Ecclesiastical Courts in the Philippines
As is well known, Archbishop Chapelle is apostolic delegate to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, and is now in the Philippines. He has been there but a little while; yet he has already proposed that there “the ecclesiastical court should be reorganized as it was during the Spanish régime.” This, because of the fixed papal doctrine that “ecclesiastical offenders against the law should be brought to trial only before an ecclesiastical tribunal.” That is, when a priest breaks the law, he must not be tried by the regular courts like any other lawbreaker, but must be tried by his fellow ecclesiastics. Such a system, of course, leads to practical exemption of the ecclesiastics from all punishment for crime, and so results in an unmitigated ecclesiastical tyranny. No wonder that the archbishop’s proposal stirred the resentment of the Filipinos. And now it will be a matter of intense interest to all to watch the course of events, and see whether the United States government supports the archbishop or the Filipinos.