Jean Rene Kalaw ; SS14/A2

WT#1 Rizal Retraction Controversy.

According to claims by the Catholic Church, Dr. Jose Rizal wrote a retraction
paper on December 29, 1896, taking back all his words and writings against
the church and professing his faith. Rizal was said to be convinced in
converting and writing the retraction paper by Fr. Vicente Balaguer, a priest
he had been with in Dapitan. The retraction paper was not revealed to the
public until 1935. According to most claims and theories, there are four
reasons as to why Dr. Rizal retracted. First is that he wanted to legally marry
Josephine Bracken, an Irish woman whom he had been living with in the
Dapitan, The second is to save his family from the persecution of the
government, knowing that those he will leave behind will be the ones to
suffer next, the third is to secure Spanish reforms, hoping that in the
retraction, there would be change, and the fourth is to heal the church for
inside, once again, in the hopes that something will change.
According to historians, there are 11 eye witnesses when Dr. Rizal retracted,
according to them, Rizal wrote the paper, signed a prayer book, and recited
prayers and some claim that they saw him kiss a crucifix before his death.
Nicolas Zafra of the University of the Philippines strongly believes that the
retraction paper was true and the denial of the paper was simply
stubbornness of the masons. Teodoro Kalaw, a lawyer and historian who

studied Rizals life also claimed that the paper was authentic by studying the
hand writing.
Some claims say that the letter was written by his brother Paciano, but the
signature was from Rizal himself, Paciano apparently did this to avert the
remaining members of his family from danger. In other words, a case of
forgery, many theories suggest that Rizals letter was created by someone
else using his signature or a sample of his writings.
When Fr. Balaguer was asked for the original copy of the document for the
handwriting to be authenticated, the said document was allegedly lost, only
to resurface 35 years later in history, discovered by Fr. Manuel Garcia. At
least 4 copies said to be the retraction had surfaced. Although, the wording
in the document found by Fr. Garcia is different than those claimed by other,
such as the copies of the formula which appeared in Manila Newspapers.
In the theories, the reason for his retraction was to marry the woman she fell
in love with while he was in exile, Josephine Bracken. However, no real record
of the wedding between Bracken and Rizal has been found, especially a
marriage certificate. If the retraction was true, then there should at least be
a document that shows that the marriage happened and, considering where
Rizal was buried, outside the inner wall of Paco Cemetery, and the record of
burial is not the same day as his death.
In my research, I found that no one has really claimed to have the copy of
the original text, except the publisher of La Voz Espanola, they claim to have

seen and read the retraction which they say that Rizal himself sent to the
archbishop. Also, almost two years before his death, meaning his time in
Dapitan, when Rizal fell in love with Bracken, he prepared a retraction paper
in order to marry Josephine, he intended to submit it to the Archbishop of
Cebu. According to Fr. Austin Craig, the document was ready for mailing but
Rizal reclaimed it. The significance of this prepared letter in Dapitan is that,
anyone who could forge a letter already has a template to copy from. There
is also a confession from a person named Antonio K. Abad, where in a party
in his home, a certain person admitted how he was hired by the Catholic
friars to forge several copies of the retraction document, as to which
document it really was, it was not revealed.
From the data that I have gathered, I believe that Dr. Rizals retraction was
false. My first reason for believing this is that, it seems quite convenient for a
Catholic Priest to find a retraction letter 35 years after the loss of the
document. The second reason is that, there were plenty of opportunities to
forge the letter in the years that is was not even made public. If he did
retract his words, then he should have at least been defended by the church,
since Dr. Rizal professing his faith to the Church publicly, alive, would benefit
the church greatly, but they didnt take the opportunity. And there was no
marriage certificate between him and Josephine. The last is Dr. Rizals
personality and dignity itself. A man of that caliber who endured and made
the best out of exile in Dapitan, who had the courage to for La Solidaridad
and established the La Liga Filipina, the man who openly used symbolisms to

appeal to the Spaniards regarding the state the Philippines is in, through his
novels, would fold so easily, by being threatened by death. Surely this man
was prepared for death, yet in his last moments he would betray his own
principles? This even is too convenient for it to occur, as if it was a scripted
play. It is more likely to be a ploy by the church, with the rising power of the
revolutionaries and the involvement of the west in the Philippines. The
controversy was meant to degrade the morale of the Filipinos, to make us
think the hero who bravely faced death was a coward who bit his tongue and
took back his words.
I believe the Rizals Retraction was false.
References:
Primacyofreason.blogspot.com
joseprotasiorizal.blogspot.com

www.joserizal.ph