.If Rizal wrote the retraction letter, would your perception of Rizal as Filipino martyr and hero change? Why?
Answers
Answer:
José Rizal did write the retraction letter, at this point it is pretty much dishonest to deny it. There is evidence from various sources of it, and there are many outside factors that contribute to believe he wrote it, apart from the existance of said document signed by him.
People who deny Rizal wrote it do it because they refuse to grant him even the most basic quality of humanity, they want to see him as an abstract concept made up of ideals instead of flesh, feelings and fears. He retracted because he had doubts and was afraid the night before his death as it's perfectly relatable.
The thing is Rizal wrote about many things, when you ask if that retraction invalidates what he wrote we have to make a distinction between the matters he retracted from and everything else. He retracted from his writings on the Church and Catholicism: