So This chapter is about how the Philippine independent church came about, who are the

people involved and what serried of events had happened that led to the founding of the
Philippine Independent Church. The Philippine independent church is described by our author
as the only living and tangible result of the Revolution.

So in the second phase of the revolution, which commenced from Aguinaldo’s return from
Hong Konh, Gov Gen. Basilio Augustin and Archbishop Bernardino Nozaleda, commissioned
Father Gregorio Aglipay to confer with the revolutionary leaders, Mariano Trias, Artemio
Ricarte, and Emilio Riego de Dios in order to bring them back to the Sapnish side but his mission
was a failure because the revolutionary leaders had lost their faith to the Spanish promises.
Meanwhile, Aguinaldo sent Col. Luciao San Miguel to Aglipay to persuade him to support the
Filipino cause. Aguinaldo asked Aglipay to go to the Noerth to work for the revolutionary cause.
Nozaleda, the archbishop also convinced Aglipay to go to the North to observe the conditions of
the bishopric of Nueva Segovia. Upon his return, he found the city besieged and he did the next
best thing: he wewnt to Cavite and joined Aguinaldo’s movement.

Aguinaldo issued a decree declaring Aglipay Military Vicar General of the revolutionary
government.
Conflict between the two positions: Military vicar General of the Revolutionary government and
as ecclesiastical governor of the diocese of the Nueva Segovia.
Aglipay chose to be a Filipino first and a Catholic a second.
He issued a letter to the Filipino clergy urging them to organize themselves into a cohesive body
geared to the national emergency.
He issued a manifesto asking the Filipino clergy to organize themselves in such a way as to take
charge of all vacant parishes.
Nozaleda, deeply alarmed, charged Aglipay with usurpation of power and excommunicated
him. In an age of obscurantism, excommunication was the most potent weapon of the prelates
to force their enemies to their knees. Manila archbishop thought he could humiliate Aglipay by
excommunication. But Aglipay was a man of strong character and instead of cowering before
the Spanish prelate to ask for forgiveness, he returned the compliment by excommunicating
Nozaleda, charging him with starving the people, collaborating with the Spaniards and
Americans in the latter’s policy of repression.

Aplinario Mabini saw the necessity of having a church administered by Filipinos. He directed a
manifesto to the Filipino clergy urging them to organize a Filipino National Church. Mabini’s call
for a Filipino Church and the favourable attitude of the Republic towards the Filipino clergy
heartened the latter who believed that the time was ripe for the assertion of their rights not
only to occupy the parishes, but also to direct the Philippine Catholicism at the top.
Aglipay called the Filipino clergy to an ecclesiastical assembly at Paniqui, Tarlac, on Oct 23,
1899.
Mention agenda.
The wartime conditions of the period, however, gave the church no opportunity to develop
fully. The Filipino government was on the verge of collapse and Aglipay himself was in the field
fighting side by side with the Filipino guerrillas.

Before the complete collapse of the underground movement against, the Apostolic Delegate to
the Philippines, Mons Placido Chapelle, an American from New Orleans arrived. He was pro-
friar and he announced cockily that he would treat those who opposed the friars and the
resumption of their rule as enemies of religion and order and that he will dominate the Filipino
clergy by force, civil, and ecclesiastical. He made the bold assertion that the heads of the
revolutionary leaders should be cut off. He insulted the Filipino clergy by stating categorically
that they were incompetent. The Filipinos hated him. Many of the Filipino clergy and even the
rabid catholics joined the religious movement.

In Rome, the Filipino priests, Salustiano Araullo and Jose Chanco, had an audience with the
pope. They laid before His holiness the problem of the Filipino clergy. But the pope was more
inclined to listen to the friars and promised nothing. In Spain, Isabelo delos Reyes, a radical
propagandist and scholar wrote passionately in his newspaper, Filipinas Ante Europa, an article
condemining Rome and urging the people to form a Filipino Church. He returned to the
Philippines in 1901 and founded the first labor union in the Philippines, the Union Obrera
Democratica. Its founding was sisgnificant for it gave a broad basis to the religious movement
to which the masses were favourably disposed.

On August 3, 1902, Pascual Poblete, A Filipino journalist and anti-friar, scheduled a meeting at
the Zorilla Theater. Poblete intended to attack the friars, but owing to bad weather the meeting
did not take place.

That same night, however, Isabelo de los Reyes called a meeting of his Democratic Labor Union
at the Centro de Bellas Artes and delivered a severely anti-friar speech. He proposed the
establishment of a Filipino Church independent of Rome with Aglipay as the Supreme Bishop.
The new Church was called Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Philippine Independent Church). With
its founding, the schism with Rome commenced.

A man of passion and vision, Isabelo delos Reyes was nevertheless, over-enthusiastic and
precipitate. In his desire to give dignity to the movement, he placed in the list of the Executive
Committee of the new church such big names as… these men though not hostile to the religious
government, were not prepared to lend their named to the new church. The most fatal blow
came from Aglipay who did not approve of the schism. At that time, Aglipay was conferring
with the Jesuits.
Aglipay was mildly irked at the inclusion of his name as the Supreme Bishop of the new church,
for he was at the time in conference with the Jesuits in the last attempt to prevent a schism.
Knowing that Aglipay was influential with the Filipino clergy, the Jesuts, throught Dr. Leon Ma.
Guerrero and Joaquin Luna, invited Aglipay to an interview at the Jesuit House in Sta. Ana
Manila. Father Francisco Foradada worked on convincing the Filipino priest. For four days,
Father Foradada tried to convice Aglipay. On the fifth day, he handed a document for Aglipay to
sign. But Foradada insulted Aglipay and said that he is wondering why Aglipay cares so much for
the Filipino priests even though they were vicious and hopelessly inefficient. Aglipay trembled
with savage fury. Aglipay left the Jesuit house leaving threats to Foradada.

The break with Rome is now said to be complete. But years later, the Jesuits still tired to repair
the damage. Through, F. Theo Rogers, they once more invited Aglipay to a conference. Father
Joaquin Villalonga was chosen to deal with Aglipay, who was accompanied by young Aglipayan,
Santiago Fonacier. Villaonga said so Aglipay that anything he will ask will be granted by the
pope on condition that he will help bring an end to the schismatic movement.
Aglipay said that he does not want anything but justice and sincere love shown to his people.
They had a heated conversation with Villalonga and Aglipay ended the Jesuit attempts to make
him return to the Catholic fold, saying: “ I will live and die as poor but I will never betray the
interest of my people”

In September 1902, bishops were consecrated by the new church. Aglipay then accepted the
position of Supreme Bishop, and on Oct 1, he presided over the meeting of the council which
was to frame the constitution of the Filipino church. He celebrated his first mass as Supreme
Bishop on October 26, 1902. On January 18, he was consecrated as Supreme Bishop by the
Bishops of Isabela, Cagayan, Pangasinan, Abra, Nueva Ecija, Cavite and Manila.

Born of the Revolution, the movement for a Filipino National church independent of Rome was
a reaction of the nationalistic priests to centuries of disparagement and prejudice. The Spanish
prejudice had two bases: first, the feeling of racial sueperiority, and second, the alleged
incompetence of the Filipino clergy. The Spanish racial prejudice was so great that it was
impossible for the friars to overcome it. They considered the Filipinos incapable of learning and
so insisted on the perpetuation of the old regime under which the Filipino clergy remained their
servants. The friars refused to to believe the necessity of changing the status quo. It was this
bull-headed refusal to accept the reality of changing conditions that was responsible for the
alienation of the Filipino clergy from the Catholic church in the Philippines. The Nationalist
movement had reached its apex and Aglipay, one of its mainstreams, was a man of integrity
whose convictions were not for sale.

The Revolution started as a political upheaval; it ended as a religious triumph. The founding of
the Filipino church showed finally, that the Filipino clergy had at long last come of age.