An Article Review on: The Filipino Clergy and the Secularization Decree of 1813

Jagna-an, Pauline Joy

In 1565, the Legazpi-Urdaneta expedition arrived in the Philippines with the
seculars being a part of it. They formed a community but it was not as big as the
regular or religious clergy. A lot have been credited, said, and written to the
religious clergy but most of the Philippine church historical accounts were
antagonistic and negative to the regular clergy. Filipino clergy were, at that time,
distrusted by the Spanish friars and those in the government.
One incident that shows this distrust is the assignment of the first curacy of
the 3 new parishes erected by Archbishop Orbigo to the Dominicans and the last
two to the Recollects. This incident disappointed most of the native priests and
made them protest at these grants. Unfortunately, the protest was not settled and
resolved due to the death of Orbigo. With this, the Filipino clergy appealed the case
directly to the king and the results were in favour of them. This eventually led to the
issuance of his royal order of 31 March 1803.
Ideally, based on the article given and researches made, after the mission
was founded, this should be turned over by the regular to the secular clergy.
Unfortunately, this never happened. After the proceedings in the Spanish Cortes, a
Secularization Decree was promulgated in 1813 that was never implemented and
was even suppressed by the Governor-General and Archbishop Zulaibar, a
Dominican prelate and Archbishop of Manila. This decree was a follow-up on the
previous decrees and orders on the secularization of Philippine parishes.
The Secularization Movement demanded the handing over of the parishes
from the regular clergy, Dominicans, Franciscans, Recollects, etc. who were Spanish
friars to the secular clergy where most are Filipino priests.
When the bishops insisted on visiting the parishes that were being run by the
religious priests, conflicts started to rise. According to them, their duty was to check
on the administration of these parishes so they refused saying that they werent
under the bishops jurisdiction. They even threatened to abandon their parishes if
they were forced by the bishops.
Some of these religious priests started to resign and they were replaced by
secular priests. However, since there were not enough secular priests to fill the
vacancies, the ordination of priests was sped up. This was the start of secularization

of parishes and the transfer of parochial administration from regular to secular

clergy.
Numerous

conflicts

even

surfaced

when

the

Governor-General

and

Archbishop concealed the decree sent by the King of Spain ordering the
secularization of parishes. When the vicar forane found out about the order, he
immediately notified the priests of Cavite and drafted a letter to the Archbishop and
Cathedral regarding the authorities violation on the publication.