The Secularization of Priests During Spanish Period

The Opening of the Suez Canal

The Suez Canal, which connected the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, was
inaugurated in 1869. It was built by a French engineer named Ferdinand de
Lesseps. By passing through the Canal, vessels journeying between Barcelona and
Manila no longer had to pass by the Cape of Good Hope, at the southern tip of Africa.
Thus, they were able to shorten their traveling time from three months to 32 days.
Thanks to the Suez Canal, trading in the Philippines became increasingly profitable.
More and more foreign merchants and businessmen came to the colony, bringing
with them a lot of progressive ideas. The Filipinos not only gained more knowledge
and information about the world at large; they also gained the desire for freedom
and improvement in their lives.
The Secularization Controversy
Two kinds of priests served the Catholic Church in the Philippines. These were the
regulars and the seculars. Regular priests belonged to religious orders. Their main
task was to spread Christianity. Examples were the Franciscans, Recollects,
Dominicans, and Augustinians. Secular priests did not
belong to any religious order. They were trained
specifically to run the parishes and were under the
supervision of the bishops.
Conflict began when the bishops insisted on visiting the
parishes that were being run by regular priests. It was
their duty, they argued, to check on the administration of
these parishes. But the regular priests refused these visits, saying that they were not
under the bishops jurisdiction. They threatened to abandon their parishes if the
bishops persisted.
In 1774, Archbishop Basilio Santa Justa decided to uphold the dioceses authority
over the parishes and accepted the resignations of the regular priests. He assigned
secular priests to take their place. Since there were not enough seculars to fill all the
vacancies the Archbishop hastened the ordination of Filipino seculars. A royal decree
was also issued on November 9, 1774, which provided for the secularization of all
parishes or the transfer of parochial administration from the regular friars to the
secular priests.
The regulars resented the move because they considered the Filipinos unfit for the
priesthood. Among other reasons they cited the Filipinos brown skin, lack of
education, and inadequate experience.
The controversy became more intense when the Jesuits returned to the Philippines.
They had been exiled from the country because of certain policies of the order that
the Spanish authorities did not like.
The issue soon took on a racial slant. The Spaniards were clearly favouring their own
regular priest over Filipino priests.

Monsignor Pedro Pelaez, ecclesiastical governor of the Church, sided with the
Filipinos. Unfortunately, he died in an earthquake that destroyed the Manila
Cathedral in 1863. After his death, other priests took his place in fighting for the
secularization movement. Among them were Fathers Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos
and Jacinto Zamora.

Source: http://www.philippine-history.org/secularization-of-priests.htm

Secularization
From WikiPilipinas: The Hip 'n Free Philippine Encyclopedia
Secularization is a process by which the society is slowly transforming from that having
close identification with the religious institution to a more separated relationship. This
was considered to be the dawn of Philippine Nationalism, particularly after the execution
of Gomburza.
The Gomburza headed
the secularization
movement. They
advocated the right of the
Filipino secular clergy
over the assignment of
parishes rather than
giving them to the newly
arrived Spanish friars in
the country. The seculars were those who were not bound by monastic vows or rules.
They were discriminated by the Dominicans, Jesuits, Franciscans and Recollects. The
Filipino priests then were assigned as assistants to Spanish friars.
Secularism began in 1861 when the parishes of Mindanao originally managed by the
Recollect friars were handed to the Jesuits. The Jesuits were expelled from the
Philippines in 1768 because of the conflict they had between the European leaders.
However, they returned to the country in 1861 and regain power over the Mindanao
parishes from the Recollects who took over during their absence. The Recollects were
bestowed the parishes of Manila and Cavite by the colonial government to appeased their
loss. The original administrators of the parishes, the Filipino secular priests, naturally
protested.
Reference

Kalayaan. http://www.pia.gov.ph/pubs/kalayaan2003.pdf (accessed May 21,

2008)

Source: http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Secularization