Secularization movement in the Philippines
The secularization movement in the Philippines under Spanish colonial administration from the 18th to late 19th century advocated for greater rights for native Filipino Catholic clergymen.
A feudal society, institutions largely favored land-owning Spanish peninsulares (originating from the Iberian Peninsula) and the Catholic friars.
The movement was met with opposition from the Spanish friars who are regulars due to its negative effects to their political authority and influence in the Philippine islands.
Along with Mariano Gomez, Pelaez started organizing activities calling for the return of control of Philippine parishes to Filipino seculars.
[5] Pelaez, also an academic, raised funds to send a representative to Madrid, wrote pamphlets, and petitioned the Queen of Spain for support to advance his advocacy.
Furthermore the Governor General who was a Freemason, Rafael Izquierdo y Gutiérrez, upon discovering the Cavite Mutiny was led by fellow Freemasons: Máximo Inocencio, Crisanto de los Reyes, and Enrique Paraiso; the Governor-General as per his Masonic vow to protect fellow brothers of the Craft, shifted the blame to Gomburza since they had inspired ethnic pride among Filipinos due to their campaign for reform.
[7] The Governor-General asked the Catholic hierarchy in the person of Archbishop of Manila Gregorio Meliton Martinez to have them declared as heretics and defrocked but he refused as he believed in Gomburza's innocence.
[7] This inspired the Jesuit educated and future National Hero Jose Rizal to form the La Liga Filipina, to ask for reforms from Spain and recognition of local clergy.
The trio were referenced in José Rizal's El filibusterismo and their death was often cited by the Katipunan (a secret society adopting Masonic rites) as figures being inspiration for the Philippine Revolution.
[6] The start of the American colonial administration marked the very first time that the Vatican had no direct intervention in the affairs of the Catholic Church in the Philippines.
Pope Leo XIII encouraged Filipino priests to be given a greater role through the apostolic constitution Quae mari Sinico in 1902.
