"And to this end, I will strive to reproduce thy condition faithfully, without discriminations; I will

raise a part of the veil that covers the evil, sacrificing to truth everything, even vanity itself,
since, as thy son, I am conscious that I also suffer from thy defects and weaknesses."
- To My Fatherland (dedication part ng Noli)

Rizal attributed Noli me Tangere to cancer in order to make his people aware of their underlying
situation, the Spanish disease that was growing among them, and the crimes and injustices carried out
in their name.

“Either there is religion or there isn’t, and that’s that, either priests are free or they aren’t! The country
is being lost…it is lost!" (Father Damaso, Chapter 1: A Social Gathering)
Father Dámaso's assertion reveals his standpoint that the church ought to have more authority than the
government. Although the exact cause of the current conflict is not yet fully understood, it is evident
that Father Dámaso holds the opinion that priests must have complete freedom to do as they wish.
Furthermore, he excludes the notion of unorganized religion by directly connecting the existence of
religion to that of priests and their freedom. Given that Christianity was not the Philippines' native
religion but rather that of their Spanish colonizers, the phrase sticks out even more. Father Dámaso is
also speaking to the “colonized Philippines”, rather than the entirety of the country's history, when he
states that "the country is lost."

Touching the truth: Applying literary realist theory to Jose Rizal's “Noli Me Tangere” (Touch Me Not)

The University of Texas - Pan American ProQuest Dissertations Publishing

Luis H. Francia, A History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos to Filipinos (New York: The Overlook
Press, 2010).