Program: Topic: Nursing the wounds & Religion, Church &

Politics
Course: Mabini’s Life, Works and Writings Instructor: Michael Joe H. Buno
Code TCCR01 Module #: 6 Week #: 14-15 # of Page: 13

I. Preliminaries
Introduction to the
 This module aims to understand the topic about Nursing the Wounds and the
Module Objective importance of Religion, Church and Politics.
 Appreciate the value of courage in the hardship situation like Mabini did.

Section Topics Learning Outcomes Assessment/ Modality

Evaluation

Section 1:Nursing the Wounds 1. Describe the situation 1. Written Using module
of Mabini and his exercises
Section 2:Religion, Church & family during the times Social media
of war and how they 2. Activity platform
Politics deal with the religion, Assignment
church and politics. and Research
2. Determine how Mabini Presentation
face the challenges
during this time.

II. Instructions
Autonomous – Self-governing

Inveterate - Established

Contemporary – Current

Amendments - Revision

Rudiments - Fundamentals

Providential - Advantageous

Anticlerical - Secular
TANAUAN CITY COLLEGE TCCR01-MODULE 7 MABINI’S LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS
 Content Lecture/ Discussion
Nursing the Wounds

 May 11, 1899

Mabini left Cabanatuan, proceeded to Talavera, Umingan upon invitation of officials He

decided to go with Cayo Alzona, his private secretary, to Bangulaw, on the belief that its
warm and satin spring would help him recover his health where he tasted the sweetness
of a perfect life.

 May 31, 1899

Aguinaldo accepted the resignation of Mabini cabinet, and another commission had
already formed with Buencamino as its chairman. It was understood that this commission
was to work for an “autonomous constitution” within the framework of the Sovereignty of
the United States. Although Mabini resigned he continued to help Aguinaldo and make
him understand the things he had to assert as President.

 July 18

Finding no improvement of his health he moved to Rosales, Pangasinan and move from
place to place. Mabini was kept posted on all these happenings and he sometimes even
received letters from Paterno and Buencamino asking him for his opinion and policies.
Possibly these people wanted Mabini to agree with their way of thinking or at least
prevent him from putting stumbling blocks to their own particular plan for attaining peace.

 Mabini claimed, he was not interested in holding any political office on the excuse that his
health would not allow it, but he was going to write articles in the revolutionary press as
an expression of his patriotic efforts and as a contribution to the war effort.

 Mabini wrote his “Al Pueblo de los Estados Unidos de la America, delNorte.”

TANAUAN CITY COLLEGE TCCR01-MODULE 7 MABINI’S LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS

  Al pueblo de los Estados Unidos de la America,del Norte

This lengthy article representing a faithful account of contemporary events appealed to

the American sense of justice regarding their interpretation of the events leading to the
outbreak of hostilities and their history and political tradition of sympathize with a people
“who were fighting in the defence of their liberties and independence.”

 Some of Mabini’s best writings on political philosophy were penned in Rosales. But his
writings were not confined to articles of this sort and for foreign consumption.

 August 23, 1899

Mabini, on account of Aguinaldo’s persuasion, was elected by congress to become Chief

Justice of the Supreme Court, Gracio Gonzaga was also elected Solicitor general.

When Mabini heard unofficially of hid election he did not hesitate to write to a close friend
that such an act would make Bautista and Paterno unhappy since both men did not like
him and had often charged with fostering dissensions and forming a partisan group.

 Mabini’s received a great number of letters from friends and admirers congratulating him
in his election, although he was not yet officially informed of his election and much less of
Aguinaldo’s confirmation.

 Mabini declared that he would express his opinion on the judicial system; he then
proposed three radical reforms to be implemented as long as the war was going on.

First proposal – In spite of the constitutional provisions to the contrary he would

reorganize the whole judicial system and participate in the choice of the associate
members& dismissal from the court on account of abuse or incompetent.

Second-proposed reform asked that the army be represented in the judicial process
by the formation of an organization to be composed of army officials known for their
competence, honor and morality, to be charged with helping the tribunals of justice. This
command the necessary obedience to the laws and to duly constituted authorities.

Third – as long as the emergency lasted, the supreme court was to be authorized to
recommend the congress by means of messages, both procedural & substantive laws for
the speedy and beneficial administration of justice.

 These proposed amendments were enough to justify the Cabinet’s lack of sympathy for
Mabini’s being chief justice.

 Aguinaldo’s consultation of Mabini on the last act of the Government in attempting to deal
with the Americans only demonstrated that Mabini still enjoyed the confidence of the
latter. Those others officials consented or possibly insisted to discover Mabini’s stand on
the problem of independence.

TANAUAN CITY COLLEGE TCCR01-MODULE 7 MABINI’S LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS

  Mabini’s tree proposals are not acceptable to his political enemies thats why they
oppose his election as the Chief Majesty of the country. However, Mabini took the
matter personally and would not allow the provocation to escape unchallenged.

 September 19, 1899

Published his article “Contestaction a unaconsulta”, where he ably demonstrated that

nothing illegal was committed by Congress in electing him as Chief Justice since it was
acting within its powers. Mabini then further asked the question: “Was there anything
extra-legal in the electoral action on August 23, because one of the elected persons was
a man without feet?” Contending that a man without feet was quite a curiosity.

 Mabini invited Mr. Zerzarian to discover as a greater curiosity that a person without feet
might nevertheless have the power to discharge the office of Chief Justice. “Did the job of
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court require continuous walking?”

 Mabini’s ready answer was that all what was required was a good and clear mind. And
finally, of Mr. Zezarian “doubted the competence of a person to hold office on account of
his inability to use his legs, what made him think that his difficulties could be resolved by
a paralytic?”

 He claimed further that his article on the Supreme Court was an honest and sincere effort
to expose what he believed was beneficial to the country. What resulted from all these
were that Mabini never got Aguinaldo’s confirmation on account of pressure from his
political enemies on the latter’s?

TANAUAN CITY COLLEGE TCCR01-MODULE 7 MABINI’S LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS

 RELIGION, CHURCH AND POLITICS

Mabini’s Personal Religion

 As a child, Mabini learned some of the rudiments of the Catholic faith on the lap of his
mother. Mabini grew in an atmosphere where the religious motive was predominant and
where the community centered around the parish church. Ideas and beliefs consciously
rejected sometimes.

 The attitude towards the Church and its ministers is often a function of one’s belief. One’s
religiosity can sometimes make him gloss over some undesirable actions of his church.
The lack of religiosity enables some persons to be devoid of any sympathy towards the
Church.

 Mabini had also disregarded revelation as a source for the foundations of law and
morality. The conception of God in the True Decalogue was less a providential one than a
deistic one. Mabini claimed that the truths of his Decalogue were “commandments of God
communicated to men by means of their reason.”

 To appreciate further why Mabini and people of the same grain would find themselves in
conflict with the friars, it is imperative to discuss briefly the official stand of the friars
against the reformers, revolutionists, and other anticlerical as revealed in their Memorial
of 1898.

Anticlericalism in the Philippines

 Mabini was a anticlerical to the core. The loss of his childhood religion and his
anticlericalism appeared hand in hand. The reason for this double development is found
in the political and intellectual influences on Mabini.

 Mabini’s attitude s towards Religion, and therefore toward the clergy, were due to his
reading of Rizal’s novels and La Solidaridad, and articles written by liberal thinkers from
Europe. Furthermore his connection with Masonry intensified his anticlericalism.

 The Catholic Church and clergy bitterly fought Masonry in Europe and in other places in
the world. Mabini belong to this breed. Mabini hated the friars in the Philippines who m he
called, “leeches with cowls”. But there is no evidence that he disliked Filipino priest.

 Anticlericalism was propagated in the Philippines by ilustrados, especially those active in

the Reform Movement, by some Spaniards who brought anticlerical ideas to the colony
from the mother country.

 Filipino reformers like Rizal, Del Pilar, and a host of others were, strictly speaking,
products of the kind of liberalism then existing in Europe by the end of the nineteenth
century. It was a kind of liberalism committed to the separation of Church and State.

TANAUAN CITY COLLEGE TCCR01-MODULE 7 MABINI’S LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS

 April 21, 1898

 Some anticlerical claimed that they were fighting not against religion as such but against
the clergy or Church as organized by the clergy, others openly attacked religion as well .
This was the atmosphere in which Filipino reformers in Europe breathed and worked.
Soon their ideas would be transported to the Philippines to be imbibed by men like
Adriano and Mabini.

 Similar to what happened in Europe, the properties of the Church and the religious
corporations excited the envy of people and added further fuel to anticlericalism.

 In a letter to Otis on November 3,1898, explaining why the Revolutionary government did
not want to release its friar prisoners who mounted to about four hundred, Mabini
observed

 The Filipino priests were able to gain a better ear in Spain, while some Filipino priests, in
many cases, not only supported the Reform Movement but even during the Revolution in
1896.

Mabini and the reformers were fighting for the construction of a new national life
transcending class regional differences, the Filipino priest, in the secularization
controversy, were fighting for their class as proponents of a way of life dominated by the
religious motive. Mabini had a clear eye when he perceived that the three martyred
Filipino priests, Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora “worked for the rights of a [priestly] class
and not for the people in general…” Consequently. He wrote that his sympathy for the
struggle of the Filipino priests was based more on matters of principles of justice rather
than love for the priestly class.

 There is no reason to question Mabini’s genuine sympathy for the attempts of Filipino
priests to occupy all Filipino parishes as well as their eventual control of all the highest
ecclesiastical offices in the country. He had become a partisan of their struggle long
before he had to retire from political office. In the above-mentioned letter to Otis, he
lectured:

 According to the canon law of the Roman Church, the regular clergy cannot minister to
the cure of souls reserved to members of the secular clergy to which the Filipino priests
belong. Nevertheless, the regulars, in order to keep their position as parish priests in the
towns of the Philippines, have deceived the Vatican and foreign public opinion. They
pictured the above towns as abodes of savages which required constant care by the
missionary friars in order to prevent the natives from reverting to their ancient idolatrous
practices.

 (Dominicans, Augustinians, Recollects, and Franciscans) The representatives of four friar

TANAUAN CITY COLLEGE TCCR01-MODULE 7 MABINI’S LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS
 orders and the Jesuits in the Philippines presented a lengthy memorial addressed to the
Governor General with the request that it be relayed to the Spanish Monarch.

 Aside from their political and religious ideology, the friars were Spaniards, and therefore
were also led to fight the revolutionists as enemies of the Spanish crown. Since the friars
controlled the organization of the Church, they were closely associated with it, and thus,
the Church, in the hands of the friars, ran the risk of being interpreted as against the
Revolution.

 The Conception of a Secular State on account of the intellectual influences on him as well
as the historical connection between the Spanish Church and the Spanish colonial
system, and further on account of the connections of the of the friars with these
institutions, Mabini Began to look at the Church as an institution unable to serve as an
inspiration and sanction to newly created national and social needs.

 Mabini’s use of the phrase “universal morality” signifies that Masonic and secular ideas of
morality had deeply influenced him. The use of the phrase is quite deliberate especially
when it’s noted that it was substituted for the phrase “Christian Morality” in a provision
borrowed from the Spanish Constitution of 1876, which provided many principles for
Mabini. This provision state “No one will be molested in Spanish territory for his religious
opinions or the exercise of his particular worship, saving the respect due to Christian
Morality.”

“The Friar Memorial of 1898

 To appreciate further why Mabini and people of the same grain would find themselves in
conflict with the friars. It is imperative to discuss briefly the official stand of the friars
against the reformers, revolutionists, and other anticlerical as revealed in their Memorial
of 1898.

 The friars controlled the organization of the Church, they were closely associated with it,
and thus, the Church, in the hands of the friars, ran the risk of being interpreted as
against the Revolution. It was a risk that was also unavoided since the Spanish Church
TANAUAN CITY COLLEGE TCCR01-MODULE 7 MABINI’S LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS
 was closely intertwined with the institutions and organs of the Spanish colonial system.

The Conception of a Secular State

 On account of the intellectual influences on him as well as the historical connections

between the Spanish Church and the Span

 It colonial system, and further on account of the connections of the friars with these
institutions, Mabini began to look at the Church as an institution unable to serve as an
inspiration and sanction to newly created national and social needs.

 Mabini’s use of the phrase “universal morality” signifies that Masonic and secular ideas of
morality had deeply influenced him. The use of the phrase is quite deliberate especially
when it is noted that it was substituted for the phrase “Christian morality” in a provision
borrowed from the Spanish Constitution of 1876, which provided many principles for
Mabini.

 Mabini was convinced that morality was detachable from religion. The source and
sanction of morality were reasons and conscience. In one of his articles regarding
religious freedom he wrote.

 What the people desire is that the State as a moral entity… should not profess any
specific religion and should allow the individuals the full liberty to choose the religion that
pleases them most; that it should not oblige any inhabitant under physical coercion to
profess and support a religion which he finds repugnant to his conscience; that it allow
the Catholics to support their parishes, the Protestants to support their pastors, and all
other sects their respective priests and religious teachers.

 It was the institution of civil marriage and other acts of Mabini that led Calderon to judge
Mabini as a secretarial with a strong anti-Catholic feeling, and the Revolutionary
government as permeated with the spirit of Masonry.

 That such a judgement would come from Calderon was understandable, for although he
was himself a rabid anti friar, he believed that the Catholic religion administered by
Filipino priests could still contribute greatly to the lives of the people, as well as serve as a
cohesive bond for Filipinos. Calderon believed, too, that the radical ideas of Mabini might
alienate part of the people from the Revolution if this kept up what he believed to
constitute an anti-Catholic spirit. Mabini, on the other hand, viewed national ideals and
commitments to a definite core of liberal ideas as the more important cohesive and
integrative factors.

TANAUAN CITY COLLEGE TCCR01-MODULE 7 MABINI’S LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS

  Mabini wrote a memorandum to the cabinet on December 13,1898, stating that one of his
reasons against the promulgation of the Constitution was that “it was not expedient to
establish openly the separation of church and states during these difficult times, giving
cause for the withdrawal of the suporters of religion.”

 It is interesting to note that during the discussions regarding the relations between Church
and States in Congress, the Filipino clergy fought the idea of separation. Theier
spokesmen argued that Filipino society should have a religion, that of the majoriy. The
Catholic religion was then asserted to be the cohesive force for the family and nation.

The Natural Church

 It will be recalled that as revolutionary territory increased in1898, more Filipino priest fell
under the power of the Revolutionary government. It was also evident that some of these
priests still hearkened to the orders of Nozaleda. After some mild threats of Filipino
priests who still showed loyalty to Nozaleda, the Revolutionary government encouraged
their organization under Aglipay. It was an organization that was loose and informal at the
beginning but which, with the recognition of Aglipay as the superior of the Filipino priests
by the Revolutionary Government, became progressively more cohesive.

 In October, 1899, Mabini prepared the document to be signed by Filipino priests

rationalizing their formal organization under an elected ecclesiastical council.

 On October 23, Filipino priests met at Panique, Tarlac. A formal organization was
established and a delegation elected to get Papal approval for the nomination of Filipino
bishops. For all practical purposes a national church had been formed.

 Mabini’s role in encouraging and accelerating the formation of the National Church might
have been logically devoid of religious and theological considerations. It was a role that
can be judged as inveterate enemies of the Revolution.

 Mabini’s working for a Church group was not necessarily inconsistent with his principle of
religious freedom for all. It was dictated motives; essentially, it represented a response to
a given historical situation.

 The document repeated the old argument that since the Philippine had ceased to become
a Spanish colony and Spanish prelates were unable to exercise their jurisdiction in
revolutionary territory, it had become necessary to have Filipino bishops.

 It was claimed that the Spanish prelates had lost their power of authorizing Filipino priests
to take care of the Filipino faithful because the Philippine diocese had severed its
connection with the Spanish Crown.

TANAUAN CITY COLLEGE TCCR01-MODULE 7 MABINI’S LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS

  Mabini wanted to strengthen the Filipino clergy, for this implied the corresponding
elimination, if not reduction, of the power of the friars he hated and judged as inveterate
enemies of the Revolution.

III. Viable and vibrant Activities

Description of the Learning Activities

Learning task 1

Answer the following questions

1. How did Mabini nurse his wounds during the time of Revolutionary congress.

2. Does Mabini helped Aguinaldo upon his resignation has been approved? How do you say
so? Prove your answer.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________.

3. How does religion, church and politics helped change life of Mabini. Cite an instances to

TANAUAN CITY COLLEGE TCCR01-MODULE 7 MABINI’S LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS

 prove your answers.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________.

IV. Opportunity to reflect and articulate students’ acquired knowledge.

Criteria for evaluation

Learning task 1 Rubrics

Needs Improvement Approaching Good Excellent

1pt. Standards 3 pts. 4 pts.
2 pts.
Ideas and Content
There is no clear or You put thought into What you are writing
What you are writing
specific explanation this, but there is no about is clear. You
about is clear and
in answer to the real evidence of answered the
well-expressed,
question. learning. More question. Some
including specific
specific information support may be
examples to
is needed or you lacking, or your
demonstrate what
need to follow the sentences may be a
you learned. Well
directions more bit awkward.
done!
closely. Overall, a decent
job.

Use of terms
No terms from the Only one term from Your answer Your answer
lesson are used. the lesson is used in included several included all the
the answer. Try for terms from the terms from the
a few more, next lesson, lesson that applied
time. demonstrating to the question
adequate asked. All terms are
understanding of the fully defined and
material. used in the proper
context.

Sentence Fluency
Sentences are Some sentences Sentences are Sentences are
incomplete or too are complete and complete and able complete and they
long. It makes easy to understand. to be understood. connect to one
reading them Others require some another easily when
difficult. work. they are read out
loud. Your writing
'flows.'

Conventions
Few end marks or Mistakes using end Use of punctuation No punctuation or
capital letters. marks or capitals as marks and capitals, structural mistakes.
Answers contain well as spelling as well as spelling, No spelling errors.
numerous spelling mistakes make the is mostly correct. Your writing shows
or structural errors. writing hard to read. Few errors exist in full awareness of
your answer. the rules of English
use.

TANAUAN CITY COLLEGE TCCR01-MODULE 7 MABINI’S LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS

 Summary
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________.

Reflection

1. I already knew
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________.
2. I learned
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________.
3. I still want to know
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________.

TANAUAN CITY COLLEGE TCCR01-MODULE 7 MABINI’S LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS

 V. Textbooks and other References

Majul, Cesar A. (2004). Apolinario Mabini Revolutionary. National Historical Institue, Philippines

TANAUAN CITY COLLEGE TCCR01-MODULE 7 MABINI’S LIFE, WORKS AND WRITINGS