SEED FOR MORE TROUBLE IN THE PHILIPPINES
By Editor
UNDER date of April 15 the Associated Press correspondent at Manila furnishes the following, which will be of interest to those watching the trend of religious events:— "The most sensational of the events of the past week has been the general distribution by the Jesuits of a pamphlet in which are set forth the 'truths which Christians must observe.' Some of the things most strongly condemned by the Jesuits in this pamphlet are those which the American Government has pledged itself to carry out, notably, religious tolerance and the recognition of civil marriage. Consequently, this act of the Jesuits is considered by many to be an attack upon the American administration. The pamphlet in question says:— "1. The commands of the church must be obeyed in the same manner as the law of God. "2. 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. "3. You must reject and condemn the Masonic sect, so frequently rejected and condemned by the supreme pontiffs. "4. You must also reject and condemn liberty of worship, liberty of the press, liberty of thought, and the other liberties of perdition. "5. You must also reject and condemn liberalism, and also modern progress and civilization as being false progress and false civilization. "6. You must utterly abominate civil marriage and regard it as pure concubinage. "7. You must also condemn and reject the interference of the civil authorities in any ecclesiastical affairs, so much in vogue nowadays. "8. Finally, you must hold the belief that the church, by its origin, has a divine and supernatural authority, 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 church is independent or ought to separate itself from the State. 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." These commands, we are told, are enforced by many quotations from the Bible, encyclicals, syllabi, and letters from different popes. While it is "issued without duly-expressed church authority, the organ of the Roman Catholic Church in Manila, a Spanish newspaper, called the Libertas, admitted the fact that the Jesuits had published, and, with every right, the pamphlet in question." If the government of the United States would only meet the thing as it should, it would, indeed, be a blessing. The whole thing is an effort to shut out from the Philippines all other religions save that of Roman Catholicism. The government ought absolutely to recognize none, but give equal freedom to all. But will it? Having yielded as much as it has to Rome, will it do otherwise than continue to yield? Discrimination against her teachers is not what we wish, but equality of privilege to all teachers.