Below is an article by Leo Daniele on the 10th anniversary of the death of the Brazilian TFP founder who inspired the establishment of other TFPs worldwide. It first appeared in the October 2005 issue of Catolicismo magazine, São Paulo, Brasil, (No. 658).
The greatest impact occurred on the driver’s side when Prof. Plinio’s car collided with a bus on February 3, 1975, between Jundiaí and Itatiba (São Paulo). He was precisely in the front seat.
“When misfortune comes, it opens the gates,” says a Russian proverb. In other words, misfortune never comes alone. It so happened in 1975.
A man is lying on the asphalt on the road between Jundiaí and Itatiba, state of São Paulo. Nearby lay four totaled vehicles. People are seeking help to take the victim to a hospital. A car owner says he doesn’t want blood on the upholstery. Another is more explicit: This man is dying; there’s no point in doing anything.
That man was Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. He was taken to hospital with several fractures. Two days later, a sequence of surgeries began.
His opponents said he was finished; a large-circulation magazine even showed some rejoicing.
Above, photos of the same car from other angles
I remember his face just before his first surgery. Lying on his back on a hospital bed, his beard unshaven, his gaze grave and resolute, he looked like a medieval warrior.
Shortly afterward, the nurses came to take him to the operating room on a stretcher. He saw a young disciple looking a little dejected at the elevator door. “So, are we going to have our meeting on Thursday?” he says to cheer him up.
One more operation and Prof. Plinio was allowed to go home. However—another ordeal—the orthopedist prescribed immobility. The hospital-provided special bed looks like an instrument of torture: at its top, a beam with a pulley from which a weight hangs, pulling his leg with a steel cable for 60 days.
Running a nationwide campaign from a bed of pain
In this situation, he learns of a pro-divorce legislative offensive against the Brazilian family. Some believe its promoters sought to take advantage of his forced absence. They thought they would have a clear path.
They were wrong. He organized a nationwide campaign while immobile in his bed and even recorded the slogans the young campaigners would shout.
He could have said: “I’ll take care of this when I get back on my feet.” No so! The campaign took to the streets and was a success. Given the mobilization of public opinion, the anti-family offensive was defeated in Congress on that occasion.
Countering a Media Uproar
With broken limbs and unable to answer the phone or eat without help, new misfortunes came through wide-open gates. The left started a massive publicity blitz throughout the country to close down the TFP. For the eight long months of Prof. Plinio’s convalescence, the press published 1,923 attacks against the organization. However, an extensive manifesto titled “The TFP’s Self-Defense” reduced the opponents’ arguments to dust (Folha de S. Paulo, May 21-29-30, 1975).
Indeed, Prof. Plinio saw many serious misfortunes in 1975. While we only tell the general story and leave out poignant details, something particularly shines through in that accident and subsequent events.
In that situation, no one would have been surprised if Prof. Plinio had retired or reduced his combative ardor: he was 66 years old and in precarious conditions. However, he did not hesitate for a moment. He returned to the fight with determination and took it up like a giant with stellar combativeness and accuracy.
