THE RELIGIOUS

SCHISM
The only living and tangible result of the Revolution was
the Filipino Church, popularly known as the Aglipay or
Philippine Independent Church. When at the start of the
second phase of the Revolution the Spanish archbishop
enlisted Father Gregorio Aglipay’s help in bringing back
the Filipinos to the Spanish side, Aguinaldo persuaded
Aglipay to divert his energies to the cause of the people.
Mabini, riding on the crest of the popular nationalistic
movement, suggested by founding of a Filipino National
Church. Though unsuccessful owing to the war conditions,
his idea laid to the groundwork of the later Philippine
Independent Church. The story of the birth of this church
is to a great extent the story struggle of the Filipino clergy
to Filipinize the Catholic Church in the Philippines.
 GREGORIO AGIPAY ON THE
SCENE
The Revolution which began in 1896 was primarily a
conflict of races. On the one hand were the Filipino civil
and clerical groups who where up in arms against the
Spanish civil and clerical segment, on the other. As it
turned out, the second phase of the Revolution was not
only political, majority belonged to the party of the
oppressors, aided and abetted the colonial government
in its policy of repression. Mabini himself, in his letter to
General Ottis, accused the Spanish friars of giving aid
and comfort to the colonial administration of taking arms,
when necessity arose, against the revolutionist. to the
circumstances, he refused to free the friars prisoners.
In the second phase of the Revolution, which he
commenced with Aguinaldo’s return form Hongkong,
Governor-General Basilio Agustin and Archbishop
Bernardio Nozaleda, knowing that Father Gregorio
Aglipay was still sympathetic to Spain but rather
hostile to the United States, played a game in which
Aglipay was the pawn. They commissioned him to
confer with revolutionary leaders, particularly with
Mariano Trias, Atemio Ricarte, and Emiliano Reigo
de Dios, in order to bring them back to the Spanish
side. The bait to win them over to their side was the
promise of automony. Aglipay did as he was told,
but his mission was a failure, for the revolutionary
leaders had lost their faith in Spanish promises.
Meanwhile, Aguinaldo, who had returned from
Hongkong, sent Colonel Luciano Sn Miguel as his
emissary to Aglipay for the purpose of persuading
the latter to work for the Filipino cause. Nozaleda
countered by commissioning Aglipay to win over
Aguinaldo to the Spanish cause. Aguinaldo,
however, was firm in this determination to cooperate
with the Americans and urged Aglipay to go to the
north for the Revolution cause. Nozelada was well
posted on these moved and, taking advantage of
this situation, encouraged Aglipay toured the
northern provinces. Upon his return to Manila to
report to Nozaleda, he founded the city besiged on
all sides. In the circumstances, he did the next big
thing: he went to Cavite aned joined Aguinaldo’s
movement.
At the instance of Mabini, the Revolutionary Government
recognized the validity of civil marriage on the
assumption that the revolution had made the separation
of Church and State a reality. By “State” Mabini meant,
of course, the Revolutionary Government, not the
colonial government. Moreover, the Revolutionary
Government, again at the instance of Mabini, refused to
recognized Nozelada’s authority and went for far as to
prohibit any Filipino priest form accepting any
responsibility from the Catholic Church of from
occupying vacant parishes without the express approval
of the Revolutionary Government.
The circumstances, then, were propitious for the
revel government to win the full cooperation of
the Filipino clergy. Aguinaldo issued a decree
appointing Aglipay Military Vicar General. This
appointment nade Aglipay the religious leader of
the revolutionary government.
NOZELADA AGAINST AGLIPAY
Aglipay’s position in the Revolutionary
Government as a Military Vicar General and his
position in the Catholic hierarchy as
Ecclesiastical Governor Diocese of Nueva
Segovia were anomalous. As a Filipino, he had
to support the revolutionist, but the Catholic
priest had to backup the head of the Church
who, as a Spaniard, was naturally for the
colonial government. A day after his
appointment as a Military vicar General, he
issued a letter to the Filipino clergy urging them
to organize themselves into a cohesive body
geared to the national emergency.
The letter also urged the creation of a Cabildo or
Council which would ask a Pope to appoint Filipinos
in all Church positions from archbishop to the lowest
priest. Realizing the chaotic condition into which the
parish had fallen owing to the capture of the
Spanish friar-curates, Aglipay, issued a manifesto
asking the Filipino clergy to organize themselves in
such a way to take charge of all vacant parishes.
This appeal was made to prevent further
deteriotaion of the religious affairs of the country. As
a Ecclesiastic Governor of Nueva Segovia, Aglipay
urged the priest under his jurisdiction to rally to the
revolutionary cause and to consolidate all the forces
favorable to the cause of the Filipino clergy.
 Nozelada, deeply alarmed at Aglipay’s increasing
popularity and the consolidation of his position as a
factor favorable to the Filipino clergy cause, decide to
discipline the nationalistic Filipino priest. Nozelada
charged Aglipay with usurpation of power and urged the
Ecclesiastical Tribunal to punish the Filipino priest. With
the blessing of the Tribunal, Nozelada issued his decree
excommunicating Aglipay. The decree of
excommunicating declared Aglipay a usurper and
schismatic. In an age of obscurantism, excommunication
was the most potent weapon of the prelates to force their
enemies to their knees. It was effective in Europe during
in the Middle Age, and Nozelada thought it would have
the same on the Filipinos towards the close of the
nineteenth century.
Governor-General Juan de Vargas, though punished
with less than excommunication, was force to stand
at the entrance of the Manila Churches for a period
of four months wearing a sackcloth and a rope about
his neck. The effect of the governor’s person was
almost the same as if he were excommunicated:
embarrassment and humiliation. And so the manila
archbishop thought he could humliliate Aglipay by
excommunicating him. But he was mistaken. Aglipay
was a man of strong character and instead of
cowering before the Spanish prelate to ask for
forgiveness, he returned the compliment by
declaring Nozaleda excommunicated. Furthermore,
he charged Nozaleda with starving the people and
with collaborating with the Spaniards and Americans
in the latter’s policy of repression. Succeeding
events proved that Nozaleda’s excommunication
decree did not carry its usual weight with the people.
MABINI AND THE NATIONAL
CHURCH
Apolinario Mabini, a mason and an uncompromising
nationalist, saw the necessity of having a church
administered by Filipinos and owing its loyalty to the
country. On October 22, 1899, while vacationing in
Rosales, Pangasinan, Mabini directed a manifesto to the
Filipino clergy urging them to organize a Filipino National
Church . He said:
Mabini argued for the preservation must be predicated
upon the appointment of Filipino clergy of all positions,
high or low. The National Church as Mabini conceived it
was to cooperate with the republic, thereby making the
Filipinos completely united in their indepence stand.
 THE FILIPINO NATIONAL
Mabini's call for a Filipino Church and the favorable
attitudes of the Republic toward the Filipino clergy
heatened the latter who believed in that time was ripe for
the assertion of their rights not only to occupy the
parishes, but also to direct Philippine Catholicism on the
top. Consequently, Aglipay, called the Filipino clergy to
an ecclesiastical assembly at Panic,Tarlac. Aglipay
stated the aims of his speech, namely, the Filipinization
of the Catholic Church and prevention of anarchy in
religious matter. A "Provisional Constitution of he
Church" was framed which outlined the composition of
the Filipino Church.
The nationalistic of the temper of the Filipino clergy was
expressed in one of the canons which provided that
recognition of foreign bishops was forbidden, except
under extraordinary circumstances. The constitution in
affect declared the Independence of the Filipino clergy
from the Spanish control and supervision and the
assumption of authority to negotiate with Rome. The
wartime conditions of the period, however, gave the
church no opportunity to develop fully. The Filipino
Government was only the verge of collapse and Aglipay
himself was in the field fighting side by side with the
Filipino guerrillas.
CHAPELLE AND FILIPINIZATION
Before the complete collapse of the underground
movements against in the United States, the Apostolic
Delegate to the Philippines, Mons. Placido Chapelle, an
American from New Orleans, arrived n the Philippines.
His first act was no to win over the Filipinos in general
and the clergy in particular, but to drive them away
further from Rome, on one hand, and from the
Americans, on the other hand. there was no mistaking
the facts that he was a pro-friars. from the moment he
set foot in the Philippines soil, he announced cockily
that he would treat those who opposed the friars and the
resumption of their rule as enemies of religion in order.
He intended to dominate the Filipino clergy by force, civil
as well as ecclesiastical, for he was the Pope's delegate
and at the same time an American.
He presumed to carry the authority of the Government of
the United States. He made it known that he would use
force on the Filipino clergy to make it posilbe for the
hated Spaniards friars to return to thier parishes. he
made assertion that the haed of the revolutionary
leaders shuold be cut off. he insulted the Filipino
clergy by stating categorically that they were
incompetent and, therefore, capable of holding only
menial position in the Church. Such a profession of faith
led the Filipinos - even the rabid Catholics among them -
to hate him. It is possible that his open contempt for the
Filipino clergy and the Revolutionary leaders led the
former to close ranks and join without reservation the
religious movement for a Church independent of Rome.
 THE SCHISM
Chapelle’s undiplomatic language and his reaction to
Filipino aspiration, religious as well as political, may be
considered one of the factors in the Philippines religious
schism. In the face of new developments brought about
the by Chapelle’s reactionary attitude, the Filipino
insulted and injured, now agitated for a Filipino Church.
In Rome, the Filipino priest, Salustiano Araullo and Jose
Chanco, had an audience with the Pope. They laid
before His Holiness and problem of the Filipino clergy.
But the Pope was more inclined to listen to the friars and
consequently promised nothing. In Spain, meanwhile,
Isabelo delos Reyes, a radical propagandist and scholar,
wrote passionately in his newspaper Filipinas Ante
Europa.
Returning to the Philippines, de los Reyes campaigned
relentlessly for the establishment of the Filipino Church.
He founded the first labor union in the Philippines. Its
founding is significant, for it gave a board basis to
religious movement to which the masses were favorably
disposed. With anti-friar feeling swelling to dangerous
proportions, Pascual H. Pobelte a Filipino journalist and
anti-friar, scheduled a mass meeting at Zorilla Theater,
located at the corner of Arcarraga and Evangelista St.
Poblete intended to attack the friars in the meeting but
owing to bad weather the meeting did not take place.
Delos Reyes called a meeting for his Democratic Labor
Union and delivered severely anti-friar speech. He
proposed the establishment of a Filipino Church
Independent of Rome with Aglipay at the Supreme
Bishop. The proposal was enthusiastically approved. The
new Church was called Iglesia Filipina Independiente or
Philippine Independent Church. With its founding, the
schism with Rome commended.
 FIRST CONVERTS
Isabelo delos Reyes was nevertheless over-enthusiastic
and precipitate. In his desire to give dignity to the
movement, he placed in the list of the Executive
Committee of the new Church such big names as Trinidad
H. Pardo de Tavera, Fernando ma. Guerrero, Martin
Ocampo, Manuel Artigas, and other eminent lay leaders,
and such priest as Adriano Garces, J. Barlin, Manuel
Roxas, Toribio Dominguez, and others, without consulting
them. These men though not hostile to the religious
movement, were not prepared to lend their names to the
new church. Consequently, they denied any connection
with it. The most fatal blow came from Aglipay himself who
did not approve the schism. He believed that all means
should be exhausted to come to understanding with Rome
before taking any radical step. At the time, Aglipay was
conferring with the Jesiuts.
Delos Reyes was naturally disappointed, although
perhaps he had no one to blame but himself. Luck, as it
were, was on his side. The masses understood the
meeting of the new Church and came to his rescue.
Some residents of Navotas, Rizal, sent in their affiliation
papers. The ground was now broken and towards in the
end of the year 14 Filipino priest affiliated with the new
Church. These was followed by the defection of Fr.
Pedro Brilliantes of Ilocos Norte of the Filipino Church.
There was no stopping the movement now, and the
priest from all over the country came rushing in sign their
names in the roster of the Filipino Church.
AGLIPAY AND THE JESUITS
Aglipay was mildly irked at the inclusion of his
name as the Supreme Bishop of the new
Church, for he was at the time in the conference
with the Jesuits in a last to attempt to prevent
schism. Knowing that Aglipay was influential with
the Filipino clergy, the Jesuits, through Dr. Leon
Ma. Guerrero and Joaqum Luna, invited Aglipay
to an interview at th Jesuits House in Sta. Ana,
Manila . the Jesuits chose Fr. Franciso
Foradada, a Spaniard and author of a book on
the Philippines, to work on the Filipino priest.
Foradada, exerted all his power of persuasion to win
back Aglipay to the Catholic fold, although, Aglipay
had not as yet definitely given up his Catholic faith.
Foradada handed Aglipay document for his
signature. The document, apparently, was a
confession of the Catholic faith, a return to
Catholicism and in a way, a retraction of what he
had done. Aglipay studied the document and when
Foradada returned he had not as yet signified his
intention. Foradada promised promised that if would
sign it he would be appointed bishop or archbishop,
with the large sum of money thrown in. Aglipay
wanted an assurance that by signing a document
the problem of the Filipino Catholic priest would be
solved, which is to say, that the Filipino clergy would
be appointed to the post, formerly held by the
Spanish regulars.
AGLIPAY’S CONSECARTION AS
BISHOP
Aglipay’s 1st conference with the Jesuits made him
realize the futility of staying outside the new Church
which elected him Supreme Bishop. His next step was to
persuade the American Protestants in Manila to join him
in his plan to divide the ranks of the Catholics and to
persuade them to join his Church. But the American
Protestants were at the ttime enjoying the feeling of
superiority to the Filipino churchman and consequently
did not do anything to help him.
They considered the Filipino Church too Roman in its
ritual and too rationalistic in its theology. With this failure,
Aglipay had no other alternative than to accept officially
the post of Supreme Bishop of the Independent Church.
Bishop were consentrated by the new church.
Aglipay then accpterd the position to which he
has elected, and he presided over the metting of
the Council which was to frame the constitution
of the FilipinoChurch. He celeberated his first
mass as Supreme Bishop and consentrated as
a bishop of Isabela, cagayan, Pangasinan, Abra,
Nueva Ecije, Cavite and Manila