SKIRMISHER

Exactly a year ago today, I wrote for my debut post some little known facts on Filipino National Hero José Protacio Rizal (who is also celebrating his 146th birthday — from the grave). As an anniversary special of sorts (I’m a sucker for anniversaries), I intend to do the same this year.

I know that many historians will continue to write and lecture about Pepe Rizal for years to come. But I think nothing new can be said about him anymore. All that is needed to be done now is how to interpret Rizal. That I will attempt right here, and the Rizalian topic I have chosen is why he chose Franciscans as the main antagonists in his novels.

Rizal is such a historical and cultural phenomenon. Rizal himself influenced (and continues to influence) local revolutionary influence itself. Thus, he, together with his enormous intellectual and artistic production, needed to be interpreted correctly, if not accurately.

But that’s the scary part.

Any Order would have been OK

In both his satirical novels Noli Me Tángere and El Filibusterismo, José Rizal used Franciscans as the main contravidas (Padre Dámaso Verdolagas the Hypocrite, Padre Bernardo Salvi the Rapist). He used Franciscan frailes not just to spice up the plot nor to weave it closer to reality, but to spite the Order, of course (just like how he attacked the way Spain was “running” the islands).

But why single out the Franciscans? Any friar Order would have been OK. In fact, he could’ve just used any friar for a villain without having to mention their Order. He could’ve just generally pictured the Spanish friar as a ”universal entity” of evil in the Philippines.

Myriad of possibilities

If I were Rizal, I would have chosen the Augustinians as the main antagonists in my novels. Why? Technically speaking, it was the Augustinians who founded the Philippines. It would have been understandable for a young Filipino Masonic novelist to attack the “Catholic pillars” of the Philippine isles. But this Rizal didn’t do.

The Society of Jesus are definitely out of the picture. Even during his affiliation with Freemasonry, Rizal still had deep respect for the Jesuits (it was the Jesuits led by Father José Vilaclara who were able to convert Rizal back to Catholicism shortly before the infamous Luneta execution). It was just natural, for the latter educated the former. Rizal may have had a falling out with the Church, but not with the Jesuits.

Besides, the Jesuits are actually a Catholic religious group, not a friar Order. Masons throughout Europe and the Philippines hated the friars, thus it should be the friar blood which should be shed.

Rizal didn’t even consider attacking the Dominicans, the “tormentors” of his family. At the time of Noli’s writing, the Rizal family was entangled in a controversial land dispute against the Dominicans. The family eventually lost the case. They then relocated to Manila after being evicted from Calambâ, Laguna.

So why single out the Franciscans? There must be a reason.

Centuries-old war

For those who are unaware, the Catholic Church has been on a “silent war” against Freemasonry for hundreds of years. Both sides accuse each other of deceit and deception. This is evident in numerous papal bulls and encyclicals condemning The Craft. In retaliation, Masonry has influenced popular philosophical thought (especially during the Age of Enlightenment which swept eighteenth-century Europe), countering Christian tradition. This ongoing Masonic wave of thought influenced the mind of a certain Dan Brown.

Rizal, who was initiated to the craft at a young age, was aware of all this. In due time, his membership with Freemasonry led him further away from Catholicism, the religion which has been so dear to him as a child.

On Freemasonry

Enter Pope Leo XIII, who, in 20 April 1884, issued an encyclical, Humanum Genus (On Freemasonry), which boldly attacked Freemasonry. In this encyclical, Pope Leo declared that the Christians of that era were in grave danger against the “partisans of evil” (the Masons, of course).

Towards the end of the encyclical, the Holy Father praised the Third Order of St. Francis, exhorting all Christians to imitate the Order’s ways:

34. Wherefore, not without cause do We use this occasion to state again what We have stated elsewhere, namely, that the Third Order of St. Francis, whose discipline We a little while ago prudently mitigated, (16) should be studiously promoted and sustained; for the whole object of this Order, as constituted by its founder, is to invite men to an imitation of Jesus Christ, to a love of the Church, and to the observance of all Christian virtues; and therefore it ought to be of great influence in suppressing the contagion of wicked societies. Let, therefore, this holy sodality be strengthened by a daily increase. Amongst the many benefits to be expected from it will be the great benefit of drawing the minds of men to liberty, fraternity, and equality of right; not such as the Freemasons absurdly imagine, but such as Jesus Christ obtained for the human race and St. Francis aspired to: the liberty, We mean, of sons of God, through which we may be free from slavery to Satan or to our passions, both of them most wicked masters; the fraternity whose origin is in God, the common Creator and Father of all; the equality which, founded on justice and charity, does not take away all distinctions among men, but, out of the varieties of life, of duties, and of pursuits, forms that union and that harmony which naturally tend to the benefit and dignity of society.

The Third Order of St. Francis Assisi, or more popularly known as the Venerable Third Order, had been declared as a model to fight the kind of culture that was being spread by Freemasonry.

The Venerable Third Order are Franciscans, adhering to the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi.

Écrasez l’infâme!

During the release of the encyclical, the composition of the Noli was in full swing. Young Rizal, who was a big fan of Voltaire et al., was then in the process of woving satirical polemics onto his novels. As a student of Freemasonry, Rizal found it necessary to “defend” the Craft.

We may not have a record about Rizal having written down his thoughts about Humanum Genus. But during his time, whether one is Catholic or not, anything coming out from the Vatican was especially huge news. Consider this: when the said encyclical arrived in the Philippines a few months after its issue, Humanum Genus was received by a throng of devout Filipinos in the old Santo Domingo church in Intramuros. That simple piece of paper –but containing blessed words– was welcomed with Te Deums and fireworks.

Rizal and the Masons had to retaliate. So Rizal thought of “crushing the infamy” his way. Rizal the Satirist came up with a character who was destined to become the Philippine’s greatest supervillain of all time: Padre Dámaso, a Franciscan.

The rest is contemporary history.

Stumble it!