How important is the retraction of Rizal to the Catholic church?

 *
The retraction of Rizal if proven authentic is of much importance to the Catholic
Church. In his retraction letter, he withdraws and revoked all the words, writings,
publications and conduct that has been in contrary with what the Catholic church
practice and teach. Rizal wrote on his novels and essays not only his attacks towards
the government but of the friars who rule the Catholic Church and their teachings. He
was hunted down by a lot of friars not only because of his novel, Noli Me Tangere but
also he attacked Catholic Church’s doctrines on Miracle, Purgatory, Confession, and
Trinity. His two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo showed repeated
attacks that are made against the Catholic religion which are against possibility of
Miracles, the Doctrine of Purgatory, against Confession and those passages that cast
doubts with God’s omnipotence and the existence of hell. After the 1995 senatorial
elections, Senator Claro Recto was charged by the Catholic Church being a
communist and anti-Catholic, opposing his sponsored bill of Rizal Law mandating all
educational institutions in the Philippines to offer courses about Rizal, including
mandatory reading of Rizal’s novels. It is because the Catholic church believes it
would violate freedom of conscience and religion. However, Rizal Law was enacted on
June 12, 1956, together with the celebration of Independence Day. It basically implies
then that the alleged retraction means that the Catholic Church was right and that
Jose Rizal character was of blasphemous character. It is of importance, as what have
Rizal engraved to the Filipino minds and heart will be deemed incorrect and sinful.
Those teachings by Jose Rizal which opposed the teachings of Catholic Church will be
deemed irrational and of no basis as the mastermind of those teachings and beliefs no
longer stand by his words and withdraws them back. Rizal’s retraction will only prove
that he surrenders to the Catholic church, hence it would be easier for the Catholic
Church rulers to teach their doctrines without receiving backlash which originated and
are probably results of Rizal instilling concepts against them.

Make a persuasive essay about the controversy of Rizal’s retraction letter. Did he
retract or not? Would Rizal’s works be deemed irrelevant and futile because of his
retraction? *
 Rizal: Undying Legacy
The Philippine History has indeed many faces, with varying accounts and beliefs of different authors and
writers of Philippine History books which are subject to debate. It is indeed still a controversy up to now
the alleged retraction of the Philippine National Hero, Jose Rizal. It was said that Rizal wrote his
retraction letter before he was executed, but this is questioned until now whether he really did or the
presented retraction letter was forged.

In accordance with what I was able to understand and grasp about the presented accounts about Jose
Rizal’s retraction, I think he didn’t retract as opposed to the belief that he did create a retraction letter
before he was executed at Bagumbayan (now Luneta Park). Even with the presented four sources of
Jose Rizal’s retraction, I am not fully convinced that he in fact made his own retraction letter. First, the
alleged retraction letter was published only in newspapers (La Voz Espanola and Diario de Manila) and
the identity of the one who wrote the third text in La Javentud remained secret until after 14 years had
passed, what was the point of doing so? According to my research, Jose Rizal’s Family requested for the
original copy of the retraction letter but it was said to be lost. How can an important paper be lost? Only
39 years later, the original copy was found in the archdiocesan archives. But how can we be sure that
the alleged original document was indeed authentic and wasn’t forged? Second, it was mentioned in
one of the accounts that claims that Rizal retracted, the account of Father Balaguer, that Jose Rizal
married Josephine Bracken after he had signed the retraction paper. However, no marriage certificate or
any public record was shown to prove this statement and Bracken had difficulty claiming properties left
by Rizal as she cannot present any marriage certificate. Third, the retraction letter was so skeptical to
accept to think that it doesn’t align with Jose Rizal’s character. Why would Rizal sign a retraction letter if
he already knew that he’d still be executed? According to the authors of his life, works and writings,
Archbishop Nozaleda and Fr. Pi sent Rizal drafts of retraction documents. He rejected the ones sent by
Nozaleda and revised the ones from Pi. But Archbishop and Jesuits cannot do anything about Rizal’s
death penalty as he was sentenced with pure military tribunal, where church interference isn’t allowed.
Lastly, those who believe on the retraction that Rizal retracted because he wanted to be at peace when
he dies and in order for him to save his family from further execution, why would Rizal retract if from
the beginning he was fixated that he would die for his country? The retraction does not coincide with
Rizal’s character, he already knew and he was mature enough to realize the consequences of his
choices, while the retraction shows different, that Rizal is threatened of death.

To sum it all up, I believe that the retraction letter presented was not of Rizal nor he did write any of it.
Even if the said letter was considered authentic by Teodoro Kalaw, a handwriting expert, with that long
years that the original letter was kept secret, it is not impossible that it was forged. If my opinion were
to be asked for the reason of the possible forgery, it is probably because the friars whom Rizal attacked
oftentimes, wanted to instill fear and shaken the forming patriotism and nationalism among those who
believes in Rizal. But, one thing I’m sure of, the retraction letter won’t change his contribution to our
independence and how he instilled Filipino’s patriotism so our country would be free. His works still and
forever show Rizal’s legacy and how it awoken Filipinos to fight for the freedom we have now. Whether
this retraction of Rizal is real or not, it’s irrelevant.