WT1 Rizal Retraction

Jean Rene Kalaw ; SS14/A2

WT#1 Rizal Retraction Controversy. According to claims by the Catholic Church, Dr. Jose Rizal wrote a retraction paper on December 29, 1896, taking back all his words and writings against the church and professing his faith. Rizal was said to be convinced in converting and writing the retraction paper by Fr. Vicente Balaguer, a priest he had been with in Dapitan. The retraction paper was not revealed to the public until 1935. According to most claims and theories, there are four reasons as to why Dr. Rizal retracted. First is that he wanted to legally marry Josephine Bracken, an Irish woman whom he had been living with in the Dapitan, The second is to save his family from the persecution of the government, knowing that those he will leave behind will be the ones to suffer next, the third is to secure Spanish reforms, hoping that in the retraction, there would be change, and the fourth is to heal the church for inside, once again, in the hopes that something will change. According to historians, there are 11 eye witnesses when Dr. Rizal retracted, according to them, Rizal wrote the paper, signed a prayer book, and recited prayers and some claim that they saw him kiss a crucifix before his death. Nicolas Zafra of the University of the Philippines strongly believes that the retraction paper was true and the denial of the paper was simply stubbornness of the masons. Teodoro Kalaw, a lawyer and historian who

studied Rizal’s life also claimed that the paper was authentic by studying the hand writing. Some claims say that the letter was written by his brother Paciano, but the signature was from Rizal himself, Paciano apparently did this to avert the remaining members of his family from danger. In other words, a case of forgery, many theories suggest that Rizal’s letter was created by someone else using his signature or a sample of his writings. When Fr. Balaguer was asked for the original copy of the document for the handwriting to be authenticated, the said document was allegedly lost, only to resurface 35 years later in history, discovered by Fr. Manuel Garcia. At least 4 copies said to be the retraction had surfaced. Although, the wording in the document found by Fr. Garcia is different than those claimed by other, such as the copies of the formula which appeared in Manila Newspapers. In the theories, the reason for his retraction was to marry the woman she fell in love with while he was in exile, Josephine Bracken. However, no real record of the wedding between Bracken and Rizal has been found, especially a marriage certificate. If the retraction was true, then there should at least be a document that shows that the marriage happened and, considering where Rizal was buried, outside the inner wall of Paco Cemetery, and the record of burial is not the same day as his death. In my research, I found that no one has really claimed to have the copy of the original text, except the publisher of La Voz Espanola, they claim to have

seen and read the retraction which they say that Rizal himself sent to the archbishop. Also, almost two years before his death, meaning his time in Dapitan, when Rizal fell in love with Bracken, he prepared a retraction paper in order to marry Josephine, he intended to submit it to the Archbishop of Cebu. According to Fr. Austin Craig, the document was ready for mailing but Rizal reclaimed it. The significance of this prepared letter in Dapitan is that, anyone who could forge a letter already has a template to copy from. There is also a confession from a person named Antonio K. Abad, where in a party in his home, a certain person admitted how he was hired by the Catholic friars to forge several copies of the retraction document, as to which document it really was, it was not revealed. From the data that I have gathered, I believe that Dr. Rizal’s retraction was false. My first reason for believing this is that, it seems quite convenient for a Catholic Priest to find a retraction letter 35 years after the “loss” of the document. The second reason is that, there were plenty of opportunities to forge the letter in the years that is was not even made public. If he did retract his words, then he should have at least been defended by the church, since Dr. Rizal professing his faith to the Church publicly, alive, would benefit the church greatly, but they didn’t take the opportunity. And there was no marriage certificate between him and Josephine. The last is Dr. Rizal’s personality and dignity itself. A man of that caliber who endured and made the best out of exile in Dapitan, who had the courage to for La Solidaridad and established the La Liga Filipina, the man who openly used symbolisms to

appeal to the Spaniards regarding the state the Philippines is in, through his novels, would fold so easily, by being threatened by death. Surely this man was prepared for death, yet in his last moments he would betray his own principles? This even is too convenient for it to occur, as if it was a scripted play. It is more likely to be a ploy by the church, with the rising power of the revolutionaries and the involvement of the west in the Philippines. The controversy was meant to degrade the morale of the Filipinos, to make us think the hero who bravely faced death was a coward who bit his tongue and took back his words. I believe the Rizal’s Retraction was false. References: Primacyofreason.blogspot.com joseprotasiorizal.blogspot.com

www.joserizal.ph