The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-10-24
CHAPELLE DEFENDS
SPANISH FRIARS
FILIPINos OWE CIVILIZATION
TO CHURCH INFLUENCE.
Does Not Believe That General Funs-
ton Made Remarks Regarding Con-
fiscation Of Church Property Tat
Have Been Attributed to Him.
The Philippines Cannot at Present
Be Under Church Rule.

Washington, oct. @3.-Archbishop |
Chapelle, of New Orleans apostohc
delegate to Cuba, Porto Rico and the
Philippines today gave out the tollow-
ing statement to the Associated Press
"In answer TO General Funston's
statement made in an address to the
students of Stanford university that If
congress would drive out the friars and
confiscate every inch OF church prop
crty the bottom would drop out of the
insurrection within one week. The in
habitants of Luxor arc completely un-
der the church. ] deem it proper to
make the following statement:
knowing what 1 do from most re-
liable authority of General FdnSton's
broad mindedness and sense Of fair
ness l 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 sentiments / cannot
credit. From my own experience
l;now how easily it Is TO be misquoted.
All ! can say is, ii General Funston
cid make this statement. he MANIFEST
ed a dense ignorance Ol the work done
by the religious orders in this archl-
pelago On the very face of 1t, how
ever it shows quite plainly that 1t did
not come from one as well posted as
General Funston should be on affairs
in Luzon. He is quoted as saying the
inhabitants of Luzon are completely
under the church. Now, l would ask
how can this be possible when every
priest with the exception of few ma
tives) in the island OF Luzon outside
of the walled city OF Manila, is
prisoner of tbs insurgents. For the
past eighteen months this state Of at-
fairs has existed and during all this
period more than $50 fIiars have been
undergoing unheard of torture in insur-
gent dungeons. This being fact, it is
hard for me to see how the island can
he under the friars.' 1t looks tC me
as though just the opposite were the
case.
THAT the insurgents have asked as
one of their terms of peace the eXpul-
sion of the friars and the contiscation
to the insurgents of all the church
property is a fact we'll knows; but we
are told by the government officials
(and l know it to be a fact from other
reliable sources) that the insurgents
represent only one tribe out of the SO
tribes peopling the archipelago, so the
sentiments voiced by the insurgents
about the friars and church cannot be
taken as the sentiments of the great
body of the natives. No more than
they came to he taken as the senti-
ments of the natives toward our peo-
pie and government.
Lifted Out of Savagery.
Whatever the natives are or have
they owe to the friars. BY them
they were lifted out of savagery and
brought under the blessed and retin-
ing influences of christianity. BY
them they were educated, not only
in the schools, but in the fields and
workshops were taught by them the
very industries which are now the
source of their prosperity. Mr.. Pey-
ton, the agent of the Episcopal For
eign Mission association, 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 cannot be such men as some mar
row-minded people would try and have
us believe. Rev. DR.. Abel, a Scotch
Protestant missionary, also testifies
that nearly the whole population of
the Philippine 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 fanatical Moro.
"As to the conflscatiOn of the es-
tates, you might as well talk of CON
fha Of tha NaDlap-
bilts, the Astors and other million
aires whose estates have in the course
of years grown so wonderfully. There
would be just as much right and just
ice in one case as in the other. The
estates of the religious orders have
been acquired in the usual way by
purchase, and in the course of four
centuries have actually grown large;
but If even unbiased Protestant wit.
nesses are to be credited, large as
they are, all are used for the better
ment and uplifting of the natives.
In Need of Tutelage.
"A former British counsel "a Pro-
testanD writing on this subject says:
1t was by means of these estates the
friars introduced agriculture and set
tied habits of life among tribes origi-
nOIndulC. II was DY means
these estates that they got them to
live in villages and introduced among
them the arts of civilized life. 1t
was by means of these estates that
they acquired the power of inducing
them TO labor with certain amount
OF regularity and method-the great
safeguard against a relapse again into
their original state of savagery. The
natives he says, are with some rare
exceptions in need of tutelage, with
out which they would fall back to the
customs OF their ancestors, custom
that no one can exercise better than
the friars. Within the precincts of
the monasteries are to be found car.
penter shops. forges, brick and tile
yards, etc, to teach the natives var
ious trades. The villages formed
around them presented a pleasing pie
lures of happiness and content in
startling contrast to those who were
Btill Pagan and unclvilized.'
''In short time will start for the
Philippines, and win personally in