RIZAL, THE FRIARS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: An Exchange with an Anti-Catholic by Franz Luigi Lugena

Dr. Jose Rizal holding a book. Photo Credit: allvoices.com

From the SPLENDOR OF THE CHURCH BLOG

Vince Leonard: Jose Rizal was a real witness of the horror done by friars and Catholicism as a tool for invasion. We are blessed to have him wrote the history to let us be awakened even to the point of his death. Can’t we see how hard to express or protest before, even him wrote history in terms of fictional characters just to convey the message. We have a lot of things to learn from this guy. Without him we would not have learned the oppression. The CBCP opposed him because of their guilt and by wanting to keep the people ignorant.Never, I heard once in my whole life a priest or a bishop apologize for his mistakes. And that’s how arrogant they are.

Fr. Abe's Answer: The horrors were done by abusive Spanish government official and some friars but to implicate Catholicism is too much stretch of imagination. Abusus non tollit usum. Abuses conducted by erring friars can’t be used to discredit the Church because these people committed abusive acts in disobedience to the Church’s teachings. You have not proven that the Church officially teaches its members to abuse people. For your argument to hold water, you have to show to us that abusing people is a doctrine in the Church which all Catholics are bound to do. Show me the exact provision in the Catechism of the Catholic Church which provides for this. Until you do that, all your talk is just garbage.

Don’t you know that it is actually the Church which fought for the rights of native Filipinos during that time, not atheist and not protestants? It is because of the Church that the Spanish Colonial Government freed slaves. (aliping sagigilid &aliping namamahay) The Church worked for the passage of humane laws protecting the rights of natives such as the Law of Burgos, Law of Valladolid, and Leyes Nuevas. Added to this is the decree of Pope Gregory XIV which threatens with excommunication those who refuse to free their slaves in the Philippines:

“In a decree dated 18 April 1591 (Bulla Cum Sicuti), Gregory XIV ordered reparations to be made by Catholics in the Philippines to the natives, who had been forced into slavery by Europeans, AND HE COMMANDED UNDER PAIN OF EXCOMMUNICATION OF THE OWNERS THAT ALL NATIVE SLAVES IN THE ISLANDS BE SET FREE.” Continue reading here....