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A Catholic Defends Children Witnesses

OFTEN in remote and lonely sections of the world great faith in God can be found. From one of these sections of the Cagayan Valley a report came to the Watch Tower office in Quezon City that little children had been expelled from school for alleged disrespect to the flag, to their teachers and to their parents. Help was urgently needed to settle the controversy and have the children reinstated in school.

The Society’s attorney, a Roman Catholic, sped to the scene. He took a plane from Manila to Tuguegarao. There he was joined by leading provincial school authorities, who were to conduct an administrative investigation of the complaints. After taking land transportation as far as possible, the men removed their shoes and stockings, rolled up their trousers and proceeded on foot along the muddy trail to the distant schoolhouse. Out of courtesy to the visiting attorney, a water buffalo was provided for him to ride. After walking about a kilometer, the animal refused to go farther. The attorney slipped off its back into the mud and finished the journey on foot with the others.

Teachers and children were called for the investigation. The charge was that the children had refused to salute the flag in school when ordered to do so by their teachers. For this they were accused of being disrespectful to the flag and to their teachers. Because they referred to their mothers and fathers as “brothers” and “sisters” in a spiritual sense, they were accused of being disrespectful to their parents.

The children were called upon to explain their conduct. With the Bible in hand they calmly expressed themselves against idolatry, which they recognized flag saluting to be. Never have they been intentionally disrespectful to their parents. The parents verified this. The children were dismissed from the assembly. The school officials then turned to the teachers and reprimanded them for giving false reports about innocent Christian children and ordered their reinstatement. Both attorney and school officials were amazed to see children putting up such an intelligent defense for their faith. As the attorney himself stated: “There, among simple farm folk, I found real Christian faith.”

In June, 1957, the Society’s attorney appeared before a court in the Philippines to defend and legally establish the right of the children of Jehovah’s witnesses to refuse to salute the flag, sing the national anthem and recite the pledge to the flag. He faced a courtroom filled with attorneys displeased with the position of Jehovah’s witnesses. Yet he calmly and logically presented his arguments for an hour and a half to an attentive court. This Catholic attorney concluded by saying: “Just as Catholics will defend to the death their right to refrain from eating certain foods on days of abstinence, so the witnesses of Jehovah have a right to abstain from performing an act which, to them, would bring upon them the displeasure of Almighty God.” Then he sat down.

Momentarily there was complete silence in the court. Then the Catholic judge chose to show his humility in a most impressive manner. Leaving the bench, he came down to the lawyers’ table and grasped the hand of the Society’s attorney. He said: “I may not agree with all you have said, but I certainly like the arguments you have presented. It is the most impressive speech I have heard in this court.” When the court was dismissed, the presidents of the provincial bar association and the city bar association congratulated the attorney on the arguments he gave and offered the facilities of their homes and offices as a token of their change of heart toward the position taken by parents and children of Jehovah’s witnesses.