The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 28 of 55: 1637-38; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 28 of 55: 1637-38; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
It is also certain that the Filipinos are sincere Catholics. Their
religion suits them, and is congenial to their nature. They practice
it spontaneously, and profess it openly and publicly, without any
objection. Far from all their minds is the most remote suspicion that
Catholicism is not the true and only religion capable of bringing
about their temporal and eternal happiness. All of these Indians are by
nature docile to the teachings and admonitions of their parish priests
and spiritual fathers. Many good people approach the holy sacraments
easily and frequently; and the fact that many others do not approach or
frequent them so often must be attributed to neglect, to heedlessness,
or to real difficulties, but never to aversion. The ceremonies and the
solemnity of the worship attract them very powerfully, and so do the
popular Catholic exhibitions of great feasts and processions. They
display without any objection, but rather with great pleasure, the
pious objects and insignia of any devotion or pious association to
which they belong; and in many places the women wear the scapular or
rosary around the neck as a part or complement of their dress. It may
be said that there is no house or family, however poor it be, that
does not have a domestic altar or oratory. There are some careless
Christians among the Filipino people, vicious and scandalous because
of their evil habits; there are even some who are ignorant of the most
necessary things of their religion: but there are no unbelievers or
impious ones among them--unless some few, relatively insignificant in
number, who have become vitiated and corrupted in foreign countries,
and afterward have returned to their country. Even these latter have
hitherto, because of a certain feeling of shame that they retain,
taken care not to let that change be seen, except among irreligious
associates or those of another form of worship. Finally, the tertiary
orders, brotherhoods, and pious and devotional associations, old and
new, have always had a great number of individuals enrolled in the
Filipinas, and even constant and fervent affiliated members.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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