El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-26
ARCHBISHOP
CHAPPELLE
Refuted the Statement Gre
dited to General Funston
Regarding the Friars.
BELIEVES THE KANSAN

BELIEVES tHE KANSAN
Was Misquoted: if Not, He Manifest
ed a Dense Ignorance of the
Work Done by Religions in thu
Philippines
A Washington dispatch says:
Arch bishop Chappelle of New Or
leans, apos tolic delegate to Porto Rico
Cuba and the Philippines, has given
out the following statement to the
press: sin answer to Gen.
eral Funston's statement made in an
address to the students of Stanford
university that If congress would
drive out the friars and conflscate 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 the
following public sta tement: If Gen
eral Funston did make this statement
b. manifested a dense ignorance of
the work done by the religious ord ers
in lis archipelago. On the very &C.,
OF it, however, it shows quite plainly
posted as General Funston thoul6 be
on fairs in Luzop.
"He is quoted assaying: so In-
hat ants of LuZon are completely un-
der the church. Now 1 would ask
how AN this be possible when every
prie-s with the exception of q few
natives) in the island of Luzon outside
of tt walled city of Manila is pri-
soner 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
going unhesrd of torture in insurgent
dungeons. This beinga fact, it is
hard for me to see how the islands can
be under the friars. It looks to me as
though just the opposite were the case.
The insurgents have asked as one OF
their terms of peace the expulsion of
the friars and the con6scation to the
insurgents of all the church property.
"Whatever the natives are or have
they owe to the friars. By them they
were lifted out of the ssvsgery and
brought under the blessed and refining
influences of Christianity. By them
they were educated, not only in the
schools, but in the fields and work
shops; were taught by them the very
industries which are now the source of
their prosperity. Mr.. Peyton, the
agent Of the Episcopal foreign mission
association, tells us that the natives
are the most moral and religious peo-
pie on the face of the GLOBE Now,
the men who taught them to be SO can
not be such men as some narrow mind
ed people would have US believe. Rev.
DIR. Abel, Scotch Protestant missiOna-
ry. also testifies that nearly the whole
population OF the Philippines have
been converted to the Catholic faith
by the Spanish monks, and a wonder
full improvement in their social condi-
tiOn has beeu the result.
"As to the confiscation of the estates,
you might as well talk OF cOnfscating
the estates of the Vanderbilts, the AS
tors and other million aires, whose es-
tates have in the course of years grown
SO wonderfully. There would be just
as much right and justice in one case
as In the other. The estates of the re-
the usual way, by purchase, and in the
course of nearly four centuries have
naturally grown large; but, If even un-
biased Protestant witnesses sre to be
credited, large as they are, all are used
for the betterment and uplifting OF the
ratives.
SIN short time will start for the
Philippines, and l will possibly inves-
tigate the charges made against reli-
Until l have completed my work I
would ask the good people of the Unit
ed States not to be too ready to swal-
low as facts tie opinions of gentlemen
whose previous training and lack of
opportunities to get at the real facts do
not warrant their statements concern
ing the Cath Ollie ministers of religion,
the intellectual capacity, the moral
and social condition of the people of
the archipelago.
"P. L. Chappelle,
'Arch bishop of New Orleans, Delegate
Apostolic.