Jose Rizal’s Retraction

On December 26, 1896, Rizal was accused and tried before a military tribunal for the
alleged crimes of rebellion, sedition, and illegal association. The prosecutor and the defense
finished presenting their arguments that morning, and the sentence of death was pronounced that
same morning. Two days after on December 18, 1896, to be exact, the Governor General
affirmed the death sentence and set the execution of Rizal on December 30, at 7:00 o’clock in the
morning. The death was read to Rizal early in the morning of December 29.

On May 18, 1935, the lost "original" document of Rizal’s retraction was discovered by
the archdiocesan archivist Fr. Manuel Garcia, C.M. The discovery, instead of ending doubts
about Rizal’s retraction, has in fact encouraged it because the newly discovered text retraction
differs significantly from the text found in the Jesuits’ and the Archbishop’s copies. And the fact
that the texts of the retraction which appeared in the Manila newspapers could be shown to be
the exact copies of the "original" but only imitations of it. This means that the friars who
controlled the press in Manila (for example, La Voz Española) had the "original" while the
Jesuits had only the imitations.

We now proceed to show the significant differences between the "original" and the
Manila newspapers texts of the retraction on the one hand and the text s of the copies of Fr.
Balaguer and F5r. Pio Pi on the other hand.

First, instead of the words "mi cualidad" (with "u") which appear in the original and the
newspaper texts, the Jesuits’ copies have "mi cualidad" (with "u"). Second, the Jesuits’ copies of
the retraction omit the word "Catolica" after the first "Iglesias" which are found in the original
and the newspaper texts. Third, the Jesuits’ copies of the retraction add before the third "Iglesias"
the word "misma" which is not found in the original and the newspaper texts of the retraction.
Fourth, with regards to paragraphing which immediately strikes the eye of the critical reader, Fr.
Balaguer’s text does not begin the second paragraph until the fifth sentences while the original
and the newspaper copies start the second paragraph immediately with the second sentences.
Fifth, whereas the texts of the retraction in the original and in the manila newspapers have only
four commas, the text of Fr. Balaguer’s copy has eleven commas. Sixth, the most important of
all, Fr. Balaguer’s copy did not have the names of the witnesses from the texts of the newspapers
in Manila.

Rizal retracted in this document was his affiliation with Masonry, and his reason that
Masonry is the enemy of the Church and as such was prohibited by the Church. He knew that the
Church forbade it—and still forbids it. Rizal did not fight the Catholic religion; he fought those
who abused that religion, but against the manner of the Catholic religion was practiced by the
friars in the Philippines during his time. Here is a part of his letter to Blumentritt which his
opinion of the Catholic religion.

References:
Garcia, R. P. (1964). The great debate: The Rizal retraction. California: The University of
California