Retraction of Rizal

in the heart of the Filipinos, Dr. Jose Rizal had immortalized himself through his works and sacrifices for freedom and independence. Yet, his life was not always grand and perfect. Rizal’s greatness is secluded by the many controversies surrounding his life. The most intriguing of all was the issue of his alleged retraction. It was all about his reversion to the Catholic Faith, repudiation of any of his writing against Roman Catholicism and abomination of Masonry and all other issues linked to it such as his marriage to Josephine Bracken. That issue was claimed to be true by the Roman Catholic defenders but asserted to be deceptive by anti-retractonists. For some people to retract would mean little for they have little to retract, but this was not so of Rizal.
This retraction issue, to some extent, had immortalized itself along with Jose Rizal. Through his greatness, some other controversies in his life faded and succumb to vanish but this retraction issue stood still and remained. There had been numbers of circumstances in his patriotic life that gave rise to this controversial retraction allegation. One circumstance was his affiliation to a Masonic institution. In an article authored by Romberto Poulo, Rizal’s affiliation in Masonry was accounted to have caused drastic change to his religious ideas. It was in the moment Rizal set foot on European soil when he was exposed to a great deal of distinctions between what was happening to his country, the discriminations, abuses, partialities, injustices, and some other things made to cause sufferings to his countrymen, and what was the actual scene of the European nations. He observed that Europe was a lot more different compared to the Philippines in terms of way of life, attitudes towards Roman Catholicism, and most importantly, the freedom all the citizens enjoy. Somehow, with this observation sprouted an ambition in his heart of redeeming glory and...