What is the role of Pastells in Jose Rizals life?
Ah, I never thought anyone would actually ask about Fr. Pastells. Few know him, though Pastells’s exchange with Jose Rizal revealed a lot on the latter’s spirituality. Pablo Pastells was a Jesuit priest. He arrived in the Philippines on September 5, 1875, to begin his work as spiritual director at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila. Here he first met young Pepe (Rizal’s nickname), who was just 14 at that time. He became close with Pepe, as the letters indicate. Pastells might have also been Pepe’s professor, or confessor even. The Jesuits were the only religious order Rizal respected; he learned a great deal from them during his Ateneo years. However Rizal was a Mason, a freethinker. Knowing this, the Jesuits attempted to bring him back into Catholicism. This is where Pastells came in. Pastells was the local superior in Surigao when Rizal started his exile in Dapitan. They corresponed by sending each other letters (5 from Rizal, 4 from Pastells). The first letters showed Rizal explaining h
