'be pos-K.'be to do w. There is undoubtedly a growing sentiment sen-timent in the United Stales to consider much of the church property in the Philippines" as elate property, to be in future administered by t'he different municipalities. Even isuch -a conservative conserva-tive journal as the Review of Reviews Reeme inclined to this view, as will be seen in The following paragraph:, "Questions having to do with land titles and the authority and the property 'of 3 ' 1 the church and religious orders are of even more pressing importance than j those having to do with the f orm of civil government that may be provided. Archbishop Chapelle of New Orleans is now in the telanclis, studying the church question as Apostolic Delegate under authority of the Vatican. Under Spanish Span-ish rule relations of church and state were such that vat holdings of land controlled, by the Friars or other religions, re-ligions, agencies, might now be construed con-strued as national or public property, rather than as private possessions of ' the church. The Filijunos- are bitterly opposed to the Spanish Friars, and the pacification of the islands isi going to be greatly affected by the manner ;n. which the.se questions' of landholding and church disestablishment 'are treated by the United States." .. In the face of this situation, the United Unit-ed States is certainly between Scylla anu cnariDyqis. Restrained by the treaty of Paris, our government will find it hard to yield to what may be the wish cf. and fortified by the influence influ-ence of Protestant millenary associations, associa-tions, together with the popular clamor of the Philippine insurgents. It -Is the opinion of the bes-t informed that lhe majority of the Filipinos will never be satisfied with anything less than the withdrawal of the Friars and the confiscation of their property. If this i to be the price of peace, it is obvious ob-vious that our government, its treaty obligations considered, can never consent con-sent to it. j Will Archbishop Chapelle be able to pacify the Filipinos along other linss? Time alone will tell. In the meantime j there can be no peace except a just j peace, and the basis of that is the treaty cf Paris, which guaranteed to its lawful po"sses?on) all property, including in-cluding church property, in the inland of Luzon. Our government can listen to no popular clamor for confiscation. This is official, final and irrevocable. |
