Priests on Trial

by Alfred W. McCoy

Describes the clash between Catholic missionaries and wealthy plantation owners in the Philippines, and explains how world opinion forced the government to drop its falsified murder charges against a group of priests and missionaries

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Dr Alfred W. McCoy is professor of SE Asian History at the U. of Wisconsin at Madison where he also serves as director of the Center for SE Asian Studies, a federally-funded National Resource Center. He's spent the past quarter-century writing about the politics & history of the opium trade. In addition to publications, he serves as a correspondent for the Observatoire Geopolitique des Drogues in Paris & was plenary speaker at their '92 conference in Paris sponsored by the European Community. In '93, he presented a paper on the Mafia & the Asian heroin trade at the Conference in Honor of Giovanni Falcone in Palermo, Sicily. In 3/96, he was the plenary speaker at the 7th International Conference on Drug Harm Reduction in Hobart, Australia. He's served as expert witness & consultant to the Canadian Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical use of Drugs, the Australian Royal Commission of Inquiry into Drugs, the Minister of Administrative Services, Victoria State Parliament, & the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Drug Enforcement Policy & Support in the Office of the US Secretary of Defense. Recently, he worked as consultant & commentator for a tv documentary on the global heroin traffic produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, accompanying the crew to locations in Burma, Thailand, Vietnam & Laos.

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THREE CATHOLIC PRIESTS ARE PERSECUTED BY THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT

Alfred W. McCoy (born 1945) is a historian of Southeast Asia; he has also written books such as' Ylo-Ilo: Factional Conflict in a Colonial Economy,' 'The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade,'etc.

This 1984 book is about 1982 charges of murder and rebellion filed by the Philippine Army against a Catholic parish priest, an Irish missionary, and an Australian missionary. International protests finally convinced President Marcos to dismiss the charges against them. The men had been working on behalf of the poor peasants, and were opposed by the wealthy sugar planters.

He wrote, "As they moved closer to the poor to share their plight, these priests were soon caught in a crossfire between dictatorship and revolution." (Pg. 49) One bishop, explaining that the Church was in a difficult position, said "The Church has to play a balancing role between the contending forces in society. Both planters and workers are my parishoners. But we also have to be activist in reform of society and political in the sense of working for the good governance of the nation." (Pg. 121)

An educational comic book produced for the poor conveyed a clear moral maxim: "if you want justice, don't wait for God to give it to you. Fight these evil men or you will die in disease and poverty." (Pg. 148)

One of the priests had originally come to the area to "try a new theology... (he) was convinced that the conventional model of the priest-dominated parish---that he had known in Ireland and found upon arrival...---was passé." (Pg. 168-169)

This is an interesting book on a subject not much reported about in this country.