Philippine Independent Catholic Church

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PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC CHURCH (History)
Posted on July 26, 2010 by picccuyapo1947
The Philippine Independent Catholic Church / Philippine Independent Church, (officially the Spanish: Iglesia Catolica Filipina Independiente/Iglesia Filipina Independiente or the ICFI/ IFI, also known as the Philippine Independent Catholic Church or the Ilocano: Siwayawaya a Simbaan nga ti Filipinas (sometimes also known as Tagalog: Malayang Simbahan ng Pilipinas), is a Christian denomination of the Catholic tradition in the form of a national church. The church was founded by the members of the first federation of labor unions in the country, the Union Obrera Democratica (UOD) in 1902. Isabelo de los Reyes was the founder of the church and suggested that Gregorio Aglipay[1][2] be the head of the church. It is also known as the Aglipayan Church after its first obispo maximo, Gregorio Aglipay.
Unsurprisingly, all the founding members of the church were excommunicated by the Catholic Church during its establishment in 1902.[3]
Since 1960 it has been in full communion with the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (and through it with the entire Anglican Communion) and, since 1965, with the Old Catholic Union of Utrecht Association of Churches. Today the Philippine Independent Church or Aglipayan Church is the second largest Christian denomination in the Philippines after the Roman Catholic Church. The bulk of the Aglipayans come from the northern part of the island of Luzon, especially in the Ilocandia region, home of the first supreme bishop. Now the church is divided into 10 dioceses including the Diocese of the United States and Canada. However, due to a lack of priests, many parishes in the USA are priestless.

The current Supreme Bishop is the Most Reverend Armando dela Cruz, D.D>, (OS VI) His line of episcopal succession goes back from the first Obispo Maximo Gregorio Aglipay.
The Philippine Independent Catholic Church/ Philippine Independent Church is considered the most tangible product of the 1898 Revolution against Spain.[citation needed]
Rise of nationalism
At the end of the 19th century, Filipino nationalism emerged, preceding the struggles of other colonized countries in Asia such as India and French Indochina, and the fight for independence gave way to revolution. Spain’s last remaining colonies in the Americans, Cuba and Puerto Rico, were in the process of breaking away at the same time. With the execution of prominent ethnic Filipino clergy such as Fr. José Burgos at the hands of the Spanish royal authorities, church reforms became a facet of the Philippine independence movement.

Colonial church
Whereas many Spanish friars protested abuses by the Spanish government and military, other friars were committing many abuses. Many Filipinos were enraged when Spanish friars blocked the ascent of the Filipino clergy in the Catholic Church hierarchy. Vast lands were claimed as friars’ estates from landless farmers. There were also widely known cases of sexual abuse of women by priests. Anak ni Padre Dámaso (Child of Father Dámaso, alluding to a character in one of Rizal’s novels) has become a cliché or stereotype to refer to an illegitimate child, especially that of a priest. The death of Fr. José Burgos, Fr. Zamora, and Fr. Gomez is said to have indirectly ignited the Philippine revolution and had a profound effect on Dr. José Rizal.

Gregorio Aglipay was an activist Catholic priest from Ilocos Norte who, despite his intercession and defense of some of the Spanish Catholic clergy from liberal-nationalist Filipino revolutionaries, was excommunicated by the Vatican for inciting rebellion within the Filipino clergy. During the brief interlude between independence from the Spanish and the subsequent reoccupation by the Americans, Isabelo de los Reyes (also known as Don Belong) and Aglipay reformed the Filipino Catholic clergy into the Philippine Independent Church, officially established in 1902. The new church absolutely rejected the spiritual authority of the Pope (then Pope Leo XIII) and abolished the celibacy requirement from its clergy, allowing marriage among its priests, who were all former Catholic priests.
The church drew concepts of theology and worship from the Masonic Code and much of its support and inspiration from Miguel Morayta, the grand master of the Spanish Orient Lodge of Freemasonry in Madrid.[4] Aglipay was also a Mason.[5] The case with Morayta and other non-Filipino laymen who pushed Aglipay toward schism was merely motivation by hatred toward the friars and/or the Catholic Church rather than any kind of nationalism.[6]
Later on, the new independent Church reformed the traditional Catholic Latin Tridentine liturgy drastically after the model of the Anglican vernacular reform. The Eucharist has been said in Spanish (sometimes: Portuguese) since the early days of the church.
While visiting other churches while travelling abroad, Aglipay rejected the divinity of Jesus and the Trinity, becoming theologically Unitarian, however the church refused to accepted his amended theology. Aglipay’s unitarian and progressive theological ideas were evident in his novenary, Pagsisiyam sa Birhen sa Balintawak, 1925 [7] and its English translation, Novenary of the Motherland, 1926.[8]