1. Catholicism's Influence 2.

Westernized Philippine Education for

on Filipino Culture
G Today
E - Just as Padre Damaso is inexorably linked to Maria Clara by family ties,
so is Catholicism, as practiced in terms of Spanish devotionality, irrevocably
N linked to Filipino culture today. Nobody can deny that Catholicism continues
E to be the religion of choice for the majority of Filipinos.
- Faith in the Philippines today is practiced on two levels
R  A tiny group of Catholic university graduates maintains a higher
A degree of sophisticated, theoretical religious understanding as well as a
comparably complicated, modernized practical piety. Many vocations to the
Democratic Freed
-This concept portrays Ibarra as the personification of our current culture's commitment to a
westernized, yet wholly Filipino, educational system aimed at ensuring democratic freedom
and genuine growth for Rizal's country. We may say that the overall goal of education is to
ensure the highest and most complete level of efficiency, freedom, and happiness for
individuals, nations, and humanity. Those enjoined by the Philippine Constitution, including
moral character, personal discipline, civic conscience, vocational efficiency, and good
citizenship, are among the specific aims.
-Just before World War II hit the Philippines, Bocobo describes what the public schools were
doing to promote democratic freedom. The fact that advancement in democratic ways of life

L priesthood and convent life originate from this upper level, 3. and
Ourmany
through education is inextricably linked to westernization can be explained in part by the
of Concern for the Rural
Present earlier necessity for Spanish and the later convenience of English as world languages.
G them have gone to foreign missions, where they are undertaking Poor very
and our Non-Christian
-The more influential world languages are needed by emerging countries in our time, and we
creditable missions.
P
E  Finally, there is a lower degree of religious education and a matching
Minorities
Filipinos have the good fortune of being well on our way to mastering English, which we
should complete if we want our country to take its rightful place among the nations.
R
N
more common style of-devotion, which appears as the fossilized remains
According to this perspective, Elias represents the
Hispanic devotionality from earlier periods rather than as a historic legacy.
of -Despite the benefits that
last constitutive notethe Spanish language
of today's has provided
Filipino culture,to Filipinos, English has united
namely, the concern of the middle class for our the Philippines/taught them the principles and practices of democracy, and has drawn the
rural masses and non-Christian minority. Former
O
E "Folk Catholicism, deviant and dangerous, can still be seen in shepherdless
President Macapagal's moving life story provides the
Philippines closer to other countries around the world more than Spanish could, because
mostnever
concrete
rural areas, and to some extent even in cities and towns," Gowing adds. Pre- Spanish becameevidence for suchamong
a popular language a concern.
the people and had no democratic heritage.
O
R - Diosdado's
Christian aspects of animism family
and spiritism areishidden
from under
one ofa thin
Pampanga's
layer of poorest
-Rizalandsawmost destituteasfamilies.
hispanization a measure Heofrecalled how,for
development as our people at the time. He
a child,
Catholic faith and devotion. These he used
words to play
could alone
possibly ontotheir
relate barrio's rocky
the lower road,the
recognized dressed in ripped
significance and language
of a world dirty clothes. He
for an enlightened educational program,
F
A didn'tanddare
reaches of Catholic instruction to approach the tall and large houses'
practice. through whichHe
fences. he believed
used tothat gohisbarefoot
homelandto would one day
school andbe able to proudly stand among
the world's nations.
- These two facts are undeniably
graduated true. The mostbut
as valedictorian, important
he almostfeature
didn't make it because he had nothing to wear.
L inherent in our concept is its conviction that Catholicism's influence
- Dadong had to drop out of school for the second time. is
-We regard our country as being orientated toward Western-style industrialization, and
EnglishIthaswas
thusowing
becometoanfinancial concerns
essential tool for our this time. if we want to alleviate our
advancement
inextricably linked to westernized education and democratic freedom, as
Fortunately, Honorio Ventura, a Pampango benefactor, offered
people's poverty.toRizal,
assistat the destitute
the very but not
least, was bright Lubao it appears, then, that in order
a chauvinist;
P well as a concern for the poor and non-Christian minority.
child. Dadong's initial attempt at politics paid offfor Filipino zealotry
handsomely whento become
he wasrelevant,
electedit must first expel in
to Congress Rizal from the Filipino national
- According to the understanding of Rizal and the Noli provided in this consciousness, at the expense of our hard-won democratic freedom and our increasingly
R interpretation, Catholicism1949. In 1953, hebywon
as represented onceDamaso
Padre more. He was be
cannot elected Vice President of the Philippines in 1957.
recognized educational progress.
- TheFilipino
separated from contemporary Churches' and
culture as numerous philanthropic
typified by Maria Clara. organizations' social work is far too widely known to be
O re chronicled here. Various Christian denominations, as well as a resurgent Catholicism, have been
hard at work assisting our rural poor and non-Christian minority, providing them with possibilities for
 Major objections

The most serious issue to this new reading of the Noli and Rizal is that it assumes that today's Filipino culture is
a well-knit and tightly welded fusion of East and West. The famous line by Rudyard Kipling comes to mind
right away: "East is East, West is West, and the twain shall never meet." Only by determining the circumstances
for such a mingling of Eastern and Western civilizations, and demonstrating that these requirements are met
within the context of our current Filipino culture, can we respond to this criticism.

It will be easiest to define the qualities of the civilizations that are blending and intertwining, and there will be
ample time and leisure to decide if this or that quality is superior or inferior in the resulting mixture. One can
humorously assert that such a mash-up of disparate cultural strains can only create the animal counterpart of the
mule. However, in the spirit of conducting less pre-suppositional research, it is premature to dismiss a mestizo
culture outright, and it is too dogmatic to forecast a mestizo-bangus occurrence as a result. Because it's just as
likely that the depreciation of opposing tendencies will result in a harmonic blending of opposites, increasing
the positive traits while revealing the negative aspects to the regressive.
Maria Clara, according to this perspective, expresses herself as the authentic Filipina of today by combining the
best features of the indio and the peninsular in her personality, both in her stock and in her character.

Name: BOLANDO, KIER JINO T. Date: JULY 13, 2021

Year & Section: BSN-2nd YEAR Subject: GE-11 (2:15PM-4:15PM)