The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-11-13
LEARY AND THE FRIARs

CAPTAIN LEARY AND THE FRIARs
possessions became oppressors of the
poor and offenders against every line
in the decalogue; plotters against the
Government and dictators in all local
affairs.
Worcester tells us that the friars pro-
cured the recall of General Blanco from
the Philippines because he was too hui
name to suit their notions; that the
feud between the temporal and spiritual
powers in the islands has been long and
bitter, and that the spiritual always
prevailed. Councils of mercy to the
natives, he says, always proceeded
from the State. not from the church.
Andres de Urdaneta and his body Of
Augustinians found a race whose cred
ulity and superstition were unbound
ed, and their successors, playing on
these weaknesses rendered the native
little more than an ignorant slave" "
Says Don Jose Aguilar: THE clero
has believed that ignorance is indis-
pensable for the complete observance
of religious principles.
Says the "Quarterly Review: Mere
lapses from the strict path of sexual
morality are so frequent as. to excite
no remark Says Mr.. Foreman,
speaking of an acquaintance in Negros:
My host was the son of secular cler
gyman; his wife and sister-in-law were
the daughters of a friar; the sister-in-
law was the mistress of a friar; my
host. had a son married to another
friar's daughter
A pagan Mangyan, whose conversion
was attempted, replied that if he became
a Christian it would cost money to be
born, money to be allowed to live,
money to marry money to die, and
| money to be buried, and that he con-
| sidered himself better off as he was
In one way or another" says Fore
| man, the native who possesses any
thing worth having has either to yield
to the avarice, lust or insolence of the
Spanish priest or risk losing his liberty
and his position in life"
Worcester and Stevens both tell of
the extortionate demands of the priests,
especially for funerals, so great that
the people could not at once raise the
the money. "One instance was where
the friar caused the bodies to be ex-
|
lage square until the relatives or
friends were able to pay the fees. ;"
Worcester tells Of clerical who stop
ped the delivery of a cargo Of rice sent
during famine to relieve his starv
ing parishioners, that he might sell his
own store to such survivors as were
able to pay the price
And these, it must be remembered
are no isolated cases instanced," adds
Professor Worcester. The Quarterly
| Review" adds: ut is not astonishing
| therefore to find a hatred so bitter on
the part of the more enlightened native,
a condemnation so general and so
sweeping on that Of all recent travel
| ers." Mr.. Lala, the Filipino author, a
| churchman already referred to, de-
| clares: Here is one of the hardest
problems of the future. There
| is but one way out of the difficulty
| to expel the whole body of friars from
| the islands. By SO doing much blood
shed will in the end be avoided
The whole body of ecclesiastics is not
| included in this indictment, for the ma
| tive clergy have been quite as much
| oppressed as the laymen whose inter-
ests and sympathies they share. Cap
tain General Despujols instituted a
search and found various seditious
pamphlets which the friars accused
the native clergy of disseminating, but
| they were in reality found to be the
products of the friars own printing
presses. '"They thus hoped to shed
| luster on their own body and ruin their
opponents So powerful were they
| hot to orfh
pujols and ruin him
| But against the Jesuits no such COM
plants were ever made They swere
| jealousy regarded by the friars, but
they did their duty as missionaries in
the face of danger and hardship They
attended to the spiritual and educa-
tional and did not mingle in secular
concerns. They advanced the cause of
science wherever placed To them is
due the geographical knowledge we
have of the great southern island Of
| Mindanao. The grammars and vocab-
ularies in use are their work. They
founded the great observatory in Ma
Mia, with it's elaborate seismic instru-
ments to record earthquakes. They set
up a weather service through which
approach of typoons was foretold, and
thus vast property values and innumer-
able lives were saved.
| There were and are many noble
| priests in the islands true to their call
| ing and Christians in the full sense of
the word. But all the testimony is in
one direction and to one end, namely,
that the friars have been the bane of
the Spanish possessions; have enslaved
the people, become arrogant extortion-
ate, violators of laws, moral and secu-
| lar, divine and Legislative; upholders
and promoters of the cruelties practiced
/ by the Spanish residents upon the ma
tives; in short, the cause of the insur-
rection against the Spanish crown.
This accounts for the fact that to this
day Aguinaldo and his insurgent fol-
lowers, themselves all Catholics, are
the unrelenting foes of the Spanish
| friars, but not of such of the clergy as
have not oppressed and outraged them
The very latest testimony against the
friars is recited in last weeks dis
patches. Senior Regidor de Jurado. an
4 envoy from the Filipinos, Is en- route
| to the United States to lay before our
(. Government the complaint of the local
priests against the Spanish friars
who, it is claimed, are sheltering them
selves under the American flag and ap-
propriating the property of the Filipino
clergy.
It will be seen, therefore, that as pre-
cisely the same system under the same
government obtained in Guam, Cap