Rizal\'s Retraction - Grade: A PDF

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Position Paper (Rizal’s Retraction)Name: Brian Joshua MagsakayProgram & Section: PSYB – ARizal, one of the acknowledged people who is considered a hero by many people also gives us many debatable issues about himself. Many controversies were connected to Rizal including the infamous “Sa Aking Mg...

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Position Paper (Rizal’s Retraction) Name: Brian Joshua Magsakay Program & Section: PSYB – A41

Rizal, one of the acknowledged people who is considered a hero by many people also gives us many debatable issues about himself. Many controversies were connected to Rizal including the infamous “Sa Aking Mga Kabata” that many people stated that the one who wrote the poem was Rizal, but in the recent findings, it was not Rizal who wrote the said poem. With regards to the controversies that Rizal was accused, there is one that also stood out. It was his retraction from being part of the masonry into being a devotee of the catholic church. It has been more than a century when Dr. Jose Rizal was executed in Luneta. Yet, there are still controversies that bothers many, and one of it is the retraction of Dr. Jose Rizal on the masonry to reconvert himself to being a catholic once again. There was a document the bears the retraction of Rizal on the masonry. It was dated December 29, 1896 and was said to have been signed by Rizal himself. The letter addressed that: “I declare myself a Catholic and in this religion in which I was born and educated I wish to live and die. I retract with all my heart whatever in my words, writings, publications, and conduct has been contrary to my character as son of the Catholic Church.” The retraction of Rizal raised motions and judgment of different historians, most importantly, the two sides: The Masonic Rizalists and the Catholic Rizalists. The retraction of Rizal was never proven with an acceptable and valid evidence, such that it was considered as fraudulent. It was merely Fr. Vicente Balaguer who holds the exact copy of Rizal’s retraction that he received in the evening of Rizal’s execution. The Jesuit priest befriended Rizal in his exile in Dapitan. Consequently, Rizal fell in love with a woman naming Josephine Bracken. In the same place in 1895, Rizal’s wanting for marriage with Josephine Bracken leaded him to write a denouncement for his sinful beliefs that will approved by the Bishop of Cebu. When the mail was already enclosed, Rizal came hurrying to reclaim it before sending it to the Bishop of Cebu. Perhaps, at that moment, Rizal realized that what he had written on the letter was the reason why he was convinced by the friars to retract his works and writings in his resistance towards the Spaniards. This is the point that will strengthen the side of

Rizal’s not retracting from Masonry, that he cannot give up the principles that he lived up to just for us to be free from the hands of the Spaniards, the action that he made in order to reclaim the sinful beliefs that he had written on the letter proves that Rizal will never retract himself to the Masonry because it will invalidate all the hardships that he had done. On the other hand, there are ambiguities in the retraction and presumed wedding of Dr. Rizal and her partner Josephine Bracken. The family of Rizal and his co-scholars did not believe to Balaguer’s statement as they knew that Rizal would have addressed it to them during their talk minutes before the execution. It generates a contrasting story as how he was unmindful that Rizal was writing the third stanza of the poem “Mi Ultimo Adios” with the time and date he claimed to have visited Dr. Rizal in Fort Santiago. With this, the retraction of Rizal will still remain an allegation with no authentic basis making his works and ideals in defiance to the Spaniards as an act of heroism and patriotism.

Bibliography Anonymous. (n.d.). The Retraction of Rizal. Retrieved from Our Native Hero: http://ournativehero.weebly.com/the-retraction.html Jose Rizal University. (2004). Analysis Rizal's Retraction. Retrieved from Jose Rizal.ph: http://www.joserizal.ph/rt03.html Makabenta, Y. (2018, January 2). Rizal remains a living and burning issue among us. Retrieved from The Manila Times: https://www.manilatimes.net/2018/01/02/opinion/columnists/topanalysis/rizalremains-living-burning-issue-among-us/371727/...