The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-10-27

Favor Of Dispensing the Friars and
C~onflscatfng the Church Property in
thePhiIippine Islands-He Relies on
Protestant Testimony to Show the
Good Work his Church Has Done.
Washington, October 23.-Archbishop
Chapelle, of New Orleans, apostolic
delegate to Cuba, Porto Rico and the
Philippines, today gave out the follow
ing statement to the Associated Press:
Tn answer to General Funston's
statement, made in an address to the
students of Stanford University, that
if congress would drive out the friars
n cOnfiscate every inch Of church
property the bottom would drop out of
the insurrection within one week. The
inhabitants of Luzon are completely
under the church, 1 deem it proper to
make tine following public statement:
Knowing what 1 do from most re-
liaJbIe authority Of General Funston's
observation-disclosures and sense OF fair
ness, i do not believe that he has been
quoted correctly. He may have stated
that the insurgents demand this as a
condition of peace; but that he gave
them as his own i cannot
credit From my own experience I
know how easily it is to be misquoted.
All 1 can say is, if General Funston
did make this statement, he manifest
ed a dense ignorance of the work done
by the religious orders in this archipel-
ago On the vey face of it, however,
it shows quite plainly that it did not
come from one as Well posted as Cen
pr1l Funston ChOIIl1 he ON a fairs in In
zOn.
He is quoted aus saying: The in
habltantS of LuZOn are completely I'M
der the church. Now, L would ask
how can this be possible when every
priest (With the exception of a few ma
tfVes) in the island of Luzon outside
of the walled city of Manila is a pris-
one of the insurgents? For the past
eighteen months this state OF affairs
has existed and during all this period
more than $50 friars have been under
gOin unheard of torture in inSurgent
dungeons. This being a fact, it is hard
for me to see how the island can be
'unde the friarS.' 1t looks ito me as
though just the opposite were the case.
THAT the insurgents have asked as
one of their terms OF eac the eXpul-
sion of the friaE's and the c~onfiscation
to the insurgents of all the. church
property is a fact Well-knOWn; but we
are told by the government officials
(and L know it to be a fact from other
reliable sOurces) hat the insurgents
represent only one II ibe out of the IS
tribes peOpling the archipelago; so the
sentiments voiced by the insurgents
abOut the friaTs and church property
cannot be taken as the sentiments OF
the great body of the natives, no more
than they can be taken ais the senti-
m6ntS of the natives toward our peo-
pie and government.
'HNNI61tpVpT he natives are or nave
they owe to the frairs. By them they
were lifted out of saVagery and brought
under the blessed and refining influ-
ences of Christianity. By them they
were educated, not only in the schools,
but i'm the fields and the workshops;
We're taught by them the very indus
tries which are now the source of their
prosperity Mr.. Peyton, the agent of
the Episcopal foreign mission associa-
ton, tells us that the natives are the
most moral and religious people on the
face of the globe. Now, the men who
taught them to be 81 cannon be such
men as some narrow minded people
would try to nave us believe. Rev. DR..
Abeel, a Scotch Protestant missionary,
also ctestifies that nearly the whole
population of the Filipino archipelago
has been converted to the Catholic
faith by the Spanish monks, and a
wonderful improvement in their social
condition has been the result. He
then goes on to show that if any one
doubts this Improvement it can easily
be made manifest by comparing the
Christian native with his southern
neighbor of the same blood-the mat
ical Moro.
las to the c~onfiscation of the estates,
you might as we'll talk of cOntScatlng
the estates of the Vanderbilts, the AS
tors and other m~illionaires whose es-
tates have, in the course of years.
grown 50 wonderfully. There would
be just as much right and justice in
one case as in the other. The estates
of the religious orders have been &C
quired in the usual wa by purchase,
and in the course of nearly four CEN
turtles have naturally grown large; but
if even unbiased Protestant witnesses
are to be credited, large as they are,
all are used for the betterment and up
lifting of the natives.
"A former British CONSUL Ca Protest
anti writing on this subject says: 1t
was by means of these estates the friars
introduced agriculture and settled hab-
it's of life among tribes originally NOM
adic. 1t was by means of these estates
that they got them to live in villages
and introduced amongst them the arts
of civilized life. 1t was by means OF
these estates that they acquire the
power of inducing them to labor with a
certain amount of regularity n meth
od-the great safeguard against a re-
lapse again into their original state OF
lSaVagery. The natives he says are
with some rare exceptions in need OF
tutelage without which they would fall
back to the customs of their ancestors.
a tutelage that no one cam exercise bet
ter than the friars. Within the pre-
cincts of the monasteries are to be
found carpenter shops, FORCES, brick
and tile yards, etc, to teach the ma
tives various trades. The villages
formed around them presented a pleas
ing picture of happiness and content
in startling contrast to those who were
stiTl pagan and uncivliZed'.
I'm a short time I will start for thu
Philippines, and I will personally in
vestigate all charges made against re.
Hgious orders, titles of property, etc