President Quezon's press statement against the Archbishop of Cebu (Part 1)
President Manuel L. Quezon, our first elected president, had a fight against the Catholic Church of Cebu. The conflict was not petty but on the issue of the insistence of the Catholic Church on the inclusion of religious instruction in public schools.
Archbishop Gabriel M. Reyes of Cebu (after whom Archbishop Reyes Avenue is named) was joined by the Suffragan Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Cebu in the issuance of a pastoral letter on the said issue. The bone of contention was not personal but touching on the core of the Constitution, which was in its early years after its ratification in 1935, the delicate issue of the separation of church and state. Quezon, who was a lawyer, stood his ground.
For a better understanding of the mindset of our first president, CEBUPedia printed the press statement of Quezon dated June 24, 1938. The presidential communication is educational and academic, worthy of emulation and guidance by its successors, on the choice of words, diplomatic yet emphatic, argumentative yet not rude:
"I am amazed at the boldness of the Metropolitan Archbishop and Suffragan Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Cebu in taking up at an episcopal conference a matter concerning the constitutional duties and prerogatives of the officials and branches of the Government of the Commonwealth.
"I had so far ignored charges made to the effect that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the Philippines had instigated and was behind the movement for the enactment of the bill regarding religious instruction in the Philippines. But the pastoral letter signed by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Cebu and the Suffragan Bishops of that ecclesiastical province is an incontrovertible evidence that we did face at the last session of the Assembly, and we do face now, one of the most menacing evils that can confront the Government and people of the Philippines; namely, the interference of the Church in the affairs of the State. It seems that the archbishop and the bishops who have written this pastoral letter are blind to the lessons of history, including our own during the Spanish regime. Being a catholic myself, I am less interested in preserving the independence of the Church from the State that I am in preserving the independence of the Government from the Church."
Note from CEBUpedia: The Assembly referred to by Quezon is the newly created unicameral Congress as the 1935 Constitution abolished the Senate which was established in 1916 by virtue of the Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916, more known as the Jones Law. (To be continued)
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