The truth about colonization and Christianization

When the CBCP informed the public that the Church in the Philippines will celebrate the 500th anniversary of her Christianization on 2021 a lot of questions have been raised and featured in the mainstream and social media.

One important focus of the questions is about the history of colonization and Christianization by the Spaniards and the Americans. An important and crucial issue arising from a lot of questions about history is the truth of the historical narratives.

The issue of truth is being raised because on it would depend the What and How of the celebration and its planning. This issue triggers another issue: the historians!

I am concerned about the truth. So I would divide the historians into two groups: church-based writers and non-church writers. Authenticity and reliability and sincerity are elements of truth. I would trust and accept the historians from the early missionary orders who came with the colonizers. They are the Augustinians (OSA), Augustinian Recollects (OAR), Dominicans (OP), Jesuits (SJ), and Franciscans (OFM). I do not trust most of the non-church historians. A good number of them are anti-church. Most of them judge the past from the perspectives and principles of the present and their personal biases, a way of thinking that is wrong. The past should be seen and judged according to the prevailing thinking and values of the time.