The Friars in the Philippines Part 3

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 G.o.d 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 inst.i.tution, 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 sh.o.r.es, 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 pa.s.sion 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 pa.s.sword among the rebels became, especially since the Treaty of Biac-na-Bato, the emanc.i.p.ation 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 doc.u.ments 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 doc.u.ments 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 cla.s.ses.

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 mult.i.tude 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 a.s.sertion 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 doc.u.mentary evidence. Neither is it worth while speaking of the abominable calumny of attributing to us the pa.s.sage 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 princ.i.p.al cause of the social disorganization of the Philippines. The Hispano-Philippine a.s.sociation 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 pa.s.sed 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 cla.s.ses 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 pa.s.sions 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 cla.s.sroom 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 G.o.d, 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 inst.i.tution 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 cla.s.ses 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 cla.s.s 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 G.o.d.

CHAPTER IV.

THE REBELS AND THEIR GRIEVANCES.

We cannot view without grave misgivings the unexpected turn that affairs have taken since the war, and the second war which has broken out between the rebels and the Americans. It is now plain that it was entire independence from all control that the promoters of the rebellion were looking for from the very beginning; this being well known to the Friars all along, and clearly indicated in their memorial to the Spanish Government. Aguinaldo and his companions have unlimited confidence in themselves, and aspire to form a civilized republic. The character of this pure-souled patriot may be judged from a transaction he had with the Spanish Government. After the armistice of Biac-na-Bato, he was bought out by them, and took thousands of dollars as his price for leaving the country for aye, never to return. He pocketed the money, and went off to Hongkong; but when the Americans came to Manila, and destroyed the Spanish fleet, this worthy returned to the Philippines, and once more raised the standard of rebellion. As a result the Americans are apt to find themselves burdened with a war expenditure, even heavier than that borne by Spain in her effort to prevent a repet.i.tion in the Philippines of the gruesome story of San Domingo and Hayti. All colored and tropical races have a tendency to revert to their original type and the barbarous customs of their ancestors. The blacks got possession of Hayti nearly a century ago, at which time they were at least domesticated, and partially civilized, having been in contact with the white man for the two previous centuries. They have gone back, and not forward, ever since. The history of the black republic is a b.l.o.o.d.y revolution every two or three years, distinguished by acts of barbarous ferocity. Life there at the present day is a hideous caricature of civilization and Christianity. Incredible as it may seem, there has been a revival in the remote villages of the old African serpent-worship, and child sacrifices, followed by cannibalism.

Ten Spanish Augustinian Friars recently came to San Francisco from the Philippines (see Appendix IV.). In an interview with the representative of the San Francisco Monitor they stated that it was not through fear of the Americans that they had left Manila, but, on the contrary, they believed that the Church would prosper under American rule. They said that the respectable element in the Philippines, though they had been quite content with the Spanish rule, and deeming it all that could be expected under the circ.u.mstances, are yet welcoming the Americans as a relief from insurgent atrocities. "The insurgents," they said, "are an undisciplined mob of rioters, led by a demagogue. They are the riff-raff of the islands, men without principle or property in most instances. Aguinaldo has them pretty well in hand to-day, but to-morrow they may disintegrate into fifty gangs. Aguinaldo is an ungrateful renegade, who was fed, clothed, and educated by Catholic priests. He is a mere puppet in the hands of the Freemasons. [4]

It is to these worthies and organized anarchy in Europe that we may trace the origin of the trouble in the Philippines. Soon after the destruction of the Spanish fleet, the insurgents wrecked our schools, robbed and despoiled our missions and churches, and drove us into Manila. About fifty priests were brutally killed by them. As our field of work was thus laid bare, we decided to leave the Philippines. What made us depart was the discouragement of seeing the work of years destroyed by the men we had gone to teach, and the improbability of being able to build up the work again immediately."

The Filipinos have already shown proof how far removed they are from civilized ideals, and how dangerous it would be to leave them to themselves, by their inhuman treatment of their Spanish prisoners. Besides ordinary Spanish civilians, they have kept in captivity for several months hundreds of Friars, including one hundred Dominicans, and the Dominican Bishop of Neuva Segovia, Mgr. Joseph Hevia, whose portrait we give. Numbers of the Friars have lately died of the hardships to which they were subjected. A letter, received some time ago from one of them by a friend in Manila, describes the ferocious and satanic hatred shown towards them by the rebel chiefs. They were stripped of their clothes, hats, and shoes, robbed of their money, spat upon, tied to trees, and flogged several times. Daily they were forced to work on the public roads from morning to evening, under a broiling sun, receiving food and drink barely sufficient to support life. The leaders mocked at and jested over their sufferings. Though violent threats were held out against all who succored them, their parishioners seized opportunities of coming to visit them, and alleviate their miseries. From other sources we learn that the noses of some of the prisoners were slit, and a cord pa.s.sed through the aperture, to be used as a leading-string by their guards. The venerable Bishop was subjected to the grossest indignities. One aged Friar was placed on a saddle, and jumped upon till blood flowed from his mouth and nose. Another, it is said, clothed only in a rain-coat, was carried in triumph for two hundred yards, and then cudgelled to death amid savage cries. Some were crushed to death between boards. Nuns in the convents were subjected to shameful treatment. In the name of common sense, we ask if men who encourage or permit such atrocities are fit to control and guide the destinies of eight millions of people. (See Appendix V.)

Of course the policy of the Press in general has been to keep these atrocities from the eyes of the public. As it did not suit political purposes to publish them, they have been kept concealed. Owing to this careful management, the sympathies of the world have been enlisted on the side of the "poor downtrodden Filipinos." An impartial examination of the grievances of the latter, and of the catch-cries by which the leaders have seduced a considerable portion of the simple natives, will not reveal very much against either the civil or the ecclesiastical rule of the Spaniard. As in everything human, we may suppose that neither was absolute perfection; but, all things considered, there was less to justify rebellion in the Philippines than in most parts of the world where the black is ruled by the white man.

One of the grievances of the rebels is that nearly all the ecclesiastics in the Archipelago have been Spaniards, and they demand an entirely native clergy. Now, the Catholic Church has been always most anxious to form a native clergy in missionary countries, but insuperable difficulties have often prevented the realization of this idea. Among colored races there is a paucity of real vocations; it is hard enough to get the people to live up to the Christian ideal without adding thereto the grave responsibilities and life of self-sacrifice of the priesthood. An example in point is the Black Republic of Hayti. It is a Catholic country, nominally at least. The people have retained the Faith taught them by the white man, though preserving such a dislike to him that no white man can own a yard of land in the country. Yet such is their inability to provide themselves with priests of their own blood that they are forced to fall back on the services of a French Bishop and French missionary priests, who do all the spiritual work of the island. Another case in point is that of Cuba, an island containing a million and a half of inhabitants, Cubans and Spaniards, of which only forty-three of the former are to be found in the ranks of the priesthood. There has never been any distinction made between Cubans and Spaniards in the two Seminaries of Havana and Santiago de Cuba; all are received alike, and treated alike if they have a vocation; of the forty-three priests, twenty-eight hold parishes, and the rest have other positions of trust, which shows that it is simply owing to lack of vocations and not to any other cause that we must ascribe their fewness in number. In the Philippines, as far back as two centuries ago, the experiment was made of forming a native priesthood, with doubtful success, however, as Dampier informs us that the natives generally held the native priests in contempt, while holding the Spanish clergy in the greatest esteem. We must, perforce, conclude that in the Philippines, as in other countries, it is simply lack of vocations that keeps the number of the native clergy at such a low ebb.

Another grievance, brought well to the front by those who have written on behalf of the Filipinos, is the taxation, which is alleged to have been excessive. The writer is informed by one who lived many years there that it was not. However this may be, all taxation is odious to primitive and half-civilized communities, who are inclined to look upon the most necessary taxes, without which no stable government could be carried on, in the light of oppression. The Americans will have the same difficulties to face with regard to taxation as the Spaniards had, though not in the same degree maybe, as the country will be opened to trade in a freer way than formerly. In the interests of order, and also to protect the people from unjust imposts, the Friars were in the habit of acting as their counsellors in these matters, and used to exhort their parishioners publicly and privately to pay the necessary taxes. A pa.s.sage from Blumentritt, whom we have quoted more than once in our previous chapters, will go to show that all this was done in the interests of the people: "In the following centuries the Friars continued to extend their protecting hand over the natives, preventing, as far as possible, any oppression on the part of the Government employes." Yet this action of the Friars, good, charitable, and necessary under the circ.u.mstances, has been used by the promoters of the rebellion as a fulcrum to raise the Friars, in the eyes of the poorer cla.s.ses, into the invidious position of tax-gatherers, tyrants, and abettors of oppression. Without doubt, cruel methods, for which, however, the Friars were not responsible, were in vogue in dealing with defaulters, as we may see in Dean Worcester's lately published work on the Philippines; but it is nothing less than downright hypocrisy to raise a chorus of condemnation against the Spaniard on this score, when it is well known that no other nation, in trying to solve the eternal difficulty about the taxation of colored and subject races, has emerged from the conflict with clean hands. We remember reading some years ago of very cruel methods employed in the gathering of the taxes in British India, in some of the up-country districts; and within the present year of grace, 1899, two books have appeared dealing with the English and the Dutch in South Africa, [5] both of which, in describing the punishment inflicted on those refusing to pay taxes to the ruling powers, could easily give points to the colonial Spaniard for cruelty. What is very remarkable about the Protestant missionary is that, instead of condemning the barbarities described in his book, of which he was an eye-witness, he approves of them, even to the extent of giving his sanction to the inhuman crime of blowing up with dynamite the caves in which four hundred men, women, and children had taken refuge. The Rev. Mr. Rae's opinion of the campaign against Malaboch for his refusal to pay taxes, a campaign in which women and children, and men bearing flags of truce were fired upon recklessly, is that "the Transvaal Government was doing a much better work than any Christian missionary has yet accomplished." G.o.d help the Filipinos if Protestant missionaries of this description are going to overrun the field of labor left vacant by the deaths and expulsion of the Spanish Friars. One great test of the mild rule of the Spaniard in that country is that the native population has increased since the conquest, instead of being almost exterminated, as is the case in North America and in many of the colonies of European States. We hope that the American rule will be characterized by clemency and justice. A hypocritical cry has been raised in the States about the tyranny and oppression under which the natives are said to be groaning. The rule of the Spaniard has indeed been imperfect enough; but America should approach the question of reform with becoming modesty, seeing that her own record in dealing with the Indians has been stained by many a crime against human rights. They have been robbed of the country which once was their own, and driven back from reservation to reservation, while even the rights guaranteed to them by Government as compensation for what they lost have been often filched from them by unscrupulous officials. The light recently thrown on the case of the Pillager Indians has disclosed cruelty, open robbery, and a disregard of solemn obligations. In the Philippines the Americans will find the natives still in possession of their country; a people, once wild and nomadic like the Indians, brought into settled habits of life by three centuries of missionary effort; a people, in fine, who, whatever is said to the contrary by noisy declaimers and demagogues, have been on the whole well pleased with their lot.

It is quite evident from the words and acts of the rebels that they have been casting envious eyes on the large landed estates of the Friars, hoping, on their expulsion, to have a division of the spoils among themselves. Already, before the war, an iniquitous plan of confiscation was boldly advocated in Spain itself. We now learn to our surprise, from the Church News (Washington, D.C.), that this cry has found an echo across the Atlantic from Protestant pulpits in the States. Besides the fact that confiscation would be robbery pure and simple, as the estates are not national property, and have not been given by the Government, but have been acquired in the usual way by purchase, and in the course of three centuries have naturally grown large, confiscation of the estates would mean a great calamity to the country, even if the Friars were allowed to go back quietly to their parishes, and resume their spiritual ministrations among the people. For it was by means of the estates that the Friars introduced agriculture and settled habits of life among tribes originally nomadic; it was by means of the estates that they got them to live in villages, and introduced amongst them the arts of civilized life; it was by means of the estates that they acquired the power of inducing them to labor with a certain amount of regularity and method, the great safeguard against a relapse into a state of savagery. Giraudier, who was director of the "Diario" of Manila, and spent thirty years in the Archipelago, says something very much to the point: "The natives, with some rare exceptions, are in need of tutelage, without which they would fall back to the customs of their ancestors, a tutelage that no one can exercise better than the Friars." The latter, in truth, made themselves all in all to the people. Within the precincts of the monasteries were to be found workshops for teaching carpentry, forges for teaching the natives the working of iron, brick and tileyards,--in fact, most of the mechanical arts were fostered and encouraged by the Friars. The villages they formed around them presented a pleasing picture of happiness and content, in startling contrast to the homes of those who were still pagan and uncivilized.

A former British consul thus describes them: "Orderly children, respected parents, women subject but not oppressed, men ruling but not despotic, reverence with kindness, obedience with affection--these form a lovable picture by no means rare in the villages of the Eastern Isles." Will such a happy state of things exist under new conditions? We are very much inclined to doubt it. The experiment tried in some of the islands of the West Indies of making the blacks small freeholders, and planting them on the bankrupt planters' estates, has not been attended by such beneficial results to the land as to justify our hoping that a similar experiment in the Philippines will prove a success. The natives of the tropics in general are like overgrown children, blessed with the virtues and cursed with the faults of children, rejoicing in present abundance, and dest.i.tute of that measure of forethought for the morrow, without which there can be no human progress. What a contrast at the present day do the civilized villages under the paternal care, and, if you will, government, of Friars present to the wild nomadic life still led by the natives of Mindanao, whom the Jesuit fathers are trying to bring under civilizing influences. We find, from letters written lately by some of the fathers there, that human sacrifice is still in vogue, and murder, pillage, and slave-catching extremely common. We fear that self-government, bringing in internal conflicts between the various parts of the Archipelago, would gradually reduce most of it to this deplorable state of things, and that the Philippine Republic would be as great a travesty on civilization as Hayti.

CHAPTER V.

THE SECTARIAN MISSIONARY MOVEMENT.

We cannot too strongly emphasize the great interest that the change of government in the Philippines should have for the English-speaking Catholic public, seeing that a Catholic population, as large, if not larger, than the combined Catholic population of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, is about to be brought under the influence of the English-speaking world, and in close touch with the Catholic Church in America, and, perhaps, later on, with ourselves. It is not more than a year ago that the Philippines were a terra incognita to us all, of which we knew the name, but hardly more. For the last ten months they have been brought under our notice almost daily by the newspapers, and monthly in the pages of the magazines. In the meantime their control has pa.s.sed from Spain to America, and a conflict of opinion is going on in the States as to the desirability or otherwise of undertaking the responsibility of their future government. Under the old regime, Church and State were united: a bearable condition when the State was professedly Catholic, but absolutely unbearable when antagonistic influences control the Government, hamper the Church in her freedom of action, and degrade her into servitude while professing to be her protector. In the new condition of things the Church will be placed in the same position as it holds in America, free to flourish or to die, depending entirely on its own resources, and neither helped nor persecuted by the State. Its ministers, though not enjoying any special privileges, will be protected in their persons and property in common with all other citizens. Its religious orders will receive the same recognition as secular corporations, and their corporate property will be respected. So far so good; for it was to be feared that the Spanish Government, who had been deterred only by political motives from suppressing the Orders, yielding at last to the pressure of the Freemasons, might have confiscated their property, and either secularized their members or expelled them from the islands. Still we cannot close our eyes to the fact that dangers from a different quarter loom up which it much behooves Catholics to carefully consider. There is a pressing necessity of being alive to those dangers, if worse evils than ever are not to befall that large Catholic population of the Far East.