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Show franciscan ;.Uiew of .tfte Philippines : ; I - I The San Francisco Monitor in its last issue publishes the following interesting interest-ing letter. It was written by a father of the Franciscan Province of St. j Gregory in the Philippine islands on le-quest le-quest of his brethren in California: Manila, Sejt. 15, 1002. "My Dear Rev. Fathers I have before be-fore me .your letter, in which you ask for some information regarding tiie state of things here. Let me first congratulate con-gratulate you on your purpose of studying Spanish, which you will find much easier than English. Go on in your studies, because the present state of things leads us; to believe that some of you will have to come here, and the Spanish language will be more necessary than the English in laboring among our people. A Franciscan Monastery at the Beginning Be-ginning of the War. In May of the year 1SS8 we numbered about 250, about forty of whom lived in the monastery, the rest, except twenty-eigfiht twenty-eigfiht who had been made prisoners by the rebel Tagalos. were scattered through the hospitals,- parishes - and missions, nl August of the same year, when circumstances had grown unfavorable, unfa-vorable, the father provincial began to send to Spain all that were not needed here, so that only twenty-seven remained re-mained in Manila. The apostolic delegate dele-gate arirved in the beginning of last year, and at once forbade us to return to Spain, asiwe all'desied to do. Since then we have been fulfilling the will of the holy see. Our prisoners were mean while released by the rebel Tagalos and returned to this monastery, one by one from December, 1900, to March 15)01, since which date there have been about 100 of us Franciscan friars here, many I of whom are old and infirm. Some j friars were allowed to depart for Spain i on acount ot m-neaith, eleven are in the interior provinces attending two missions and four parishes, whilst for- i ty-nine are awaiting orders from the holy father. j Friars Abandoned the Study of English. In 1S99 we began the study of English, Eng-lish, but because of the actions of the Americans in the first years of the war, enly two overcame their disgust sufficiently suffi-ciently to continue the study; one of the two is myself, and the other is now in Spain on account of poor health. And since I am the only one that speaks a little English, the bishop and father provincial gave me charge of the English-speaking Catholics, who live within the. walled city. We have Sunday services serv-ices in the small, but neat church of the third order attached to St. Francis' monastery. Can I explain how troubled I am with this charge? Without merits, without knowledge, they put on my weak shoulders a heavy duty. I can hardly improve my English, since there is not practice enough. All I desire is to leave the present position for a life among friars who speaks English only. ' ?t Church Looting. Regarding the desecration of churches, the looting of vestments, chalices, etc., in the beginning of the war, about two' years ago, all the charges are true, but a great change has taken place since, as a proof of which I can report that two chalices have been restored to the Archbishop's secretary by the Americans. Who burned the Church of Dolores, in the Province of Tayabes? Americans, according ac-cording to an American soldier. Many churches were desecrated by making stables of them, or storing them with goods, or by using them as barracks. Even at -this time the church at Baler, where one of our Fathers is stationed, is so used. The Father, therefore, holds service for the naitves in a small hovel. . General Smith's "Kill and Burn" Order. About . the cruelties practiced upon the natives, sue I as the water cure, the shooting of woman and children, etc., I know only what the papers stated. After receiving your letters, I spoke with an American officer about the order of General Smith in Samar, and he told me that it referred only to the insurgents, among whom were many children and women. This of- ficer did not deny the order, but said I it was confined to the rebels. A na- f tive, who was a servant of one of the Franciscan missionaries, and visited the same Father at this convent last month, told us many things done by the Americans against the natives of Samar. He had been in prison, and saw many cruelties committed on the j prisoners; he claimed he was set at liberty upon the payment of 51,000 j Mexican money. One day a New York Herald reporter paid us a visit, and told us that on the arrival of the- ; i troops at Balangiga no one wa3 1 spared. From the ship fire was di- j rected to the town, killing many and j burning the town along with the con- .1 vent and the church. How wilt we prove these things? For proof we have 1 only the word of the natives, and we are not so situated that we can com- t pel them to tell the truth, and more- f over, they are timid because of what f may result from their evidence. It is also true that the Americans have burned many houses of the na- i tives in Manila as well as in the prov- j inces. From this monastery I have seen hundreds and hundreds of houses f i (Continued on page 7.) : ; 'FRANCISCAN VIEW OF THE PHILIPPINES j (Continued from Page 1.) : j on fire at the beginning of the war ' between the Americans and rebels. Seme say Americans did the burning, I others claim the rebe!s did it. Both charges contain truth. Yet it we wanted proof we must rely upon the natives, whose word does not inspire confidence in such cases. Many houses were "also fired on account of the cholera, in order to restrict the pest, it is said. Cremation of Cholera Patients . Offended Of-fended Natives. During the cholera ' season the sick were transported to camps for treatment treat-ment and separated from their relatives. rela-tives. The sick were taken from their families and cared by Americans only; but in a manner which to the natives appears savage, since the doctors were only surgeons, who gave all the same treatment. The first was an iiection of some drug; then iSe patient was stripped of his clothes, then covered with a sheet and bathed with ice water continually. This method may be good, but none of the old doctors in these islands practiced it. Therefore the treatment was blamed for the great number of deaths. Among the natives it is said that all the sick taken care of by the Americans, died. Add to this that the Americans burnt the corpses,, and thus offended the native sensibilities, sensibil-ities, increasing their enmity against the Americans. You will not wonder that many natives hide their sick, and that after any died they were secretly buried or thrown into the river or the sea. The people have a great dislike for the American way of treating the sick, and will not permit their visits, if possible, In the provinces the Americans Amer-icans have been very rigid and inconsiderate incon-siderate to the natives; the quarantine' was so strict that many people died for not being able to leave their houses to procure the necessities of life or obtain ob-tain medical treatment. What the Americans did in this matter will neve be forgotten by the inhabitants of Dag-upan. Dag-upan. The American Pedagogues. About the teachers; it is to be regretted re-gretted that so many Protestant teachers have charge of instructing Catholic people, but I do not hear that they are fierce at proselytism in teaching teach-ing their Protestant doctrines. There is a Catholic superintendent at Ben-gued Ben-gued or Bontoe. I do not know whether wheth-er or not any superintendents are Protestant ministers, as people say, Two Catholic teachers who have confessed con-fessed to me, are now in the Laguna province. In Cebu there is one more, and in other places, I suppose there are fifty more or less, whilst the Protestant Prot-estant teachers number about 1,500. Attempts to Force Children to Attend Public School. That the graduates of the normal school at Manila all turn Protestants is not true. If there are some cases I am not awcrs of them; but I do know that in Manila there are many Catholic schools, sustained by the Catholics themselves, where all the teachers, male and female, are Catholics, Catho-lics, of course. That the Protestant teachers, or many of them, have ton-ducted ton-ducted Sunday schools, I have not heard; but that some Americans try by force 'or threats to get the children from the Catholic school, is unfortunately unfortu-nately true. There are many such cases, and some even worse. Children were taken from the Catholic school and carried to the public, because the teacher was alone. Why the Philippine Clergy . Have Been Silent. The hierarchy ahd'the clergy of Lhe Philippines have? been reticent in regard' re-gard' to these questions, because their position is peculiar. If the bishops had tried to do anything, it is probable that they would hae obtained less from the authorities, whose dispositions disposi-tions regarding them were not known. The present bishop of Cebu, a Franciscan Francis-can of our province, now administrator of the archdiocese, has corrected many evils, sometimes by means of pastoral letters, and sometimes by personal conferences. The church has many enemies here today, and the bishop has endeavored to obtain justice tor the church more by peaceful than other means. Yet many times- the authorities au-thorities disappointed him, and excused ex-cused themselves .until Washington could be heard from. Another reason why the prelates and priests have been silent is they wish to await the coming, of the apostolic delegate before speaking. speak-ing. The "New Filipino Church." Two weeks ago the "New Filipino church" was announced by ttp press of this city. Do you know who is to be the head? Problete and Reyes, two Filipinos more dangerous to the country coun-try than all other calamities combined. com-bined. These are the same men that organized the demonstration against the friars four weeks ago. The press has been filled with silly stories about friars. One paper asked its readers to state whether the friars should go or stay, and the reasons therefor. Charges came in, but neither reason nor proofs against the friars came from the enemies, whereas those that contended that the friars should bo unmolested, 'gave ample reasons for their views. The whole thing appears to me like a ridiculous farce. Our enemies here as well as elsewhere, conduct themselves like unreasoning sectaries always do; their arguments are mudslinging and noise. If American priests came here, they could easily learn one dialect of the people; but there is another difficulty: the people hate everything American. Yet they could' effect much good in behalf be-half of Christianity, and no harm would befall them, since they would be protected as we are now. By all means let them come. Wealth of Religious Corporations. Our province of St. Gregory in the Philippines has been faithful to the rule of St. Francis these 325 years. Neither the community or the individual individ-ual members have ever possessed any other property than that bequeathed by our Seraphic Father to his beloved sons, namely, what was 'given us for our services and the aims of the charitable, char-itable, with which legacy the province' has maintained itself to this day. ..The charge that the Franciscans havejarge land possessions is an error. It was indeed a great surprise to Mr. Taft to find that the Franciscans possessed absolutely no land whatever. Nor did he hesitate to express his amozement to the apostolic delegate, Mgr. Cha-pelle, Cha-pelle, of whom he inquired how the Franciscans managed to live, not having hav-ing property of any kind? Archbishoj Chapelle replied:- "The maintain themselves by the assistance of Divine Providence, through their personal labors,, and the alms of charitable souls.!' ' I will now bring my long letter to a close, and hope that it will give you all information necessary to obtain a proper view of the. conditions in these islands. Recommending myself to your prayers, and with regards to our brethren in California, I am in the heart of our Lord, Rev: Father 8.-, O. F. M. |