Note 5 — CONCILIAR SEMINARIES

Gregorio Aglipay, the founder of the new Filipino Church, is an Ilokano by birth and is about forty years old. He was educated for the priesthood in a Catholic seminary, and ordained about 1890. His rise was rapid, for he was well looked upon by Spanish ecclesiastics. In the early pair of American occupation, however, he was excommunicated for some Church irregularity, “an action ... glaringly unjust and entirely irregular,” says Stuntz. Thereupon he joined the insurgents and was made vicar-general by Aguinaldo. Shortly after the proclamation of April 4, 1899, by the Schurman commission, he took the oath of allegiance to the United States. In August, 1901, he had private conferences with several Protestant ministers regarding the religious condition of the Philippines, and declared his intention to head a movement for an independent church, asking the coöperation of the Protestants. The constitution was adopted in October, 1902, at a convention of the priests and laymen who had joined the movement, and Aglipay was elected archbishop. The movement spread rapidly. In north Ilokos but three priests with their churches remained loyal to Rome. Various estimates place the number of adherents to the new faith at 1,500,000, or 2,000,000, although they themselves claim 3,000,000. The question of their right to hold church property came up early, and Governor Taft ruled that the party which is in peaceful possession of any house of worship shall be deemed to be the rightful occupant, and the contrary must be proved in the courts before ejection can take place. More than 200 priests have joined the movement, and young native priests are being ordained with somewhat startling ease and carelessness, in the seminaries which the new Church has opened. The foremost priests and laymen have been open enemies of the United States, and some of them still advocate independence. Isabelo de los Reyes, a politician of the demagogue type, is one of the active leaders of the movement. A weekly paper is published in the interests of the new Church. Patriotism rather than religion is the reason for its rapid growth, so that its basis with many is political. The fear of the return of the friars was seized upon by the schismatics to gain new adherents. Homer C. Stuntz says: “Its easy program of religious reformations attracts thousands. It promises a better order of things, but makes no spiritual or moral demands. Priests may come into the movement, and keep their mistresses and continue their gambling. Aglipay himself has never been accused of immorality or gaming, but he sets up no standard of purity in his priesthood or among his people. The cockpit, games of cards and dice, the bino habit, and all other national vices come into the new Church without direct rebuke. This, its real weakness, gives it apparent strength. Because of this it is enabled to count its members by the million within less than two years from its birth.” Protestant influence is seen on every hand. Protestant missionaries congratulate themselves that the Catholic front of the islands is broken by this movement. The office of bishop is elective, Aglipay himself being included by this rule. Stuntz’s conclusions are as follows: “The Independent Filipino Catholic Church has come to stay. Just how strong a hold it will be able to keep over the multitudes which have flocked to its standard of revolt against the pope cannot be foretold. But it may be reckoned with as a permanent factor in the religious future of the Philippines.” See LeRoy’s Philippine Life, pp. 163–171; Homer C. Stuntz’s The Philippines and the Far East (Cincinnati and New York, 1905), pp. 488–496; and Report of Philippine Commission, 1904, i, pp. 19, 20. ↑