Rev. Fr. Jesús María Cavanna y Manso, C.M.

, was a Catholic priest from

the order of the Congregation of the Mission, more commonly known
as the Vincentian Fathers. He was the author of Rizal's Unfading Glory
published in 1956, a documentary of Jose Rizal's conversion to
Catholicism. Another book Fr. Cavanna wrote is the Basic Christian
Doctrine (1982).
Fr. Cavanna was of Filipino-Spanish heritage. He often spoke
in Englishand Spanish but he was also
very fluent in Tagalog (Philippines' national language), and Latin. He
spent his last years as a formator, spiritual advisor and teacher to
Vincentian Seminarians in Quezon City.
Fr. Cavanna died in San Juan De Dios Hospital in 1994. He was a well
loved and respected member of the Vincentian family.
Rizal’s Most Contested and ever Incontestable Manuscript
By: Jesus Ma. Cavanna

Of all Rizal’s writings there is one that has been and seems to remain nightmare for some people.
it is a sheet 32 cm. x 22 cm. containing a manuscript of 18 lines with 115 words all in Rizal’s
own handwriting. It was penned at 11:30 pm of December 29, 1896 in his chapel cell at fort
Santiago in the presence of 13 eyewitnesses. On the following day Rizal’s holograph was
brought to the Ateneo and then to the Archbishop’s palace where many other persons had the
chance to examine, read and get copies of it. On that same day the text of the document was
published, correctly in some papers, or with some very slight and insubstantial discrepancy of a
word more or a word less in other papers. After some time the document with some 35 other
similar and related documents bound together in a folder about ½ inch thick was kept in the
Archbishop’s Archives, and for almost 12 years nobody came out to question its existence or its
genuineness. It was only in the end of 1908 when according to Teodoro M. Kalaw (La Masoneria
Filipina, Manila, 1920, p. 202) the Mason’s “started a campaign against the falsehood of the
alleged abjuration of Rizal”.
The document could not be easily located then when the Archives of the Manila archdiocese
were simply heaps and bundles of thousands of papers materially piled up in some few shelves in
a sort of cellar. Probably no serious efforts were done to hunt for a needle lost in the proverbial
haystack.
It was useless for one the eyewitnesses living still in the Philippines to write a pamphlet (Fr. Pio
Pi, La Muerte Cristiana del Doctor Rizal, Manila, 1909) where among many convincing proofs
of Rizal’s conversion and retraction he included a text from a “bona fide” copy they kept in
Ateneo of the formula proposed to Rizal for his retraction with insertion of the words amended,
added and omitted by Rizal in his actual writing of the retraction document. (Mark this well: the
text included in Fr. Pi’s booklet was not the text of Rizal’s holograph.)
It was useless, because for those who thought that Rizal’s greatness lies on his anti-Catholic
ideas and writings, the retraction document became a total denial of such greatness; and that
could not be. And so they kept on claiming that Rizal’s retraction could not be accepted unless
the original document be produced. The claim was obviously unreasonable. In legal procedure
and in historical methodology, direct and circumstantial evidence may well bring the certainty of
a disputed fact even in the absence of the best evidence. And this is what Gonzalvo Ma. Pinana
achieve in his work “Murio el Doctor Rizal Cristianamente –Reconstitucion de las Ultimas
Horas de su Vida” (Barcelona, 1920). He gathered the testimonies of the contemporary papers,
looked for all the surviving witnesses and saw it that each one would sign their sworn statements
before some recognized Notary Public, legalizing their documents before the proper consular
authorities so that no legal requisite be wanting to the perfect validity of such accredited public
instruments.
The weight of the evidence presented in Pinana’s book was overwhelming. Following the most
strict demands of historical criticism the fact of Rizal’s retraction should have been a closed
question after 1920. But it was not probably never be for those who shut their eyes to the light.
On May 18, 1935, Manuel A. Gracia, C.M., of the Manila San Carlos Seminary, appointed
archdiocesan archivist, while engaged in the tedious work of going through a multitude of
papers dumbed on the floor to sort and classify then for filling in a newly constructed steel vault,
unexpectedly came upon a bundle of documents marked “Masoneria”: there, among the
retraction of 28 prominent Filipino patriots of the last years of the Spanish regime, the
handwritten retraction document of Rizal was found. And a prayer book with the acts of faith,
hope and clarity signed by Rizal! And the official certificated of Rizal’s Catholic burial signed by
the chaplain of the Catholic cemetery! On June 15, 1935 the Saturday edition of the Herald
brought in its front lines a two inch banner head announcing the news “RIZAL’S RETRACTION
WAS FOUND”.