It Is Hardly Proof

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Sep 8, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 36.

It Is Hardly Proof.

To break the force of the overwhelming evidence concerning the moral condition of the Philippines under Spanish rule and Catholic instruction, The Catholic Mirror quotes from an article by Prof. Ferdinand Blumentritt, a German, in a German Catholic missionary paper. The Mirror heads this article, “In the Philippines. The Great Work of Civilization Accomplished by Catholic Missionaries;” but the report absolutely tells us nothing save what is reported by the priests, who, according to others, are responsible for much of the suffering. Unfortunately, the testimony is most likely to be unsafe; it is that of the accused in favor of himself, unsupported by existing conditions. There may be thousands of native Catholics. What is their real spiritual and moral condition? That is the question, not, What is their profession?