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The Religious Philosophy of Rizal

Jose Rizal was born and grew up in a very devout Catholic family. His
education, from elementary to college, was from the prestigious
Catholic schools of the period. It was expected therefore, that he
should have been also, a devout Catholic. Although he was for a while,
however, in later life he developed a religious philosophy not totally in
accord with the Catholic religion.

Why the transformation?

It all started when Rizal first went abroad in 1882. At the age of 21, he
enrolled at the Universidad Central de Madrid, working for degrees in
medicine, philosophy and literature. In Spain he found the boisterous
atmosphere of freedom: where conservatives and liberals, socialists and
anarchists, protestants and Catholics, atheists and agnostics, debated and
discussed at meetings, in cafes, on street corners, in the taverns and more
especially in the press, - without the fear of being apprehended.

He read the radical theological writings of Felicite R. de Lamennals, who

advocated that Christian must serve the poor and fight injustices including
those perpetuated by the Catholic Church. Men like Rafael Labra, Manuel
Luis Zorilla and Francisco Pi y Margall, who struggled to reform Spain
antiquated feudal system, were close friends of Rizal.

Rizals Work
(Corazon sagrado)
Nhelly

Sacred Heart
Material:Terra Cotta
Remarks:Made In Dapitan, 1894
While a student at the Ateneo Municipal in Intramuros,
Jose Rizal made a small statue of the Sacred Heart, about
nine inches in height. He carved the statuette in
batikuling wood with a penknife, at the request of his
professor, Father Jos Lleonard, S.J. While preparing to
return to Spain, Father Lleonard intended to take this
statuette with him, but the houseboy helping him pack,
forgot to place it in his trunk. Consequently, the
statuette was left behind, and it was taken by Rizal's
fellow students. This was placed on a shelf above the
door of their study hall, where it remained for twenty
years.
In August 1887, Rizal returned from Europe and he
stayed in the Philippines till early 1888. Now a liberal in
matters political as well as religious, he visited with his
Jesuit friends at the Ateneo. On his way out, the Jesuit
porter showed him the same statuette. Rizal replied:

Sacred Heart

In December 1896, after Rizal was sentenced to death by the Military Tribunal which had tried
him for treason, he asked for some Jesuit priests to come and visit him. Father Miguel Saderra
Mata, S.J., Rector of the Ateneo Municipal, together with Father Luis Viza, S.J. went in haste to
Fort Santiago, to the cell in which Rizal was imprisoned. They were greeted warmly by Rizal.

Rizal then asked them if the statue of the Sacred Heart, which he had carved as a boy, was still
at the Ateneo. Father Viza, in reply, took the statuette out of the pocket of his soutane. He had
guessed rightly. Rizal would remember it at the hour of his death. Rizal took it from him, kissed
it in his hands, and placed it on the table where he would soon write the Ultimo Adis.

The statuette remained in the cell where Rizal prayed and confessed, attended Mass, and
received Holy Communion.

The following day, 30 December, just before leaving his cell for Bagumbayan, Rizal reverently
held the statuette to his lips for the last time. With his two hands holding this close to his
heart, he moved slowly to give this back to the Jesuits, who were with him to his last day.

San Pablo Ermitano | St. Paul

the Hermit
Materials: Terra Cotta
Plaster of Paris | Gives as a gift to Fr. Pablo
Pastells in Dapitan, 1893
Sculpted by Jose Rizal during his exile in
Dapitan,El Ermitaois an 1893 terra cotta
figurine given as a gift to Fr. Pablo Pastells. It
shows Rizals own interpretation ofSt. Paul the
Hermit or Paul of Thebes, known in Catholic
history as the first Christian hermit.
El Ermitaocontains inscriptions in reference to
the long and controversial correspondence
between Rizal and his Jesuit mentor, Fr. Pastells.
The exchange of letters, which took place
between September 1892 and June 1893, reveals
the Jesuit priests attempt to win Rizal back to the
Catholic Church.

Christ
Crucified

Immaculate
Conception

Material:Crayon
Remarks:1875

Material: Crayon
Remarks: Made in Manila, 1874

San Antonio de Padua

en barro obra del Dr.
Rizal

Dapitan Church Curtains

Material:Oil
Remarks:Made in Dapitan, 1894

Noli Me
Tangere

The title of Noli Me Tangere is a Latin

phrase, which means "Touch Me Not."
Basically this phrase was not originally
conceived by Rizal, for he admitted
taking it from the Bible. It is from the
book of St. John (Chap 20:13-17). It was
said that on the First Easter Sunday, St
Mary Magdalene visited Jesus in the
tomb, who had just risen from the dead.

"Touch Me Not, I am not yet

ascended to my Father, but to go to my
brethren, and say unto them, I ascend
unto my Father, and your Father, and to
my God and your God."

Noli Me Tangere

Noli Me Tangere-- is a scathing, full-scale indictment of the Philippine political and religious
regime. Rizal expose the inequities of the Spanish Catholic priests and the ruling government.

In this novel, Rizal has unmasked the hypocrisy, which under the cloak of religion. Rizal
distinguished the true religion from the false, from the superstitious, from that which traffics with
the Sacred Word to extract money.

The facts Rizal brought to his fellowmen's attention through Noli Me Tangere:

The corruption and brutality of Spanish priests and the injustices to the Indios.

The Friars have made the Catholic religion an instrument for enriching themselves and perpetuating
themselves in power by seeking to coerce the ignorant Filipino in fanaticism and superstitions instead of
teaching them true Catholicism.

The Noli Me Tangere is not merely an attack on the Spanish colonial regime. It is a charter
nationalism. It calls on the Filipino to recover his self-confidence, to appreciate his own worth, to
return to the heritage of his ancestors, to assert himself as the equal of the Spaniard.

El
Filibusterism
o
Known

by its English alternate

title The Reign of Greed.
Written

some four or five years

after Noli Me Tangere, the book
represents Rizals more mature
judgment on political and social
conditions in the islands, and in its
graver and less hopeful tone
reflects the disappointments and
discouragements which he had
encountered in his efforts to lead
the way to reform.
One

of the objective of writing is

to discuss what religion and belief
can really do to everyday lives.

El Filibusterismo

Rizals dedication to the first edition is of special interest, as the writing of it was one of the
grounds of accusation against him when he was condemned to death in 1896. It reads:

To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomez (85 years old), Don Jos Burgos (30 years old),
and Don Jacinto Zamora (35 years old). Executed in Bagumbayan Field on the 28th of February, 1872.

The Church, by refusing to degrade you, has placed in doubt the crime that has been imputed to you;
the Government, by surrounding your trials with mystery and shadows, causes the belief that there
was some error, committed in fatal moments; and all the Philippines, by worshiping your memory and
calling you martyrs, in no [vi] sense recognizes your culpability. In so far, therefore, as your complicity
in the Cavite mutiny is not clearly proved, as you may or may not have been patriots, and as you may
or may not have cherished sentiments for justice and for liberty, I have the right to dedicate my work
to you as victims of the evil which I undertake to combat. And while we await expectantly upon Spain
some day to restore your good name and cease to be answerable for your death, let these pages
serve as a tardy wreath of dried leaves over your unknown tombs, and let it be understood that every
one who without clear proofs attacks your memory stains his hands in your blood!

J. Rizal.

To the Child
Jesus
Why have you come to earth,
Child-God, in a poor manger?
Does Fortune find you a
stranger
from the moment of your birth?
Alas, of heavenly stock
now turned an earthly resident!
Do you not wish to be
president
but the shepherd of your flock?

Al Nio Jesus was composed by Dr.

Jose Rizal during his stay in Ateneo de
Municipal in 1875 when he was just 14
years of age. He wrote this short poem
with eight verses only, influenced by the
Spanish standard of poetry. It is also
classified as an Octave Real.

To the Virgin
Mary

Mary, sweet peace, solace dear

Of pained mortal! Youre the fount
Whence emanates the stream of succour,
That without cease our soil fructifies.

La Virgen Maria is a
sonnet written by the
Philippine national hero,
Jose Rizal. The story of this
sonnet is said to be about
the last member of a
prominent clan in the
Muslim Kingdom of
Granada around during the
15th century. It was
written during Rizal's
academic stay in Ateneo
Municipal de Manila on 3
December 1876.

From thy throne, from heaven high,

kindly hear my sorrowful cry!
And may thy shining veil protect
My voice that rises with rapid flight.

Thou art My Mother, Mary, pure;

Thoull be the fortess of my life;
Thoull be my guide on this angry sea.
If ferociously vice pursues me,
Help me, and my drive away my woes!

The Intimate Alliance Between Religion and Good

Education

During the summer of April 1876, before

entering his fifth year in Ateneo Municipal,
Rizal wrote this poem along with Por La
Educacin Recibe Lustre La Patria

He expressed his love of God as the

foundation of excellent education, that man
can only attain his totality with Gods
teaching. He articulated that religion and
education have a close relationship that is
very essential in attaining success. Moreover,
he believed that education that is unanchored
by religion is misleading and untrue.

Wenceslao Retana, a critic-turned-biographer

of Jose Rizal, is believed to be the person who
gave the title of the poem.

Without Religion, Human Education

Is like unto a vessel struck by winds
Which, sore beset, is of its helm deprived
By the roaring blows and buffets of the
dread
Tempestuous Boreas [The north wind], who
fiercely wields
His power until he proudly sends her down
Into the deep abysses of the angered sea.
As heavens dew the meadow feeds and
strengthens
So that blooming flowers all the earth
Embroider in the days of spring; so also
If Religion holy nourishes
Education with its doctrines, she
Shall walk in joy and generosity
Toward the Good, and everywhere bestrew
The fragrant and luxuriant fruits of Virtue.

Por la education recibe lustre la partria

Through Education Our Motherland Receives

Light

Vital breath, wise education

Education Gives Luster to the Motherland

inspires a charming virtue.

Rizal wrote this poem in the year 1876 at

the age of fifteen.

She elevates the nation to the high seat

The poem speaks of the Jesuits who

established a strong relationship between
education and faith, theratio
studiorum(plan of studies). The poem also
advocates the importance of education at a
very young age. He compared education to
the goddess of light, wisdom, hope, peace
and truth and also indicated that education
is the hope to attain the countrys freedom.

of dazzling, immortal glory.

And as the soft blow of fresh breeze
makes green again the hues of sweet
flowers,
so does education benevolently exalt
the human being with lavish hands.

Fragment of a
Poem
To my Creator I sing;
To my Lord, to the All-Powerful
Who calmed my affliction;
To the Merciful
Who gave me repose in tribulation.
You, with your power
Said: live! And I, I came forth with life;
And you gave me the power to choose,
And soul to the good impelled
Like a compass to the North directed.

He had a poem entitled

Fragmento de una
poesia which was
essentially a song of
thanksgiving to the creator.

God Created Us with Power to

Choose And a Soul Directed to
Good

Jose

Rizal believed in Heaven as

he wrote his Mi Ultimo Adios
his last poem.
"For

I go where no slave before

the oppressor bends, where faith
can never kill, and God reigns
everywhere."

Monument inscribed with Mi ltimo Adis

(Spanish version) atRizal Parkin Manila, Philippines

Mi Ultimo Adios | Huling Paalam

You know that the will of God is

different from that of the priest; that
religiousness does not consist of
long periods spent on your knees,
nor in endless prayers, big rosarios,
and grimy scapularies [religious
garment showing devotion], but in a
spotless conduct, firm intention and
upright judgment. You also know that
prudence does not consist in blindly
obeying any whim of the little tin
god, but in obeying only that which
is reasonable and just, because blind
obedience is itself the cause and
origin of those whims, and those
guilty of it are really to be blamed.
God gave each individual reason and
a will of his or her own to distinguish
the just from the unjust; all were
born without shackles and free, and
nobody has a right to subjugate the
will and the spirit of another
thoughts, seeing that thought is
noble and free.

Letter to the Women of

Malolos

Rizals religious perspective was

humanistic blended with some forms of
existentialism. These he articulated
very clearly in his February 22. 1889
letter to the Women of Malolos.

In the same letter, he tried to influence

the attitudes, habits and beliefs of the
Filipino women who tended to believe
and rely on superstitions, myths and
miracles.

The letter was written originally in

Tagalog.

Letter to his Mother

Rizal believed in religion, in his letter to his mother in 1885, he articulated

this very eloquently when he wrote: For me religion is the holiest of things,
the purest, the most intangible, which escapes all human adulterations, and
I think I would be recreant to my duty as a rational being if I were to
prostitute my reason and admit what is absurd. I do not believe that God
would punish me if I were to try to approach Him using reason and
understanding, -his most precious gift.

Rizal opposed the perversions, abuses and hypocrisy of the Catholic

hierarchy and the colonial government that he manifested in his two novels.

He did not intend to destroy the Catholic Church but desired its practices
more consistent with the fundamental tenets of Christianity.

Other Religious Ideas of Rizal

In an article entitled A Hope published in La Solidaridad, 15 July 1890, Rizal said: God has made
man free and has promised victory to one who perseveres, to one who struggles, to one who acts
justly.

In his essay The Creator Gazes on the Philippines, Rizal had the Lord Jesus talking to Himself:
When one dies for love or for the conviction that his death will do some good, death is a pleasure. But
when, after death, after the sufferings, comes disillusion. . .Oh! Could I not convert myself into
nothing, annihilate myself completely, destroy my conscience in order not to see the disastrous effect
of my work . . . I have come to the earth as light and men have used me to envelope it in darkness; I
have come to console the poor and my religion gives favors and pleasures to the rich; I have come to
destroy superstition and in my name superstition flourishes and lords it over perfectly; I have come to
redeem peoples and in my name have been subjugated provinces, kingdoms, continents, entire races
having been reduced to slavery and disappeared entirely. I have come to preach love and in my
name, for trivial distinctions, for the craftiness of the idle, men have hurled themselves on one another
and have spread over the earth death and devastation, sanctifying crime with the prestige of the
divine. Horrible absurdity, monstrous error, stupendous blasphemy!

Other Religious Ideas of Rizal

Dr. Rizal wrote an essay in French entitled Dimanche de Rameaux, which talked of the significance of
Palm Sunday, in this vein: This entry [of Jesus into Jerusalem] decided the fate of the jealous priests, the
Pharisees, of all those who believed themselves the only ones who had the right to speak in the name of God,
of those who would not admit the truths said by others because they have not been said by them. That
triumph, those hosannas, all those flowers, those olive branches, were not for Jesus alone; they were the
songs of the victory of the new law, they were the canticles celebrating the dignification of man, the liberty of
man, the first mortal blow directed against despotism and slavery .

In his diary written on the ship from Barcelona to Manila, 1896, after he was ordered imprisoned for suspicion
of complicity in the revolution, Rizal wrote: I believe that what is happening is the best that can happen to
me. Always let Gods will be done! I feel more calm with regard to my future. This afternoon I have meditated
because I had nothing else to do nor could I read. I feel that peace has descended upon me, Thank God! Oh
God! Thou art my hope and my consolation! Let your Will be done; I am ready to obey it. Either I will be
condemned or absolved. Im happy and ready. This faith in Gods will helps explain why the Spanish medical
officer found his pulse to be normal right before he was shot by the firing squad on December 30 of that year.

Freemasonry

Domingo, Jacqueline Mae

DOMINGO, JACQUELINE MAE

What is Freemasonry?
is a fraternal organization that took root in Europe and

spread all over the world

basic aims are to strive for moral betterment, work for the

welfare of others, and bring about a universal league of

mankind

Freemasonry History
it was organized in 45 B.C. during the construction of King Solomons temple in

Jerusalem
The purpose of forming the Knights Templar in Jerusalem in 1118 A.D. was to

protect the pilgrims on their journey from Jaffa

Their documented origin in Scotland was in the 16th and early 17th centuries
In the Philippines, the Freemasonry existed prior to 1756
The first Filipino initiated into the masonry was Jacobo Zobel in 1871

Masonic Principles
individual liberty,
freedom of speech,
equality,
religious tolerance,
separation of Church and State

Jose Rizal as a Mason

1883, Masonic Lodge Acacia in Madrid, Spain
November 15, 1890 - Rizal became

Master Mason in Lodge Solidaridad

1892 - he was designated Honorable and Venerable Master at the Nilad

Lodge, Manila, where he gave a lecture titled, La Masoneria.

While living in Europe, Dr. Rizal obtained affiliations with Masonic lodges in

France, England and Germany and then visited lodges in New York.

Jose Rizal as a Mason

He condemned the corrupt ways of the church and upheld individual

and national liberty.

Dimasalang Masonic name of Rizal, which means Untouchable
Masonic friends: Feodor Jagor, Rudolf Vinchow, and Friedrich Ratsel

(Berlin)

Who influenced Rizal to join Masonry?

His brother Paciano was a student of Padre Burgos, whose brother-in-law, Dr.
Mariano Marti, 33rd Mason, most likely became one of Paciano's influences.
Teodora Alonzo's brother, Jose Alonzo, was also a Mason and it was in his house
in Binan where young Jose stayed when he was a student. In his first voyage,
when they docked temporarily in Naples, he wrote his family, how impressed he
was with the posters of Masons announcing the death of Garibaldi, their former
Grand Master.

Who influenced Rizal to join Masonry?

When he got to the Universidad de Madrid, his history professor was Miguel
Morayta, whose being a Mason figured prominently both in Spanish and Filipino
Masonic history. All these plus the fact that the powerful people in the Spanish
government (among them, Becerra, Sagaste, Pi y Margall) mostly belonged to the
Fraternity, its indelible impact on the young student in all likelihood made him join
Acasia Lodge No. 9 -- under Grand Oriente de Espanol, whose Grand Master then
was Becerra.

Jose Rizal as a Mason

In 1884, Rizal began to write Noli MeTangere to expose the political and
religious corruption of Philippine society. Later that year, he delivered a speech at a
banquet organized in honor of Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, who had
both won gold and silver medals at the Exposicin Nacional de Bellas Artes. In the
speech, Rizal expressed his deep regard for Spain, but condemned the friars in the
Philippines. When copies of the speech reached Manila, he earned the anger and
enmity of the authorities who called him a filibustero or a subversive.

Jose Rizal as a Mason

In Hongkong, he got to know his brother Jose Ma. Basa. In New York he secretly wrote in his
diary the street adjacent to the street of NY's Grand Lodge. In London, he hooked up with his
brothers Reinhold Rost and Antonio Regidor. His Sucesos was smuggled in Hongkong by Basa and
another brother Rodriguez, in Manila. Despite his hectic itinerary, he became affiliated with the
Propagandists in Spain, most of whom were Masons like del Pilar, Lopez Jaena, Luna, Ponce,
Panganiban, etc. - even with his old professor Morayta. He became an officer in their lodge
Solidaridad No. 53 in 1890. They decided to spread Masonry in their miserable country because
they strongly felt it was needed there.

Jose Rizal as a Mason

However, a controversy remains on whether or not Rizal recanted Masonry before he died.
There were allegedly three eye-witnesses to his retraction: Fathers Balaguer and Viza of the Society
of Jesus and Captain Rafael Dominguez, who claim that Rizal had signed a document of retraction
and conversion before he was executed. Captain Rafael Dominguez, who was with Rizal during
Rizals last hours, mentioned it in his notes, which were an hour by hour record of Rizals last
moments (Zafra, 1951). On the other hand, others believe that the documents produced by the
Jesuits were fake and altered and the testimonies given were coached. They assert that the
Catholic Church only started to claim Rizal as their own once they realized that the people had
learned to love and admire Rizal (Fajardo, 1996).

Jose Rizal as a Mason

In 1912, the Jesuits approached the Rizal family for the rights to bury their famous pupil, but
they gave their consent instead to his fraternity brothers, who, led by Dr Isidro de Santos and
Timoteo Paez, asked for the same petition. So then on December 27, 1912, Rizal's fraternity
brothers, dressed in full Masonic regalia had a long procession to the Masonic Temple in Tondo
solemnly carrying their slain brother's body, or rather, what was left of it. On December 28, they
had their funeral rites, and on the 29th they were with the Rizal family in the Luneta. They saw
both their famous blood brother and fraternity brother be given the honorable burial he deserves.
And so it was that until his death and beyond, his ties with the Fraternity was still with him.

Other Masons:
Juan Prim - led the revolution that set up

a liberal government which

advocated for education
Andres Bonifacio
Apolinario Mabini
Ladislao Diwa,
Marcelo H. del Pilar,

Other Masons:
Juan Luna
Deodato Arellano
Graciano Lopez-Jaena
H. Pardo de Tavera

Rizal Pastells
Correspondence
Belardo, Elvern
Lampas, Christopher Edcel
Garcia, Rene

Rizal was not only his countrys first nationalist but also its first
Protestant. That is to say, he rejected not only the
subordination of his peoples welfare to that of strangers,
but also the submission of any mans reason to the
authority of another who claimed to be the unique
interpreter of Gods will. But he was not an atheist, a
materialist or agnostic; He believed in God though he might
have his doubts about the divine inspiration of the
Scriptures, he believed in the supremacy of private/individual
judgment.

Bernard Shaw pointed out that one can be an anti-clerical and a good Catholic too.

Rizal exposed the foibles (weakness of wicked priests; his witty gibes (utter tauntingly) at
spinsters greedy of indulgences and rich usurers (referring to friars) trying to widen the
gates of heaven or to sneak into Paradise in tattered habit (clothes) bought and sold with
emeralds for a painted image, may even be defended as the righteous whipping of
hypocrites and merchants ( referring to friars) from the Temple (church)

Rizal did not believe in the uses of scapulars girdles, votive candles and holy water.

Theologians have professed to find attacks against the Catholic Religion in 36% (120 of
332 pages) of the Noli and 27% of Fili.

One religion is as good as another in the sense that one conscience was as good as
another; all roads did not lead to Rome but they all lead to heaven; and few lead to Hell
because he could not reconcile the absolute and perfect goodness of God with the
condemnation of one of his creatures to eternal damnation.

Fray Bernardino, a Dominican, who had been rector of San Juan de Letran chose the
Jesuits to save Rizal, re-convert him and to re-enlist him to Ramon Catholic Church.

Father Miguel Saderra Mata, Rector of Ateneo & Father Luis Viza were received by Rizal
on December 29,1898 with great courtesy and true joy and after greeting them asked a
copy of Thomas Kempis The Imitation of Christ and the Gospels and expressed desire to
go to confession. Fr. Viza gave Rizal the Sacred Heart that he carved as a student in
Ateneo saying,

Here you have it; the Sacred Heart comes to seek you out. Rizal took the image and kissed
it.

Though Rizal wanted to save himself, nevertheless irreligion had become rooted in that
unfortunate mans heart in so cold, calculated and skeptical a fashion that he resisted Gods
grace with tenacity xxx Saderra left early followed by Visa then Father Rosell badly
impressed from the little he had heard from Rizal, that the latter was a Protestant.

At 10pm of 29th of December Fr Balaguer accompanying Fr. Villaclara offered Rizal medal of
the Blessed Virgin but Rizal took it coldly and said I am not much of a Marian. One must
remember that in his younger days he wrote poems To the Virgin Mary, To the Child Jesus
and being a devout Catholic, joined society of Marian Conjugation.

To understand and appreciate Rizals position on the issue of SALVATION we must refer to the
CORRESPONDENCE between RIZAL and FR. PASTELL in Dapitan a discussion meditated and
reflected upon, carefully expressed, coldly argued in an atmosphere of tranquility, leisure, and
freedom from the hysterical urgencies of DEATH-CELL.

It appeared to the Jesuits that Rizal did not admit to the authority of the Roman Church or Pontiff,
and had for his rule of Faith the Scriptures INTERPRETED BY HIS OWN JUDGMENT. That Rizal
was guided only by his own reason and that he could not admit any other standard that that of his
own mind which God has given him and that he would not

change, for if he will admit another criterion, God would reprove (censure)
him for having abandoned the judgement of that pure reason which He
Himself had given him RIZAL A RESOLUTE FREE-THINKER

The Correspondence
Fr. Obach handed Rizal, in exile, a gift from Fr. Pastells, the apologetics of
Sarda with the message: Tell him (Rizal) to stop being silly, wanting to look
of his affairs with the prism of his own judgement and self love; nemo judex in
cause propria (no one can sit as judge on his own cause)

Rizal to Pastells 1st September 1892 (salient points)

SILLY TO LOOK AT HIS AFFAIRS WITH THE PRISM OF HIS OWN

JUDGMENT OF SELF-LOVE

If we were to look with the prism of others, it would be impractical since

there would be as many prisms as there are individuals, and also we
would not know which one to choose among so many, and in choosing we
have to use our own judgment unless we were to make an infinite series
of choices, which would have the result that we would all be running each
others houses, others ruling our actions and we ruling theirs and all would
be in confusion UNLESS some of us would disown our judgment and self
love, something which in my humble opinion would be to offend God by
spurning His most precious gifts.

Rizal imagined that God, in giving each one the judgment that he has, did what was
most convenient and does not want the man with lesser judgment to think like the man
with greater and the other way around.

Judgment is like a lantern which a father gives to each one of his sons before they set
out on rough & winding paths. To the one who must cross ravines and precipices he will
not give an oil lamp, for the oil might spill; to that one who must face gale, he will give a
lantern of heavy glasses, xxx. Woe to him who midway on a whim or in sheer madness,
changes his lamp for another! Let each one keep and improve his own; Not envy or
despise anybody else, while at the same time profiting by the reflections of their lights
and by the signs and warnings left by those who have ahead.

SELF LOVE is the greatest good that God has given man for his perfection and
integrity saving him from many base and unworthy actions when the precepts that
he has been told and in which he has been trained are forgotten.

Self love is worthy when it is not become a passion, is like a sap that drives the
tree upward in search of the sun, steam that pushes the ship on its course
restrained by judgment. Man is the masterpiece of creation, perfect within his
limitations who cannot be deprived of any of his component parts, moral as well as
physical, without becoming disfigured and unhappy.

Here is the very credo of HUMANISM, an ACT OF FAITH in the INDIVIDUAL

JUDGMENT, a declaration of INDEPENDENCE FOR HUMAN MIND. Jesuit described
this as strange pietism, and with an uneasy sense of PREDESTINATION in compatible
with the freedom of human mind and will. What ever happens to me (Rizal, when
praying) is HIS WILL, and I am content & resigned.

PASTELL in his reply blamed Noli on the Protestant and the Fili on the Freemasons,
matched prism with prism and lantern for lamp.

You should not be guided in your affairs by the prism of your own judgment and self-love
because these are obstructed and falsified by erroneous principles and disorderly
affection.

Truth is to the mind what light is to polarization Polarization is a phenomenon in the

reflection or refraction of light by which the latter decreases or increases or becomes
invincible in accordance with the angles at which the ray of light falls and the refractive a
isotropic medium. Light should not be blamed for anything that happens to it when it is
subjected to polarization. Same thing happens then to truth and good faith when they
cross the refractive medium of certain mind and hearts. SPIRITUAL POLARIZATION
takes place by virtue of which TRUTH OR GOOD FAITH disappear a decrease, and
error and bad faith reach the greatest intensity, in accordance with the angle at which
things are seen. Has not your mind, with these angles of reflection or refraction of ideas,
suffered at least a kind of spiritual polarization which does not let you see the truths as
they are?

HOW THEN IS TRUTH TO BE KNOWN? The answer of AUTHORITY IS

AUTHORITY. The wisest man alive cannot know everything. In the greater number of
truths we must abide, and in fact we do abide, not by our own criterion of judgement
but by the criterion or judgment of the rest. From these, (facts, & the truth in
scientific and artistic matter) EXTERNAL AUTHORITY grows to become a criterion of
truth which draws our soul an assent, a certainty, which is really INFALLIABLE

It is this GREAT TRUTH (Infallible truth) that the great FATHER (God) of all families
has given to each of his sons for his journey through this life his own LANTERN OR
JUDGEMENT, but this lantern die to poor oil provided for us by our disinherited first
parents (the reference is to original

sin), gives little light, and because of our indolence (laziness) the lampglass glows grimy, or the wick grows damp, or the oil gets spilled, and
then we follow fitful and phosphorescent lights (light without sensible
heat) that suddenly dazzle us and then leave us in the middle of the road
in a terrible and heartsick darkness.

In this DARKNESS we need ANOTHER LAMP to light (supernatural

light, words of the prophets inspired by the Holy Ghost, the divine of
Jesus). Natural knowledge must be assisted by supernatural
knowledge, imparted by revelation (divine truth) and accepted with faith
founded on reason. Ask Him for the supernatural gifts, hope and charity.

RIZAL If you only knew (referring to Fr. Pastells) what I have lost by not declaring my
conformity with Protestant ideas, you will not say such a thing. I had always held the
concept of religion in respect. If I had taken religion as a convinience or as the art of
having a good time in this life, I would now be, instead of a poor exile, rich, free, and full of
honors.

Rizal to Pastells 11th Nov. 1892

Our (Rizal & Protestant pastor) ideas are poles apart religious no matter what they were,
should not make men enemies of one another, but good friend.
Modernist

answer to the argument from authority who had authority, who was authority
& by what authority did it assume authority? Rizal admitted that TRUTH had been
POLARIZED

in passing through his mind. Rizal being a man is fallible. We confuse the truth with our
CONVENIENCE. He insisted that only human reason can correct itself, but admitted
that human reason was much inferior to supernatural (divine) light. Who, with just
reason call himself, the REFLECTOR OF THAT LIGHT? ALL RELIGIONS claim to
possess the truth. Even the most ignorant, most bewildered, claims to be right.

Men in search of truth are like a students in a drawing class sketching a statute
around which they sit, some nearer than others, others farther off, these from certain
height, those others from its very foot, all seeing it in a different way, so that the more
they try to picture it faithfully, all the more their sketches are different from one
another. Those who sketch

directly from the statutes are thinkers who differ from one another because they start
from different principles; they are the FOUNDERS OF SCHOOLS AND DOCTRINES.

A great number, however, because they are too far away, or can not see well, or are
less skillful or are lazy or those who copied nearest to them or from those they think
seems to be the best. These COPYIST are the partisans, the active secretaries of an
idea.

Still others, LAZIER, or those who buy a ready made copy, a photograph or a lithograph
and go off happy and satisfied. These are the passive secretaries, who believe
everything to save themselves the trouble of thinking.

Who would now judge the sketches made by the others by comparing them with his own?
He would have to place himself where those others were, and judge from their own points of
view.

And do not tell me Your Reverence, that truth seen from all angles, must always appear
the same; that would be true only for HIM WHO IS PRESENT EVERYWHERE.

Fr. Pastells dismissed the parish priest of the Rhine with a gesture: the man was some
ignorant nincompoop who lost his Catholic common sense, who is a Protestant as the
servant of the God of the Catholics. Such a thing could be said only by someone who like
you (Rizal) believes that the difference between Catholics and Protestants are only matters of
opinion and not of faith. Where would all this lead

to? Moderate Protestants believed that man could be saved within any of their sects; liberal
and progressive within any religion; Free-thinkers-do his duty and attain happiness without
any religion at all! If this is admitted, then away with science and philosophy, most
contradictory principles, and illogical and monstrous conclusions should all be
respected as anxious of truth
Enthronement of human reason, Pastells argued would thus lead to its destruction and
universal skepticism. HUMAN REASON WOULD BE THE REASON OF UNREASON.

True Religion must consider the false as enemies; Who is not with me is against me.
The Savior had brought not peace but sword. I am the light of the world, I am the
truth. Do you admit the divinity of Jesus Christ and the divine

institution of his Church? Rizal had asked who can call himself the reflector of such
Light? Pastells asked in turn And does my dear friend, the divine mission of Jesus Christ,
His divinity itself, count for nothing, weight nothing in the intellectual balance.?
Unfortunately we do not have Rizals reply in its entirety we only have fragment which
seems to avoid the challenge.

J. Rizal to P. Patells S.J. 9th Jan. 1898

firmly believe, by reason and by necessity more than out of faith, in the existence of a
Creative Being. Who is He? What human sounds, what syllables in what language, can
capture the name of this Being whose works overwhelm the imagination of anyone who
thinks of them? Who can give

Him a suitable name when some miserable creature down here with
transient power, has two or three names, three or four surnames, and many
titles and dignities?
We call him Dios, but this at most only reminds us of the Latin deus, or
the Greek Zeus. What is He like? I would attribute to Him in an infinite
degree all the beautiful and holy qualities that my mind can conceive, if I were
not restrained by the fear of my own ignorance. Someone has said that each
one makes his God in his own image and likeness, and, if I remember rightly,
Anacreon said that if the bull could conceive of a god, it would fancy that god
horned and with mighty bellow.

For all that, I dare believe Him infinitely wise, powerful and good; my idea of the infinite is
imperfect and confused, seeing the marvels of His works, the order that reigns among them
their magnificence and overwhelming vastness, and, goodness that shine in all.

From Pastells text it is plain, Rizal had not surrendered. Rizal believed in God. Not all is
lost; your soul still carries hope which will carry you to salvation. You have sucked the pure
doctrine of religion from your mother and family and in Ateneo sooner or later you will
return to the Catholic Church. Patells discussed in his letter to Rizal, the Nature of the
Causeless Being, the divinity of Jesus Christ as proved by His Resurrection from the dead,
divine institution of the Church of Rome, relationship between faith and reason, divine
inspiration.

of the Scriptures, nature of miracles, Salvation outside the Church, etc.

RIZAL We are entirely in agreement in admitting the existence of God.

Who recognized the effect recognizes the cause My FAITH in God, if
the product of reasoning can be called faith, is BLIND, blind in the sense
that it knows nothing. I smile at the definitions and meditations of
theologians and philosophers of this ineffable and inscrutable Being
Man makes his God to his own image and likeness and then attributes to
Him his own works. He who made eyes, will He not see? He who made
ears, will He not hear? But since we have spoken Anacreons bull, He
who made horns, will He not throw us with horns?

PASTELLS (after explaining that he was writing by analogy) God need not eyes to see or
ears to hear. God possesses what are called positive perfections in an infinite and absolute
degree. (His) creatures participate in the perfections of God in a finite degree and by analogy.

RIZAL I believe in Revelation but not in the revelation or revelations which each religion or
all religions claim to possess. Upon examining them, one cannot but recognize in all of them
the human thumb print and the mark of time in which they were written.

PATELLS What thumb print and what mark? Catholics mean that sacred books were
written with Divine inspiration. Shall we deny that God was the author of the inspiration.

As long as the Catholic Churches recognized the Divine finger of inspiration behind the
human thumbprint, it is enough to assure that the book of the Old and the New
Testament, recognized as such by the Catholic Church, must be received by the faithful
sacred.
RIZAL

I believe in revelation, but in that living revelation of Nature with surrounds

us on all sides, in that voice, potent, eternal, incessant, incorruptible, clear, distinct,
universal, like the Being from which it comes, in that revelation with speaks to us and
compenetrates us from the day we are born till the day we die. What books can better
reveal to us the goodness, love, providence, eternity, glory and His wisdom? The
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showed His handiwork.

or ambiguous phrases, which have provoked hatreds wars and dissensions, would it not be better
to interpret the facts of Nature in order to adapt our lives better to its invisible laws, using its
forces from our own perfectioning?
PASTELLS

but we are discussing revelation, properly seeking supernatural revelation given

by God to man for his salvation. Living revelation of Nature does not teach us for our
justification, sanctification and eternal salvation. We would be in complete darkness if in our soul
does not brought lighthouse of supernatural hope based on faith in the revealed truths that God
in His grace has given us.

RIZAL

there are necessary and useful precepts, but God placed this in the conscience of
man, His best temple, that is

why I would rather adore God who has endowed us with salvation, who keeps open His book of
revelation through the voice of our conscience.
PASTELLS

That voice is not incessant because, heard only from our conscience, how many
times are its cries muffled by the callouses formed in it by a bad life? all kinds of errors have
been multiplied in all pages of history of people except in Christendom.

RIZAL

I cannot believe that before the coming of Jesus Christ al peoples were buried in the
profound chasm that you speak. Nor can I believe that after Christ all was light, peace and good
fortune, that the majority of men turned just. No. I would be belied by the battlefields, faggots,
prisons, acts of

violence, tortures of the inquisition, the hatred that Christian nations profess towards one
another over petty differences, slavery and for 18 centuries, prostitution.
PASTELLS

It was Jesus Christ who brought the world that true peace which made men
who received it adopted sons of God and heirs of heaven. For this we are obliged to adore
God who opened for us the book of natural law and that of supernatural law depositing
both in the infallible custody of the teaching of the Catholic Church

RIZAL Your brilliant arguments cannot convince me that the Catholic Church is endowed

with infallibility. It is an institution more perfect than the others, but human after all, with all
the defects, errors and vicissitudes proper to the work of men.

PASTELLS

Christian religion has its branches in the hearts of the people, but it roots and
foundation in the Christ from with it sprung. It is based on the will of God and the efficacy
of supernatural grace by virtue of the merits of Christ.

RIZAL

Who died on the Cross? Was it God or man? If it was God, I cannot understand
how a God, conscious of His mission, could die, or how a God could exclaim in the garden:
Father, if Thou wilt, remove this chalice from me, or how He could again exclaim from the
Cross: My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? This cry is absolutely human, it is
the cry of a man who had faith in justice and the goodness of his cause; except for the
Tomorrow thou shalt be with me, the works of Christ on Calvary all suggest a man in
torment

and in agony, but what a man! For me, Christ man is greater than the Christ God.
PASTELLS Christ as man died on the Cross, that is to say, when Jesus Christ died, his

soul left his body, and the person of Christ remained united in the soul and in the body
RIZAL

God cannot have created me for my harm; for what harm have I done Him
before being created that He should will my damnation? Nor can He have created me for
nothing, or in indifference. He must have created me for a good purpose, and for that
end, I have nothing to guide me better than my conscience, and only conscience alone
which judges and qualifies my acts.

PASTELLS

God must have created man for some good purpose attainable after this
life, for, if God is just, where would He reward him who dies unjustly. To defend his justice?
Where would He punish the sinner. God made me to love Him and serve Him in this life
and to enjoy Him forever in the next. To attain this end the grace of God, the merits of
Jesus Christ, and our own good works, are needed.

RIZAL

ended his last letter to the Jesuit with a characteristic gesture who is more foolishly
proud: he who is content to follow his own judgment, or he who proposes to impose on others
not even what his own reason declares but only what seems to him to be the truth? The
reasonable has never seemed foolish to me, and pride has always shown itself in the idea of
imposition.

Retraction
Onza, Jhouana

Retraction
means that
he is taking
back what he
said against
the Catholic
Church in the
Philippines
and the friars.

Rizals Charateristic

He is a modern man during his time.

His religious belief is different from majority.

He is also a non-conformist in a society where Chruch and State were

united. (Religious skeptism was unpatriotic and political dissent
irreligious)

As freethinker, he was standard bearer of freedom of thought.

Retraction Controvesy
Sworn

Statement of Fr. Balaguer on August 8, 1917

Balaguer

said that Rizal showed himself as Protestant that his

rule of faith was the word of God contained in Holy
Scriptures.

Rizal

frankly declared himself a rationalism or freethinker

admitting no other criterion of truth but private judgement.

Balaguer

tried to prove to Rizal with irrefutable argument

that there is and can be ni other rational criterion than
supernatural faith and divine revelation, guaranteed by the
infallible authority of the Church

Retraction Controvesy
Sworn

Statement of Fr. Balaguer on August 8, 1917

Rizal

told Balaguer that he would be guided bu the mind that

God had given him, adding with chilling self possession that
he would thus appear before Gods Judgement Seat, content
with having done his duty as a rartional being.

They

had discussions about the rule of fiath, the authority of

the Chruch , its fallibility and divine teaching mission, the
power to make miracles, Holy Scriptures, Purgatory cults and
saint and etc.

Retraction Controvesy
Sworn

Statement of Fr. Balaguer on August 8, 1917

Balaguer

told Rizal that if he didnt not surrender his mind

and reason to faith, he (Rizal) would go to appear before the
Judgement Seat of God and would be most surely damned.

Rizal

tears after hearing Balaguers threat and answered No,

I shall not be damned

Balaguer

replied Yes, you will go to Hell for , whether you like

it or not, outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation

Retraction Controvesy
Sworn

Statement of Fr. Balaguer on August 8, 1917

Rizal move and told Balagauer Father, if I, in order to please you,

said yes to everything and signed whatever you put beofre me,
without conviction, I would be a hypocrite and would offend God

Balaguer answered Certainly, we do not want that, it is

incomparable sorroe to see a person one loves so obstinate in
error, to see that he is headed for damnation and be unable to
free from danger......we should do so right nw, offering to be shot
in your place

Retraction Controvesy
Sworn

Statement of Fr. Balaguer on August 8, 1917

Rizal

said but Father ,what do you want me to do? It seems I

cannnot overcome my reason

Balaguer replied Offer up to God, the sacrifice of your selflovem and even against the voice of your reason, ask God for
the grace if faith....the only thing required is that you should not
reject it

Rizal

promised that he shall spend the time that remaining in

asking God for the grace of faith

Retraction Controversy

Fr. Balaguer further stated under oath that he himself took

Rizals hand-written retraction to the Ateneo before his
execution, that he placed it in the hands of Pi, that on the
same day the Superior of the Jesuits took it to the
Archbishopss Palce and gave it to Nozaleda, who handed it in
turn to his secretary, Gonzalez Feijoo, latter depositing it in his
office in the file for confidential documents.

Retraction Controversy
Versions of Retraction Letter

Published in La Voz Esponala and Diaro de Manila (December 30, 1896)

The original text found in archdiocesan archive
(May 18, 1935) Fr. Manuel Garcia

Version of Fr. Balaguer which appeared in fortnightly magazine La Juventud

(February 14, 1897)

Appeared in El Imparcial, a short formula on the day after Rizals execution

Retraction Controversy
The original discovered by Fr. Manuel Garcia, C.M. on May 18, 1935
Me declaro catolica y en esta Religion en que naci y me eduque quiero vivir y morir.
Me retracto de todo corazon de cuanto en mis palabras, escritos, inpresos y conducta ha
habido contrario a mi cualidad de hijo de la Iglesia Catolica. Creo y profeso cuanto ella ensea
y me somento a cuanto ella manda. Abomino de la Masonaria, como enigma que es de la
Iglesia, y como Sociedad prohibida por la Iglesia. Puede el Prelado Diocesano, como Autoridad
Superior Eclesiastica hacer publica esta manifastacion espontanea mia para reparar el
escandalo que mis actos hayan podido causar y para que Dios y los hombers me perdonen.
Manila 29 de Deciembre de 1896
Jose Rizal
Jefe del Piquete
Juan del Fresno
Ayudante de Plaza
Eloy Moure

Retraction Controversy
Fr. Balaguer text, January 1897
Me declaro catolica y en esta Religion en que naci y me eduque quiero vivir y morir.
Me retracto de todo corazon de cuanto en mis palabras, escritos, inpresos y conducta ha
habido contrario a mi calidad de hijo de la Iglesia. Creo y profeso cuanto ella ensea y me
somento a cuanto ella manda. Abomino de la Masonaria, como enigma que es de la Iglesia, y
como Sociedad prohibida por la misma Iglesia.
Puede el Prelado Diocesano, como Autoridad Superior Eclesiastica hacer publica esta
manifastacion espontanea mia para reparar el escandalo que mis actos hayan podido causar y
para que Dios y los hombers me perdonen.
Manila 29 de Deciembre de
1896-Jose Rizal

Retraction Controversy
Differences in text
In the original copy mi cualidades word was used while in Fr.
Balaguer mi calidad (without u)
The word Catholica was inserted after the first Iglesia in original
copy
In the copy of Fr. Balaguer there was misma before the third word
Iglesias; which the original copy do not have.
In the original copy it only had (4) four commas, while in Fr.
Balaguer had (11) eleven
Fr. Balaguers text begin after five sentences while the original
starts after the first sentence.
Both documents had different witnesses

Retraction Controversy
I declare myself a catholic and in this Religion in which I was born and educated I wish to live
and die.
I retract with all my heart whatever in my words, writings, publications and conduct has been
contrary to my character as son of the Catholic Church. I believe and I confess whatever she
teaches and I submit to whatever she demands. I abominate Masonry, as the enemy which is
of the Church, and as a Society prohibited by the Church. The DiocesanPrelate may, as the
Superior Ecclesiastical Authority, make public this spontaneous manifestation of mine in order
to repair the scandal which my acts may have caused and so that God and people may pardon
me.
Manila 29 of December of 1896
Jose Rizal

Source: Jesus Cavanna, Rizals Unfading Glory: A

Documentary History of the Conversion of Dr. Jos Rizal
(Manila: 1983)

Retraction Controversy
Proof that the retraction letter is fraud

Letter to be opened after my death (Hong Kong 1892) to his family

I know that I made you suffer greatly but I am not repenting of what I
have done, and if I had to begin anew, I would again do the same thing
I did, because that is my duty. Gladly I depart to expose myself to
danger not to atone for my faults, but to finish my work and to confirm
my example what I have always preached.

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/imPrincessSarah/jp-rizal-letters-in-hong-kong

Retraction Controversy
Personalities who says that the retraction letter is fruad

Trining
- Show the document to us

Ricardo Pascual
- He said that the document found in 1935 is not Rizals
handwritten

Rafael Palma( former president of UP and a Mason)

- This is a pious fraud because it is contrast to Rizals
character

Retraction Controvesy

Rafael Palma( former president of UP and a

Mason)

If the text and signiture were authentic, the document would prove
Rizals abjuration of Masonry but not his conversion
to
Catholisim. One acts, he states, is independent of the other. He
added it would prove also that, if Rizal had recanted his religious
ideasm he had not done the same with his political ones. In any case, a
document obtained by means of moral violence and spiritual threats has
very little worth in history.

Retraction Controvesy

Questions if Rizal recanted

Why rizal fail to tell his fond and pious monther that he had
returned to her faith?

Why was his body not handed over to his family, and instead
buried secretly?

Why were there no requiem masses said for the repose of his soul?

Why the retraction not furnished fis family despite their request?

Why was the certificate of marraige between Rizal and Josephine

bracken similarly withheld, and

Why has it not been produced to this date?

Retraction Controversy
Personalities who says that the retraction letter is geniune

Josephine Bracken
- She married Rizal but marriage contract had never been shown

Nicholas Zafra, Nick Joaquin, Leon Maria Guerrero III,

Gregorio Zaide, Autin Craig, Antonio Molina, Ambeth
Ocampo and John Schumacher (prominent historian)

Teodora Kalaw (expert in Rizals writings, Mason)

H. Otley Beyer and Dr. Jose Del Rozario( handwritten

experts)

Friars Accusation and Heresy

Villanueva, Marifel

Heresy
Belief

or opinion contrary to orthodox

religious (especially Christian doctrine).

Friars says Rizal is Heretic:

The following Points in Rizals El Filibusterismo and Noli Me Tangere:

1. Friars abused Crispin and Basilio
- represents the Friars of hurting Children.
2. Padre Camora raped Huli
- represents that the Friars were abusing women, during their
stay
3. Padre Damaso was the father of Maria Clara
- some of the friars have made affairs and resulted to having
children
4. The father of Ibarra was imprisoned and was killed

The Main Reason why he was hated by the Friars:

He was a member of the Free Masonry, which is

NOT A RELIGION but a civic organization dedicated
to liberating people from ignorance, stagnation and
oppression. Which was highlighted with his books.
During this time, Catholics who joined this kind of
organizations were excommunicated by the Church.
They become enemies of the church.

The Difference between the Church and Free Masonry

Syllabus of Errors

Thank You.