Anything Under the Sun
Mill Hill Missionaries (4)
The daring missionaries upon reaching their region immediately meet many difficulties in their assigned parishes.
The challenges
The first difficulty encountered by these missionaries was language barrier. Before being sent to their assigned parishes, they first learned the language which took them some months.
The second difficulty was the creation of the Aglipayan church under rebel Catholic priest Gregorio Aglipay who campaigned extensively in Antique and southern Negros. Then on October 17, 1902, Gov. Gen. William H. Taft proclaimed Aglipayan church as the Philippine Independent Church. This emboldened the Aglipayans in occupying the catholic churches, convents and cemeteries as well as church lands, using them for their own purposes.
This resulted in the Diocese of Jaro in losing 106 churches and convents and Aglipayans attracted more converts especially in Antique and southern Negros. However, on November 24, 1906, the Supreme Court decided in favor of the Catholic Church.
The third difficulty was the existence of native ultra-nationalists who had expelled the Spanish political/religious leaders during the Revolution of 1898 who cried separation of Church and State as contra-distinguished during the Spanish time with union of Church and State. This was more pronounced in Negros where many of the elite hacenderos hated more the friars and embraced the Aglipayan religion.
The fourth difficulty was the poverty of the people. It is really quite hard to teach God to a person with an empty stomach by a person who has also an empty stomach.