Priesthood and the People.
The hierarchy of the colony consists of an Archbishop, resident in Manila, and four bishops. The Archbishop lives in a Palace, and has a salary of $12,000 a year, while the annual expenses of the Cathedral in Manila are not less than $60,000. It was not till several years after the founding of Manila, in 1578, that the first bishop was consecrated and a Cathedral was built. Not long afterward, the Manila See was raised to an Archbishopric.
The present hierarchy costs the Government about $800,000 a year. The salaries of the priests range from $500 to $2500 per annum; but, in addition, they derive a large income from the sale of masses, indulgences, marriage, burial and baptismal-fees, and from the various commissions incident to their calling. They receive all, and give nothing.
The several orders have immense revenues from investments in the islands and in Hong-Kong. They possess magnificent estates; but, notwithstanding their enormous wealth, they are hard task-masters, grinding the poor to the paying of the last penny. Their injustice and tyranny have of late aroused bitter complaint, and are a chief cause of the late insurrection.
Throne Room of the Archbishop’s Palace.
And yet the picture has its lights as well as its shadows. The friars have, also, in many places, the confidence of the natives, and, on the whole, surely influence them for the repression of their vicious and brutal instincts. A half-barbarous people can be led only by superstition, and a semi-sacerdotal government is most effective among an ignorant people.
The friar is usually from a lowly family, and is, therefore, able at once to enter into sympathy with the humble life of the people. He is doctor, architect, engineer, and adviser; in all things truly the father of the community, the representative of the white race and of social order. Such is the ideal village-curate, and many such—good men and true—are to be found. There, are, however, many black sheep among them. And the gross immorality of those that should be examples in virtue, has been a great impediment to the work of the Church among the thinking natives. There are, also, some Chinese and native friars; but, owing to the various insurrections, in which some of these were involved, they are no longer trusted; in fact, a native can no longer become a priest.
So great is the paternal influence of the priests, that I have often seen delinquent parishioners flogged for non-attendance at mass.
The Chinese often adopt Christianity for social or business reasons, or that they may marry the daughter of a native.
All over the islands are shrines to which the people make long pilgrimages; such pilgrimages, however, partaking more of the character of feasts than of fasts. The self-denial and the self-imposed hardships of the European devotee have never found fruitful soil in the native character. He is never so glad as when a holy-day furnishes him with a pretext for an elaborate feast, and, in truth, the feast-days alone relieve the gloom of his monotonous life. Two of the most famous shrines are the Holy Child of Cebú and the Virgin of Antipolo,—thousands visiting them yearly.