Abusive friars in the “TRUE CHURCH?”

The Title of the Article ill quote is “THE CHURCH AND THE FRIARS” where it reminds us the abuse of powers and bad acts done by the friars in the past Spanish rule unto the Philippines. Even if I do not post about this, it is still marked in every Filipinos' mind because is a part of the history of the Philippines.

These are just pieces of the content on the said article…

“With the Spanish soldiers of the days of the sixteenth century, actuated by the idea of "territorial expansion," went the representatives of the church, with their ideas of the extension of the kingdom of God and the augmentation of the power of the church.”

“During the latter years of that century Spain was the scene of a somewhat animated and sometimes bitter controversy regarding the scope and functions of the church in the islands of the East.”

“Previous to and during the controversy, mendicant friars had gone to the islands in considerable numbers, though lacking the proper authorization of the rulers of the church. The controversy at home terminated in an arrangement by which the church should receive one tenth of the tributes of the island.”

“Upon the plastic materials of ignorance, credulity and superstition, the priests and friars, many of them men of keen and highly trained minds, have impressed an idea of a religious power greater than that of the state.”

“Most unfortunately for the natives, and also most unfortunately for the church, the power of the priesthood has been greatly abused.”

“It has been directed more distinctly against the extortions and abuses which are admitted to have been exercised by the various religious orders, the Augustinians, the Dominicans and the Franciscans.”

“It is distasteful to comment unfavorably upon any branch of an institution which stands in the world of today as stands the Church of Rome. But the Philippine Islands present a long array of wholly uncontrovertible facts regarding the misrule, the misconduct, and the oppression and extortion of these religious orders against which in past years Filipino revolt has been directed.”

“In his book, the standard work on the subject, Mr. John Foreman covers a number of pages with detailed accounts of monastic oppression and corruption. He also frequently alludes to the great possessions and the gross abuse of the great power held by these monastic orders. It is interesting to note that Mr. Foreman is himself a Catholic. His statements are those of an honest man who is ready to acknowledge the faults he sees.”

“In all the demands for reform made by the Filipinos upon the Spanish government, at the bottom of all revolutions and uprisings, and in all of such demands as the Filipinos have made to the United States, there appears, with unfaltering persistence, as the one thing indispensable in Filipino life and peace, the demand for the expulsion of the friars.”

source: PhilippineHistory.net

For the Full details, click here.

I hope no one among us (especially us Filipinos) would come to deny these facts and defend the friars to what they have done in the past. And I will say that even that article is just a bit of what really happened.

Dr. Jose Rizal even wrote novels like NOLI ME TANGERE and EL FILIBUSTERISMO that exposes how priests and friars in the past abuse their power instead of spreading Catholicism and doing their duties...