The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-08-12
THE PHILIPPINES
AND THE F|L|P|NOs
WHAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
HAS DONE FOR THEM.
Extracts from a Lecture by Chaplain
o'Keefe of the United States Army.

O'keefe or the United states Army.
The Rev. T. P. O'Keefe, Chaplain
of the 18th Cavalry, u. S. Army, sta
toned at Alcatraz, California, deliv-
cred a lecture recently under the
auspices of the San Francisco Coun'
ell, Knights of Columbus, on "The
Philippines and the Filipinos," in
which he described conditions in the
Islands and showed what the Cath
Ollie Church has done for the natives
in the way of Outstanding and edu-
eating them. The subjoined extracts
are of special interest:
cit has been so frequently said that
the Catholic Church has stood in the
way of the education of the Philip
pines; or has taken little or no inter-
est in their intellectual advancement,
that you will pardon me if refer at
length to this matter in the beginning
of this lecture To thoroughly appre-
ciate what had been accomplished in
the Philippines prior to 1899 by the
Spanish Government and the Catholic
Church one must of necessity under
stand the condition of the Philippines
when Spain and Catholicism landed
in the islands All writer's and his
torians agree that prior to the first
Spanish expedition there under Ma
gellan, March 16, 1921, the Philippines
were not only heathens but were with
out any literary traditions. Tongues
sa1n nc ovSr TOD ~, hnru dnys-
ing number, but no literature or writ
ten language. In their immigrations
from Malasis and the islands of the
South Seas the Philippines had
brought babel of tongues but no
books. It fell to the duty of the
these people into the circle of civilized
Christian people and to educate their
minds while training their hearts in
Christian doctrine and morals. To do
this it was necessary to construct
written languages-not one but many
of them as there are to this day
twenty-seven dialects spoken by the
inhabitants of the Philippines. Choos-
ing the Latin alphabet as basis these
good, painstaking and learned Spanish
Fathers went to work and built up the
alphabet, then grammars, readers,
dictionaries, and 10! and behold! the
Philippines, before they knew it, had
written language. The missionaries
then began to gather the natives into
primary schools, parish and convent
schools, so that in a comparatively
short time hundreds, thousands, nay
millions of Filipinos were seen attend
ing the schools and colleges and uni
versities that sprang up under the
protective and fostering care of the
Church throughout the islands. IL the
Filipinos have not greater literature
| it must be remembered that their fore
| fathers did not see the inside of a
book till 800 years ago when the
priests after days and nights, nay
years, of untold research and mental
and bodily effort had the satisfaction
to hand it fresh from the press in
Manila in 1903, four years before
Jamestown was settled And may
add that the Catholic Church has
kept the printing press going ever
since in the interests of Christianity
peace, law and order. When the
American troops landed in the Philip.
pines, many Americans discovered
much to their surprise, that the Cath.
Ollie Church had already preceded them
800 years. No matter to what part OF
the islands they penetrated they found
there the parish church and school
houses. Many of these, sad to say
were destroyed beyond repair, in the
wars that preceded their arrival, be
tween the Filipinos and the Spaniard
and many more were destined to
crumble to the ground under the at
tacks made on the Filipino insurgents
who invariably chose the converts oil
the padre or the large and strongly
erected parish churches as the places
for their last and most determined
resistance.
Educational Institutions.
That the Church is today still carry
ling on her work in an educational line