ACHURCHSEPARATEFROMTHESTATE

ByAndresCristobalCruz

ON SEPTEMBER 15, 1898, the Revolutionary Congress of the Philippines was inaugurated in Malolos, Bulacan. It was convened to ratify the independence proclaimed June 12, 1898 by Aguinaldo in Kawit, Cavite, and to draft a constitution based on republican ideals. One of the issues it discussed was the separation of Church and State.

Felipe Calderon proposed in the Congress that "the nation shall protect the cult and the ministers of the Roman Apostolic religion, which is the religion of the state and shall not utilize its revenues for the support of any other cult " Calderon argued that the Catholic Church, because of its established influence, could serve as a nullifying factor in a country with linguistic and ethnological differences; that unity of Church and State would be honoring the Filipino priests, like Burgos, Zamora, Gomez, and Pelaez who had stood for Filipinization of the clergy; and that church properties and friar lands would go the hands of the Filipino clergy

Manuel Gomez picked up from there and said that Catholic religion should be the official religion of the state because it was the religion professed by Filipinos. In a memorandum to the Congress, a Padre Garces rationalized his petition that Catholic religion be made the state religion, saying that neither society nor good government can exist without morality, order and authority, that is, without law, and therefore without religion Civil society is conceived as a moral person, and as such is obliged to have a religion.