Francisco, Khent Daryl A.

Instructor: Cuchapin, Jocelyn

Section: SOCSC 005-ACTCY31S1-A21 Assignment 3.1 Emerging Nationalism

1. Differentiate: "Filipino," "regular priest”, and "secularization issue."

A Filipino is a person who is either a native or identifies with the Philippines. Filipinos
come from a range of Austronesian ethnolinguistic groupings. In the Philippines, there
are around 175 ethnolinguistic groups, each with its language, identity, culture, and
history. China, the United States, and Spain have all shaped the current Local identity,
having Austronesian origins.

Regular Priests, simply known as regulars, are Spanish and European priests who
arrived in the Philippines as members of a religious order, such as the order of St.
Augustine, St. Dominic, St. Francis, and so on. The prime objective of their mission was
to spread Christianity. The regular priests were meant to live in convents away from the
rest of society, but due to the lack of secular priests, many parishes were granted
access to the regulars.

A society's secularization is defined as a movement away from religious ideology and

toward nonreligious ideals and secular institutions, which pertains to the Secularization
Issue. Secularization in the Philippines supposes nationalizing the Catholic Church by
native secular priests as replacements to regular priests. This was in response to the
regular priests who were seen as a hindrance to education, progression, and
independence. The regulars were enraged by the move, believing the Filipinos were
unqualified for the clergy.

2. Discuss the stand of the regular priest and the secular priests in relation to the
administration of Philippine provinces. 

Bishops, who are secular priests, insisted on visiting parishes that were governed by
regular priests, which resulted in a disagreement. They claimed it was their
responsibility to monitor the management of these parishes. Regular priests, on the
other hand, declined the visits, claiming that they were not within the bishop's authority.
If the bishops proceeded, they warned to forsake their parishes.

Archbishop Basilio Santa Justa decided to maintain the diocese's jurisdiction over the
parishes by accepting the regular priests' resignations. The Archbishop appointed
secular priests as replacements to the regular priests. He hurried the appointment of
Filipino seculars since there were not enough seculars to replace all of the vacant
positions. A royal order was issued on November 9, 1774, authorizing the secularization
among all parishes or the transition of parochial authority from regular priests to secular
priests.

The regular priests protested the movement after discovering the issued royal decree
since they thought Filipinos are unqualified for the clergy. They mentioned the Filipinos'
brown color, low educational attainment, and lack of expertise as explanations.

When the Jesuits returned to the Philippines, the debate heated up even more. They
had been deported from the country because of the order's policies, which the Spanish
government did not support. The debate quickly devolved into a racial one, as the
Spaniards preferred their own regular priest over Filipino priests.

An ecclesiastical governor of the Church, Monsignor Pedro Pelaez, stood with the
Filipino priests. He was not able to fulfill his support for secularization as an earthquake
demolished the Manila Cathedral in 1836 and he died as a result. Other priests followed
his standpoint in the campaign for secularization after his death. Fathers Mariano
Gomez, Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora were among them. They were accused of
being the Cavite Mutiny's leaders. Gomburza was punished by death in the
Bagumbayan on February 7, 1872, to induce fear among Filipinos.

3. If the word "propaganda" means to give out information, analyze why the
secularization issue became a crucial point in the Propaganda Period of Philippines
history. 
The word “propaganda” means it is non-objective information that is primarily used to
entice people and expand action plans, often by selectively presenting facts to urge a
particular synthesis or awareness, or by using unexpurgated language to elicit an
emotional rather than a reasoned approach to the information presented.

The Propaganda period symbolizes the start of our nationalism's reawakening. Filipino
nationalism's prolonged sleep is now to be awakened. Numerous failures experienced
by the early stages of the evil hands from the Spanish government for more than a
century are starting to grasp the sense of liberty, equality, and unity. Several events
contributed to the reawakening of Filipino nationalism, and one of the reasons for the
Propaganda phase in Philippine history is the issue of secularization.

The Propaganda period in Philippine history and literature began when the "Ilustrados",
who are considered as the intellectual indios, began fighting for reformation, equality,
and progression. The period spanned roughly from 1868 to 1898, though most of their
operations took place between 1880 and 1895. At the time, the deaths of Gomez,
Burgos, and Zamora were significant for the Propaganda movement. The ilustrado class
was enraged, and they wanted an explanation as well as reforms.

Two decades later, in the 1890s, a new generation of ilustrados were inspired by
Gomburza's death. Jose Rizal was one of them as he dedicated his novel, Noli Me
Tangere, to the three. The garrote death of Gomburza strengthened the growing
nationalism that so many people were feeling. From there, the concept of "Filipino" and
"Philippine" progressively flourished.

The Katipunan, in addition to Rizal, became motivated by the liberal values that pushed
their unintended death, even went beyond using Gomburza as a password. The
secularization movement would eventually morph into a desire for a Filipino-only
church. Through Isabelo de los Reyes and Fr. Gregorio Aglipay, they made that goal
into reality by founding the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, a truly Filipino church during
the Revolution of 1896.

Rizal, del Pilar, Lopez-Jaena, Ponce, and others were intelligent middle-class leaders
who pioneered the propaganda movement. There were also other scholars and others
who fought for improvements through diplomatic negotiations, such as (1) to obtain
equal legal treatment for Filipinos and Spaniards; (2) to make the Philippines a Spanish
colony; (3) to re-establish Filipino representation in Spain's Cortes; (4) the parishes
should be "Filipinized"; and (5) to grant Filipinos the right to freedom of expression, the
press, assembly, and redress of grievances.

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