Did Jose Rizal Retract PDF

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Did Jose Rizal Retract?I believe that Jose Rizal did not retract. However, there were many opinions and evidence presented by various authors as to whether Rizal retracted or not. Nonetheless, until now, there is no proof or any justification to end the debate.Here are some found evidences from the ...

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Did Jose Rizal Retract? I believe that Jose Rizal did not retract. However, there were many opinions and evidence presented by various authors as to whether Rizal retracted or not. Nonetheless, until now, there is no proof or any justification to end the debate. Here are some found evidences from the given document that proves Jose Rizal did not retract:  Accordingly, there was a number of priests coming from different congregations who allegedly visited Dr. Jose Rizal while he was in prison waiting for his execution. Each priest tried to convince Dr. Jose Rizal (maybe to gain the distinction that he was the one who convinced Dr. Jose Rizal to retract). Moreover, the testimony of Reverend Vicente Balaguer Llacer, S.J., contended that the Archbishop sent his commission to the Ateneo to have a first-hand observation that, in case of conversion and before Fr. Vilaclara would minister the last Sacrament to Dr. Jose Rizal, the latter would make a retraction of errors publicly professed by him in words and writings, and utter a profession of Catholic faith (Rizal’s Unfading Glory Attested, p7.).  In Madrid Papers, El Imparcial, Dec. 31, 1896, Father Faura and Father Vilaclara tried to PERSUADE Dr. Jose Rizal to put down his rancors and to turn his eyes to heaven. This was sent by the correspondent on Dec. 30, of the same year. On the following day of the same papers, it is quoted: “Notwithstanding the conversations of the famous Jesuit Fathers Faura and Vilaclara with Rizal in the chapel (of the prison), the convict continued to refuse to confess and remained obstinate in his philosophical and political theories.” During their conversation, Dr. Jose Rizal said that when he was in Madrid, the Republicans were telling me that liberties are sought with bullets, and not by kneeling down. “Truly, these ideas aroused in my soul are the authors of my work. My only sin is that of pride.”  In their conversation with Fr. Vilaclara, Dr. Jose Rizal declared himself a rationalist or freethinker, unwilling to admit any criterion of truth than individual reason. Thus, when Fr. Vilaclara attacked Dr. Jose Rizal with arguments anchored on Catholic doctrine, he begun to expound the objections of the heretics and rationalists, a thousand times refuted already (Rizal’s Unfading Glory Attested, p7). He refuted them with unassailable and irrefutable arguments. Here are words of Dr. Jose Rizal:  “Look here, father if to please Your Reverences I would say yes to everything and would sign everything you present to me without meaning it, I would be hypocrite and would offend God.”  “But Father,”--he replied with regret—“what would you have me do, since it seems that I cannot dominate my reason?”  The above quotations show that Dr. Jose Rizal was forced to sign the retraction, if indeed he executed one. Even in his last breath, he remained steadfast in his resolve to stick to his convictions.  Granting for the sake of argument that there was a retraction, why is it that this paper was not presented immediately? Would it not cast doubt as to the veracity of the claim for the existence of such retraction? Or if there was, the substance or content of such would obviously not tally to what a retraction should be. According to the testimonies, Rizal made corrections and wrote some annotations. Would it not be equally possible that what the national hero wrote was a clear rebuff with this expression: “Bueno, mís amigos, qué vayan ustédes todos al infierno!”  Finally, the fulcrum of all the arguments that could expose the myth of the existence of retraction is the incontrovertible proofs constructed by Dr. Ricardo Pascual of the University of the Philippines in his book “Dr. Jose Rizal: Beyond the Grave” that

demonstrated the truth that the said retraction was nothing more than a forgery. According to Dr. Pascual there, is an overwhelming number of evidence extracted out from his study using scientific method of external and internal textual criticisms that point out to the fact that the supposed original document of the retraction was a forgery. Dr. Pascual opined that “the difference in the forms of letters, slants, habits of writings, distinct characteristics in the signature between the genuine writings on one hand and the retraction on the other, and the closed affinity between the writings supposed to be done by different persons in the same document,” demonstrate that the retraction is a forgery. Surely, we must put the question of retraction to rest, though Rizal is a hero, whether he retracted or not, we must investigate if he really did a turn-around. If he did not, and the document was plainly forgeries, then somebody has to pay for trying to deceive the nation. In case of doubt, it should suffice for us Filipinos to be proud that our hero died without submitting to the Spaniards' will or malicious machination. It is degrading on our part, and outlandishly out of Rizal's character that he bent his knee and capitulated to the will of the perceived enemies at the end of his long heroic struggle....