CONSTANTINO, MATHEW SILVINO D.

FM 1-1

Jose Rizal's Retraction was about his conversion to Catholicism and all the

hardships that came with it, such as his marriage to Josephine Bracken. Jose Rizal was

persuaded to undergo retraction by the priest before his execution. By doing so, he

would be able to marry Josephine Bracken, as he desired while on Dapitan. Jose Rizal

might be killed as a Catholic if he recants. Jose Rizal is claimed to have performed the

retraction in order to marry Josephine Bracken. The text exhibits considerable

discrepancies between the original and manila newspaper retraction texts on one hand,

and the texts of Fr. Balaguer and Fr. Pio's copies on the other.

According to the material I read, there is evidence to back both statements, Jose

Rizal retracted and not. The first is the testimony of the priests, according to Fr. Antonio

Obach, the priests claim that Rizal composed a letter that he will retract in order to

marry Josephine Bracken, and that the Archbishop of Cebu would allow it. Following

that is an exact version of Rizal's retraction letter that was obtained by Fr. Balaguer prior

to Rizal's execution. The copy of Rizal's retraction letter that came from Fr. Balaguer

was extracted and published in Manila newspaper. Jose Rizal's name as well as the

names of the witnesses was found in the letter. However, others claim that the

retraction letter was tampered with, which is untrue because Jose Rizal had a negative

reputation among these priests due to his prior works. They claim that they just wish to

dismiss Jose Rizal's contributions to the Philippines' independence.

When I'm researching, I always look for different sources of knowledge rather

than relying just on what the lecturer has provided. There are instances when the

information provided by the professor is insufficient, and I may be able to collect more

information throughout my research. I attempted to find more claims but discovered that
CONSTANTINO, MATHEW SILVINO D. FM 1-1

they are all the same, so I will stick to the material that my professor gave to us. The

second thing I did was look up the definitions of uncommon words so that I could fully

appreciate each sentence as I read the text. Based on what I've read, I agree with those

who believe Jose Rizal did not retract, because these priests are his number one

opponent, so why would he do such a thing to get along with them? Furthermore, he

has a negative image among these people, and I doubt they would accept Rizal if he

retracted.