Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-04-26
THE FR|AR QUESTION
Analysis of the Great Prob
lem of the Philippines.
ACTION IMPERATIVE
NOT A QUESTION OF DENoMINA-
TIoNALISM.
Lands Of the Religious Orders Must Be
Purchased and Dis
tributed.
Analysis of the Great Prob
lem. of the Philippines.
ACTION IMPERATIVE
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

| Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
MANILA, March II, 1902.
| One Of the most discussed questions con-
nected with American occupation of the
Philippines is undoubtedly the church prob
lem. That it is also one Of those least I'M
derstood or appreciated by our people at
home can hardly be gainsaid. Accustomed
since the foundation of the republic to con-
sidering religion and religious dogma as a
| matter Of purely personal concern, to be
practiced or neglected according to the
preferences Of the individual, it is well nigh
impossible for an American to adjust his
mental vision to the true situation in these
| islands. The gulf is a wide one, which
separates the liberty of thought and action
into which our people have grown from the
| medieval traditions and practices which
prevail here, and which, on our coming,
hedged about the spiritual and mental life
Of this people.
Our institutions were conceived and had
| their inspiration in the desire of a strong
| people to worship God as they saw the
| right. To these people religion came as a
strict formula, with prescribed and unvary-
| ing forms, whose slightest violation brought
down upon the offender the heavy hand not
| Only of the church hierarchy, but of the
state. The history Of Spanish conquest and
| colonization in the far east, no less than
In the new world. is inextricably mingled
| with that of the Church of Rome. The
| soldier and the priest marched together and
| the crucifix held what the sword had
| gained.
| Spain's Great Obstacle.
1t has been Spain's evil fortune, however,
| to find in her powerful ally Of conquest
and in the force which cemented the tri-
umph of her arms one Of the most potent
factors of her downfall The support of
her wonderful years of expansion became in
time rigid frame which remorselessly shut
out all power of change or further progress,
| and in the upheaval which time inevitably
| brought, the government was destroyed and
| the fabric Of the church shaken to its foun-
| dations.
Thus far the efforts of the church all
| thor1ties have been directed to trying to
! patch up and preserve the old and broken
| edifiice along former lines, not seeing or
| being loath to admit, that the trouble was
! and is in the original plans Hard though
| 1t may be for the powers at Rome to rec
| ogn1Ze this and to swallow the bitter pill
| which brands their policy here a mistaken
| one the sooner 1t is done the better it will
| be for the future Of the Catholic Church in
| these islands Their system here must be
| purged of its fourteenth and fifteenth CEN
! curry excrescences and brought abreast of
modern civilization. American thought is
becoming dominant here, and it is only by
| introducing a little of the liberalism of
| American Catholicism and the advanced
| ideas and methods Of American prelates
| that the Church of Rome can hope to re-
tain It's hold over the people Of these
| islands.
Not a Church Question.
| In treating this question there is one
! point upon which Americans are particu-
| larly apt to go astray. and that is In think
| Ing that any attack upon the religious
| orders in these islands, or any action look
| Ing to getting rid of them, is an attack
| upon the Catholic Church. Nothing could
| be more erroneous, however. 1t is only by
| Kidding the islands of the friars and cleans
| ing the church of their presence and
| sinister influence that Catholicism can
| hope for perpetuation among this people.
| A condition now exists where the Catholics
! of the islands-the natives-are irrecon-
| cilably arrayed against the church as rep
| resented by the religious orders If the
| governing church authorities under these
! circumstances try to force the orders down
| the threats of the people 1t will simply re-
suit in extending their antagonism to the
| church itself. with disastrous results to
| Its prestige and influence. The fight is not
| one by the government against the orders
| or by any element Of Professionalism against
! the tenets Of the Roman Church, but 1t Is a
fight by Catholics against the monastic
| orders within the church itself. If this
| could be clearly understood in America
| much Of the bitter partisanship displayed
by Catholics when treating this question
WOulu ne avoided Inc 1aclS IN the cOntrO-
| versy are comparatively simple, and be-
| come complicated only through the efforts
| of interested parties to disguise the truth.
The Filipinos and Catholicism.
| Upon the advent Of Spain in these islands
the church found virgin field for its eff
| forts. The religious beliefs entertained by
| the people were few and simple, lacking al
| together the rigidity which chara cterizes
| the systems prevalent in India China and
other oriental countries. The people took
| readily to the forms and ceremonies of the
new faith and became converted en- masse.
| Churches and converts sprang up through
| out the islands, and much was done no
| doubt looking to the moral and intellectual
| Improvement of the people. With time,
| however, the missionary zeal which had
characterized and inspired the early church
men gave way in great measure to more
| earthly considerations and to a mistaken
! system Of government policy. The monas-
| tic orders which had early appeared in the
| field, and into whose hands fell the church
government, soon devoted themselves more
| to extending their own power and influence
| and to exploiting the people and country to
add to their own wealth and pretige than
! to any high considerations looking to the
| spiritual development of their parishioners.
| The ranks Of such orders were recruited
| too often from among the lower and more
| brutal classes in Spain, to whom a distant
| field and isolated parishes meant simply an
| opportunity to tyrannize over simple peo-
PIE duu " Crafty lLtiI OWN ueSTeS ana
passions unchecked.
Power of the Parish Priest.
The full scope of the power and influence
welded by the parish priests in the in
| terror pueblos Of the islands can hardly be
realized by one unfamiliar with Filipino
character and Filipino history.
| To naturally docile disposition the mass
| of the Filipnos added the passivity which
| comes from credulous ignorance, rank SUI
| perstition and awe of those in authority,
| three hundred years of Spanish dominion in
| the islands concerted effort was ever
made to teach the people the Spanish lam
guage and thus give them a literature and
| a common medium of communication. The
| plan was otherwise. The native dialects,
! which possess no literature, were taught
exclusively in the parishes, instruction be-
| ing limited In most cases to the catechism
| and church literature. Only the small per-