New-York tribune., 1900-01-20
THE PHILIPPINE CATHOLICS.

1t has been foreseen from the first by the
thoughtful that the government of the Philip
pine Islands would involve some difficulty on ac
count of the peculiar attitude of a great many
Catholic inhabitants toward the friars of certain
monastic orders there Dispatches now state
that excitement has been caused by a report
that the Apostolic Delegate, Monsignor Cha
pelle, had undertaken with authority from the
Pope and from President Mckinley to restore
the friars to their parishes and to the power
from which they had been driven by the CathO-
lies themselves. Charges of extortion and i'm
morality against the friars were said to have
been one chief cause of the insurrection of 1885,
which the Spanish Government broke down by
bribing Agulnaldo and other leaders to betray
their followers. More recent accounts have in
dicated that the inhabitants who did not give
support to Aguinaldo or who had ceased resist
ance and welcomed American authority, were
generally opposed to the friars and intensely
hostile to their reinstatement in their former
power
1t was not necessary for the benefit of Amer-
cans to say that the President could not have
taken upon himself any such task as the excited
Filipinos imagined. But for their enlighten-
ment General Otis is said to have authorized the
publication in local newspapers of a response
made by him to delegation, follows:
If the Church authorities assign friars to cura-
cies who are obnoxious to the people they will
not be compelled to accept them. The individual
liberty guaranteed by the American Constitution
will not be denied the Filipinos, and the Govern
ment will not force upon them any ecclesiastical
denomination contrary to their wishes
AS the cable enables General Otis to obtain
direct instructions from the President, it must
be assumed that he had authority for a declara-
ton of such Importance. But it would not be
necessary to inform Americans that the United
States Government does not compel persons of
any religious faith to accept against their will
clerical ministrations or directions. The Catho-
lie citizens of the United States have precisely
the same rights and the same freedom us re-
spects the laws that citizens of any other Teig-
icus faith or denomination enjoy. There exists
in this country and can exist under the United
States Government no power to coerce inhab
tants into the support of any Church or the ac-
ceptancc of any priests or clergymen against
their will.
1t may be said that the matter goes further in
this case because of the powers claimed by the
Catholic Church But the course of that Church
in American provinces may fairly be expected
to accord with its course in the United States.
1t has not set up claims to authority which the
United States Government has been compelled
to deny. 1t has not disputed the individual
freedom of citizens under the laws, and what
power 1t has exerted has been through its spir.
itual influence over its adherents. In matters OF
difficulty and delicacy within few years the
Church has manifested purpose to act in har-
mony with American institutions and laws. If
a different spirit should be manifested in the
provinces it would then be time enough to con-
slider what steps In defence of personal freedom
might be proper
Apparently the root of the difficulty in the
Philippines is claim of the monastc orders to
certain properties and revenues. The eighth ar
ticle of the Treaty of Paris provided that the re-
linquishment Of power by Spain Cannot in any
respect impair the property or rights which by
claw belong to the peaceful possession of prop
"erty of all kinds of . ecclesiastical or civil
| bodies" The tenth article declared that 1.-The
inhabitants of the territories over which Spain
! "relinquishes or cedes her sovereignty shall be
secured in the free exercise of their religion"
If these two provisions are by anybody
strued to mean opposite things, If the claim of
an ecclesiastical body comes to a denial of the
free exercise of their religion by any inhabitants
or involves any hold upon properties which the
laws would not sustain, the courts established
by the United States have jurisdiction and will
control. How far they may prove adverse to
the titles by which the mOnastic orders claim
property it Is not yet possible to Judge, but
there Is every reason TO expect that the Govern
ment will guarantee and preserve 10 Catholic as
to other inhabitants entire freedom in the exer-
else of their individual choice in all matters per-
tanning to or growing ont of their religion
MELANCHOLY COMMISSION