United States and Papal Power in Philippines
At a grand reception in Manila in honor of Apostolic Delegate Archbishop Chapelle, January 23, a petition was presented to the apostolic delegate “praying for the withdrawal of the friars from the Philippine Islands.” In the midst of the reading of the petition, the apostolic delegate stopped the reading, and said that “that question would be regulated by the pope, General Otis, and himself.” And so already it has come to pass that the United States government in the Philippines is an essential party in a triumvirate in which the pope and his apostolic delegate are the other two. But as the pope is in Rome, this leaves only the other two in the Philippines. And as the apostolic delegate is the mouthpiece and sole channel of communication with the pope, this makes him the superior of the two who are on the ground in the Philippines. And this makes the United States second to the Church of Rome in the Philippine Islands. Therefore, in truth, whatever settlement is made will be really by “the pope and himself;” and the only place where General Otis will really come in, will be with the power of the United States to compel the acceptance of such arrangement as shall have been made by “the pope and himself.” And so the United States government becomes the tool of the papacy.