to that law. No temporal or spiritual harm would result to them,
for they could privately profess what their conscience dictated to
them as the true religion. Thus the English do in Malta, where the
Catholic religion is in force; and although the island is so small,
there are two thousand Italian Catholic priests in it, who are more
content to live under the English government than under the Italian.

The other difficulty against Catholicism in Filipinas springs from the
Filipino insurgents themselves, who voted for freedom of worship and
separation from the Spanish church in their congress of Malolos. [157]
Why, then, has not that freedom of worship been granted to the
Filipinos, if they themselves ask it? We reply that they also ask
for independence. Will the Americans grant them the latter because of
that fact? The majority of the Filipino insurgent chiefs were inclined
to Masonry. They had bound themselves, for a long time past, to work
for the expulsion of the friars; and, drunk with the wine of liberty,
they asked for every kind of freedom, including that of religion. How
many insurgents have abjured Catholicism? Their number does not exceed
two dozen. The law of freedom of worship is unnecessary for them,
since they profess no religion. The Filipino people--that is to say,
the six and one-half millions of Catholics enrolled in the parish
registers--do not ask or desire religious freedom, or separation
from the Spanish church. They are content with their Catholicism,
and desire nothing else; and they will not suffer their government to
take from them their Catholic unity. We have heard this from qualified
and accredited defenders of Filipino independence. They even deny
that the vote at Malolos was the true expression of the will of that
congress, which was also very far from being the entire and genuine
representation of the Filipino people. The latter hold heresies, and
all manner of religious disturbance, in horror. He who would introduce
these into their homes would offer them an insult. Consequently, it
is demonstrated that freedom of worship in Filipinas is not advisable,
but adverse to the public peace.

If it is said finally, that there are some points of public interest
which demand some reform, in what pertains to the religious estate of
the Filipinas, we shall not be the ones to deny that. But the Church
has the desire and the means to remedy these supposed or recognized
evils. If, peradventure, it do