THE BELLS OF BALANGIGA: My Visit to Cheyenne, Wyoming

by Bishop Leonardo Y. Medroso

FIRST OF ALL I would like to express my sincerest thanks and appreciation to the great hospitality of Bishop Joseph Hart, the bishop of Cheyenne. He afforded me this opportunity to visit his area of jurisdiction and to see for myself the bells of Balangiga Church.

a) The Bells of Balangiga is Church's property; the rightful owner is the Diocese of Borongan, of which Balangiga is a parish. I am the Bishop of Borongan. I am here for a double purpose: 1) to see its status; 2) to appeal to the concerned to plead for the return of the Bells to the rightful owner, to the Diocese of Borongan; to the parish Church of Balangiga.

As the accepted adage has it, "res clamat dominum" that is, a piece of property that is not in the hands of the rightful owner is ever clamoring that it be returned to the original owner.

b) I am aware that there are some individuals or group of individuals who would insist on keeping the bells in F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne. It is argued that it is a war trophy, a booty. Hence, the right of the victor is invoked. I am also aware that they were used to signal the fateful attack a hundred years ago, that caused lives and so much tragedy.

However, it is my belief that a religious article should never be made as an instrument of war nor does it become a trophy of the victors. Religion transcends war; in fact, it always pleads for peace and reconciliation.

The use of a religious article, as the Bells of Balangiga was alleged to be used, to signal an attack does not, by that very act, fault the owner and deprive thereby that owner of his property.

The parish priest of Balangiga during the time of the attack, I believe, is innocent. In fact, he was not there during the actual encounter. Granting, but never conceding, that he was part of the plan of the encounter, the parish priest is never the owner of that piece of property. The Roman Catholic Bishop of the diocese is the owner; the parish priest is just an administrator of parish properties. His imprudent act in the use of such property will not deprive the Bishop from his right to the property. As Major Gen. James Franklin Bell, U.S. Army Chief of Staff 1906-1910, rightly commented: "In this connection it may be appropriate to question the propriety of taking (even as a souvenir) a bell belonging to the Catholic Church simply because a recreant native priest either used it or permitted it to be used to sound a signal of attack on American soldiers. The bell belonged to the church and not to the priest. It was not the fault of the church but that of the priest that it was misused."

c) Besides, and this is what I would like to stress, time is a great healer. Its passage gives all of us opportunities and enough space to look back into the past with a better and mature perspective. A tragedy had happened; lives had been lost; pains and sufferings had been inflicted. But they all are in the past. Let us do something about them to right the wrong. But let us be reconciled. To insist to keep on bearing these grudges within our own system is to condemn ourselves to the past. Let us be freed from that past by extracting out of ourselves those things that remind us of the past.

The bells of Balangiga, if they remain there, will always be a reminder of that fateful encounter and therefore fuels grudges and hatred. Let us do away with grudges and hatred. Return the bells to Balangiga. We will use them to call people to prayer.