Note 35 — THE FRIAR MEMORIAL OF 1898

From that idea many deduce the opinion that we are dragging out in this country an existence of pure compassion and condescension; that we are living here, tolerated and as if on alms, instead of honored and respected as any other institution of the mother-country; that in many ways, one would believe that we religious are less and have less value than the military, than the government employes, or than those of other professions and careers; and that with wonderful facility one imputes to us, as to the most abandoned and destitute, the blame for all the evils that afflict the country, governors and other representatives of the government and administration of the islands availing themselves of our name of obliged appeal, in order to evade and shun responsibilities, whenever any calamity comes upon them or whenever there is any unpleasant event to bewail in their conduct. For all, there is indulgence, for all, excuse, for all kindness and the eyes of charity. The epoch is one of adjustment and respect for all manner of extensions, although with the loss of morality and justice. Only in what concerns priests and religious must one look with contemptuous pride, with extreme rigor, and with despotic exaction. The religious has to pay it all; on him must all the blame be cast; to him belong the feelings of anger, the aversions, the censures, the expressions of contempt. We appear, your Excellency, to be only the anima vilis35 of the archipelago.