The church and our government in the Philippines : an address delivered before the faculty and students of the University of Notre Dame, October 5, 1904

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IN MEMORIAM
BERNARD MOSES

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THE CHURCH AND
OUR GOVERNMENT
IN THE PHILIPPINES

A7i Address Delivered before the Fac-
ulty and Students of the Ihiiversity
of Notre Dame, October 5, 1904.
From the Author's Manuscript

THE HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT,

U. S. SECRETARY OF WAR

NOTRE DAME, INDIANA
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME,

NOTRE DAHE, INDIANA.

The University offers its students every facility and opjjor-
tunity for a complete

Collegiate Training
in the Ancient and Modern Classical Courses, Economics
and History, Journalism and Science.

The Law and Pre'-Medical (Biological) Courses under an
increased corps of professors afford students special advan-
tages in training for professional life.
I Technical Courses

Thd graduates in the Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical
Engineering Courses are in constant demand, for the courses
are thorough in every respect. There is a two-year or short
course, in Electrical Engineering.

Architecture
This coitrse has been introduced as a natural outgrowth
of the splendid Civil Engineering Course and is designed to
work in harmony with it. The course combines a mathe-
matical education together with a full and complete course of
architecture. The work of the course is under the direct
supervision of a practicing architect from Chicago.
Pharmacy
This course opens a broad field to Catholic young men.
Special attention given to laboratory work.
Preparatory School
The studies in the Preparatory Department are equivalent
to a High School course. Unexcelled opportunities for
students in grammar school grades.

Commercial Ccurse
Notre Dame claims to give the student a complete business
traininr.

St. Edward's Hall
for boys under 13 is unique in the completeness of its equip-
ment. It afiords to pupils the rare abvantages of the Pre-
paratory School and the tender care of the Sisters during
study hours.

The Gymnasium
with a track hall 100x180 feet— a Physical Culture room 40x100
feet modernly equipped, a lo-acre athletic field, spacious
recreation grounds, two lakes for aquatic sports, a large
indoor swimming pool 30x75, leave nothing to be desired
for the building ttp of the physical man.

Free Rooms for Students
over 17 who are admissable to the Sophomore year of any
collegiate course. Rooms to rent to students over 17 who
can not qualify as Sophomores.

Catalogues Free
The authorities solicit a personal inspection of the Univer-
sity and equipment on the part of parents, guardians, and
students.

Address: VERY REV. ANDREW MORRISSEY. C. S.C.LL.D.,

Kotre Dame, Indiana.

The Church and Our Government
in the Philippines

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The Church and Our Govern
ment in the Philippines

An Address Delivered Before the Faculty and
Students of the University of Notre Dame,
Octobers, 1904. From the Author's Manuscript

BY

THE HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT

U. S. SECRETARY OF WAR '

NOTRE DAME, INDIANA
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

• • •

• •» : . • •'

">

BERNARD MCISES

The Church and Our Government
In the Philippines.

SINCE my return from the Philippine
Islands, it has been my privilege
to discuss the question touching Church
and State arising in the administration of
those islands, before Presbyterian and
Episcopalian bodies and before the General
Chautauqua Assembly. This is the first
time that I have addressed a distinctly
Catholic audience upon the subject. I am
glad to do so, because, naturally, the Roman
Catholics of America are more closely
interested than any other denomination in
such issues, affecting, as they do, 7,000,000
of people in the archipelago, a large
majority of w^hom are Roman Catholics.

Magellan, in search of spices, was the first
European to land in the Philippine Islands.
He lost his life near the present city of Cebu
in 1521. The archipelago was not really
taken possession of as a colony of Spain
until 1565. This was in the reign of
Philip II. The colonization of the Philip-
pines had its motive not in gain but in
the desire to extend the Christian religion.
The islands were indeed a Christian mission

794151

— 6 —

rather than a colony, and this characteristic
has affected their histor}^ to the present
day. It is true that Legaspi, the former
alcalde of the city of Mexico, who was sent
out with Friar Urdaneta, of the Augustinian
Order, was directed to examine the ports
of the Philippine Islands and to establish
trade with the natives; and that the
importance of winning the friendship of the
natives was emphasized as a means of
continuing the trade. But the viceroy of
Philip II. ordered Legaspi to treat the five
Augustinian Friars in his company with
the utmost respect and consideration, so
that the natives should also hold them in
respect; ''since," as he wrote to Legaspi,
"you are aware that the chief thing sought
after by his Majesty is the increase of the
Holy Catholic Faith and the salvation of
the souls of these infidels." In other Spanish
expeditions the sum of money paid for the
trip was paid by adventurers who con-
tributed part of the fund and who w^ere
aided from the royal treasury, the under-
standing being that there should be an
equitable division of the profits between
the adventurers and the king. There v^as,
however, no adventurer connected with this
expedition. It was purely a governmental
enterprise sent out by order of Philip II.,
and he paid all the expenses. A contem-

— 7 —

porary writer says that when the king was
informed that the PhiHppines were not rich
in gold and pearls and that their occupation
might not be lucrative but the reverse,
he answered: ''That is not a matter ot
moment; I am an instrument of Divine
Providence. The main thing is the conver-
sion of the kingdom of Luzon ; and God has
predestined me for that end, having chosen
me His king for that purpose. And since
He has intrusted so glorious a w^ork to
me and my crown, I shall hold the islands
of Luzon, even though by doing so I exhaust
my treasury."

Again, in 1619, in the reign of Philip IIL,
it was proposed to abandon the Philippines
on the ground of their useless expense to
Spain, and an order to that eifect was
given. A delegation of Spanish friars from
the archipelago, however, implored the king
not to abandon the 200,000 Christians
whom they had by that time converted,
and the order was countermanded.

I may digress here to say that some years
before the American occupation, a popular
subscription was taken up in Manila to pay
for the erection of the statue of Legaspi,
the founder of the city. Subsequently the
plan was changed so as to include Urdaneta,
the Augustinian Friar, who accompanied
Legaspi. Querol, a Spanish sculptor of note.

8

designed the monument, and it was cast in
bronze and sent to Manila. When the Amer-
ican forces captured the place, there were
found in the Custom House the various pieces
of the monument, but nothing looking
to its erection had been done. The military
government of Manila under General Davis,
decided, and properly decided, that it would
be a graceful act on the part of the American
authorities to erect the monument. This
was done, and the monument now stands
on the Luneta overlooking the Bay ot
Manila, and occupies the most prominent
site in the whole archipelago. It is a
work of art. The two figures are instinct
with courage and energy. Legaspi on the
right bears in his left hand the standard of
Spain ; on the left, and slightly in advance
of Legaspi, Urdaneta carries in his right
hand, and immediately in the front of the
Spanish standard, the cross. The whole,
as an artistic expression, satisfies the
sense of admiration that one feels in
reading of the enterprise, courage and
fidelity to duty that distinguished those
heroes of Spain who braved the then
frightful dangers of the deep to carry
Christianity and European civilization into
the far-off Orient.

Under the circumstances I have described,
the occupation of the islands took on a

— 9— •

different aspect from that of ordinary
seeking for gold and profit, and was not in
the least like the conquest of Pizarro and
Cortez. The natives were treated with great
kindness and consideration. The priests
exerted every effort to conciliate them. The
government was first established at Cebu,
subsequently at Iloilo in Panay, and finally
at Manila in 1571. There was at Manila
some fighting of a desultory and not very
bloody character; but Legaspi, obeying
the direction of his superior, at once entered
into negotiations with the natives. He found
that there was no great chief in command,
but that each town had its own chief and
there was no other government than that of
many petty rulers. They were jealous of one
another, were easily induced to acknowledge
allegiance to the King of Spain, and were
quickly brought under the influence of the
active missionary efforts of the friars who
accompanied Legaspi. History affords few
instances in which sovereignty was extended
over so large a territory and so many
people (for the island must then have had
half a million inhabitants) with less blood-
shed. When Legaspi's lieutenant, Salcedo,
first visited Manila, he found evidence that
there had been an effort to convert the
people to Mohammedanism, but it had not
proceeded far. Undoubtedly, if Legaspi had

lO

not at that time come into the islands, all
the peoples of the archipelago, instead of
only five per cent of them, would now,
have been Mohammedan. The willingness of
the natives to embrace Christianity, their
gentle natures and their love of the solemn
and beautiful ceremonies of the Catholic
Church, enabled the friars to spread Christi-
anity through the islands with remarkable
rapidity.

It should be borne in mind that these are
a Malay people; and that nowhere in the
world, except in the Philippine Islands, has
the Malay been made a Christian. In other
places where the race abides, Mohamme-
danism has become its religion; and there
is no condition of mind which offers such
resistance to the inculcating of Christianity
as that found in the followers of the
Prophet of Mecca.

The friars learned the various dialects ot
the natives, and settled down to live with
them as their protectors and guardians. In
the first two hundred years of Spanish occu-
pation, the Crown had granted to various
Spanish subjects large tracts of land called
encomiendas. To those who occupied these
encomiendas it was intended to give the
character of feudal lords. They, of course
came into contact w^ith the natives and
attempted to use them for the develop-

II

ment of their properties. The history
of the islands until 1800 shows that the
friars who had increased in number from
time to time were constantly exercising
their influence to restrain abuse of the
natives by these encomienderos, or large
land-owners ; and the result of their efforts
is seen in the royal decrees issued at their
request, which were published and became
known as the "Laws of the Indies." It is
very probable that the encomienderos fre-
quently violated the restrictions w^hich v^ere
put upon them by these laws in dealing with
the natives; but there is nothing to show
that the friars winked at this or that they
did not continue to act sincerely as the
protectors of the natives down to the
beginning of the past century. Under the
law a native could not be sued unless there
was made party to the suit an official who
was ordinarily a friar, known as ''the
Protector of the Indian." The encomiendero
who had to do with the natives was
not permitted to live in a town on his
own estates where the natives lived. The
friars exerted their influence to induce the
natives to live in tow^ns near the church
and the convento, or parish house, because
they thought that this would bring the
natives more fully ''under the the bells,"
as they called it, or within religious

12

influence. One of the friars laid down as
a rule, which was adopted by his Order
and approved by the government as early
as 1580, the following:

1. **It is proper that pueblos should be
formed, the missionaries being ordered to
establish themselves at a certain point where
the church and the parish house (convento),
which w^ill serve as a point of departure for
the missions, will be built. The new Chris-
tians will be obliged to build their houses
about the church, and the heathen will
be advised to do so.

2. ** Elementary schools should be estab-
lished, in which the Indians will be taught
not only Christian doctrine and reading
and writing, but also arts and trades; so
that they may become not only good
Christians but also useful citizens."

So great and complete became the control
which the friars exercised over the natives
by reason of their sincere devotion to their
interests, that Spain found it possible to
police the islands with very few troops.

The Spanish military force in the Philip-
pines in 1600 was 470 oflficers and men.
In 1636 this had increased to 1762
Spaniards and 140 natives. From 1828 to
1896 the Spanish forces varied from 1000
to 3000 officers and men. In 1896, just
before the revolution, the army included

— IS-
IS,000 men, of whom 3000 were Spaniards;
and a constabulary of 3500 men most of
whom were natives.

The Spaniards, but not the natives, v^ere
until 1803 subject to the jurisdiction of the
Inquisition. Idolatries, heresies and errors
of belief committed by the natives were
brought before the bishop of the diocese, but
not before the Holy Office.

Although the natives held slaves, upon the
arrival of the Spaniards the custom was
discouraged by a law forbidding Span-
iards to hold slaves, and by prohibiting
judges from deciding in cases of dispute
whether a man was a slave ; so that a slave
appearing before the court was ordinarily
liberated.

In Cavite the friars maintained a hospital
for sick sailors; in Manila, Los Banos and
Caceres were hospitals for sick natives;
in Manila, Pila and Caceres were hospitals
for Spaniards, the clergy and natives who
could afford to pay. In Manila was main-
tained a hospital for sick negro slaves.

Between 1591 and 1615, the friars of the
Philippines had sent missionaries to Japan,
wrho devoted themselves to the succor of the
poor and needy there, and especially the
lepers of that country ; so that there were in
Japan, when the ports of that country were
closed, about thirty-two priests. Twenty-six

— 14 —

of them were crucified or burned alive. When
the Mikado expelled the Christians he sent to
the governor-general of the Philippines three
junks laden with 150 lepers, v^ith a letter in
which he stated that, as the Spanish friars
v^ere so anxious to provide for the poor and
afflicted, he sent them a cargo of men who
were really sorely oppressed. These unfort-
unates v^ere taken ashore and housed at
Manila, in the hospital of San Lazaro, which
has ever since been used for lepers.

I draw much of what I have said from an
introduction by Captain John R. M. Taylor,
of the 14th Infantry, Assistant to the Chief
of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, who is
engaged in compiling original documents
connected w^ith the Philippines, with notes.
Speaking of what the friars did in the
islands, Captain Taylor says :

*'To accomplish these results required
untiring energy and a high enthusiasm
among the missionaries, in whom the fierce
fires of religious ardor must have consumed
many of the more kindly attributes ol
humanity. Men who had lived among
savages, trying to teach them the advan-
tages of peace and the reasonableness of a
higher life, who had lived among them
speaking their tongues until they had
almost forgotten their own, must have felt
when promoted to the high places in the

— 15 —

religious hierarchy, that their sole duty was
to increase the boundaries of the vineyard in
which they had worked so long. Spain had
ceased to be everything to them : their Order
was their country ; and the cure of souls, and
the accumulation of means for the cure of
souls was the truest patriotism. . . . They
were shepherds of a very erring flock.
Spanish officials came and w^ent, but the
ministers of the Church remained, and as
they grew to be the interpreters of the
wants of the people, and in many cases
their protectors against spoliation, power
fell into their hands."

The influence of the friars was thrown
against the investigation and development
of the resources of the Philippines. The
priests reasoned that the working of the
mines in Peru and Mexico had meant suffer-
ing and death to many of the natives ; and
that it was better to let the mines in the
Philippines, if mines there were, lie unopened.
Few Spanish merchants lived permanently
in the islands, and these were chiefly engaged
in the transshipment of Asiatic merchandise
from Manila, and had but little interest in
Philippine products. The internal develop-
ment of the islands was neglected. Taxes
were light, and there was little money to
make improvements or to establish schools.
One Spanish - speaking priest among three

i6

or four thousand natives could not do much
in spreading the knowledge of the language.
It is probable that, apart from the con-
venience of the priest's learning the language
of his parish instead of requiring the
parishioners to learn his, it w^as deemed
expedient from a moral standpoint to keep
the common people ignorant of Spanish.
To know^ Spanish meant contact v^ith the
outside w^orld, and the priests feared — not
civilization, but the evils of civilization.
Modem material progress seemed to the
Spanish missionaries of little w^orth, com-
pared with keeping their people innocent.

It ought to be noted, however, that while
the policy of the friars seems to have been
to keep the common people in a state of
Christian pupilage, they founded a university,
that of St. Thomas, which is older than
either Harvard or Yale, and is still doing
educational work. The Jesuits, too, founded
and are now carrying on several very good
academic schools in Manila, and there are a
few others in the islands. All the well-
educated Filipinos owe their education to
institutions of learning founded by friars or
Jesuits, or conducted under their auspices.

This brief description of the control of
the Philippine Islands and of the Philippine
people by a thousand Spanish friars prior
to the nineteenth century, at once prompts

— 17 —

the question how it has come about that the
PhiHppine people now manifest such hos-
tihty to those who were for two hundred
and fifty years their sincere and earnest
friends, benefactors and protectors? There
were several causes for the change. The
intimate and affectionate relations existing
between the friars and their native parish-
ioners had led to the education of natives
as priests, and to the acceptance of some
of them as members of the religious orders.
Before 1800, of the bishops and archbishops
who had been appointed in the islands,
twelve were natives; but after the first
years of the nineteenth century no such
places of preferment were offered them ; and
after 1832 they were not allowed to become
members of the religious orders. This
change of policy created a cleavage between
the native clergy and the friars, which
gradually widened. In all countries in
which the Roman Catholic religion has
become fairly established, it has been the
ultimate policy of Rome to make the Church
as popular as possible by appointing the
priests and the hierarchy from the natives
of the country; but in the Philippines, and
especially in the nineteenth century, under
the Spanish influence — which, by means ot
the Concordat between the Spanish Crown
and Rome, largely excluded the direct

— i8 —

interposition of Rome in the Philippines —
a different pohcy was followed, and the
controlling priesthood was confined as rnuch
as possible to the dominant and alien race.
The inevitable result of this policy, as
soon as any small percentage of the
Philippine people passed out from under
the pupilage of the Spanish friars, was to
create an opposition to them among the
people.

In 1767, the Jesuits had been banished
from the islands by the Pragmatic Sanc-
tion of Charles the Third, and their
properties had been confiscated. They were
at the time very powerful and rich, and
the thirty -two parishes to which they
had administered were now given over,
through the influence of a secular arch-
bishop, to native priests. The parishes
were chiefly in the provinces of Cavite,
Manila and Bulacan. In 1852, the Jesuits
were permitted to return, and the order
permitting their return directed that they
should receive again their thirty-two
parishes, but in the remote Island of
Mindanao. Those parishes had been occu-
pied by Recolletos, the barefooted branch
of the Franciscan Order. The Recolletos
demanded that if they were turned out of
their parishes in Mindanao, they should
be restored to the parishes occupied by

— 19 —

the native secular clergy in Cavite, Manila
and Bulacan, which had been originally
Jesuit parishes. This proposal was resisted
by the native secular clergy, but was,
nevertheless, carried into effect, increasing
the hostility already existing on the part
of the native clergy toward the friars.
The bitterness of feeling thus engendered
spread among the people.

Secondly, the friars had become, generally
by purchase, large landowners. They held
land enough to nlake up 250,000 acres in
the Tagalog provinces in the immediate
neighborhood of Manila. This land, which
was rented by them to thousands of tenants,
was the best cultivated land in the islands,
and was admirably suited for the cheap
conveyance of the crops to market. Charges
were made that the friars were collecting
exorbitant rents; and other agrarian diffi-
culties arose, which, however free from
blame the friars may have been, contributed
very decidedly to the growing feeling on
the part of the native people against their
former friends and protectors.

Finally, the construction of the Suez Canal
brought the Philippines into comparatively
close communication w^ith Spain, and hordes
of Spanish adventurers came to the islands.
Republican or liberal political views which
were then spreading in Spain, leading later to

— 20 —

the formation for a short time of a Spanish
republic, reached Manila, and, finding
lodgment among some of the educated
Filipinos led to a small uprising and
so-called insurrection in 1870. A prominent
Filipino priest named Burgos, who had been
active in the controversies between the friars
and the native clergy, was charged with
complicity in this uprising, was convicted
and was shot on the Luneta. The Spanish
government looked to the Spanish friars,
because of their intimacy v^ith the people
and control over them, to do what was
necessary in ferreting out sedition or
treason, supposed to be then rife. By
custom, and subsequently by law, to the
parish priest was given complete super-
visory power over the municipal government
of his town. His civil functions became
very many, and one of his chief duties
was supposed by the people to be to report
to the central government at Manila the
persons in his parish whose political views
or actions were hostile to the Spanish regime.
The friars thus became involved in a reaction-
ary policy, which placed them in opposition
to the people, and made them responsible
in the popular mind for the severity with
which the Spanish government punished
those suspected of liberal political opinions.
So bitter did the feeling become that in the

21

revolution of 1898 there were forty friars
killed and three hundred imprisoned; and
the latter were released only by the
advance of the American forces and the
capture of the towns in which they were
confined.

I have at various times discussed the
dilemma which was presented to the United
States after the battle of Manila Bay and
the taking of the city of Manila, the signing
of the protocol, and when the question arose
as to what form the treaty of peace should
take. It is not my purpose now^ to review^
the situation; it has convinced me that
the course which was taken — to wit, that
of assuming sovereignty over the islands —
was the only honorable course open to
the United States.

The condition of the Roman Catholic
Church after the treaty of peace between
Spain and the United States was a critical
one; and while it has somewhat improved,
there still remains much to be desired before
the Church can assume its proper sphere of
usefulness. Many of the churches were injured
in the war of the insurrection, and many of
the parishes had to be abandoned for lack of
priests. The native clergy, consisting mainly
of priests of limited education who had acted
as assistants to the friars, have become
the parish priests; and the learning and

22

character of many of them are by no means
as high as those of CathoHc priests of other
countries. The friars who were parish priests
could not return to the parishes because of
the enmity felt against them; and it was
difficult to obtain priests from other lands
who could discharge the duties of ministers
of religion among people whom they did
not understand and who did not understand
them. I am informed that arrangements are
now^ being made to bring in French, Bel-
gian and American missionaries. The funds
which the Spanish government was under
obligation to furnish for the salaries of the
parish priests, by reason of the Concordat
with the Pope, are of course not now
available ; and this makes it important, from
a churchman's standpoint, that as much of
the money as possible realized from the
friars' lands should be kept in the coffers
of the Philippine Church. The truth is
that the Church has been placed under the
necessity of preparing a new priesthood and
of establishing the old church on a new
foundation. The policy of the Vatican looks
now to the creation as soon as practicable
of a new clergy by the education of young
Filipinos of good character in theological
seminaries to be established for the purpose
in Manila, Rome and America.
The transfer of a people from a sovereignty

— 23 —

like that of Spain — in which the Church and
government and the State were so closely
united that it is at times very difficult to
distinguish .the possessions and functions
of each — to a sovereingty like that of the
United States, in which the Church and the
state must be separate, has presented a
number of most interesting questions for
readjustment and settlement ; and these
questions have been much complicated by
the political bearing which the hostility of
the people toward the friars' ownership of
large argricultural holdings has had upon
the situation.

Let us take up, in order, the classes of ques-
tions arising between the Roman Catholic
Church and the government of the Philippine
Islands established by the United States :

First. The three orders — the Augustinians,
the RecoUetos and the Dominicans — owned ^
among them about 420,000 acres of land.
Of this, 120,000 acres had been very recently
acquired by grant of the Spanish govern-
ment, 60,000 acres of it lay in the remote
province of Isabela and was granted to the
Augustinian Order, in order to secure its
improvement; and a similar grant in the
Island of Mindoro was made to the
RecoUetos. The remaining 300,000 acres,
however, had been held by the Orders for
periods ranging from 50 to 200 years. I

— 24 —

do not find any indication that this land was
acquired through undue influence as has been
sometimes charged. The chain of titles seems
to show that it was all purchased either at
private sale or public auction. The lands,
especially those in the neighborhood of
Manila, the friars highly improved by
irrigation at large expense. After the
Revolution of 1896, the popular feeling
against the friars made the collection of
rents from their tenants impossible.

The Insurgent Congress at Malolos, under
Aguinaldo, passed acts confiscating to the
Filipino Republic all the lands of the friars
in the islands; and many of the tenants
based their refusal to pay rents to the friars'
agents on the ground of this "nationalizing"
of the lands, as it was called.

In 1901, American civil government was
established, and courts were created for the
purpose of determing civil rights. The friars
had meantime transferred their titles to
promoting companies, taking back shares
in the corporations as a consideration for
the transfers. With the restoration of tran-
quillity in 1902, there was no just reason
why the companies now owning the lands
should not proceed to collect their rents and
to oust the tenants if the rents w^ere not
paid. The tenants were sullen and not
disposed to recognize the titles of the friars

— 25 —

or to pay their rents. A sytematic attempt
to collect the rents would involve eviction
suits against many thousand tenants ;
judgment w^ould doubtless follow^ the suits,
and the executive officers of the courts must
then proceed to evict from their houses and
homes thousands of farmers in the most
populous provinces of the islands, and chiefly
among the Tagalogs, a tribe easily aroused
to disturbance and insurrection. After four
years of the difficult w^ork of tranquillization
it seemed impossible, w^ere these evictions to
be instituted, to avoid a return to the dis-
turbed conditions that had so injuriously
affected the interests of the islands betv^een
1898 and 1902. Something must be done
to avoid the manifest danger to the public
peace and to vy^ell-ordered government v^hich
w^holesale evictions of the character described
would involve.

Second. It was found that the political
hostility toward the friars was so great on
the part of the people that any eff*ort to send
them from Manila, where they were housed
in their monasteries, to the parishes where
they had formerly exercised priestly func-
tions, created disturbances that it was
difficult for the civil government to control.
On political grounds, therefore, it seemed
wise for the Church on the friendly sug-
gestion of the government, to select other

26

ministers than the Spanish members of the
Orders which had aroused such poHtical
antagonism among the people in the recent
history of the islands.

Third. Under the Spanish regime, when-
ever either a civil or religious charity or
school was founded and maintained, the
immediate executive officers selected by the
government for the purpose of supervising
and carrying on such institutions were
members of the clergy. There were several
large foundations, educational and charit-
able, with respect to which the claim was
made, as soon as the United States govern-
ment assumed control, that they were not
religious charities and so subject to tl;ie
control of the Roman Catholic Church ; but
that they were really civil foundations, the
care and custody of which necessarily passed
with the transfer of sovereignty from the
Crown of Spain to the government of the
United States. This question has arisen
with respect to two hospitals, and the
College of San Jose. The union of Church
and State under the Spanish regime was
so close that the decision whether a
particular foundation was civil or religious
involves a consideration of some of the
nicest and most puzzling points of law.
Take the instance of the College of San Jose.

A Spaniard named Figueroa, who was

— 27 —

governor of the Island of Mindanao in
1600, died and left a will by which he gave
a fund for the establishment and assistance
of a school for the education of young
Spaniards. In this will, he directed specifi-
cally that the school should not be subject
to ecclesiastical domination; but he provided
that the pupils should have a Christian
education, and that the rector of the school
should be the head of the Jesuit Order in
the Philippines. In 1767, as already said,
the Jesuits were expelled from the islands
by the King of Spain. After the Jesuits
left, the Archbishop of Manila and the
governor -general took possession of the
property of the College of San Jose and
divided it between them for Church and
governmental purposes. When this was
brought to the attention of the King of
Spain, he severely criticised both officials,
and directed that the property— which, he
said, had not belonged to the Jesuits, but
was only under the control of the superior
to carry out Figueroa's will — should be
continued in the same trust. He then
appointed a Dominican to supervise the
administration of the college.

Though the Jesuits were allowed to return
to the islands in 1852, the superior of the
Order did not resume control of the college.
The foundation continued to be under

— 28 —

Dominican supervision, and is now a part
of the University of Santo Tomas. The
funds are used, under the doctrine known to
lawyers as the doctrine of cy pres, to
maintain a school of medicine in the
university. The Filipino Medical Associa-
tion, as soon as the American government
took control of the islands, insisted that
this San Jose trust was a civil foundation,
and that it was the duty of the American
government to take possession as the
trustee, and to '*run" the institution as
a medical college free from ecclesiastical
control. Much local bitterness grew out of
the controversy, and the commission finally
concluded to pass a law providing a special
case for the Supreme Court of the islands
to decide. It is now pending, but has not
been brought to a hearing, because it was
hoped, after the visit to Rome, that it might
be settled by compromise.

Fourth. Another class of questions arising
between the government of the United
States and the Roman Catholic Church is
the question of rent and damages for the
occupation of churches and conventos by
the troops of the United States during the
insurrection and subsequent thereto. You
must know that nine-tenths of the popula-
tion of- the Philippine Islands reside in
houses made of a very light and temporary

— 29 —

material. They live in what are called
"shacks" made of bamboo frames with
roofs and sides of the nipa-palm. The
houses are quickly constructed, easily moved
and much subject to destruction by fire.
The only permanent buildings in the ordi-
nary town in the Philippines, with the
exception of the municipal or town building
and a few houses of the wealthy, are the
church and the rectory, called the convento.
The church is usually a large building of
stone or brick, finely situated; and the
convento is a great structure adjoining
the church and connected with it. The
convento offered excellent facilities as a
barracks for the troops. As it happened
that during the insurrection many of the
churches and conventos were abandoned,
the troops moved into them — very much to
the satisfaction of the church authorities,
because in this way their destruction was
avoided. The insurgents early in the w^ar
had pursued the policy of destroying the
churches, in the belief that in this wise
they would prevent the American troops
from having places in w^hich to live.
The occupation of the churches and con-
ventos for military purposes continued for
two years, and sometimes longer, and often
for quite a period after all hostilities had
ceased. This is the foundation for a reason-

~3o —

able claim against the United States for
rent and for damages caused by the occupa-
tion. The difficulty is in settling the proper
amount due.

Fifth. Another class of questions, and
one which at present is perhaps the most
troublesome, involves the question of
title to a number of parish churches and
conventos. In these cases, the title is
claimed by the respective municipalities in
w^hich the parish church and conventos
stand ; and the people of some of these
municipalities claim the right to turn the
church and convento over to the so-called
Independent Filipino Catholic Church, a
schismatic body established by an apostate
Roman Catholic priest named Aglipay. I
shall speak more in detail of this question
farther on.

I think I have sufficiently stated and
explained the questions betw^een the Church
and the government to shov\^ that they
were serious obstacles to the progress of
the American government, if steps were not
immediately taken to secure a settlement
of them. It is not too much to say that
the Church was as anxious to bring about
a settlement as was the government. The
commission recommended the purchase of
the friars' lands as a solution of the
difficulties arising with respect to them.

— 31 —

It had been fairly well ascertained that if
the government bought the lands, the
government as a landlord w^ould have less
difficulty in dealing with the tenants than
it would have in enforcing the rights of the
friars as landlords; and that by offering to
the tenants opportunity to purchase the
lands on small annual payments for ten
or twenty years, a transfer of the lands
to the tenants might probably be effected
without much, if any, pecuniary loss to
the government.

Through a prominent American prelate
of the Roman Catholfc Church, it was
intimated by the Vatican to Mr. Root, the
Secretary of War, that if an agent of the
government could be sent to Rome, the
settlement of all these questions might be
greatly facilitated by direct negotiation
with the head of the Roman Church. The
issue was presented to the President and
the Secretary of War whether they ought
to take the responsibility of a direct
communication with the Vatican in the
settlement of these questions. Of course
the immediate objection to this was the
possibility of severe condemnation by the
non-Catholics of America, on the ground
that it was a radical departure from the
traditions of the government, and would be
establishing diplomatic relations with the

— 32 —

head of the Roman Church, inconsistent
with the separation of Church and State
always maintained by our government.
There was the natural fear that the purpose
of the visit might thus be misconstrued and
that a sectarian feeling would be aroused;
so that the visit, instead of contributing
to the solution of the difficulties in the
Philippines, might prove to be a most serious
obstacle. On the other hand, the President
and Secretary of War thought it possible,
after full and frank consultation with many
leading clergymen of various denominations,
to rely on the clear judgment and common-
sense and liberality of all the American
people, v^ho must see the supreme difficulties
and exceptional character of the problem
which the government had to meet in the
Philippine Islands, and would welcome any
reasonable step toward its solution. It was
a business proposition. Was it wiser to deal
with an agent of the great corporation of the
Roman Church in the Philippine Islands, or
with the head of the Church at Roman ? The
disadvantage of dealing with an agent in the
Philippine Islands was that unless direct and
satisfactory communication v^as established
with the head of the Church, the representa-
tives of the Church in the islands would be
likely to be more or less under the influence
of the Spanish friars, whose attitude with

— 33 —

respect to the questions to be decided could
not be expected, under the circumstances, to
be impartial and free from bias. It was
concluded, therefore, to accept the informal
invitation, and to send a representative to
the Vatican to deal directly with the Pope
and with the Congregation of Cardinals, to
whom in the ordinary course of business
he would probably assign the matter. I
was then the Governor of the Philippine
Islands, visiting this country for the pur-
pose of testifying before the congressional
committees on Philippine affairs.

It was thought appropriate that I should
represent the government of the United
States in the conferences at Rome. Judge
James F. Smith, of the Supreme Court of
the Phihppines Islands, a Roman CathoHc,
then on leave in this country, was assigned
to accompany me. In addition. Bishop
Thomas O 'Gorman, the Catholic bishop of
Sioux Falls, who had lived a long time in
Rome and spoke French with much fluency,
and Colonel John Biddle Porter, of the
Judge Advocate's Corps of the Army, who
also spoke French, made up the party.
It was properly thought that Bishop
O'Gorman's familiarity with the methods
of doing business in the Vatican would be
of much assistance to me in carrying on
the negotiation. This proved to be in every

— 34 —

way true. Bishop O'Gorman preceded us

iu the visit to Rome by about two weeks,

and met us at Naples when the rest of us

landed from the North German Lloyd

steamer on our way to Rome, I had

received a letter of instruction from the

Secretary of War, a letter of introduction

from the Secretary of State to Cardinal

Rampolla, and a personal letter of courtesy

and greeting from President Roosevelt to

his Holiness Pope Leo XIII. We first

called upon Cardinal Rampolla, who

received us cordially, and indicated the

time when the Pope would receive us in

audience. At the appointed hour, through

the magnificent chambers of the Vatican,

v^e v^ere escorted into the presence of

Leo XIII. From the moment that we

were presented to the Pope until his death,

we were constantly being made conscious

of the fact that he took a real personal

interest in the solution of the difficult

problems vsrhich had to be solved between

the Church and the Philippine government;

and that he intended, so far as lay in his

power, to bring about the most friendly

relation between the United States in the

Philippines and the church authorities.

He received us most graciously, directed us

to seats immediately in front of him, listened

attentively while the address which I ^^(j

— 35 —

prepared, and which had been translated
into French, was read to him by Colonel
Porter. He responded in remarks of per-
haps fifteen minutes in length, showing
that he had caught the points which were
presented to him in the address and fully
understood them. Our audience was held
with him, without the presence of any
adviser, cardinal, priest or attendant.

I had always had great admiration for
Leo XIII. because of his statesmanlike
grasp of the many portentous questions
that were presented to him for discussion
and solution; but I had supposed that in
the latter years of his pontificate he had
become so feeble as to be not much more
than a lay figure in the Papal government,
and that, except for a more formal greeting
and salutation, we should have to trans-
act our business with the Curia. I w^as
greatly surprised, therefore, to find this
grand old man of ninety-two, though some-
what bent in years and delicate - looking,
still able to walk about ; and, what was
more remarkable, keen and active in his
mind, easily following the conversation and
addresses made to him, and responding
v^ith a promptness and clearness of intel-
lectual vision rarely found in men of old age.
Nothing could exceed the cordial gracious-
ness and simple, kindly manner with which

-36-

he received us. After the serious part of
the audience had been concluded, he made
inquiries after our families and our health,
and lightened the conversation with a
genial w^it and sense of humor that were
very charming. He assured us of his
great delight at our coming and of his
determination to insure the success of
our visit.

After our first audience with the Pope, I
presented my letter of instruction to Car-
dinal Rampolla, which was referred by him
to the proper Congregation of Cardinals,
'and the negotiations thereafter were in
writing. The answer of the Vatican to the
Secretary of War's instructions contained
a general acquiescence in the desire of the
government of the United States to purchase
the friars' lands, and an announcement of
the Vatican's intention to effect a change in
the personnel of the priests in the islands, by
a gradual substitution for the Spanish friars
of priests of other nationalities, with the
ultimate purpose of fitting Filipinos for the
clergy; and a proposal that all the matters^
pending should be turned over for settle-
ment to a conference between an Apostolic
Delegate to be sent to the Philippine Islands
and the ofiicers of the Insular government.

The correspondence has been published,
and I shall not weary you with its details

— 37 —

further than to say that, in the response
to the first letter received from Cardinal
Rampolla, we thought it proper to propose
a definite contract between the government
of the islands and the Vatican for the
purchase of the lands, at a price to be
fixed by a tribunal of arbitration, which
should pass not only upon the price of
the lands but also upon the question of the
trust foundations already referred to, and
which should fix for the approval of Congress
the amount of rent and damages due for*^
the occupation of the churches and conventos
by the United States troops. It was further
proposed that this contract should have a
condition by which the Vatican would agree "
to withdraw the friars in the course of
three years.

To this condition the Vatican declined
to agree. It was willing to make a
definite contract for arbitration, but it
declined to agree as one of its terms to
.withdraw the friars from the islands: first,
because that was a question of religious
discipline which, it did not think, ought to
form a term of a commercial contract;
secondly, because it did not desire, by such
a stipulation, to reflect upon the Spanish
religious Orders, and thus give apparent
support to the slanders which had been pub-
lished against the Orders by their enemies;

-38-

and, thirdly, because such agreement would
be offensive to Spain. We, on the part of
the United States, under the instructions of
the Secretary War, did not feel authorized
to enter into a contract of arbitration with
all the uncertainty as to the extent of
the obligation assumed, if it did not include
as a consideration the withdrawal of the
Spanish friars ; and accordingly we reverted ^
to the general agreement proposed in the
Vatican's first letter, in which the Church
indicated its approval of the purchase of
the lands, and the settlement of the other
questions by negotiation v^ith an Apostolic
Delegate to be sent w^ith full powers to
Manila.

We were honored by a second audience
with Leo XIII. on our departure. We had
received at his hands great courtesy, had
been invited to attend his consistory held
while we were in Rome, and had much
enjoyed that interesting occasion. He talked
to us on the subject of the Philippines for
some twenty or thirty minutes, and assured
us again of his intense interest in the friendly
solution of the questions .arising there, and
of his determination that they should all
be solved to the satisfaction of the American
government. He intimated that while we
had not possibly been as successful as we
hoped, we would find that through his

— 39 —

Apostolic Delegate, whom he would send,
the whole matter would be worked out to
our satisfaction.

I count it one of the opportunities of my
life to have had the honor of a personal
interview with so great an historical figure. •
Fragile in body almost to the point of
transparency, with beautiful eyes, and a
continuing smile full of benignity and
charity, he seemed a being w^hose life could
be blown out like a candle flame; and yet
there was no apparent failing of intellectual
vigor or keenness, and there ^were all the
charm of manner and courtesy of the
high-bred Italian.

After the conclusion of the negotiations
at Rome, I proceeded to the Philippine
Islands to resume the duties of Governor.
Within four or five months I was followed'
by the Apostolic Delegate, Monsignor Jean
Baptiste Guidi, titular Archbishop of
Stauropoli. From that time until I left
the islands in December, 1903, I was con-
stantly in conference with Monsignor Guidi.
Nothing could have proven more conclu-
sively the sincerity of the Pope's desire
to establish friendly relations with the
American government in the Philippines and
to bring about a solution satisfactory to
both sides, than his selection of Monsignor
Guidi as Apostolic Delegate. He was a

— 40 —

man of the widest pQlitical and diplomatic
experience ; he was a Roman, but had Hved
in Germany for fourteen years; had been
the Secretary of the Papal Nuncio at Berlin ;
had been himself the Papal Nuncio in Brazil
and in Ecuador and the United States of
Colombia, and had visited America, where
a brother, Father Guidi, had lived for
twenty years as a Jesuit priest among the
Indians in the Rocky Mountains. He was a
profound student of comparative philology,
spoke a dozen languages,"^ was a man of
affairs, and dealt in the largest and most
liberal way with questions presented to him.
When we began the negotiations for fix-
ing the price of the friars' lands, the task
seemed a hopeless one. Monsignor Guidi
labored under the great disadvantage that,
while he w^as anxious to bring about a sale,
he could not control the owners of the lands.
The transfer to promoting corporations had
apparently put the decision, as to the price
in the hands of promoters, — persons not so
much interested in a solution of the problem
as in the mere question of the amount of
money which should be secured. For more
than a year and a half, the negotiations
were continued; evidence w^as taken as to
the value of the lands, and finally by great
good fortune we were able to reach an
agreement, and signed contracts for the

— 41 —

purchase and sale of the lands the day
before I set sail from Manila to return to
Washington — on the 24th of December, 1903.
The first offers on the part of the
owners aggregated $12,500,000 : our first
offer was $6,000,000. Their second offer
was $10,500,000: we raised our offer
$1,500,000; and this price of ^7,500,000
was agreed to as a basis, on condition
that there should be left out of the sale
one hacienda already sold to a railroad
company, compensation for which in the
price would reduce it to $7,200,000. A
deficiency in area has now reduced the price
to about $7,000,000. The evidence taken
as to their value is printed as an appendix
to the report of the Governor for 1903.
The question of the value of agricultural
lands like these is, of course, a mere matter
of opinion which can not be settled with
certainty. My own view is that the price
paid for the lands under present conditions
is a good one and certainly fair to the
vendors; but that if prosperity returns to
the islands, and if the development follow,
which we have a reasonable ground for
supposing will follow, the government will
be able to recoup itself by the price at
which it can sell the lands to the tenants,
and thus discharge the debt which it
has now contracted in order to pay the

— 42 —

purchase price of the lands. The contract
of purchase provided for a resurvey of
the lands, or rather a joint survey, and
also that a good merchantable title should
be furnished.

With three of the four promoting com-
panies we have reached a satisfactory
conclusion, and the money v^ill be paid
within a few days. With the fourth — the
company representing the Dominican lands —
there has been considerable dispute over
the contract price and the title. We have
the money ready to pay in a Nev^ York bank,
but there is such a deficiency in the area
that it must be compensated for under the
contract by an abatement of the price. I
am glad to say that the last dispatch I
had from Governor Wright indicates that
the Spanish gentleman representing the
promoting company, after threatening to
break off negotiation, has concluded to be
reasonable and that a settlement w^ith the
fourth company is near at hand.

There is, we understand, some question
as to the division of the money between the
Religious Orders and the Church. The
Vatican has intimated that a very con-
siderable part of the money paid ought to be
retained in the Philippines for the purpose of
maintaining the Church; and of course all
w^ho are interested in the islands must be

— 43 —

interested in having as large a fund as
possible to assist in the restoration of the
Church of the majority to a prosperous
condition. It would seem that the Church
might very well say to the friars that much
of the money which they had accumulated
was earned through their administration
of Church matters as parish priests, and
that that money at least ought to be
retained for general church purposes in the
islands. However, this is a matter with
which we, as representatives of the civil
government, have nothing to do, though
in its solution we properly have a general
interest, growing out of our interest in
everything which concerns the welfare of
the people of the islands ; and the prosperity
of all Christian churches among them
certainly tends to their betterment.

Nothing has been done toward a solution
of the trust questions, because there was
not time for Archbishop Guidi and me
to reach those less pressing matters. The
amount to be paid by the . government of
the United States for the occupation of the
churches and conventos is in the process of
being ascertained. Evidence has been taken
on both sides, and I have no doubt that
with the coming of the new Delegate a
proper sum can speedily be reached. This
leads me to express my deep regret that

— 44 —

Monsignor Guidi, the Apostolic Delegate,
died from heart disease last June in Manila.
I regretted this both personally and offi-
cially, because we were very warm friends.
He had become so familar with all the
questions, and had approached them with
so statesmanlike and liberal a spirit that
I am convinced that v^ith his assistance
all the questions awaiting solution would
have been speedily settled. I have not the
pleasure or the honor of the acquaintance
of the nev^ Apostolic Delegate, but I am
assured that he is a worthy successor of
Monsignor Guidi. If so, we may look forward
to an early conclusion of all the differences
that now^ exist.

I ought to say that though the Vatican
declined as a term of the contract to with-
draw the Spanish friars from the Phillip-
pines, they have been very largely reduced
in number, — indeed, in a much shorter time^'
than that in which we asked the Vatican to
stipulate they should be. There were over
1000 friars in the Philippines in 1898:
by the first of January, 1904, they had
been reduced to 246 ; and 83 of these
were Dominicans who have renounced the
right to go into the parishes and have
devoted themselves to education. Fifty of
the remainder are infirm and unable to do
any work, or indeed to leave the islands

— 45 —

on account of the danger of the change
of climate; so that there are only a few
more than 100 available to be sent back
to the parishes, and of these many are
so engaged in educational work as to
make it impracticable for them to act as
parish priests. The consequence is that, as
there are more than 900 parishes, the,
question of the intervention of the Spanish
friars in the islands as parish "priests ceases
to be important.

When the Filipinos were advised that the
Roman Pontiff would not formally and by
contract agree to withdraw^ the friars as
a condition of the purchase of the lands,
Aglipay, a former Catholic priest, took
advantage of the disappointment felt at
the announcement to organize a schism
and to found what he calls the ''Indepen-
dent Filipino Catholic Church."

Aglipay had been a priest rather favored
by the Spanish hierarchy. He had been made
the grand vicar of the diocese of Nueva
Segovia, of which Vigan is the head. When
Aguinaldo, with his government, was at
Malolos, and afterward at Tarlac, Aglipay
appeared and acted as his chief religious
adviser. He w^as called 'to Manila by the
archbishop, and, declining to go, was excom-
municated. Subsequently he was given a
guerrilla command in Ilocos Norte, and as a

-46-

gnerrilla leader acquired a rather unenviable
reputation for insubordination. His general-
issimo, Tinio, issued an order (which I have
seen) directing that he be seized and cap-
tured w^herever found, and turned over to
the military authorities for punishment as
a bandit. Hov^ever, he surrendered among
others, and gave over his forces to the
United States.

Popular hatred of the friars gave force to
his movement, and he had the sympathy of
many v^ealthy and educated Filipinos v^ho
declined to join his church and were not
v^illing to leave the Roman communion, but
whose dislike for the friars and their control
aroused their opposition to the apparent
course of Rome in this matter. The adher-
ents of Aglipay came largely from the poorer
people throughout the islands. The vicious
and turbulent all joined the ranks; every
demagogue and every disappointed poli-
tician who saw the initial rapid increase in
the membership of the new church, joined
it in order to get the benefit of its supposed
political strength.

The use of the words '' independent
Filipino" in the name of the church was
probably intended to secure popular support,
though it was not an improper use of the
v^ords to describe such a schism. In this
v^ay it has occurred that politicians have

— 47 —

made Aglipayism mean one thing in one
place and another thing in another; and
that while generally it may be said that
the church is recruited from those who
would join an insurrection if opportunity
offered, and embraces most of those enrolled
in the Nationalist party, whose platform
favors immediate independence, there are
many respectable followers of Aglipay, not
Nationalists, who separated from the Roman
Church chiefly on the basis of opposition
to the friars. Aguinaldo was. one of the
first to enrol himself as a follower of Aglipay,
*and published a letter advising Filipinos
generally to do so.

Aglipay has installed himself as Obispo
Maximo of the Independent Filipino Catholic
Church, and has created fifteen or twenty
bishops. He and his bishops have organ-
ized churches in various provinces. Of
course the first business of the new church
authorities is to secure church buildings and
property, and they turn with longing eyes
to the churches and parish houses heretofore
used by the Roman Catholic Church. They
maintain that these churches are really
government property, and that therefore
the people of the islands may, if they wish,
properly take them from the authorities of
the Roman Church and give them to the
Independent Filipino Catholic Church. There

-48-

are churches and chapels which have not
been occupied as such by the Roman CathoHc
Church for four or five years, because of
the inadequate number of priests. In some
of these church and chapel buildings, with the
consent of the townspeople, priests of the
Aglipayan church have set up their worship.
In other places, church buildings have
been constructed of temporary materials.
Aglipay looks forward to the early
independence of the islands because, as he
says, he expects that under a Filipino
government all the property now held by
the Roman Church in the islands will be
properly appropriated to the benefit of the
Independent Filipino Catholic Church, then to
become the State Church. The possibility that
confiscation of church property might follow
the leaving of the islands by the Americans
in the near future, may be judged somewhat
by the action of the Aguinaldo government
in confiscating the friar lands; though, of
course, the feeling against the friars was
much stronger than Aglipay could arouse
against the Roman Church. This govern-
ment in giving up control of the islands
could require as a condition from the new
government that no such confiscation of
church lands should take place; but it is
doubtful of hov^ much avail a stipulation of
this character would be, if courts organized

-^49 —

under the new government were to hold
that all the property in possession of the
Roman Church in the islands were really
government property. But would not the
majority of good Roman Catholics among
the people prevent such proceedings in case
of Philippine independence ? I do not know.
It is possible. The difficulty with the Filipino
people, however, has heretofore been that
when the guiding and restraining hand
of Spain or the United States has been
withdrawn, it has been the violent and the
extremists who have come to the front
and seized the helm.

Let us examine somewhat more in
detail what this question of the title of
the parish churches and convento is.

Under the Concordat with Spain, Spain,
by reason of the control of church matters
which was given her, assumed the obligation
to construct the churches and conventos and
to pay the priests a yearly stipend. As we
have already seen, the parish priest, who
was usually a friar, had absolute control
over the people and parish w^here he
lived. He induced the people to contribute
material and work to the construction of
the church, to the building of the parish
house or convento, and the laying out
of the cemetery. He selected his site in
the most prominent place in the town.

— 50 —

usually upon the public square. The title in
the site was either in the municipality itself
or in the central government of Spain as
the Crown land. The close union of Church
and State made it unnecessary to procure
a formal patent from the State to the
Church, and so it is that many of the
churches stand upon what the records show
to be public property. Now, in towns in
which a majority of the people belong to
the Aglipayan church (and there are such
towns), it is quite natural that they should
think that the church, convento and cem-
etery belong to the municipality, and so
should be used as desired by the majority
of the people of the municipality. In some
instances, the native parish priest himself
has deserted the Roman communion and
has joined the Aglipayan church. In such
cases the priest has simply turned over to the
municipality the possession of the church,
convento and cemetery, and received it back
as a priest of the Aglipayan church at the
instance of the people of the municipality.
Personally, as a lawyer, I am convinced
that in most cases the churches, conventos
and cemeteries belong, not to the people
of the municipality or to the municipality,
but to the Roman Catholics of the parish;
that they were given to be used by the
Roman Catholics of the parish for Roman

— 51 —

Catholic worship, for the residence of the
Roman CathoHc priest, and for the interment
of Roman CathoHcs ; that this was a trust
which required, if completely executed, that
the title should be, according to canon
law, in the bishop of the diocese ; and that,
therefore, the Roman Catholic Church is
entitled to possession, through its priests,
for the benefit of the Catholics of the parish.
This opinion of mine is founded on an
official opinion given by the Solicitor-
General, a Filipino lawyer of the highest
ability, but it, of course, can not control
the decisions of the courts when their
opinion is invoked upon the issue; and
what their opinion is can be author-
itatively settled only by suits brought
and decided; for this is a question which,
because of its importance, might very well
be carried through the Supreme Court of
the islands to the Supreme Court of the
United States.

The Executive has been powerless to
prevent a change of possession where that
change of possession was peaceable and
effected without violence or disturbance of
the peace. The only recourse for the Roman
Church in such cases is to the courts.
Both sides have avoided the courts on the
ground that it would be expensive to go
to them, and have looked to the Executive

— 52 —

to assist them. Much feeling exists over
these questions of property; and we find
that good, conscientious CathoHcs, includ-
ing some of the American bishops in the
Philippines, insist that it is the business of
the Executive to determine in advance the
question of title or rightful possession and
to turn the Aglipayans out. Such a course
v^ould involve the Executive in all sorts
of difficulties, and is contrary to our prin-
ciples of judicature, in that it would be
taking from the municipalities, without due
process of law something of which they
w^ere in possesson. It is said that because
municipalities are merely the arm of the
central government, and because, as the
Executive ought to know, the municipalities
have no title to the property, it is his
business as the executive and superior of
the municipalities to order them out of
possession. But the difficulty here is that
under the Treaty of Paris the property of
the municipality, as well as the property of
the religious Orders, is declared to be
inviolate by the central government; and
it would, therefore, savor of most arbitrary
action were the governor to declare the
title in advance and direct the municipality
to give up possession. In other words, the
municipality in such action is to be treated
as a quasi - citizen and as having property

— 53 —

rights over which the central government
has no arbitrary control. The Philippine
government is now engaged in preparing
for the establishment of a special tribunal
which shall go through the provinces and
consider all the questions arising from the
churches and conventos and cemeteries,
decide the same, and place the judgments
in the hands of the Executive and have
them executed. In this way a burning
question, and one which is likely to involve
a great deal of bitterness and perhaps
disturb the public peace, can be disposed
of with least friction, with least expense,
with greatest speed, and with a due regard
to everybody's rights.

Archbishop Guidi adopted the policy,
w^hich I can not but think is the wrise one,
of accepting the resignation of the Spanish
archbishop and bishops who had formed
the hierarchy in the Philippine Islands, and
all of whom were friars; and appointing in
their places one Filipino bishop, an American
archbishop of Manila and three American
bishops. I speak with considerable knowl-
edge when I say that the work which
these prelates will have to perform in order
that they may be successful will require an
immense amount of patience, charity, self-
sacrifice, self-restraint and hard work; but
ultimately the reward for their labors will

— 54 —

come, and when it comes will be amply
worth all the effort. I sincerely hope that
the coming of the Catholic bishops means the
gradual increase of the number of American
priests who may be induced to take parishes
in the islands, and to instruct the native
clergy, both by precept and example, in what
constitues a model priest of the Roman
Catholic Church. The elevation of the priest-
hood in those islands means much for the
elevation of the people. The American priests
are used to free government, to a separation
of Church and State, and to a church
independent of political control and political
manipulation.

I am not a Catholic, and as a member of
the government I have no right to favor one
sect or denomination more than another;
but I have a deep interest in the welfare of
the Philippine Islands, as anyone charged
with the civil government of them must
have. And when I know that a majority of
the people there are sincere Roman Catholics,
anything which tends to elevate them in
their church relation is, I must think, for the
benefit of the government and the welfare
of the people at large.

There are Protestant missionaries in the
islands. They have done excellent work.
They have conducted themselves with the
utmost propriety and tact; and there has

— 55 —

been very little, if any, conflict between
them and the Roman Catholics. If anyone is
interested in the local differences growing out
of the presence in the islands of the Roman
Catholics, the Aglipayans and the Protest-
ants, which have been brought to the
attention of the Executive of the islands for
action, he can find a full account of them
as an appendix to the report of the civil
governor of the islands for 1903. There
is work enough in the Philippines for all
denominations. The schools and charities
v^hich all denominations are projecting will
accomplish much for the benefit of those
aided ; and the Christian competition — if I
may properly use such a term — among the
denominations in doing good w^ill furnish the
strongest motive for the maintenance of a
high standard of life, character and works
among all the clergy, and so promote the
general welfare.

One subject I must touch upon before I
close, and that is the public schools and the
teaching of religion. Under the limitations
of the constitution and the instructions of
President McKinley requiring us to keep
Church and State separate, v^e could not
expend the public money for the teaching of
religion ; but we provided in the school law
that at the instance of the parents of the,
children, for a certain time each week, the

-56-

schoolhouse could be occupied for the
teaching of rehgion by the minister of any
church estabHshed in the town, or by anyone
designated by him. I am glad to say that
this provision is working satisfactorily. In
many towns, by arrangement, the public
schools have their sessions in the morning
and the catechism schools are held in the
churches in the afternoon.

The Roman Catholics of this country and
the Philippines have, not unnaturally, felt
sensitive over the fact that a considerable
majority of the American schoolteachers
were Protestants. This arose from the
simple fact that the number of Protestant
teachers disengaged and able to go to the
Philippines was very much greater than
Catholic teachers so situated. However, it
must not be forgotten that all Filipino
teachers — three thousand in number, and
more than three times as many as the
American teachers— are Catholics. Naturally,
the Filipino teachers come much nearer to
the children of the primary school than do
the American teachers. Again, we have
imposed the severest penalty upon any
teacher found trying to proselyte or to teach
children ideas in favor of one religion or
against another. The Secretary of Public In-
struction and the Superintendent of Schools
in Manila are both' Roman Catholics, so

— 57 —

that it is unlikely that any discrimination
against their religion will be permitted in
the school system. The American teachers
in the Philippines are of necessity temporary.
The ultimate object of the public school
system is to secure ten or fifteen thousand
Filipino teachers who will be able to teach
all branches in English. They certainly are
not likely to be prejudiced against the
Catholic Church.

Of course, it is the duty of this government,
and all acting under it, to treat every
denomination with strict impartiality, and
to secure the utmost freedom of religious
worship for all.

It is natural that a good Catholic without
government responsibility should hold Agli-
pay and his followers in abhorrence as
apostates from the true Church as he believes
it; and should view with little patience
governmental recognition of them as a new-
church entitled to as much protection, when
they do not violate the law or the rights
of others, as either the Roman Catholic
or the Protestant denomination. But
neither the civil government under American
principles of freedom of religion, nor any
officer thereof, whatever may be his religious'
predilections, can examine into the creed or
history of a church, or determine its virtues
or shortcomings, but must secure its mem-

-58-

bers in their right to worship God as they
choose, so long as they keep within the laws
and violate no one's rights. Of course where
the government owes money or is under any
other legal obligation to a church, it may
properly facilitate the negotiation of a settle-
ment and the payment of the money or the
performance of its obligation from the proper
motive not only of doing justice but also of
generally aiding those institutions which
make for the moral and religious elevation of
the people. On this ground, and because of
the danger of the disturbance of the peace
from such controversy, it may properly
provide special judicial tribunals for suits
betw^een churches over property. It is a
mistake to suppose that the American
government is Opposed to the success and
prosperity of churches. It favors their
progress; it exempts them from taxation;
it protects their worship from disturbance;
it passes laws for their legal incorporation.
But it can not discriminate in favor of one
or against another. It must treat all alike.
It is exceedingly difficult, however, in the
heat of religious controversy betwreen sects
to convince both sides that the course
of the government is free from favor to
either party. We have not escaped criti-
cism, first from one side and then the other
in the Philippines; but a perusal of the

— 59 —

record of each controversy, contained in the
Governor's report for 1903, already referred
to, will show that the government has
attempted to pursue the middle line, and
has fairly well succeeded.

In closing this long and somewhat
desultory discussion, I can not refrain from
expressing my gratification that, on the
v^hole, the Administration in this country
has found the utmost liberality of view
among American Catholics and Protestants
alike in the manner in which its efforts to
solve these delicate religious questions have
been received and commented on. While
there has been some bitter condemnation of
the course taken it seemed to come only
from extremists on one side or the other, and
v^as not shared in, I think, by the great
body of Catholics and Protestants. It speaks
volumes for the religious tolerance of the
present day that the motives of the Admin-
istration in sending an agent to Rome for
negotiation were not generally misconstrued,
and that the result of that negotiation
has met with the general and intelligent
approval of all denominations. I do not
think that such a result would have been
possible in this nation thirty years ago, or
that a similar tolerance and liberality could
be found to exist between different religious
denominations of any other country.

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