Guillermo, Mikaela Francesca S.

BA in Political Science

In not more than five sentences, reflect on how powerful the Catholic church
was during Rizal’s time.
Give clear examples of instances its power was manifested. Write your
answers in the space provided.

During the more than three centuries of Spanish rule, missionaries, or friars
as they were called, had a vital part in spreading the Christian faith and the
Filipinos' political, social, economic, and cultural dimensions. Land estates,
known as "friar lands," were provided to these missionaries to be self-
sufficient, making them landowners. They began to gain economic and
political authority, and these developments ushered in frailocracy, or monastic
dominance, in the Philippines.

The parish priest is the most powerful individual in a town or pueblo; the
people were afraid and followed him, and he was frequently kissed on the
hands as a show of respect and strength. Catholic Church was so powerful
that even a large number of our native lands, especially in the Tagalog region,
were controlled by the friars, foreclosures of mortgages and outright land
grabbing were widespread, and mistreatment made by the friars among his
constituents, the concern of friar lands became one of the factors for the
uprising of the Philippine Revolution.