philippine studies Ateneo de Manila University • Loyola Heights, Quezon City • 1108 Philippines Pedro Peláez, Leader of the Filipino Clergy Roberto Blanco Andrés Translated by Renán Prado and Filomeno Aguilar Philippine Studies vol. 58 nos. 1 & 2 (2010): 3–43 Copyright © Ateneo de Manila University Philippine Studies is published by the Ateneo de Manila University. Contents may not be copied or sent via email or other means to multiple sites and posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s written permission. Users may download and print articles for individual, noncom- mercial use only. However, unless prior permission has been obtained, you may not download an entire issue of a journal, or download multiple copies of articles. Please contact the publisher for any further use of this work at
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[email protected]. http://www.philippinestudies.net ROBERTO BlancO Translated by Renán Prado and Filomeno Aguilar Pedro Peláez, Leader of the Filipino Clergy This article provides new information on the creole Filipino, Fr. Pedro Pablo Peláez, who, together with Fr. José Burgos, was the most outstanding clergyman in the nineteenth-century Philippines. It discusses Father Peláez’s previously unknown activities in the cabildo of the Manila Cathedral, where he was its most distinguished member. It analyzes his reformist ideas, and explains his work and strategy to defend the Filipino secular clergy, whose rights were being violated by the royal orders of 1848 and 1861. Against the reactionary religious orders, Pelaéz had a detailed modus operandi to defend the legitimacy of native priests’ control of parishes. Although his activities were cut short by his unexpected death in the earthquake of June 1863, Peláez served as an inspiration to be emulated.