RETRACTION
RETRACTION OF RIZAL
Issues Involved
He was a great philosopher, thinker and a great advocate of the nation’s freedom and independence form the Spanish colonizers. And so the alleged retraction scandal came as a shock to his family, close friends, colleagues, followers and those that believe in him. The intensity of his life and work all thrown away by the retraction controversy damaging his image as a hero and his reputation for being a man true to his words.
The Jesuits claim and Fr. Balaguer
The Jesuits announced after the death of Jose Rizal that he retracted. They claimed that during his stay at the death cell awaiting his sentence to be carried upon he wrote and signed a retraction document stating his regret and his acceptance of the Catholic faith, then his marriage to his Irish mistress, Josephine Bracken on the morning of his execution. Their claims they said were supported by the alleged retraction document and by Fr. Balaguer's memorandum-record or the so-called "Obra". This retraction document presented was claimed to be written and signed by Jose P. Rizal:
I declare myself a Catholic and in this religion in
I retract with all my heart whatever in my words,
writings, publications and conduct has been contrary
to my quality as a son of the Catholic Church.
I believe and profess whatever she teaches and I
submit myself to whatever she commands.
I abominate Masonry, as the enemy that it is of the
Church, and as a Society prohibited by the Church.
The Diocesan Prelate can, as the Superior Ecclesiastical
authority, make public this spontaneous manifestation
of mine in order to repair the scandals the my acts have
caused and so that God and the people
may pardon me.
Fr. Balaguer in his version of the story on 29-30 December claims of being the officiating priest who as he put it was the instrument of God in winning back the faith of Doñ Jose Rizal in the Iglesias Catholica Romana and who married
Issues Involved
He was a great philosopher, thinker and a great advocate of the nation’s freedom and independence form the Spanish colonizers. And so the alleged retraction scandal came as a shock to his family, close friends, colleagues, followers and those that believe in him. The intensity of his life and work all thrown away by the retraction controversy damaging his image as a hero and his reputation for being a man true to his words.
The Jesuits claim and Fr. Balaguer
The Jesuits announced after the death of Jose Rizal that he retracted. They claimed that during his stay at the death cell awaiting his sentence to be carried upon he wrote and signed a retraction document stating his regret and his acceptance of the Catholic faith, then his marriage to his Irish mistress, Josephine Bracken on the morning of his execution. Their claims they said were supported by the alleged retraction document and by Fr. Balaguer's memorandum-record or the so-called "Obra". This retraction document presented was claimed to be written and signed by Jose P. Rizal:
I declare myself a Catholic and in this religion in
I retract with all my heart whatever in my words,
writings, publications and conduct has been contrary
to my quality as a son of the Catholic Church.
I believe and profess whatever she teaches and I
submit myself to whatever she commands.
I abominate Masonry, as the enemy that it is of the
Church, and as a Society prohibited by the Church.
The Diocesan Prelate can, as the Superior Ecclesiastical
authority, make public this spontaneous manifestation
of mine in order to repair the scandals the my acts have
caused and so that God and the people
may pardon me.
Fr. Balaguer in his version of the story on 29-30 December claims of being the officiating priest who as he put it was the instrument of God in winning back the faith of Doñ Jose Rizal in the Iglesias Catholica Romana and who married