PPT (4)_JOSE RIZAL’S RETRACTION

• Jose Rizal's Retraction Controversy - refers to his supposed decision to renounce his Masonic affiliation and return to the Catholic Church. This issue was part of a legal controversy in the Philippines, known as the "Noli-Fili" Law, which required college students to read Rizal's novels Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.
• There are two opposing sides involved in this controversy:

  • The Masons
  • the Catholic Hierarchy (aka Priests).
• Priests - Truth and Honesty.
• Masons - Brotherhood, Integrity, Decency, and Professionalism.
• priest and mason both had high morality (believing themselves to not be liars) and shared moral values and the pursuit of freedom.
• The reason for this controversy among the Catholics is because of their belief that the Masons are connected to the Devil.
• The Jesuits are members of the Order Jesus and are involved in the creation and administration of Ateneo De Manila (originally called Escuela Municipal de Manila).
• Pio Pi (Superior of the Jesuits) called Rizal a "very distinguished and dear pupil" because Rizal was a graduate of Ateneo De Manila.
• Vicente Balaguer, Jose Vilaciara, Estanisiao March, Luis Visa, Federico Faura, and Miguel Saderra are the Jesuits with the duty to persuade Rizal to retract his anti-catholic teachings as well as his affiliation with the Masons.
• Jesuit Version: Rizal denounced his masonic views and re-professed his catholic faith. Their claim has support from Local Newspapers like La Voz Espanola (with this one having even claimed to "have seen and read his handwritten retraction"), El Espanol, El Comercio, and La Oceania Espanola. And also supported by Spanish Newspapers like El Imparcial, Heraldo de Madrid, and El Siglo Futuro. They based their narrative on the testimonies of the Jesuits and other colonial officials who visited and talked to Rizal the day before he was executed.
• TESTIMONY OF FR. VINCENT BALAGUER - "Of all that has been narrated, I am optimistic by personal knowledge. I have personally intervened and witnessed it myself: and subscribed and confirmed it with an oath. And lest, perhaps, someone may think I could not remember it with so many details, after twenty years. I testify that on the very day of Rizal's death, I wrote a very detailed account of everything. The original of this account I have preserved, and from it, I have taken all the data of the present narration."
• Balaguer's story is narrated in a letter to Fr. Pi in 1908, and in an affidavit he was executed in Un Murcia Spain on August 8, 1917. He used the first pronoun, which suggests that he was personally present and involved in the negotiation.
• Balaguer reminded Rizal that they could not administer the Sacraments he needed without him signing a retraction letter and making a profession of Faith and reminded him of the Catholic Dogma "Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus" ("Extra Ecclesiam Catholicam Nulli Datur Sallus") which means "Outside the Church, there is no salvation".
• 1935 THE DISCOVERY OF THE RETRACTION DOCUMENT - Fr. Manuel Garcia found the "Original" Retraction document about Rizal in a bundle titled Masoneria. Father Garcia, Archbishop Micheal O'Doherty, President Quezon, and Teodoro Kalaw (a Mason and Director of the National Library at the time) examined the documents with Kalaw declaring that it was "Authentic, Definite and Final."
• PRO-RETRACTION HISTORIANS

  • Horacio dela Costa
  • John Schumacher
  • Jose Arcilla
• "Sa mga dokumento ng mga espiya ng Espanyol na tinatawag na Cuerpo de Vigilancia, matatagpuan ang ulat na isinulat sa araw ng kamatayan ni Rizal ni Federico Moreno, na pagkukuwento ng pahayag sa kanya ng isang ahente ng Cuerpo de Vigilancia, isang bantay sa selda ng Rizal, samakatuwid, isang "additional independent eyewitness account."
• The original price of this collection was 160,000 dollars on December 12, 1995, NCCA commissioners passed Resolution No. 95-285 approving the purchase of the Cuerpo documents. The NCCA negotiated with Senor Montero to lower the price and the two parties agreed to close the deal at 145,000 dollars.
• Makikita na ang dalawang binanggit na opisyal, sina Juan del Fresno at Eloy Moure, ay ang mga nakapirma mismo sa dokumento ng retraksyon na tumayo ng mga saksi. Gayundin binanggit ng guardiya na bago dalhin sa Luneta si Rizal, ikinasal siya kay Josephine Bracken.
• The Cuerpo de Vigilancia de Manila (security Corps of Manila was the intelligence service that the Spanish colonial government created in 1895. It was organized primarily to gather information on the activities of Katipunan members and supporters.
• El Movimiento de Independencia de Filipinas - original title of cuerpo
• NCCA officials labeled the Cuerpi collection as "Katipunan and Rizal Documents".
• Of the more than 1000 reports found in Cuerpo 30 are about Jose Rizal.
• "At 5 this morning of the 3rd, the lover of Rizal arrived at the prison ...dressed in mourning. Only the former entered the chapel, followed by a military chaplain whose name I cannot ascertain. Donning his formal clothes and aided by a soldier of the artillery, the nuptials of Rizal and the woman who had been his lover were performed at the point of death (in articulo mortis). After embracing him she left, flooded with tears."
• Ang sinulat ni Rizal sa kopya ng "Imitations of Christ" Kamakailan, isang kopya ng "De La Imitación de Cristo" na isinulat ni Thomas á Kempis ang ipaubaya sa Direktor ng Pambansang Museo ng Pilipinas, Jeremy Barns. Ito ang mismong kopya na ibinigay ni Rizal kay Josephine Bracken sa kanyang huling pagbisita dito sa araw ng kanyang kamatayan. Isinulat niya dito, "To my dear and unhappy wife, Josephine, December 30th, 1896, Jose Rizal."
• Ang krus ang universal na simbolo ng Kristiyano. sinabi ni Prop. Wensley Reyes ng Philippine Normal University na sa dalawang sulatin ni Rizal bago mamatay binanggit niya ang simbolong ito.
• Sa kanyang huling bilin sa pamilya na hindi na nila natanggap hanggang noong 1953 (ang sulat ay naging bahagi ng donasyon ng Spanish Foreign Minister Alberto Martinez Artajo y Alvarez sa pamahalaang Pilipinas): "Ilibing niyo ako sa lupa. Lagyan ninyong panandang bato at KRUS. Ang aking pangalan, araw ng kapanganakan at ng kamatayan. Wala nang iba. Kung pagkatapos ay nais niyong bakuran ang aking puntod, maaari mong gawin. Wala nang anibersaryo. Mas mabuti kung sa Paang Bundok. Kaawaan ninyo si Josephine."
• "Ipakita nila ang dokumento upang paniwalaan namen" (Trinidad Rizal)
• Ricardo Pascual (Mason): " Ang natagpuang dokumento noong 1935 ay hindi sinulat ni Rizal "Rafael Palma” (former President and Mason) "isa itong Pious fraud "hindi tugma ang retraction sa karakter ni Rizal".
• THOSE WHO ASSERT THAT RETRACTIONS ARE VALID

  • The Jesuits
  • Josephine Bracken
  • Teodoro Kalaw (Mason and Handwriting Expert)
  • Otley Beyer (Anthropologist, Historian, Handwriting expert)
• The letter of Rizal to Blumentritt (Paris 1890): Por qué no lucharía contra toda la religión si fuera la primera causa de toda pobreza y dolor? Letter to opened after my death (Hong Kong 1892)