Gregorio Aglipay

Gregorio Aglipay about 1902

Gregorio Labayan Aglipay (born May 8, 1860 in Batac , Ilocos Norte , † September 1, 1940 in Manila ) was a Roman Catholic clergyman and later the first metropolitan ( archbishop ) of the Independent Philippine Church .

Life

Gregorio Aglipay was born in Bathe, Ilocos Nortes in the Philippines . His mother died when he was one year and seven months old. Now orphaned, Aglipay came under the care of his maternal great-uncles and great-aunts. An unpleasant experience at the age of fourteen made a deep impression on him: because he did not achieve the required quota of tobacco harvesting , Aglipay was thrown into prison and brought before the gobernadorcillo (administrators). This made him deeply dislike the Spanish administrative authorities.

Aglipay received his first education in his hometown. In 1876 he moved to Manila and attended a private school there. Two years later, with the financial support of his great-uncle, he enrolled at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran , where he received his bachelor's degree . Then he went to the University of Santo Tomas to there Jura study. A little later, however, he chose the priesthood and entered the Vigan Seminary in 1883 .

On December 21, 1889, Aglipay was ordained a priest in Manila . For eight years he worked as a chaplain in various parishes. When the Philippine Revolution broke out in August 1896 , he was chaplain in San Pablo (Isabela) .

Aglipay was quite radical and he was ready for the revolution. But it was not until he was transferred to Victoria, Tarlac in the second half of 1896 , that he came into direct contact with the revolutionary movement. He became known for supporting the revolutionaries. An elderly resident of this city remembered towards the end of the 20th century that in 1897 the Spanish cura parroco (governor) ordered all male residents of the city to be arrested and executed because he had been told that many influential families had ties to the revolutionary Move. However, the chaplain Aglipay managed to avert the execution by appealing to the Spanish clergy and vouching for the innocence of those arrested. The order was lifted and the men were released.

On October 20, 1898, Gregorio Aglipay was appointed military chaplain of the revolutionary government by Emilio Aguinaldo . As a military chaplain, he secured the gratitude of the Spanish Jesuits. His intervention is said to have freed two Spanish clergymen. Fathers Antonio Rosell and Felix Mir were held captive by the revolutionaries, but were later released and taken to Manila. He intervened on another occasion when some imprisoned Spanish clergy in Laoag were being forced to mow the lawn in a public square.

In September 1898, General Aguinaldo called a meeting of delegates to Malolos, Bulacan . Gregorio Aglipay represented his home province of Ilocos Norte there and was one of those who refused to sign the constitution later passed by Congress.

Aglipay was elevated to the rank of military vicar general by General Aguinaldo by decree of October 20, 1898. In this office he took up the work that José Burgos had begun - the Filippinization of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. He published various manifestos calling on the Filipino clergy to organize themselves and take control of the country's church. These manifestos, along with other reasons, led to his excommunication . An ecclesiastical court found him guilty in May 1899 of "inciting the clergy against the authority of the church".

During the establishment of the new national church , Isabelo de los Reyes offered him the office of high bishop ( metropolitan ). Aglipay hesitated at first, but eventually accepted, which sealed the break with the Roman Catholic Church .

The independence of the Philippines was a great asset to Aglipay. He wanted to serve his country in every way, so he was a soldier and guerrilla leader in the Philippine-American War. However, in April 1901, a month after General Aguinaldo was captured, Aglipay realized the futility of any further resistance against the Americans, and he surrendered in Laoag.

During the American rule over the Philippines, Aglipay was instrumental in the campaign for independence. The success of his tour of the United States in 1931 reinforced his commitment to the political affairs of his country. In 1935 he ran for the presidency of the Commonwealth of the Philippines , but lost to Manuel L. Quezon . Aglipay then devoted himself to the welfare of his church.

After the Independent Church of the Philippines abolished celibacy , Aglipay married on March 12, 1939.

Gregorio Aglipay died on September 1, 1940 in Manila after a stroke . He is buried today in his hometown of Batac , Ilocos Norte, after he was first buried in the Aglipay Cathedral in Tondo , Manila and - after it was destroyed in 1945 - in the Maria Clara Church in Sampaloc .

effect

Aglipay has been an advocate of reform within the Catholic Church in the Philippines. He also championed the rights of the Filipino people. When his appeals to the Philippine government were unsuccessful, he called on the Catholics of the Philippines to organize themselves in a Catholic church that should correspond to the Philippine way of life. As a result, he managed to organize a Catholic Filipino national church, the Independent Filipino Church.

Web links

Commons : Gregorio Aglipay  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

• Johannes Madey : Aglipayism. In: LThK ³ 1,235.
• Reinhard Wendt: Gregorio Aglipay. In: RGG ⁴ 1
• Hans Wißmann: Philippines. In: TRE 26,514-517; here: 516-517.