São Paulo — 2001

Projeto gráfico e capa: Luis Guillermo Arroyave

Impressão e acabamento:

Artpress Indústria Gráfica e Editora Ltda.

Rua Javaés, 681 – Bom Retiro 01130-010 – São Paulo – SP

 

Contents

To the Reader

The Persian Gulf Crisis Predicted Decades in Advance

Twenty Million Muslims Invade Europe

Progressive Priest Recognizes Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira's Prophetic Intuition

“Collaboration” and Infiltration: Strongly Denouncing an Anti-Catholic Communist Maneuver

Castro Confirms Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s Predictions

A Mask Falls, Confirming a Denunciation

Predicting the Outbreak of WWII

The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact Confirms Legionário’s Predictions

European Unification at a Crossroads

Forty Years Predicting, Warning, Denouncing

Christendom's Twilight to Dusk: Forecasting a Painful Journey

The Attire Revolution’s Inexorably Slippery Slope

Predicting Today's Carnival Over Fifty Years Ago

*

To the Reader

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s providential political discernment stands out among the many qualities of his rich and multifaceted personality. He made countless prognoses and predictions on most varied subjects, usually coupled with timely warnings or denunciations in defense of the Church and Christian civilization. Over time, unfolding events confirmed his predictions recorded in books or published on the pages of Legionário (1929-1947), Catolicismo (1951-1995), Folha de S. Paulo (1968-1990), and other publications.

Many of these predictions seemed so improbable to his contemporaries - and sometimes even outlandish - that their fulfillment caused absolute stupor in people who knew about them. In upright souls, it caused not only amazement but also gave rise to legitimate and warm admiration.

Yet, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira was one of the most discussed and misunderstood personalities of the 20th century. Among revolutionaries of all hues, that misunderstanding often took on the character of veiled or overt hatred. At times, they expressed that hate through orchestrated campaigns of silence about him and his work, and at times through virulent attacks and media slander to present him as a person whose national and international projection was not based on solid rational foundations. He was thus the object of persecution and insult.

Therefore, nothing is more suitable than showing how few of our contemporaries possessed the vast natural and supernatural resources that Divine Providence lavished on him, making him worthy of well-deserved admiration and adhesion.

In this sense, I wrote a series of articles in Catolicismo proving how his denunciations were timely and his predictions correct concerning several events that marked the history of the 20th century. While there is still a lot to show about this matter — and I am preparing a study on this subject — several friends urged me to publish a collection of these articles (totaling twelve) to give the public a heads-up on this fascinating topic. It will help correct the distorted view that influential media sectors have circulated about Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. It will also show how logical, wise, and well-deserved is the enthusiastic adherence that members, supporters and friends of the worldwide family of souls of the TFP and related entities have given him for decades.

To present this collection, I submitted all articles to an editorial review, updating them on necessary points, grouping them by themes, ordering them in an adequate sequence for continuous reading, and suppressing repetitions, as they often were published with long intervals between them.

I unpretentiously offer this work to our readers as a tribute to the great thinker, Catholic leader and man of action whom history will undoubtedly recognize as one of the all-time great luminaries in the firmament of the Church and Christianity.[1]

Juan Gonzalo Larrain Campbell, São Paulo, December 13, 2000

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1908.

From an early age, he took a keen interest in the philosophical and religious analysis of the contemporary crisis. When still very young, he stood out for his gifts as an orator, lecturer, writer and man of action.

He was the main contributor to Legionário (1929-1947), Catolicismo (1951-1995), a weekly columnist for Folha de S. Paulo (1968-1990), and is the author of thousands of lectures and fourteen books, among which we highlight:

In Defense of Catholic Action (1943), with a preface by the then Apostolic Nuncio to Brazil, Most Rev. Benedetto Aloisi Masella, later elevated to Cardinal Camerlengo of the Holy Church. This work is a sharp analysis of the beginnings of progressive and leftist infiltration into Catholic Action. It received a warm letter of praise written in the name of Pius XII from Most Rev. G-B. Montini, then Substitute of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, and later Pope Paul VI.

Revolution and Counter-Revolution (1959) describes the crisis in the West from Humanism and the Renaissance to the present day, passing through the French Revolution and Communism. It was the subject of a laudatory letter from Most Rev. Romolo Carboni, Apostolic Nuncio to Peru, and later Nuncio to Italy.

The Church and the Communist State: The Impossible Coexistence (1963). The work was the object of a letter of praise from the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities, signed by Cardinal Giuseppe Pizzardo, Prefect of this Vatican dicastery. The letter declares that the doctrine expounded by the author is a “most faithful echo” of papal teachings.

Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility (1993). The author received expressive letters of praise from high-ranking ecclesiastical personalities and renowned intellectuals, including Silvio Cardinal Oddi, Mario Luigi Cardinal Ciappi, OP, Alfons M. Stickler, SDB, and Bernardino Echeverría Ruiz, OFM, in addition to several world-renowned theologians.

His great work as a man of action was the foundation of the Brazilian Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) in 1960. In 1980, the National Council of the TFP declared him President for life.

His essay, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, inspired the foundation of TFPs and similar organizations in 27 countries.

After his death, on October 3, 1995, to honor its founder, the Brazilian TFP National Council left the entity’s presidency vacant in perpetuity.

Catolicismo N° 478 — October 1990, p. 11

Persian Gulf Crisis Foreseen Decades Ago

Over half a century ago, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira predicted the danger that Muslim power now poses to the West

Almost all newspapers and magazines boast about publishing the hottest news of the day. A few recall some events from the past; almost none dares to "report" on the future.

“Reporting” on the future is a metaphor we employ here to indicate a correctly made prediction. When a forecast proves itself entirely correct – especially when made well in advance - it as if it “reported” on the future.

The ability to habitually make correct predictions by employing reliable methods such as logic, common sense, knowledge of the laws of human psychology and history (often with the help of divine grace) is uncommon.

The Human Intellect Has Enough Insights to Make Probable Conjectures

In this sense, the events currently (1990) taking place in the Middle East provide us with a unique opportunity to highlight one of the most admirable aspects of Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira's rich personality: his ability to predict.

In January 1959, he wrote in Catolicismo: “Let us once again, under the gaze of Mary, take up this task of measuring, weighing, and predicting. Yes, predicting. For if God usually does not reveal the future to anyone or gives anyone the ability to make infallible prognoses, He endowed man's intellect with enough fire to make probable conjectures that can serve as precious elements to guide human activities.”

Predicting the Middle East Crisis 46 Years Ago

In the pages of Legionário, then the unofficial organ of the Archdiocese of São Paulo, he warned about the problems that would come from the Muslim world: “The Muslim world has natural resources that are indispensable for Europe's supply. It will have the means necessary to disturb or paralyze the rhythm of the entire European economy at any moment. With this, it will also have the means to arm itself to the teeth.” [2]

The present crisis in the Persian Gulf is an impressive confirmation of these forecasts.

An “Illusion” Becomes Reality

That was not his only warning. Earlier in that same year, 1944, he had pointed out a moloch that was rising against the Christian West:

“The famous conference designed to bring together Arabic-speaking peoples and Muslim culture into a political whole will be held in Cairo some time from now. For now, the danger of this undertaking seems a [simple] illusion. . . However, a day will come when one will notice the very grave error Western powers have committed by consenting to the formation of this moloch right at the gates of Christendom.” [3]

1946: Neo-Arabism Will Threaten the World Machine Gun in Hand

Prof. Corrêa de Oliveira again foresaw this danger in 1946:

“It won't be long before international issues emerge, friction between a neo-Arabism holding a machine gun against a divided, anarchized, exhausted West...” [4]

1947: Not an Issue Today, But “A Serious Issue Tomorrow.”

Therefore, the issue has grown and gained in topicality:

"At the very moment when the USSR, with its satellite or slave nations, threatens the West, the appearance of this enemy [the Muslims] can only be indifferent to short-sighted politicians. For all these reasons, we are interested in and concerned about the Muslim question, which, if not entirely an issue today, is indisputably a serious issue for tomorrow.” [5]

The dynamism of this growth stems from the old Muslim dream of a unified neo-Arabism of which Nasser was a prominent spokesman. The well-known writer Servan-Schreiber reports: “A great dream inhabits him [Nasser], and he described it: ‘to unite four hundred million Muslims,' behold the gigantic role that awaits a qualified actor. The past has assigned this role to be played by us, and by us alone . . . and oil will be the sword of the world.’” [6]

Recently, a São Paulo daily reported that Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein stated that a great battle will occur and that “it is now up to all Arabs and Muslims of the world to save humanity." He added, "The Iraqis have chosen the fight and will be in the front line. We ask all Arabs to do what they can to fight the enemy” (O Estado de S. Paulo, September 6, 1990).

* * *

Given these prognoses - enunciated when powerful leaders of the West and the rest of the world could still do everything to avoid the dangers pointed out here - let us consider the current unfortunate situation. The Western world, and its Catholic populations, are relegated to neglect, blindness, and even indifference. A mysterious process of self-demolition has long eroded the Church and the once happy Christendom. Therefore, it is impossible, on the one hand, not to rebuke with indignation the blind who did not want to see the facts when predicted and still do not want to see them now as they are happening. And, on the other hand, not to thank from the bottom of one's soul the noble Catholic thinker for his foresight, courage, and intellectual and moral integrity.

“One thing is to have sight, and another to have vision,” said the famous Portuguese writer Antero de Figueiredo. The time has come to ask Our Lady of Fatima to give humanity the immense grace to no longer be guided by blind or short-sighted leaders. To obtain for us from her Divine Son the openness of soul and generosity necessary to tread the paths of truth before us, however great might be the renunciations this attitude may require.

Catolicismo, n° 524 — August 1994, p. 20

Twenty Million Muslims Invade Europe

The current penetration of Europe by huge Muslim contingents with their radically religious and anti-ecumenical character - predicted long in advance by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira – is a fact admitted today by Islamic "theologians" themselves.

"Having the future in mind is the mark of a great statesman," Talleyrand said, in a time very distant from ours when statesmen had not yet disappeared.

Where can you find public men today – politicians or clerics – who are confidently capable of drawing broad lines indicating the course of their country or one or more areas of civilization? Even less likely it would be to find one with the credentials of a long list of fulfilled predictions attesting to the authenticity of his mission.

This is precisely the case of Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. Since the 1930s, with remarkable foresight, he has predicted the Church and Western peoples' future paths as time went by. That includes even nations that do not belong to the former Christendom.

During the Persian Gulf War, we transcribed in the Catolicismo monthly journal some predictions about the Muslim danger that the President of the TFP’s National Council had made fifty years in advance.[7] Led by the impressive growth of Islamism in Europe, we now return to the theme, proving once again that, according to the concept expressed by Talleyrand, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, among other qualities, could be regarded as a great statesman.

The Rebirth of Islam

In August 1943, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira thus described the rebirth of Islam:

“The icy wind of pagan nationalism that blew over totalitarian Europe spread out to the East . . . Hence there was a revival of paganism throughout the East—insolent, oppressive, xenophobic and racist-looking paganism . . . This state of affairs is aggravated by the ever-closer project of establishing a federation of Arab States. Islam's disunity was one of the great causes of its downfall. Reuniting the Arab States will evidently mean establishing in the East another vast anti-Catholic political and ideological bloc around Islam.” [8]

With regard to events that occurred in the Near East that same year of 1943, he insisted:

“On the other hand, the Muslim danger is immense. The West seems to close its eyes, as it still keeps them half-closed to the immense yellow danger. Nowadays, everything is done with men, weapons and money. The Muslim world has an abundance of money and men. It will not be difficult for it to acquire weapons and thus become a huge power throughout the Orient – an active, fierce power, aware of its traditions, hostile to the West, and just as armed. Within some time, it could become absolutely as influential as the yellow world and placed in an incomparably better geographical and economic situation!” [9]

Europe’s New Muslim “Invasion”

Indisputably confirming Prof. Plinio’s predictions, after the 1973 oil crisis, and especially since the Khomeini Revolution, a Muslim operation of world conquest began in the name of fundamentalism.

Since 1970, some 20 million Muslims have settled in Western Europe.[10] They come mainly from North Africa, Turkey, the Balkans, Pakistan, India, and other Commonwealth countries, not to mention Bosnian Muslims.

They are roughly spread as follows. France: about 3,000,000, with more than a thousand mosques and places of worship. [11] Germany: nearly 5,000,000.[12] England: over 3,000,000, 22 mosques and 34 Islamic organizations, with the County of Bradford being the first to have a Muslim mayor.[13] Italy: they number over 2,500,000 and have built Europe’s largest mosque in Rome![14]

This penetration is of such magnitude that it would not be exaggerated to describe it as an “invasion.”

A Fundamentally Religious Rebirth

From the perspective of Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, the Muslim danger is fundamentally religious. In 1947, under the suggestive title “Children of Darkness and Children of Light,” he wrote:

“All [Muslim powers] are undergoing a truly amazing nationalist and religious rebirth. The breath of this renaissance spans the immense strip stretching from Morocco’s Atlantic coast to Pakistan. Given the religious rebirth of what we could call “Islam,” the Palestinian problem has started to interest the entire Muslim world. ....

“In turn, the struggle in helping to stimulate the pan-Arab and pan-Muslim rebirth further. Thus, events are giving Muslims around the world an increasingly clearer and keener awareness of their unity, power, and their common religious and political interests.” [15]

“You Are in the Land of Allah"

The Muslims themselves confirm these predictions:

“You are no longer in France; you are in the land of Allah! We are here to Koranize the region,” declared a Muslim representative in France (our emphasis).[16]

The preacher at the Ivry Mosque near Paris proclaimed in a sermon: “Islam started a winner and will eventually win. The victory will come from Europe.” [17] “You French,” said the leader of the Hezbollah Islamic group at the beginning of 1991,“may not yet see the Islamic republic in France. But your children and grandchildren will know it. In French, German and Belgian cities, the soldiers of Allah are waiting for the time of revenge to take action in a Europe that has humiliated us for so long!”.[18]

“Holy” War on Catholics

Radical Muslims admit they aspire to establish a new Islamic order in Spain. And once they have gained sufficient support, they will declare holy war against Catholics: “Holy War must be declared under realistic conditions, conditions that are known and well defined [in the Koran],” they said (emphasis added).[19]

At the Root of the New Invasion’s Success, Sentimental and Defeatist "Ecumenism"

The facts expounded above would never have been possible without the softening that took hold of extensive Catholic sectors in Europe already in the 1920s and 1930s. They engaged in an ecumenical, sentimental and defeatist dialogue that led to the desertion of thousands of Catholics. Prof. Corrêa de Oliveira denounced that process of apostasy since the 1930s and did so exhaustively in his 1943 book, In Defense of Catholic Action. We will cover these denunciations and their consequences on another occasion. For now, let us turn the floor over to the Muslims.

Si Hamza Boubakeur, rector of the great mosque of Paris and a highly regarded “moderate” figure of Islam in Europe — leaves no doubt about what the more “open” currents of Islam expect from dialogue with Catholics.

He claims that Muslims see “positive” signs of “conversion” among Catholics and adds, “After centuries of exaggerating, weighing and distorting true worship due to God, Christians are now enthusiastic iconoclasts . . . Their altars are ‘cleaner,’ simpler, and church walls are free of statues.” As a result of these transformations, he feels encouraged to engage in a dialogue because, as he puts it, the “Church is giving in more and more, falsely thinking that it is possible, for ephemeral reasons and with impunity, to give in on details without 'violating' God's eternal laws. Some of those whom the Church once called "God's soldiers" have in fact become deserters. .... Well then, we Muslims do not intend to compromise anything in matters of dogma and religious practices.” [20]

The Muslims' spirit of religious conquest and the betrayal of Catholics who lead a misunderstood “dialogue” with them is evident once again in this statement by a Muslim “theologian”:

“If you and yours [Westerners] respect our way of thinking and our religion, it is because it dominates you and because you lack confidence in yours. .... Well then, there can be no ambiguity for us in this field. …. When two religions face each other, it is not to compare and exchange greetings but to fight each other. This is why you will never hear that we respect your religion. .... On your part, this respect for our religion appears to be an abdication: You renounce to impose your Faith on us, but we will never renounce to expand Islam.” [21]

“Let the Myopic Bench Again Call Us Visionaries.”

In 1944, the President of the TFP National Council stated, “This rule invariably works: for the short-sighted, men of normal vision pass for visionaries. We have been often called visionaries until the overwhelming evidence of events imposed silence on many myopic people. Let the bench of the short-sighted again call us visionaries: After the war, the Muslim problem will constitute one of the most serious religious issues of our days.” [22]

The correctness of the above predictions results from Prof. Plinio’s passionate love for the Church and his consequent conception of history expounded in his magnificent essay, Revolution and Counter-Revolution.

To conclude this article, nothing seems more appropriate as a tribute to this great Catholic fighter for his providential discernment than to transcribe words the renowned canonist, Father Anastasio Gutiérrez, CMF, recently wrote about Revolution and Counter-Revolution:

“In sum,” Fr. Gutierrez states, “I would dare to affirm that this is a prophetic work in the best sense of the word. It should be taught in the Church’s centers of higher education so that at least the elite classes become fully aware of a crushing reality about which, I believe, they do not have a clear notion. This, among other things, would contribute to revealing and unmasking the useful idiots or fellow travelers, among whom are found many ecclesiastical figures, who act in a suicidal manner by playing the enemy's game; this group of idiots, allies of the Revolution, would in good measure disappear.” [23]

Catolicismo, November 1996, n° 551, p.18

Progressive Priest Recognizes Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s Prophetic Intuition

Liberation Theologian recalls TFP founder’s statement over 50 years ago that Islam would become a major problem for the future of the Church.

 

Jesuit Father João B. Libânio, a leading exponent of Liberation Theology, gave a lengthy interview about the current religious situation in the world. When asked, “what is the future of the Catholic Church?” he replied:

“In 1940, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira (founder of TFP – Brazilian Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property) gave a lecture to the Jesuits permeated with a whole messianic idea [sic!]. He said that Islam was the great problem of Christianity. [Said] fifty years ago, that was prophetic, or history was moving in that direction for other reasons. The fact is that his intuition has been confirmed.” [24]

Faced with today’s glaring advance of Islam, the Jesuit categorically acknowledges that the TFP founder’s predictions have been confirmed. We speak of “predictions” in the plural because, at that time, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira wrote about 25 articles warning Catholics about the future resurgence of the Muslim danger. For example, he stated:

“At any rate, the Muslim world is on the verge of a great religious resurrection...” [25]

Later, he wrote: “Legionário strongly insists on the importance of the 'Arab question' for the world of tomorrow led only by zeal for the Faith. . . We harbor not the least hostility toward Arabs as such. However, we fear that their growing influence will consequently augment the influence of Islam.”

Commenting on statements by Egypt’s Prime Minister on the stages required for an Arab union, the article concluded, “On this day [of the Arab Congress’ Meeting], an ‘Arab danger’ is forming at the gates of a weakened and semi-dechristianized Europe equal to or greater than at the time of Saint Pius V and the battle of Lepanto.” [26]

Father Libânio himself recognizes that Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s prophecies on the Muslim resurgence are being fulfilled. It would be interesting to find out his thoughts on the confirmation of yet another prophecy – much more serious than the previous one – which Prof. Plinio made at that same time: the resurrection of modernism would cause leftist infiltration in the Church.

Catolicismo, n° 526, October 1994, p. 9

“Collaboration” and Infiltration:

Strongly Denouncing a Communist Maneuver

Communist leaders confirm they “collaborate” with Catholics only to draw strategic advantages

During the pontificate of Pius XII, when communist infiltration in the Church seemed impossible in the eyes of a majority of the faithful, the President of the TFP National Council (TFP NC) sounded an alarm to warn Catholics about important news coming from Russia. In Moscow, the Soviet rulers had established an “Academy of Theology.” Its rector — schismatic Archbishop Popof — had been placed in charge of the Russian Church and was authorized to operate a seminary to train priests.

The two institutions were inaugurated at the end of 1946 in a solemn ceremony with the President and Vice President of the Russian Council of Ministers. They also directed “the Russian Church’s affairs.”

Figuring Out, from this Symbolic Event, a Worldwide Communist Maneuver

Discerning the telltale value of the news, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira thus denounced the Communist infiltration in the following terms through the pages of Legionário:

“All this clearly reveals the Soviet plan no longer to attack any religion frontally but rather to propagate and sell their doctrines under religious trappings.

“In other words, they are seemingly stripping communism of its atheism.

“Why this change? For sheer strategic advantage. Will this work only concerning schismatics? Obviously not. Hence it follows that communists will try to do the same with other religions. ....

“As for us Catholics, let us open our eyes. While unable to infiltrate us with the same insolence, errors are like water. Where they cannot penetrate in torrents, they enter through a thousand insidious little cracks. Of course, these cracks are nonexistent in the structure of the Holy Church. Unfortunately, however, they exist in the frail frame of our hearts . . . Both Communists and Nazis are no longer fighting the Church head-on but rather with camouflage, infiltration, and treason.

“Therefore, lay Catholics who earnestly want to be useful to the Church must shine with absolute prudence and shrewdness to undo the plots of the adversary.” [27]

The infiltration campaign initiated by Moscow could operate through people, trends, ideas, fake collaborations, etc. These means were non-exclusive and could be used simultaneously.

High-ranking communist leaders confirmed the correctness of Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s denunciation.

Captivate the Enemy to Suppress Him

In 1958, the Fides News Agency of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fidei) published a secret order the Chinese Communist Party had addressed to its members abroad on February 17, 1957. Here are some of the most significant guidelines contained in that document:

“Our comrades must find ways to penetrate the very heart of every church …. even invoking God’s help. ....

“Feigning the greatest benevolence, our organization’s activists must apply this double rule: captivate the enemy to suppress him.

“They must infiltrate all church institutions, gain the sympathy of the faithful, and thus make it possible to infiltrate the church's leadership. ....

“Every comrade in a position of leadership must fully understand this truth: the Catholic Church ... must be overthrown and completely destroyed.” [28]

Berlinguer: Catholics Have Been Conditioned by Communists

In 1975, Enrico Berlinger, then general secretary of the Italian Communist Party, publicly recognized the strategic advantages the communists had gained with their change of tactics:

“Catholic populations of all kinds are now largely oriented and conditioned... by the great policy that we started in 1943 and have consistently applied ever since. The most positive result of this policy is that with it, we educate and convince a growing number of Catholic citizens to cast a secular vote” [that is, for the communists].

“Without this policy of ours,” he continues, “how would it be understood that we communists have more than a million and a half registered members and kept growing to the point of mustering eight and a half million voters?” [29]

Carrillo: No Conversions but Apostasies

For his part, Santiago Carrillo, then secretary-general of the Spanish CP, stated:

“We have carried out a very audacious policy toward Catholics based on our strategic conviction that collaboration with them is necessary to obtain the triumph of socialism. ....

“Some comrades have asked us if the content of our ideology will not change as we collaborate with Catholics. I answered them with a question, which would seem simplistic: How many comrades do you know have become religious since we started implementing this policy? On the other hand, how many Catholics have become communists?” [30]

The Warning Went Unheeded, the Prediction Came True

The documents I cited here as a sample make it clear that the strategic policy change adopted by the Reds resulted in the desertion and apostasy of countless Catholics. They also show how Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira was right to have warned Catholics against the new communist strategy. His prediction was a cry of warning. It was ignored and came true.

Catolicismo n° 520, April 1994, p. 19

Castro Confirms Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s Predictions

‘Vietnamizing’ South America, the Communist End Game in the Falklands War

During the Falklands War, in 1982, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira sent a telegram to then Brazilian President João Batista Figueiredo, expounding the severe consequences that the Anglo-Argentine crisis could bring to our continent.[31]

He based his presentation on the expansionist intentions of communist leaders in South America, then accentuated by a mysterious Soviet naval presence in the southern seas.

After pointing out the symbolic nature of that presence and highlighting that war’s unpredictable vicissitudes would give Russia an occasion for providing military aid to Argentina and even landing troops there, the President of the TFP CN stated:

“[Should this landing take place], one must keep in mind the consequences that have unfolded in a long trail of humiliation and pain wherever Soviet troops sunk their claws. To complete this forecast, suffice it to consider in what terms this threat could materialize within the current South American panorama, specifically the current Brazilian panorama.

“The eventual clashes of Russian, Argentine and British troops would give rise to incursions into the territories of neighboring countries. Russian incursions would, of course, be favored by local communist-inspired guerrillas calling themselves ‘liberators.’ And the standard of subversion would then be unfurled in the invaded countries.

“Mr. President, all this would encourage and spur into action the communist and socialist cells that Moscow keeps alive throughout Latin America and Brazil. The 'Catholic Left' would agitate even more boldly, preaching class struggle more or less covertly while spreading inertia among non-communists (with all their tricks). Throughout Latin America, terrorism would reopen the wounds of the past through robberies, kidnappings and attacks.

“At the extremes of this macabre horizon, painful experience shows that whoever wanted to resist this aggression by the Soviet superpower would have to resort to the American superpower. The Vietnamization of Brazil and Spanish America would thus have begun” (our emphasis).

Fidel Castrol’s Confirmation

At the time, such predictions seemed exaggerated to some people. However, Fidel Castro recently confirmed them in statements published by the newspaper Ambito Financiero, of Buenos Aires (7/26/1993):

“Fidel Castro has declared that his country offered to send troops to support Argentina during the 1982 Falklands War, and suggested that all countries willing to help should form a battalion, ‘a coalition of Latin Americans.’ He explained that ‘we suggested to them not to surrender, to form a Latin American coalition, to keep the war going...’” (our emphasis).

Referring to attacks on him by President Menem, he continued: “Now that they are attacking and slandering us, it is well to recall Cuba's attitude at that time so difficult and complicated.”

Thus, eleven years later, Fidel Castro himself confirmed the communist intentions Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira had denounced. As they have not materialized, it will be up to impartial future historians to point out the root causes of this failure.

The help that Muammar Kaddaffi then gave Argentina also confirms the denunciations of the TFP NC President. It was revealed by the Sunday Times of London two years later. The Times stated that during the Falklands War, Kaddaffi secretly shipped to Argentina weapons worth more than 70 million pounds sterling, including 120 Soviet Sam-7 missiles. “Colonel Kaddaffi offered Argentina unconditional and unlimited help,” said the Libyan ambassador in Buenos Aires. “We were preparing to supply weapons for the duration of the conflict,” he added.[32]

Catolicismo n° 528 – December 1994, p. 22

A Mask Falls, Confirming a Denunciation

Progressives' damning silence about the dramatic flight of Cuban “balseros”

Given the absolute lack of indignation by progressives at the tragedy that befell the Cuban people, again manifested in the eyes of the world in 1994 as tens of thousands “balseros” escaped from the island prison, I decided to transcribe some excerpts of an article published by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in 1970. The denunciation he clearly formulated then has now become a stark reality.

I have updated the data presented in that article and apply his comments here.

Massive Escape from Hunger, Misery and Oppression

• In April 1980, fleeing poverty and looking for freedom, more than 10,000 Cubans invaded the Peruvian Embassy in Havana;

• Between April and November of that same year, 125,000 escaped through the port of Mariel heading for the United States;[33]

• Facing bad weather and rough, shark-infested seas, more than 36,000 Cuban “balseros” were rescued by the US coast guard from January to September 13, 1994;

• Of those who escaped, 26 thousand camped at the American base at Guantanamo.[34]

“Preferential Option for the Poor”? Or for Misery?

The dramatic events mentioned above are undoubtedly present in the minds of many readers.

In 1970, the President of the TFP CN issued, based on similar facts - that is, the misery resulting from socialism already tormenting the Cuban people, wrote about progressive Catholics:

“I recapitulate all this here,” he said, “not to help refresh your memory or analysis of what happened, but to invite you to take a test.

“The test consists of the following. Let my reader tell a progressive person about the picture of Cuban reality I have just sketched, and then ask what he thinks about it. From his answer, my reader will learn what he must think about that progressive person.

“It is easy to see why this test is worthwhile. Indeed, every liberal conveys an image of himself whose keynote is compassion for the poor. He claims the poor are exploited by an economic and class system he blames for every possible and imaginable injustice. The liberal wants to demolish both the system and class allegedly to restore justice and remedy the misery of the poor.”

He continues: “Those seeking to destroy the current socio-economic regime out of pity for the poor must be willing to destroy also other regimes that create and spread poverty. If poverty is the reason why liberals hate our regime, then they must hate every regime that causes poverty.

“So, dear reader, if the liberal to whom you show this article is filled with indignation about Fidel's fiasco and proposes to take measures against him and his system just like those he advocates against our current regime, this liberal genuinely wants to help the poor. Now, if he is not indignant against Castro as he is against our regime, helping the poor is clearly not his goal. It is only a pretext.”

Referring to a public appeal to their bishops by 300 Argentine Catholics asking them to break their inexplicable silence and misrepresentations and speak out on terrorist clergy adhering to the so-called Third World, the President of the TFP CN concluded:

“Across our borders, I send these brave brothers in the Faith a piece of advice. Tell your bishops that if they have any doubts about the ulterior motives of liberal progressives multiplying in their sacristies, let them verify how the latter stand on Fidel Castro, the sinister producer of poverty on the island of Cuba. Those who react against Fidel's evils and sharpen their claws against him may be recoverable because they are moved by a Christian sentiment. The others — it hurts to say it — are gone past the limit in which conversion is often a rare miracle of grace. ...

“Who, among progressive circles, has so far attacked Castro for the generalized poverty in Cuba? Let the reader pay attention to their many unctuous and uncomfortable silences and conclude for himself. For example, why does Bishop Helder Camara—always so talkative—not speak up?” [35]

Despite the publication of this article-denunciation, many clergymen remained silent on the issue of poverty in Cuba. Others even scandalously supported the Havana communist chieftain and his unjust regime. In so doing, they made it clear that their “preferential option for the poor” is a mere pretext to denigrate our current regimes based on private property and free enterprise.

“Dearest Fidel,” “Passion for Freedom,” Admiration for the “Revolutionary Ideal”

To give concrete examples of the above statements, let us recall a few developments:

a) On the thirtieth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, the then Cardinal-Archbishop of São Paulo, Most Rev. Paulo Evaristo Arns, addressed Fidel Castro a letter calling him “dearest Fidel.” At one point, the letter says: “We all know with how much heroism and sacrifice the people of your country managed to resist external aggressions and [tackle] the immense challenge of eradicating poverty, illiteracy and chronic social problems.” [36]

b) Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, President of the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace, after an interview with Castro in Cuba, commented that it was “a very cordial interview, man to man, without beating around the bush. We share the same passion for man, for his dignity, for his freedom”! [37]

c) Shortly afterward, Bishop Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Secretary of the Cuban Episcopal Conference (CEC), said that he admired “the energy, the tenacity with which [Castro] consecrates himself to the revolutionary ideal.” [38] The final document of the Cuban National Ecclesial Meeting (ENEC), held in the Cuban capital in 1986, stated that Marxist society “has made serious efforts to promote essential rights.” [39]

d) According to Frei Betto, “the Church of Cuba is now experiencing a new Pentecost.” [40]

Judging an Unfortunate Journey

By acting in this way, today's progressives confirm the severe but correct judgment that Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira made about their direct precursors since the 30s and 40s in the pages of Legionário and his prophetic book, In Defense of Catholic Action. He denounced the early tendencies in so-called reformer Catholic circles to open up to the revolutionary world and showed how they opposed Church doctrine.

Today’s progressive leaders, continuing on their sad journey, are dropping the masks that so favored communist maneuvers around the world. Above all, they are giving up their claim as “defenders of the poor.” [41]

Catolicismo n° 530 - February 1995, p. 11

Predicting the Outbreak of World War II

On the seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of World War II, the correctness of Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s analyzes in the years that preceded the conflict compels lucid spirits to assume a position of vigilant distrust of atheist and optimistic pacifism.

 

On this anniversary of the end of the Second World War, it is opportune to recall the analyzes in which Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira announced, years in advance, the war that would devastate humanity.

“Brazil’s Mission in the Approaching War”

In 1935, writing about the ethnic harmony reigning in Brazil (as opposed to racial conflicts elsewhere), the TFP founder predicted the outbreak of worldwide hostilities:

“Our historic mission,” he said, “is to maintain in this world, which is facing a universal conflagration, an oasis of peace within our borders. Thus, we will help to prevent the spread of evil, which is war” (our emphasis).[42]

The Word “Peace” Covers War Designs

In July 1936, he denounced the misuse of the word peace: “The masters of international politics never forget the word ‘peace.’ But they pronounce it only keeping an eye on the armaments they possess and may come to possess. Thus, ‘peace’ is always surrounded by a burning atmosphere, rich in fire mouths, gases and other objects that will hardly allow it to last for long” (our emphasis).[43]

“A World War Is Knocking at the Door”

In 1936, after emphasizing that the primordial mission of any State is to fight for the Faith and civilization, he stated: “Europe and North American States are grappling with tremendous problems. A global deluge will soon come, and only the blind can dispute it. A world war is knocking at the gates of Western civilization.” [44]

Brazil's Growing Importance Given the Coming Conflict

One year later, analyzing the growing interest Brazil had aroused in the European and American press after 1934, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira asked, “Why is there so much difference between 1937 and 1934?” And he replied: “The reason is obvious. The specter of a great war draws ever closer to the tormented contemporary world. With that, Brazil grows in importance because it is an inexhaustible granary of resources of all kinds” to supply fuel, food, etc., which can turn it into an important ally.[45]

An Arms Race Prepares the Conflagration

Enter the year 1938. Analyzing the situation with the same criteria, the President of the TFP NC insists on the proximity of war:

“Given these premises, it is very easy to understand the reason for all the colonial struggle raging around the contemporary world.

“Ultimately, the arms race that leads all nations to multiply their armaments as quickly as possible is but one more episode in the preparation of the future war. Piling up weapons and training men is not enough. It is necessary mainly to prepare ammunition and supplies.” [46]

The Outbreak of War Will be Inevitable

When then British Prime Minister Chamberlain — a genuine English Kerensky who always supported giving in some not to lose all (rather than fighting) — traveled to Germany to meet with Hitler, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira analyzed the event as follows:

“As much as they try to prevent the general public from having a clear view of all the consequences of the latest negotiations at Berchtesgarden [Hitler's country house in Bavaria], everything suggests that, if the specter of war is really removed by virtue of the Hitler-Chamberlain meeting, the conflagration will not properly be averted but postponed.”

After describing the Führer’s and his Nazi followers’ state of mind, he stated, “If a nation wants everything and other nations either do not want or cannot give everything away, for a war to break out is only a matter of days or months, but it is bound to explode. When will it explode? Tomorrow? In six, ten, twelve, or twenty-four months? We do not know. But as long as Hitler is in power, it will be inevitable.” [47]

A week later, the TFP founder argued: “It is true that the policy of Messrs. Chamberlain and [then French Prime Minister] Daladier have postponed the war? In this regard, let Catholics think as they like. In my opinion, the war has been postponed for a few days. But this more than precarious peace has been bought at an outrageous price, and the French-English retreat reveals astonishing myopia.” [48]

World War II was declared eleven months later, in early September 1939.

The Crossroads of Today’s Optimists

May these facts open the eyes of many who have ignored or pretended to ignore the countless warnings and denunciations that the well-known Catholic writer has made throughout his life with admirable insight.

If our contemporaries do not seriously convert to the one true Church — the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church –  let them not be surprised when Prof. Corrêa de Oliveira’s much more insistent and radical predictions come true. He foresaw an event immensely more terrible than the Second World War, the universal cataclysm Our Lady prophesied at Fatima if humanity pursues in its apostasy from the Catholic Faith. This apostasy is materializing more and more radically as time goes by.

When Chamberlain returned to London after one of his defeatist meetings with Hitler, and the English people welcomed him back with delirious optimism, Churchill challenged Chamberlain: “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, and you will have war.”

Paraphrasing Churchill, on the verge of possible and sudden catastrophes, we address a warning to today’s optimists: if you do not change your senseless and blind position at the pivotal moment that is approaching, the future will tell you, “To avoid a catastrophe, you were given a choice between apostasy and a return to the Faith. You chose apostasy, and catastrophe has swallowed you!”

Catolicismo n° 532 - April 1995, p. 22

The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact Confirmed Legionário’s Predictions

Contrary to the news the international media spread before World War II about the visceral incompatibility between Nazism and Communism, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira systematically denounced the ideological and political similarity between both regimes. The signing of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact in 1939 was a spectacular confirmation of this providential political insight. 

One of Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s most spectacular prognoses was his anticipated denunciation that a pact between Nazi Germany and Communist Russia was in the making.

Communism or Nazism, a False Dilemma

To better understand the scope of this prediction, the reader should consider, albeit briefly, some aspects of the political-religious situation at the time.

In the 1930s, democracies in Europe and elsewhere were corroded by liberalism, which led to growing social and political disintegration. In this context, so-called right-wing totalitarianism began to appear on the international scene. In different iterations, it was presented as a panacea to counter anarchy and, at the same time, as the only bastion that opposed the expansion of Soviet communism. Nazism was the maximum expression of this trend.

The prestige Hitler achieved in Germany and abroad was largely because the media advertised him as the great adversary of communism.

For world public opinion, and particularly for Catholics, that posed a false alternative: choosing communism (something unacceptable at a happy time when the Church formally condemned collaboration between Catholics and Communists) or somehow joining Nazism or its counterparts.

At that time dire junction for the Church and Christian civilization the future TFP founder forcefully denounced totalitarian “saviors” as a false solution to the communist threat. He did so with foresight, shrewdness, and courage, based on his solid Faith and consistent adherence to Catholic doctrine. The solution, he always insisted, is found in the only true Savior, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the teachings of His Holy Church.

It is not our intention to show here Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s systematic opposition against Nazism and Communism, which he denounced since the early 1930s, showing how both shared similar doctrines and methods of action.[49]

The Far-fetched German-Russian Pact

Our purpose here is to show a few samples of his denunciations about the converging Nazi-Communist paths, something that at the time seemed absolutely unlikely even for supposedly very lucid minds.

Quite symptomatic in this sense are these lines published by the French magazine Historama in 1975: “Public opinion was traumatized in August 1939, when the signing of the German-Soviet alliance pact, a triumph of Berlin’s diplomacy, became known in France and Great Britain. .... In 1939, the German-Soviet pact surprised Western diplomacy.” [50]

If French and English public opinion were traumatized and Western diplomats were surprised, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira was neither. Nor was the staff of Legionário, the journal he directed.

Hitler's Economic Aid to Stalin

In October 1937, the German government ordered the Church to save wine and wheat as much as possible. Both are essential for the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the communion of the faithful. Commenting on that development, Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira raised some early suspicions that later led him to conjecture about the German-Russian pact. He wrote:

“While eeking miserable and insignificant savings from divine worship (trifles that are even demeaning to those who demand them), Hitler’s government has opened large credit lines ... and lent money to the Russian government. Thus, it spends on mere mortals the money it refuses to God’s worship and, even worse, supplies it to the very enemies of civilization.” [51]

Germany and Russia Resume Diplomatic Relations

In August 1938, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira sharpened readers' distrust of the German-Soviet understanding:

“Simultaneously with the turmoil caused by German-Czech tension, two crucial events took place.... The first was the resumption of diplomatic relations between Germany and Russia, which used to be frequent and have become regular. Moscow now has its Aryan ambassador, as does Berlin, a Russian ambassador....

“Here is the truth: while Hitler preaches against communism and presents himself as the defender of European civilization against this evil, his attitude toward the Soviet government fundamentally differs from this propaganda. Despite all his inflammatory speeches, he has been making many interested and friendly offers to Moscow.” [52]

“In Our View, 1939 Will See the Consummation of This Merger.”

On January 1, 1939, the founder of the TFP foretold in a way that can be described as prophetic: “Indeed, while all fields are defined, an increasingly clear movement takes place. It is the doctrinal fusion of Nazism and Communism. In our view, 1939 will see the consummation of this merger.” [53]

The events spectacularly confirmed this prediction.

On the other hand, commercial relations between Nazi Germany and openly leftwing Mexico developed more and more, fortifying the grounds for distrust raised by the distinguished Catholic thinker.

Ideological Affinity of Totalitarianism on Both Left and Right

On May 14, 1939, the Legionário director stated, “The most curious note in last week's news was the persistent rumors of a German-Russian rapprochement.

“At first glance, this version has strong possibilities against it. ... Given the spectacular campaign that Nazism and Communism wage against each other, it would be pretty surprising for the two to reconcile.

“Less superficial observers, however, do not consider this hypothesis so far-fetched.

“First of all, no averagely educated person can deny the existence of full ideological affinity between totalitarianism and communism.”

After substantiating that statement with numerous facts, he concluded:

“Germany is National Socialist. Russia is becoming nationalist without ceasing to be communist. Weigh the words well: what difference is there between 'socialist nationalism' and 'communist nationalism'?” [54]

Three months later, on August 23, 1939, the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact was signed—a resounding confirmation of the predictions of Legionário’s director. Nine days later, with Russian approval, Hitler invaded Catholic Poland, starting World War II.

The Pact between Nazism and Communism Amazed Many People

Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s fearless denunciation of Nazi-Communist affinity earned him the hatred of revolutionaries of all stripes and incomprehension and shameless silence from so-called moderates. Thus, quite understandably, proud of the stand taken by its director, Legionário challenged his irreducible opponents by highlighting how correct his predictions were. That was precisely one of the points that aroused the most hatred (although Legionário always argued in a gentlemanly way).

Thus, in its January 14, 1940 issue, this caption appears under a photograph:

“A historic handshake — The signing of the pact between Nazism and Communism has astonished large numbers of people. Many readers were surprised at the smiles and affectionate cordiality in the handshake (above) between Ribbentrop and Stalin shortly after the agreement was signed. However, Legionário had foreseen that event a long time in advance.” [55]

Italy's Position Was Also Foreseen

In June 1940, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira wrote:

“By entering the war on Germany's side, Italy has confirmed all of this journal’s predictions...”

Referring to the propaganda that Mussolini's government had made a year earlier against democracies because of their links with the Soviets, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira continues:

“On that occasion, the Legionário already posited the inconsistency of the struggle between right-wing and left-wing totalitarianism. According to this journal’s forecasts, a day would come when facts would demonstrate this thesis, and the world would witness an alliance of both ideologies. Finally, since the Ribbentrop-Stalin was signed, reality has fully confirmed our point of view.” [56]

Master and Guide of the Counter-Revolution

In later conversations and meetings, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira often alluded to his combative denunciations in the pages of Legionário. The one reported in this article is one of the most remarkable because it was highly improbable for men of little Faith.

It is therefore with special joy that we draw up these lines for the readers of Catolicismo — which carries on the torch of Legionário — about the TFP founder’s glorious past, highlighting once again the providential political discernment with which the Blessed Virgin endowed him from his youth, making him today’s undisputed Master and Guide of the Counter-Revolution.

Catolicismo n° 574 - October 1998, p.10

European Unification at a Crossroads

Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira expounded on this burning issue nearly half a century ago. Either the European Union happens authentically, in the footsteps of Charlemagne and under the influence of the Catholic Church, or it will be a revolutionary and secular stage in the construction of the Universal Republic.

Much has been said about the formation of the United States of Europe. An important step in this direction is the January 1, 1999 introduction of the euro as a single currency in the 11 countries that make up the European Economic Community so far.[57]

Many readers will wonder what to think about the European Union from the point of view of Catholic doctrine. Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira broadly answered that question nearly 50 years ago when commenting on Pope Pius XII's address to the leaders of the Universal Movement for a World Confederation on April 6, 1951.[58] He delved into more details in the article titled “A Federação Européia à luz da doutrina católica” [The European Federation in the Light of Catholic Doctrine], published in Catolicismo (no. 14, February 1952). Given the present relevance of the topic, let us recall his thoughts expressed in these articles.

European Federation: A Historical Landmark

In an article in Catolicismo in August 1951, he stated: “One of the most important dates of this century is undoubtedly that of the Paris meeting in which representatives of France, Italy, West Germany, and the small powers of the Benelux group — Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg — decided, in principle, to establish the European Federation by forming a single entity of public international law, and, consequently, a common government to be added as a superstructure to the various national governments.”

A Plan that Seemed Utterly Unfeasible

He continues: “Before the last world war, someone who conceived such a plan for the 21st century would pass for a dreamer. Anyone who thought it was viable for our days would be seen as mentally retarded. Europe was still aglow with the Franco-German hatred that had brought about the conflict of 1914-1918 and was to play an important role in the outbreak of the 1939-1945 conflagration. All European nations, bursting with their own cultural and economic life, their souls still marked by resentments, ambitions, and rivalries inherited from Modern Times, seemed incapable of inclusion in a political whole, however broad and loose it might be. That made necessary the tragedy of the Second World War and the consequent dismantling of the economy of European nations so that, when their cultural life ran out of breath, unitary doctrines would find favorable ground, making the plan of a European Federation viable.”

Glorious Nations Disappear

After showing the scope of establishing the United States of Europe, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira continues:

“That is what the Italian premier [Alcide de Gasperi] clearly expressed and has just been decided in Europe. From now on, there will no longer be the abysses that existed until now between France and Germany, Italy and Holland, etc., but only an almost exclusively administrative demarcation line like those between Ohio and Massachusetts, Rio and São Paulo, or Lucerne and Fribourg.

“As one can see, this is a huge development. These nations are disappearing after having filled the world and history with the radiance of their glory ... and a new Federal-State is emerging whose future is not easy to predict.”

Authentic Unification and Revolutionary Unification

The TFP founder says that the European Federation would not be a novelty, as Emperor Charlemagne, under the influence of the Church, had catalyzed the unity factors taking shape in Europe in the early Middle Ages.

Among other outstanding achievements, Charlemagne was able to bring the temporal order in line with the Church and to defend Christendom against aggressors.

Therefore, it is a question of knowing what true unification consists of and verifying the dangers it runs if inspired by the spirit of the Revolution. That is what Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira expounds below:

“What to Think of the European Federation?

“In principle, we see that the Church does not limit itself to allowing but wholeheartedly favors international superstructures as long as they propose a legitimate end. In essence, therefore, the idea of​​bringing European peoples together in a well-constructed political whole is worthy of applause.

“But approving the idea in principle is one thing, and approving it unconditionally, whatever its practical applications, is something else. This unconditionality is out of bounds.

“We live at a time of brutal statization. Everything is centralized, planned, artificialized, tyrannized. If the European Federation takes this path, it will deviate from the very wise norms given by Pope Pius XII in his speech to the leaders of the international movement in favor of a World Federation.” [59]

Not a Devouring Hydra, But a Protectress of National Independence

Delving deeper into the topic in an article of February 1952, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira warns:

“First of all, we must make people aware that the Church opposes the disappearance of so many nations to form a single whole. Within a supranational structure, each nation can and must remain alive and defined with its limits, territory, government, language, customs, law, and its own way of being. ... Germany is a nation, France another, Italy another.

“God created a natural order in which a nation is an indestructible reality. Thus, if someone tried to melt these nations as if casting fine jewelry into a crucible to transform it into a massive, inexpressive and vulgar gold nugget, he would certainly not be acting according to God’s designs.

“Thus, if the European Federation takes this path, it will be more of an evil than a good. It must be the protector of national independence and not a nation-devouring hydra. Federal authorities must exist to supplement national governments' action in some supranational interest issues, but never to eliminate them. Their action can never aim at suppressing national characteristics of soul and culture, but rather to strengthen them as much as possible. ...

“On the other hand, economic structures must not be planned so rigidly as to entail super-socialization. If socialism is evil, its transposition to the super-state level can only be an even greater evil.”

The Secular European Federation, a Forerunner of the Universal Republic?

He concludes his remarks by expressing the fear that the much-touted unification is a big step toward the Universal Republic:

“Finally, allow us to make a very frank statement. No society, be it domestic, professional, recreational, a State, a Federation of States, or a World Empire, can produce stable and lasting fruits if it officially ignores the Man-God, the Redemption, the Gospel, the Law of God, the Holy Church, and the Papacy. Some of its fruits may occasionally be good. But if they are good, they will not be durable, and if they are bad, they will be all the more durable and harmful.

“What could one not expect if the European Federation placed itself in the shadow of the Church and were inspired, animated, and enlivened by Her? What to expect from it if it ignores the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ?

“Yes, what to expect from it? There will be some good fruits, which should be recognized and protected in every way. But there are grounds to expect other fruits. Now, if they are bitter fruits, how much we can fear to be drawing closer to the Universal Republic, which Freemasonry has been preparing for so many centuries?” [60]

* * *

Someone once expressed to Talleyrand a desire to found a religion. The celebrated diplomat answered: “As far as I am concerned, I have only one observation to make: To found his Religion, Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected. Try doing as much.”

Paraphrasing Talleyrand, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira could say to the planners of European unification: “As far as I am concerned, I have only one observation to make: as such, unification is not a novelty. It was done first by Charlemagne. Try being other Charlemagnes and doing as much.”

 

Charlemagne, a providential man

Charlemagne, engraving by Albert Dürer. The famous German artist depicted with admirable precision what history tells about the great Emperor’s personality. His countenance expresses strength, power, the habit of dominating. However, his force is not born from a brutal, overflowing, and effervescent temperament but from a high sense of the rights of good. His power is more in his soul than in his weapons. He is majestic and yet full of kindness. There is something sacred in his whole person. He is the providential man who established the Kingdom of Christ in the temporal order and laid the foundations of Christian civilization. He is the Emperor the Pope invested with the apostolic mission of being the champion of Faith par excellence. Charlemagne was the first to achieve the secular unity of Christian Europe.

Catolicismo, no. 481 - January 1991, p. 49

40 Years Predicting, Warning, Denouncing

In the pages of Catolicismo, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira denounces Christendom’s inexorable, stage-by-stage demolition but announces the dawn of the Kingdom of Christ.

A vigilant and provident Catholic man has to face many a bitter moment. Moved only by a desire for the glory of God, he must predict and denounce, without human respect, that which, out of softness, self-indulgence, and even betrayal, almost no one wants to see. He often faces contempt, silence, hatred, and even slander from opponents and rarely reaps applause even from beneficiaries of his work. Such is the case with Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. By way of example, we transcribe here some comments he made over the last 40 years, predicting major events that marked the second half of the 20th century.

Iron Curtain: An Obstacle to Be Dismantled to Form the United States of Europe

They just celebrated the first anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain. We all remember how the media presented this event worldwide as totally unexpected, a massive surprise of 1989. However, it was predicted almost twenty years in advance!

In 1971, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira commented on statements by communist leader Giorgio Amendola at the Italian Communist Party’s Central Committee: “Hence, Amendola hopes that Western Europe, led by governments issued [from] the [1973] elections, can greatly accelerate the formation of the United States of Europe and inaugurate a collective security system that supersedes the Iron Curtain. That would imply — I comment — expelling Americans from the continent, putting an end to the Iron Curtain, and merging the forces of Western and Eastern Europe into one whole.” [61]

Recent events such as Gorbachev's travels proposing the “European Common House” from the Atlantic to the Urals, at the meeting of the European Security Council held last November, and the end of military blocs with the disarmament of European nations, also corroborate the correctness of his prediction.

Communist China in the UN

Referring to statements by Most Rev. Helder Camara (the “Red Archbishop”) asking for Communist China’s admission to the United Nations, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira warned about the scope and consequences of this fact: “This would constitute a huge diplomatic victory for the Beijing regime. All the more so as, in principle, the entry of Communist China into the UN will mean the exclusion of Nationalist China, whose government, headquartered in Taiwan, is rightly regarded as the legitimate representative of the Chinese people in that international organization.” [62]

In 1971, Communist China replaced Nationalist China in the UN General Assembly and, consequently, in the Security Council.

Portuguese Africa

The dismantling of European colonial empires, such as the Portuguese, was another development that marked the second half of the 20th century. About this, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira warned:

“It is easy to see how anti-colonialism brings with it many other issues, such as the permeability of former colonies to communist influence and the resurrection of an aggressive and exacerbated paganism. ....

“This applies to the emancipation of Portugal's overseas territories. ... However, one cannot treat the [independence] question as if it posed no serious risk that, left to itself, the whole of Portuguese Africa will be subject to the same ferment that has disgraced the Congo and Cameroun” [63]

Fourteen years later, the mentors of the ill-fated “Carnation Revolution” handed the Portuguese colonies over to communist guerrilla movements, casting those new nations — supposedly freed from colonialism — into poverty and fratricidal struggle under newly-established Marxist regimes.

“There Is a Method in This Madness”

Today’s unfolding events present entirely contradictory situations. Now you open the newspaper, and the latest news from the Persian Gulf crisis makes you expect at any moment some military action that could trigger chemical or atomic war or become a new world conflict. Now, the great powers hold multiple summits, and fascinating promises of world peace appear to come from the optimistic lips of George Bush and the enigmatic lips of Gorbachev.

Is this whole state of affairs a result of mere chance?

Twenty-five years ago, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira showed there was a method in the madness of the contemporary political situation:

“How often peaceful coexistence between West and East has seemed definitively assured on the international level! How many times has world peace seemed hopelessly compromised! From extreme optimism to extreme pessimism, in its irregular and capricious zigzag, the march of diplomacy, always unexpectedly, has at times filled with hope and at other times with anguish this great heart that world opinion somehow constitutes. ....

“Hence, given the erratic course of events, the question is: which direction will this heart take? Who can say it! The sole indisputable effect of this satanic zigzag, unpredictable in all its movements, is the complete brutalization of Western opinion. ...

“No one disputes that a new war would be not only the subversion of all public life but of all private lives as well. This possibility, which influences, conditions and keeps everything more or less in suspense, now comes closer, now moves away. No one knows for sure if he will be relaxing and enjoying normality or be engulfed in apocalyptic nuclear war along with his businesses, assets, and family in a few months or a year. If each person wanted to place himself very clearly in front of this undeniable reality, it would blunt his fear, hope, and his very instinct of self-preservation.

“Such a state of mind would make his senses unable to react correctly. At first, he would become exaggeratedly excited about everything. Then he would fall into profound atony that would pass from his nerves to his intellect.

“Life or death, truth or error, good or bad, beauty or ugliness…what does it matter? What counts is to vegetate calmly, enjoying the modest pleasure of breathing in the present minute, feeling normal blood circulation and digestion, and, bewildered, let all else follow its course as long as nothing disturbs the strictly vegetative stillness of the passing moment. ....

“Now, then, what is to decay from human to vegetative life if not going from human being to a brute being?....

“Classic Damocles was seated on a throne, enjoying the honors and delights of power. Modern man is a prosaic Damocles sitting on a three-legged chair eaten by pestering insects of petty personal concerns. His only relief is to hope that a bouquet of roses falls on his head rather than a hydrogen bomb. One could not imagine a better technique to blunt, brutify and degrade by slow fire. ....

“If this pandemonium keeps going for a few more years, inevitably it will lead to general brutishness, decay of human standards, and a decline in the entire West’s ability to resist, fight and win, both on the ideological level and the military sphere. All our vital energies are dwindling as if affected by a pestiferous wind. In a few more years, we will perhaps be ripe to accept without resistance some immense surprise, some shameful, sudden, and complete surrender.

“It seems pretty clear that 'there is a method in the madness' of our political situation.” [64]

The Kingdom of Christ

The predictions and denunciations cited here point to a constant advance of the Revolution toward the total destruction of what remains of Christendom.

Is the inexorable annihilation of Christendom the ultimate end of our era? Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira answers this question in the inaugural issue of Catolicismo in an article titled “The Crusade of the 20th Century.” He writes: “This is our purpose, our great ideal. We are heading toward the Catholic civilization that could be born from the rubble of today’s world, just as medieval civilization was born from the rubble of the Roman world. We move toward conquering this ideal with the courage, perseverance and resolution to face and overcome all obstacles with which the Crusaders marched on Jerusalem. Our elders were ready to die to recover the Sepulcher of Christ. So how would we — children of the Church like them — be unwilling to fight and die to restore something worth infinitely more than the most precious Sepulcher of the Savior, that is, His reign over souls and society, which He created and redeemed to love Him eternally?” [65]

Catolicismo n° 521 - May 1994, p. 10

Christendom’s Twilight to Dusk: Forecasting a Painful Itinerary

In 1946, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira pointed out the crumbling of civilization toward ultimate disorder as an irreversible outcome of the abandonment of Christian civilization.

For many people, even superficial monitoring of TV news nationally and internationally, reading daily newspapers, or simply observing events around us suffice to awaken the notion that everything in the world we live in is coming apart. One sees monstrous crimes, arbitrary violence, rampant and unbound immorality, which inevitably destabilizes families. Corruption pervades public institutions at all levels. All these are symptoms of a crumbling civilization that anyone not totally stunned by this chaos can see. Disturbing questions arise in people’s minds: what has happened for us to have reached this point? What kind of future awaits us?

Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira answered these questions when he assessed the world situation more than half a century ago.

“I think,” he asserted, “that no principle in the entire Old Testament is closer to the Legionário‘s views on civilization in general and Christian civilization in particular than that of the psalmist: ‘Unless the Lord build the city, they labor in vain that build it.’ [66] Pius XI wrote that Christian civilization is the only civilization truly worthy of the name. This truth is fundamental for us, born in the glory and holiness of the last glows of this civilization. A civilization that slowly crumbles as the tragedy of this immense spiritual twilight unfolds before our desolate eyes. It does not fall to give way to another order of things, perhaps less good, but to end any order. The steel and cement society emerging everywhere is not a new order. It is the methodization and systematization of the ultimate disorder. Order is the arrangement of things according to their nature and purpose. All things are gradually turning against their nature and purpose. ...

“This age of steel will last until the inner forces of disintegration become so vehement that they will no longer even tolerate the organization of evil. Then it will be the final explosion. There will be no other outcome if we continue on this march. For us baptized Christians, no compromises are possible. We either return to Christian civilization, or we will end up with no civilization at all. There are passing stages between the solar fullness of Christian civilization and an absolute vacuum and utter destruction. However, there is no land on which to build anything durable.

“Of course, we are not fatalists. If a suicidal person can repent when falling from a bridge into a river, so too can humanity repent, amend and resurrect in the remaining stretch from its current state to destruction. Providence stalks us in every curve of this last and most profound spiral. For us, it is a question of listening diligently to Its saving voice.

“For us, this voice makes itself heard in the multiple and terrible lessons of events.

“Everything these days speaks of disintegration. Divine punishment is smoking around us. We are at the providential moment when--taking advantage of this little breath that peace gives us--we can learn from the past and prepare for this future that we are approaching with terror.

“‘Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts.’ [67] That is the advice of Scripture. So let us open our hearts wide to the hard lesson of the facts. We have to examine the present world coldly, realistically, with inexorable objectivity, probing its wounds one by one, immersing our minds in the contemplation of its disasters and pains because God speaks to us through all these trials. To be fully optimistic facing them is to close one’s ears to the voice of God.” [68]

Chaos and Affliction: Precursor Signs of the Great Punishment?

The world clearly failed to choose the paths of Christian civilization, which the distinguished columnist pointed out as the only real solution. So, it is worth asking -- forty-eight years after the publication of his text—what direction the events will take.

Everything indicates that blind humanity continues advancing towards the divine punishment predicted in the article cited. Almost everything today reflects chaos and affliction--precursor signs of the great disorder. However, after those regenerating sufferings, one must keep in mind that at Fatima, Our Lady prophesied in a maternal and consoling way: “Finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

Restoration of Order, a Fruit of the Restoration of Elites

Running counter to these evils and trials, a luminous cry of hope echoes across the world: the recent book by the President of the TFP NC, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility. [69] In a message addressed to participants in the book’s launching in Washington, DC, Cardinal Silvio Oddi stated, “The timing to Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s book . . . could not be more providential. What better way is there to make Christian civilization shine again than to summon the elites, champions of true progress and guardians of Tradition, evoking the teachings and speeches of Pope Pacelli...which Corrêa de Oliveira comments on so masterfully with his penetrating erudition? Your participation in this seminar is historic. In a very real sense, your nation's future rests in your hands. Because the principles set out in Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites are perennial and should serve as a beacon for any genuine civilization.” [70]

We close these lines asking Our Lady of Fatima to enlighten us to hear and understand the voice of God through the trials that surround us and obtain the insight needed to fight with zeal as ardent as Saint Elias’ for the restoration of authentic elites to establish Christian civilization.

Catolicismo n° 522 - June 1994, p. 23

The Attire Revolution’s Inexorably Slippery Slope

Events have confirmed moral corruption’s victorious march toward nudism, which Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira denounced decades ago.

In the previous article, we showed the foresight with which Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira predicted, already in the 1940s, the crumbling of civilization toward a systematization of contemporary disorder. One of the most important aspects of this crumbling is the march of fashions and moral corruption toward nudism.

To better understand some of the causes of the flood of immorality swamping today’s world, we present below, in very general terms, Prof. Corrêa de Oliveira’s description of the genesis of corruption and his prediction of the consequences to which it would lead.

“Graduality,” a Crafty Rule in the Escalation of Immorality

“Today,” he wrote in 1956, “we wish to highlight one of the essential principles of the West’s sad itinerary from its Christian cultural and social traditions toward total paganism, to which it is already so close.

“It is the principle we would call ‘graduality.’ Corruption has not taken leaps in its long victorious march. Instead, it knew how to progress through stages so imperceptible that no one, along the way, paid attention to the slippage of ideas, customs and fashions. Thus, in a docile fashion, humanity has come a very long way.”

After analyzing the “evolution” of women's swimwear from 1830 to 1920, the author asks: what would the 1920's bathers say “if they could see how they or their daughters and granddaughters would bathe in the sea or swimming pools in 1956? This preview would probably have elicited a healthy reaction in them. But since no one anticipated such excesses, fashion continued its course. In 1956, we can fairly ask: how will things be in 1986?” [71]

Consistent with his thinking, nearly twenty years later, the President of the TFP NC stated, “I was about ten years old when I witnessed the first major move in the clothing revolution now reaching its peak.” After applying the principle of graduality to the decay of women's clothing, he wrote, “The clothing revolution has been much more direct in terms of bathing suits...in a cadence that has seen few and irrelevant hesitations, fashion has even reached the bikini.

“Was the bikini the inspiration and precursor of the two-piece dress?

“At any rate, from the bikini and two-piece dresses, how far will things go?” [72]

Socialism, Sexual Freedom, and Nudism

The previous year, analyzing with luminous foresight the sexual immorality prevailing in Sweden, then ruled by a socialist government, he himself had answered that question. A member of the Swedish Parliament had introduced a bill to establish a state monopoly on prostitution. Another representative proposed the “official recognition of marriages between three, four, five or six people, parties being interchangeable.” Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira wrote: “This subject is interesting in that these episodes of Swedish life highlight traits of soul inherent in the wave of socialism and sexual freedom sweeping the entire world... and also penetrating Brazil.

“A characteristic expression of the magnitude of this phenomenon is the measure taken by Monaco’s authorities, who have just allowed nudism on the beaches.

“Is that a strictly Monegasque development? Who could claim that! If the bikini has already spread all over the world and it is manufactured even by the hands of nuns [see attached table], who can close their eyes to the fact that we will have, sooner or later, monokini and then total nudity?” [73]

Eloquently confirming the prediction above, the magazine Veja of January 12, 1994, with the subtitle “Thousands of Brazilians Take Their Clothes Off on Nudist Beaches and Sites,” reports:

“Last week, 400 vacationers lay in the sun on the 500 yards of Pinho Beach in Santa Catarina. All naked. The scene was repeated on four other Brazilian beaches: Tambaúba, in Paraíba, Praia Brava and Olho de Boi, in Rio de Janeiro, and Pedras Altas, also in Santa Catarina. Together, the five beaches add up to eight miles. In two farms in the interior of São Paulo, 67 families usually meet on weekends for fraternization barbecues, equally naked.

“In Brazil, nudism — or naturism, as nudists prefer to call it — has a loyal following Brazil. Last year alone, around 60,000 Brazilians took their clothes off on one of the five beaches where this is allowed, according to estimates from the Brazilian Federation of Naturism calculations. ....

“Nudism is big business in the United States,” the story continues. According to Forbes magazine — “the bible of bankers and big business" — 20% of adult Americans are in the habit of swimming nude in the summer. It adds: “This figure is a third higher than ten years ago. In just two years, the number of nudist associations in the US has increased from 40 to 70. The nudist economy moves about $120 million a year in specialty hotels, cruise ships and advertising. Specialized tour agencies fill chartered ships with up to 1,000 unclothed passengers, who pay up to $5,200 for a one-week cruise.”[74]

Salutary Warnings

Throughout his life, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira consistently manifested friendship toward his contemporaries through his example, speeches, lectures, books, articles, and public campaigns that he inspired. He lucidly and strongly denounced and predicted the moral pit in which we would fall if the world did not resume the paths of Christian civilization. He made those forecasts – which history has been confirming one after the next—always with firm supernatural hope in the triumph of the Holy Catholic Church and Christian civilization after the storm now devastating the world.

_______________________________________________________________

The Disconcerting Attitude of “Up-to-date” Nuns

The President of the TFP NC, still in the 1970s, analyzed a painful event in the process of moral decay: the inconceivable collaboration that Spanish contemplative nuns lent to spreading the bikini.

“Spain's Pueblo daily reports that ‘the Spanish Acrylic Fiber Society (SEAF), wishing to provide the public with splendidly finished bikinis, started looking for highly qualified labor. Unable to find it in common environments, it managed to give that task to a team of nuns from one of the Church’s most austere religious orders.’ They are Poor Clares. ...

“Eight Poor Clares from the convent of Benavente, in Spain, agreed to place their highly qualified gifts as seamstresses at the service of the company mentioned above. And, for 50,000 pesetas, they launched 92 different bikini models in bright colors.” [75]

_______________________________________________________________

Catolicismo n° 460 - April 1989, p. 19

Today’s Carnival— Predictable Almost 50 Years Ago

To close this collection, we transcribe an article by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in Catolicismo commenting on the success of one of his most impressive predictions.

Wilted flowers that had adorned the carnival ball hall lie on the floor, as do crumpled masks and fancy buttons that fell off the costumes they ornamented.

Here lies a heel that had come unstuck; a little ahead, two sneakers that the rough and continuous carnival dance had prematurely worn out. Bottles, some empty, others half empty. Fragments of some glasses, all kinds of garbage, and bad smells. That was the picture in the ballroom where the orgiastic carnival ball had taken place the night before.

Which ballroom is that? Where was it located? What was the socio-economic level of those who danced there? Nay, it is just like any other hall located anywhere on Brazil’s continental vastness, whether rich or poor. Because everything has been homogenized and reduced to the lowest standard that today’s circumstances allow. In short, everything has been leveled under the relentless steamroller of modern egalitarianism.

To simplify, suffice it to mention the most critical level, which I had not mentioned so far: the moral level. In slums and most luxurious houses and apartments, television has been gradually reducing morality to the lowest expression—of course, with the usual “rare and honorable exceptions.”

Carnival, a Great Act of Collective Madness

Why am I only now publishing reflections on this subject if this year’s carnival ended on Ash Wednesday, February 8, and has entirely left the top of the news? All garbage has been swept away from that standard ballroom mentioned above, and the entire sweep has been incinerated. What some insist on calling the “carnival wonderland” (which turns into a nightmare as the carnival draws to a close), has come to an end. So why am I addressing this subject when it is no longer the time to think or write about it? Well, this is precisely the right moment because carnival is a great act of collective madness. The same happens with it as with individual madness: only a while after it ceases can the mad properly reflect about that madness.

Some reader may think that, from now on, I will do nothing but line up commonplace sayings about carnival madness, which are as old as the carnival rubbish collected every Ash Wednesday.

Carnival’s “Prophetic” Character

However, that reader would be in error. In this article, I would like to emphasize precisely a lucid and even "prophetic" aspect of carnival in the broad sense (and the exaggerated meaning given to the term today). Yes, there is something serious about carnival, and terribly serious: it's foreboding of the future.

In this age that does not tolerate kings, Momo, or “King Momo” should perhaps be called “President Momo” for several reasons, including because the number of “Momo” presidents keeps growing. Seen in hindsight over the years, Momo has increasingly assumed the aspect of a secure foreteller of the future. Indeed, each carnival appears as "madness" compared to normal life in the year it takes place. At the same time, it foretells what normality will be like when it has fallen to a level considered as carnival madness ten or twenty years ago.

A Prophetic Description of the 1943 Carnival

A few days ago, a friend who is a lucid and penetrating observer of past and present events, gave me a newspaper clipping from 1944 referring to the carnival of that time. Here are some of its topics:

“Increasingly, the torrential invasion of so-called modern ideas destroyed principles, influenced habits, distorted feelings and disoriented mentalities. Each year represented a step that went down in the scale of morality. Consequently, each carnival brought with it more characteristic symptoms of moral decay. During carnival festivities, everyone’s instincts, boldness, recklessness and excesses—which were burning red hot and ever less contained as the year progressed, exploded with greater intensity. The three days of carnival came to be a valve letting out the flame of a fire that grew under the seeming normality of everyday life. Carnival has lost its family-friendly aspect. In parallel to it, ‘bolder’ and more ‘radical’ parties appeared. Why remember all this? We have finally arrived at this result: carnival was a valve to let off steam in the past. But a valve supposes stifling. Now life has become a carnival, and carnival has lost its reason for being. ....

“These days, everyone flees to the beaches and countryside. What for? To rest? Yes. Just for that? Maybe not. Indeed, what do vacationers do upon arriving at beaches or the countryside? They let off more steam by jettisoning civilization. They strip off all they can. Let us just talk about men: hairy chests exposed, fuzzy arms covered only by a few inches of a tank top, porous fabric nightgown and underwear with colors suitable to seven-year-olds, worn indecently outside, and sometimes in short pants and socks. Here they are, letting off steam, ruddy and strong kids of all ages – 20, 30, 50 years old – and of all professions from bankers, industrialists, middle-class doctors or professors, all the way to merchants and lowly clerks.

“Everything is relaxed; everything is undressed, everything takes on clothes with proletarian or beggar-style (but in exorbitantly expensive fabrics!). Everything takes on the air of a mob. The last ceremonies disappear, so do remnants of modesty; any remaining dignity dissolves. When vacation days are over, everyone goes back to everyday life a little more unfriendly to clothes, composure, ceremony than they had been. That is the result of this other kind of outburst or ‘letting off steam.’ In the past, the carnival was an outburst of immorality. Now, cruises and inland excursions serve to scrap the most elementary rules of good manners.

A Prediction 50 Years in Advance

“Thirty years from now, “letting off steam” will likely consist of wearing just a thong, no longer cleaning one’s ears, nose, or nails, spitting on the ground, dancing the samba barefoot in the woods. There will be luxury huts with daily rates from 700 to 800 dollars. Each loincloth feather will cost 100 dollars, which won't be so bad because those thongs won't have many feathers. A model thong made of bird feathers from various countries will cost some ten thousand dollars.

“Someone may say: this is an exaggeration. Thirty years ago, wise men predicted the marsh into which we would end up, and some fools cried 'exaggeration'! The exaggerations were not in the prophets but in the events, which outdid their prophecies.”

An Article I Had Completely Forgotten

All this was predicted and published in 1944, about half a century ago.

The newspaper that published this – Legionário – was a simple weekly little known to the general public, although enjoying great notoriety in the broad, well-coordinated, and powerful Catholic media. “Quantum mutatus ab illo” (How much has changed from then to here! – Virgil, Aeneid, Book II, 274). The excerpt transcribed was a topic from the “7 Days in Review” section. And its author was... me. Yes, me, who had completely forgotten about this article.

That is how, carefully analyzed, when the wind of madness that blew through it is completely over, each carnival is a prediction of how the moral and global decay will manifest itself. Moral decay contains in germ all other deterioration that will occur in the years to come. To such an extent that today's madness will be tomorrow’s normalcy and common sense.

Events Have Surpassed Prophecy

We have therefore collected some highlights from the 1989 carnival.

“ ‘Scoundrels of the whole world, unite!’ could have been Beija-Flor Samba school's rallying cry on Tuesday morning, when carnival artist Joãozinho Trinta brought to the Sambódromo the atmosphere that preceded the French Revolution 200 years ago”(O Estado de São Paulo, 2/9/1989).

“With the theme ‘Rats and vultures, let go of my costume,’ Joãozinho Trinta's samba school brought hordes of beggars, prostitutes, drunkards and crazy people to the dancefloor, with colorful costumes, cars made of scrap metal and trash, a contagious excitement of samba dancers . . . One cannot win a carnival [prize] without ideas. ... That is how garbage has become a luxury at the Nilópolis Samba school, and ugly animals like rats and vultures turned another page in the history of carnival” (Jornal do Brasil, 2/8/1989).

“The final scene of the Beija-Flor parade. ... A type of pagan goddess comes out of the woods and hills, naked and raw. Barefoot. Without feathers .... That pagan [goddess] opens her arms like the Christ on Guanabara. And she hurls kisses to the crowd” (Folha de S. Paulo, 2/8/1989).

“The [samba school] Mocidade Independente de Padre Miguel took to Marquês de Sapucaí (Rio de Janeiro) nude women with their bodies painted by plastic artists. But União da Ilha dared more: with the theme 'Profane Feast,’ it introduced a female sculptor (so and so), 36 years old, totally naked, representing Aphrodite, the goddess of Love” (O Globo, 2/71989).

“In time: in [carnival] parades, men’s nudity is replacing women’s” (O Globo, 2/7/1989). “The characteristic of the [carvinal] block (Piranhas, Rio de Janeiro) is the irreverence and malice of its members – men dressed up as women – wearing ridiculous clothes, wigs, and lots of female make-up” (O Globo, 2/5/1989).

In Santo André, at the Banda da Baixaria parade, “transvestites, with their thick lips painted with lipstick, kissed the forehead of every bald man who appeared along the way” (Diário do Grande ABC, 2/5/1989).

“Despite their name, the ‘Virgins’ (from Olinda, Pernambuco) do not admit the presence of women in their parades. Altogether they are 200 single men, fathers of families, and even grandparents. They parade dressed as women” (Jornal da Tarde, 1/31/1989).

“Streamers and confetti are falling from the first floor, the orchestra of the Bloco da Saudade playing frevo in the outdoor patio while on the ground floor, communion is given to about two thousand faithful. This combination of sacred and profane occurred yesterday, during a mass celebrated in the Church of Fronteiras, in Recife, to celebrate the 80th birthday of Most Rev. Helder Câmara, Archbishop Emeritus of Olinda and Recife. ... Dom Helder, who wept with emotion, joined the members of the carnival block as soon as the orchestra played the frevo 'Values of the Past"' (O Globo, 2/8/1989).

“God Will Punish the World for Its Crimes”

Into which abysses will the world have fallen the day when this mess becomes normality and common sense? What other horrors will today’s carnival portend? In Fatima, Our Lady said, “God ... will punish the world for its crimes with war, hunger, and persecution of the Church. ... Russia will spread its errors throughout the world ... various nations will be annihilated.” Will the punishment cut short this march to the abyss?

Can one expect an intermediate solution whereby an austere and detached clergy, filled with Faith and love of God, will preach moral regeneration to the world to avoid the punishment?

How we wish this were the winning hypothesis! But we must recognize that this is not the direction things seem to be taking. If Our Lady does not intervene in world events. In that case, the path to the future does not appear set by excellent priests but by the likes of Archbishop Camara, still vested after saying Mass; surrounded by Bloco da Saudade’s revelers; with raised arms expressing joyful and euphoric consonance as the “Values of the Past” frevo is playing.

NB – Intertitles are ours.

Notes:

[1] To adequately locate Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira and action in the contemporary scene, see his excellent biography by Prof. Roberto de Mattei, the brilliant professor of Modern History at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Cassino (Italy). The Crusader of the Twentieth Century – Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Gracewing Fowler Wright Books, Leominster, Herefordshire, England, 1995, 1997. Also online at  https://bit.ly/2UdPI5F

[2] Legionário, October 8, 1944.

[3] Legionário, January 16, 1944.

[4] Legionário, July 21, 1946.

[5] Legionário, October 19, 1947 - emphasis added.

[6] Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, Le défi mondial, Fayard, 1980, p. 168 — emphasis added.

[7] Catolicismo, n° 478, October 1990.

[8] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, “Neopaganismo,” Legionário, 8/8/1943 — emphasis added.

[9] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, “A Questão Libanesa,” Legionário, 12/5/1943 — emphasis added.

[10] Le Figaro, Paris, 11/24/1989.

[11] Gilles Kepel, Les banlieus de I’Islam, Seuil, Paris, 1991, pp. 9 & 13.

[12] The New York Times Magazine, 9/15/1991.

[13] Passages, Paris, November 1990.

[14] Celsiuss, Belgium, September 1989.

[15] (Legionário, 10/19/1947 - emphasis added.

[16] Le Figaro, Paris, 11/25/1989.

[17] Chrétiens en terre d’Islam, resister et construire, “Bulletin d’information, de combat et de reconstruction chrétienne,” Lausanne, Switzerland, n° 13-14, October-December 1990.

[18] Le Point, Paris, 5/27/1991.

[19] Para el hombre que viene, Ediciones Ribat, Granada, 1988, p.134.

[20] Cheik Si Hamza Boubakeur, Traité moderne de théologie islamique, in Augier Pierre, Dialoguer avec I’Islam?, Centre Montauriol, IV Congrès de pelerinages à Lourdes, 1922, pp. 27 ff. – emphasis added.

[21] Bruno Etienne, L’Islamisme radical, Hachette, Paris, 1987, pp. 22-23 - emphasis added.

[22] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, 7 Days in Review, Legionário, 3/5/1944 — emphasis added.

[23] Revolution and Counter-Revolution, 3rd edition,  http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0038/_P4T.HTM  

[24] Jornal Indústria & Comércio, Curitiba, August 26-27, 1996, pp. B-4 & B-2 – emphasis added.

[25] “A triste decadência espiritual dos descendentes dos Cruzados,” Legionário, 12/4/1938 – emphasis added.

[26] “7 Days in Review,” Legionário, 10/1/1944 – our emphasis.

[27] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, “7 Days in Review,” Legionário, 2/91947 — emphasis added.

[28] “O Comunismo na China: Infiltrar todas as instituições da Igreja,” Catolicismo, n° 92, August 1958 – our emphasis.

[29] Enrico Berlinguer, La questione comunista, Editori Riuniti, Rome, 1975, vol. I, pp. 195-197 – our italics.

[30] Santiago Carrillo, Mañana España, Colección Ebro, Paris, 1975, pp. 25, 203, 232.

[31] The telegram was published in Folha de S. Paulo (5/7/1982) and widely spread in street campaigns by TFP members and volunteers.

[32] The Sunday Times, 5/13/1984.

[33] Helga Silva, The Children of Mariel, The Cuban American National Foundation, Washington, 1985.

[34] O Estado de S. Paulo, 9/13/1994.

[35] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, “Para 300 argentinos... e milhões de brasileiros,”  Folha de S. Paulo, 8/91970 — emphasis added.

[36] Granma, Havana, 1/6/1989 – our emphasis.

[37] La Croix, Paris, 1/3/1989.

[38] O Estado de S. Paulo, 1/28/1985.

[39] Encuentro Nacional Eclesial Cubano — Documento final e Instrucción de los Obispos de Cuba, Tipografia Dom Bosco, Roma, 1st ed., p. 60 – our emphasis.

[40] Fidel y la Religión, Editorial la Oveja Negra, Bogotá, 1986 – our emphasis.

[41] Those wishing to form an overview of the disconcerting support that Catholic sectors gave the Castro regime can read the well-documented work "¿Hasta cuándo las Américas tolerarán al dictador Castro, el implacable stalinista?", published by Cubanos Desterrados, Miami-New York, September 1990.

[42] “Self-Control,” Legionário, 10/13/1935.

[43] “À margem dos fatos,” Legionário, 7/5/1936.

[44] “Unidade nacional,” Legionário, 11/22/1936 - emphasis added

[45] “Para que a independência do Brasil não seja um mito,” Legionário, 12/19/1937 – our emphasis.

[46] “Com mouros à vista,” Legionário, 2/13/1938.

[47] “O verdadeiro sentido do vôo de Chamberlain,” Legionário, 9/18/1938.

[48] “À margem da crise,” Legionário, 9/25/1938 – our emphasis.

[49] Anyone wishing to read more about this subject may consult his articles on the subject in Legionário and later in Catolicismo and Folha de S. Paulo

[50] Historama, Paris, n° 280, p. 97 – our emphasis.

[51] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, “À margem do hitlerismo,” Legionário, 10/24/1937.

[52] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, “Alemanha e Rússia trocam carícias,” Legionário, 8/28/1938.

[53] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, “Entre o passado e o futuro,” Legionário, 1/1/1939.

[54] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, section 7 dias em revista, Legionário, 5/14/1939.

[55] Legionário, 5/14/1940 – our emphasis.

[56] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, section 7 dias em revista, Legionário, 6/16/1940 – our emphasis.

[57] Cf. “Euro, a nova moeda da União Européia: um salto no escuro,” interview with the economist Carlos Patricio del Campo, Catolicismo, no 571, July 1998. Also: “O Euro: a louca aventura da moeda única,” Catolicismo, no. 573, September 1998.

[58] Cf. “O culto cego do número na sociedade contemporânea,” Catolicismo, n.º 8, August 1951; “O mecanismo revolucionário e o culto do número,” Catolicismo, n.º 9, September 1951; “A sociedade cristã e orgânica e a sociedade mecânica e pagã,” Catolicismo, nº 11, November 1951; “A estrutura supranacional no ensinamento de Pio XII,” Catolicismo, nº 12, December 1951.

[59] Catolicismo, no. 8, August 1951 - emphasis added.

[60] Catolicismo, no. 14, February 1952 — emphasis added.

[61] Catolicismo, November-December 1971.

[62] Catolicismo, February 1969, emphasis added.

[63] Catolicismo, April 1961, emphasis added.

[64] Catolicismo, January 1955 - emphasis added.

[65] Catolicismo, January 1951 - emphasis added.

[66] Ps 126:1.

[67] Ps 94:8.

[68] “Deflação,” Legionário, São Paulo, 7/21/1946 - emphasis added.

[69] https://www.pliniocorreadeoliveira.info/UKLN_0000_index.htm

[70] Reconquista (organ of the Portuguese TFP), no. 69, November 1993 - emphasis added.

[71] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira,“O princípio da gradualidade, regra ardilosa do progresso do  mal” [The Principle of Graduality, Cunning Rule of the Progress of Evil], Catolicismo, August 1956 -  emphasis added.

[72] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, “Para onde?,” Folha de S. Paulo, 4/7/1974 - emphasis added.

[73] “Bangladesh, Watergate e nudismo,” Folha de S. Paulo, 8/19/1973 - emphasis added.

[74] Veja, 1/12/1994 - emphasis added.

[75] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, “Algoz-mór, Princesa e abstrusas clarissas!,” Folha de S. Paulo, 8/12/1973 - emphasis added.