FRIARS FLATLY DEFY AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
On the same editorial page is the following:— FRIARS FLATLY DEFY AMERICAN GOVERNMENT.
PAMPHLET PRINTED BY PRIESTS AND DISTRIBUTED IN CHURCHES AND HOMES, STRICTLY CONDEMNING ACTS OF THE AMERICAN AUTHORITIES.
Encouraged by the forbearance shown them hitherto, the friars have gone so far as to declare open war on the present administration. Here is their statement exactly translated; it speaks for itself:— TRUTHS WHICH CHRISTIANS MUST MAINTAIN.
I. The commands of the church must be obeyed in the same manner as the law of God. (He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me. Luke 10:16. But if any neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen and a publican. Matt. 18:17.) II. You must subject your own judgment to that of the church, and think exactly as the church thinks; for the church can not be overcome, according to the promises made by Jesus Christ and the obligations imposed on us to believe just what the church tells us. (Teach all the nations; I am with you to the end of the world. Matt. 28:19, 20. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. Matt. 16:18.) III. You must reject and condemn the Masonic sect, so frequently rejected and condemned by the supreme pontiffs. IV. You must also reject and condemn liberty of worship, liberty of the press, liberty of thought, and other liberties of perdition (as Pope Leo XIII calls them) condemned and rejected by the church (Prop. 77, 78, and 79 of the Syllabus and Encyclical “Libertas,” by Pope Leo XIII).452 V. You must also reject and condemn liberalism, and also modern progress and civilization, as being false progress and false civilization (Prop. 19 of Syllabus). VI. You must utterly abominate civil marriage, and regard it as pure concubinage (Prop. 73 of the Syllabus and Encyclical “Arcanum,” by Pope Leo XIII; Encyclical “Acerbissimum,” by Pope Pius IX). VII. You must also condemn and reject the interference of the civil authorities in any ecclesiastical affairs, so much in vogue nowadays (Prop. 44, Syllabus). VIII. Finally, you must hold the belief that the church has a divine and supernatural authority, by its origin, and is moreover superior to the civil authorities; and reject and condemn the doctrine that the church should submit to the state, or that the state is independent or ought to separate itself from the church (Prop. 54 and 55, Syllabus). Children must be brought up in the above views, . . . condemning whatever the church condemns. And children must be educated solely in Catholic schools by genuinely Catholic teachers, and not on any account in unsectarian or mixed schools, which are strictly forbidden by the church (Pope Pius IX, letter of 14th July 1864; Pope Leo XIII, letter of 16th August, 1897). The foregoing is a literal translation of leaflets that are now being distributed in the churches and delivered at houses throughout the town. It bears no signature nor impress of authority, but is of similar print to the “Estrella de Antipolo,” printed in the Dominican Friars’ establishment at Calle Santo Thomas, Manila. There is a strict rule of the Church of Rome prohibiting priests from publishing anything without express authority of their superiors, and therefore the “Estrella” and the “Libertas” pretend to be published by laymen; but it is a thin pretense, if ever one was thin. The things herein so vehemently condemned are the things that the United States is pledged to carry out. Civil marriages are established by general order of the military governor, and these truculent priests defy him and his general orders. Freedom of worship and freedom of thought are established in the proclamation of General Merritt, on the occupation of Manila; again, in the proclamation of President McKinley, published officially by General Otis, in January, 1899; and again in the proclamation of the commissioners last April. These pamphlets disseminated broadcast in the churches and homes of Manila, roundly “reject and condemn” McKinley, Otis, Merritt, the commissioners, and the American nation at large. Nay, more. They “reject and condemn” the whole civilized world, calling modern civilization a false and reprehensible thing. They will not tolerate the existence of a civil government, except under the control of the church. They defy the state; they defy the United States government; and they forbid the trembling Filipinos to obey the law, on pain of the utmost penalties of eternal perdition. They proudly claim to hold in their hand the wrath of God before the eyes of the people, to terrorize them out of their respect for the law, to make them ignore and despise the American government and every American thought of freedom, for fear their immortal souls should suffer everlasting torment. They play on the feelings of an ignorant and intensely superstitious populace, and bid them choose side with the church against the state, or suffer the punishment of eternal damnation.