The Roman Catholic Church and the Discontents of Philippine Society Under Spain: A Freudian Dilemma

Abstract

Religion played a key role in the colonial project of Spain in the Philippines. Spain’s colonial enterprise used the Church as an
instrument to pacify the natives and make the people submit to Spanish rule. Consequently, the missionary priests became the
real figures of authority in the local level and their superiors in Manila the masters of the colony. Throughout the Spanish period
the religious authorities played a dominant role in civil affairs because of the theocratic nature of the Spanish monarchy.
Using Freud’s views regarding religion and his arguments about the human aggressive instinct as well as Isaiah Berlin’s
concepts of liberty, this paper attempts to offer another way of looking at the role played by religion in the cultural fiber of
Philippine society during the Spanish period. It tries to answer the question: was Spain’s “ civilizing mission” in the Philippines better equipped to cope with the inherent instinct of aggression or did it contribute instead to the discontent of the people and increased their resentment against Spanish colonial rule? The Church suppressed the aggressive nature of the people
through Christian indoctrination. The Church, amongst others, offered the hope of paradise and the threat of hell to make the
native converts follow the moral laws it imposed. But in their effort to establish a “civilized” society by restraining the aggressive
instinct of the natives, the Church, in-effect, also curtailed the peoples’ positive and negative liberties and created so much discontent.