Philippines as a Moral Entity is Catholic and Spanish and Always will Be

Philippines as a Moral Entity is Catholic and Spanish and Always will Be


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A foundation of a people as a moral entity is indefectible. We already know how the Philippines was conceived within the crucible of the Hispanic peoples:

«Historically, the tradition of Spain is the unitary bundle, the warm crucible where the traditions of each of the component peoples are integrated and synthesised.

In other words, it is a single tradition, but varied and multiform in its social and historical expressions, in accordance with the idea of the fueros.

In the Iberian Península it includes the particular traditions of Asturias, Galicia, León and Portugal; of Castile, Navarre and the Basque Provinces; of Catalonia, Aragón, Valencia and the Balearic Islands; of Extremadura, La Mancha and Murcia; of Jaén, Cordoba, Seville and Granada; of the Canary Islands. In América, it includes that of all the peoples from the Rio Grande del Norte and the missions of Florida, Texas and California, to the straits discovered by Ferdinand Magellan. In Oceanía, that of the Philippines and other smaller ones. In Asia and Africa, those of the Portuguese provinces on both continents. And in Europe, geographical Europe, the pieces that were once Hispanic in the fullness of deeds, ideas and feelings, such as Naples and the Franche-Comté, Sardinia and Flanders, Sicily and the Milanese, Malta and the Finale. All of them, peoples who participated in the universal enterprise led by Castile and sustained by León, the dreamer of empires.

Such variety was the internal aspect of a very solid external unity, founded on the unshakeable strength of the validity of religious faith and monarchical passion, of the Catholic missionary sense and loyalty to the common king of Spain. The foral variety was possible because it crystallised in the realities of a history of cultures and institutions that cyclopean illusion of serving the same God and the same king together.» (What is Carlism?, pages 70-71)

In addition, father Francisco Fordada, S.J. proves Spain’s sovereignty in the Philippine archipelago:

«From the first title on which the sovereignty of Spain is founded in the Philippines….

What is the fundamental title of Spanish sovereignty in the Philippines? The first and fundamental title that the Sovereigns of Spain have to exercise sovereignty in the Philippine Archipelago is the commission they received from the Roman Pontiff, Vicar of Jesus Christ, to preach the faith through priests of the Spanish nation in the West and East Indies, which were discovered by way of the West, and the indispensable necessity of conquering the said Indies for the defence of the ministers of the Gospel and the preservation of the same faith, in both Indies.

Indeed, there is no doubt that the Roman Pontiff has the right to have preachers and ministers of the Gospel throughout the whole world to teach all nations, as Jesus Christ has commanded him: Dala est mihi omnis potestas in caelo et in terra. Euntes ergo docete omnes gentes. (Matth. 28, 18) And since every right is coercive, otherwise it would be illusory, it follows that the Church and its head the Roman Pontiff and also the evangelical ministers have the right of defence, and to oppose with force that the preaching of the Gospel be violated and impeded. This is what St. Thomas teaches, and all theologians follow him (Secunda secunda; quaest. 10° art. 8°) with these words: «The faithful of Christ frequently wage war against the infidels, not certainly to compel them to believe by means of coercion; for even if they should overcome them and make them captives, they would leave them at liberty to believe or not to believe; but for this purpose, to compel them not to hinder the preaching of the faith of Christ». (Fideles Christi frequenter contra infideles bellum movent; non quidem uf eos ad credendum cogant; quia si etiaiii eos vicissent et captivos habercnt, in eoruní libértate relinquerent an credere vellent; sed propter hoc, ut eos compellant ne fidem Christi impediant.)

But since it is not decent for priests to take up arms with their consecrated hands in order to maintain their right, it is fitting that the Supreme Pontiff should entrust this care to the Christian princes who seem to him most suitable, so that with their power, in the name of the Apostolic See, they may defend and protect the sacred ministers. Thus did the Supreme Pontiff, Alexander VI, in his Bull inter coetera, addressed to the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, in the year 1493, following the discovery of America; giving the said Kings and their legitimate successors the faculty and the commission to send themselves suitable ministers for the conversion of the Indians to our holy faith.

And when the Roman Pontiff communicated to them this power, which resides in the Catholic Church, he at the same time granted the Spanish monarchs the rights which derive from it; that is to say, to do in the infidel regions all that is necessary for the preaching and preservation of the faith; for the same reason, to accompany the ministers of the Gospel with armed people, to protect and defend them from the cruelty of the barbarians, and to occupy their lands, if they so desire; And to occupy their lands, if their own defence so requires; and to establish fortresses in them, and even to make war upon them and subdue them; when otherwise the peaceful preaching of the Gospel could not be accomplished, or it should be necessary to vindicate, by this kind of international justice, their wrongs and violence.

Now, no one who remembers the disastrous end of Magellan in the island of Mactan, the hostile attitude of the Cebuanos when the distinguished Adelantado Legazpi appeared in their roadstead, and the combats sustained in Tondo by Goiti, and in Cainta by the intrepid Salcedo against the natives led by the Moors, can doubt one point of the necessity of the conquest of the Philippines for the constant and peaceful preaching of the Gospel. The conquest of the Philippines by Spanish arms was therefore just, and the sovereignty of their King and Queen over the Archipelago discovered by Magellan was legitimate. And from this mission which the Kings of Spain received from the Roman Pontiff, to proclaim the faith and preserve it in the Philippine Islands, comes the most just and sacred title of their sovereignty over this extreme region of the world.»

The Philippines will always be Catholic and Spanish until the end of time. As the great Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo stated:
«Portugal is and will be Spanish land, even if it remains independent for infinite ages; even if God tears it away from the peninsular territory. It is not possible to break the bonds of race. Spain and Portugal is as absurd as if we were to say Spain and Catalonia.»

So as the Philippines will always be.

Juan Carlos Araneta, Círculo Carlista Felipe II de Manila



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