Short History of the Church:
The Iglesia Filipina Independiente was formed in the beginning of the twentieth century as part of the broad nationalist struggle against Spanish colonialism and American imperialism. It traces its origin from the struggle of the Filipino clergy against racial discrimination and friar domination within the Roman Church in the 19th century, which, consequently, transformed into a nationalist crusade for the absolute Filipinization of the Church in the twilight years of the 20th century.
Fr. Gregorio Aglipay played an important role in the revolutionary war to overthrow Spanish rule and in the struggle for the Filipinization of the Church. In his capacity as Military Vicar of the Revolutionary Government, he gathered Filipino priests to a special meeting on October 1898 to lay down the organizational foundation of the Filipino Church. The formal institution of the Philippine Church was however prevented by the intrusion of the United States of America in the course of the revolutionary war against Spain.
Iglesia Filipina Independiente, also known as the Philippine Independent Catholic Church) is a Christian Protestant denomination of the catholic tradition in the form of a national church in the Philippines. Its separation from the Catholic Church was proclaimed in 1902 by the members of the Union Obrera Democratica Filipinadue to the alleged mistreatment of Filipinos by Spanish priests in the Philippines and the government execution of nationalist Jose Rizal.
Isabelo de los Reyes was one of the initiators of the separation, and suggested that former Catholic priest Gregorio Aglipay be the head of the church. It is also known as the Aglipayan Church after its first Supreme Bishop, Gregorio Aglipay, who also later became a Freemason in May 1918. The Catholic Church under the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII instructed the Archbishop of Manila Bernardino