Juan Gonzalo Larrain Campbell

Although Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira announced the divine punishment with all severity, he never ceased to convey the hope that a golden age will come after terrible trials. That is the message that TFPs and related entities convey to people when predicting the great dangers threatening the Church and Christendom. Below are a few examples.

The Church and Christian Civilization will enter a Historic Tunnel but Emerge Victoriously

In 1931, at the age of 22, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira prophetically announced that the Church and Christian civilization would enter a Way of the Cross increasingly laden with pain. He also showed the fruits of those sufferings, how one should face them, and predicted the final victory:

“When a train journey is too long; when the mountains to climb are too steep and the curves to negotiate are too broad, engineers dig a tunnel. Albeit subjecting passengers to a few minutes of complete darkness, it shortens the journey’s fatigue and saves them long hours of commuting.

“We believe the phase of increasingly serious suffering that Catholicism will go through is like a tunnel. While plunging us for some time in thick darkness and absolute pain, it will shorten our path to the final victory by cutting through mountains and overcoming obstacles that, without this tunnel of pain, we would take many decades, or perhaps centuries, to cross. With her Western civilization, the Church is entering one of the tunnels of history which Divine Providence places in our way to alleviate the sufferings of Catholicism. Therefore, the more intense the attacks and ordeals we suffer, the more we should have the reassuring conviction that we are advancing in the tunnel and getting ever closer to the happy moment when we find ourselves again in the radiant clarity of a fully Christian civilization.” [1]

After a New Flood, a New Noah, a New Civilization

In 1937, calling on Catholics to make an all-out apostolic effort, he foresaw the progressivist crisis that would ravage the Church, its tragic outcome, and the Reign of Mary:

“Let us do our duty.  After we have done everything possible—and I mean absolutely everything, not just ‘a little’ or ‘a lot’—let us resign ourselves to the coming avalanche. For, although Brazil and the entire world may perish, although the Church itself is devastated by the wolves of heresy, she is immortal and will swim in the troubled waters of the flood. And, like Noah from the Ark, from within her sacred bosom will emerge, after the storm, the men who will found tomorrow’s civilization.”[2]

Thy Kingdom Come!

In 1938, he wrote the lines below to combat secularism, which denies the role of Providence in human events by placing all trust in man. He also refutes the populist planning secularism of those who ran the world before WWII:

“There is still another and most helpful reflection. All theologians agree that if salvation dawned on the world at the time it did, we owe it to the omnipotent prayers of Mary, who managed to anticipate the day of the Messias’ birth. No one can tell how many years or centuries the Redemption would have taken to come without Mary’s prayers.

“That reorganization of the world in Augustus’ time came, therefore, not from those who agitated to achieve it in public squares and political councils. It came from the humble and trusting prayer of the Virgin Mary, entirely ignored by her contemporaries and living a contemplative and solitary life in the little corner where Providence had placed her.

“Without belittling active life at all, one should note that the moment of Redemption came sooner through prayer and contemplation. And that God dispensed through Mary Most Holy all the benefits that the genius of Augustus and the sharpness of all great politicians, generals, financiers, and administrators of his time could not give the world. The one that most benefited the world was She who knew how to pray more and better, rather than those who studied or acted the most.”

Contrary to the revolutionary secular mentality, he once again highlights that God’s chosen souls are the ones who really move history:

 “This brief Christmas meditation ends with a gentle and austere lesson. On the human plane, anticipating or delaying the restoration of the Kingdom of Our Lord Jesus Christ may depend on the fighters of Catholic Action [who refuse to be corrupted by neo-modernism] and chosen souls God has called to the priestly or religious state to a life of action or prayer.

“Aware of the greatness of this mission, we laity who fight for the Church must pray next to the crèche of the Infant Jesus: ‘Domine, Adveniat Regnum Tuum’ – ‘Lord, may thy Kingdom come that we may realize it in us so that, with thy help, we may also realize it around us.’”[3]

“You Finally Won, Galilean, You Won!”

At the end of an article with the suggestive title “The Twilight of the Gods (II),” he announces the coming of the Kingdom of Christ after contemporary ‘Julians’ are defeated:

“We should add, however, that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Holy Church of God. Our generation, or at the very latest the generation of our children, will see modern Julians die like ancient Julian [the Apostate], mortally wounded and bleeding in a mud pool while exclaiming, ‘You have finally won, Galilean, you won.’ This cry of hatred will contrast with the sublime Christmas carol that the humble, weak, wretched, poor, and sick will sing with along with heavenly choirs: ‘Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to men of goodwill.’

“Once again, the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ will set the world free from paganism and oppression.”[4]

Prophesies the Reign of Mary for France

In 1940, when France groaned under the Nazi boot, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira concluded his article “The Nazification of France” prophetically announcing the Reign of Mary for the first-born Daughter of the Church:

“However, things will not stop there, and the Nazification of France will not be fully consummated. The day will come when God will raise His avenging arm upon the adversaries of His Church in France and Germany.

“On that day, a new era will dawn upon the world, finally pacified in the fold of one Shepherd. On that day, people will rejoice, and the whole world will again hear the evangelical promise: peace on Earth to men of goodwill. Laughing at these predictions will not help our adversaries.

“The owl’s laughter cannot delay the rising dawn.” [5]

With prophetic resonances, the holy and unsurpassed Pontiff Saint Pius X said about France:

“A day will come, and we hope it will not be far, when France, like Saul on the road to Damascus, will be surrounded by a heavenly light and will hear a voice repeating to her, ‘My daughter, why do you persecute me?’ And to her response, ‘Who art thou, Lord?’ the voice will reply, ‘I am Jesus, whom you persecute. It is hard for you to kick against the goad, because, in your obstinacy, you destroy yourself.’ And she, trembling and astonished, will say, ‘Lord, what wouldst thou have me do?’ And He will say, ‘Rise up, wash the filth that has disfigured you, awaken in your heart those dormant affections and the pact of our alliance and go, eldest daughter of the Church, predestined nation, vessel of election, go, as in the past, and carry my name before all peoples and before the kings of the earth.”[6]

God Will Laugh at His Enemies

That same year, after saying that the world must pay for the consequences of its sins before the Church is exalted, he predicted:

“The Apostle said that ‘verbum Dei nos est aligatum.’ A day will come when God will laugh at all his adversaries, confounding them in the same defeat that will place them as footstools of the Church.

“Until that happens, the world will have to suffer the consequences of its sins. But God will not take long for His Mercy is always greater than our crimes, and the day is certainly not far off when God will humiliate the enemies of the Church and exalt the Bride of Christ. ‘Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles.’”[7]

A day will come when the enemies of the Church will be humiliated, and she will triumph

In 1942, this is how he signaled the future victory of the Church:

“Fortunately, the Church has forces capable of annihilating the gates of hell and shattering the stony stupidity of many of those who are supposed to be her children. A day will come when the dust of the new Molochs will mix with other idol fragments lying at the foot of the Cross. On that day of victory, the world will know how light the yoke of the Lord is, which liberalism has tried to point out as unbearable, and totalitarianism has tried to caricature with iron chains.”[8]

Along the same lines, a year and a half later, he foresaw:

 “A day will come when people will understand that, for the Church, impiety is but a caricature. And that, far from being the peasant woman that today’s neo-pagans at times attribute to her with depraved taste, she is the “lady without spot or wrinkle,” the “city of perfect beauty, joy of the whole world,” as the Scriptures and the Sacred Liturgy tell us.”[9]

Our Lady will win, and Her Victory will be ours

When World War II seemed to be ending, he insisted on the need to follow the hard path of amending one’s life and pointed at a future triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as Our Lady promised at Fatima:

“Hitler was a scourge of God. By divine mercy, it seems that this scourge is now broken. However, let us not forget that if God punishes us less, He still expects us to amend our ways. It alone can genuinely bring to the world that peace that the world desires but neither has nor can give, as it is found only in Our Lord Jesus Christ, our Life and Resurrection.

“This is the admirable lesson that comes from the facts, analyzed in the light of Catholic doctrine.

“That is what Our Lady said upon appearing to the little shepherds at Fatima. The road of the amendment is tough. However, let us look to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and everything will become easy.

“Our Lady will win, and her victory will be our own.”[10]

A Great and Universal Victory of Religion Is Coming

In 1955, explaining the providential mission of St. Louis Grignion de Montfort, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira highlighted the fact that the saint prophesied a future universal victory of the Catholic Religion:

“Now, in this historical ‘process,’ Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort was a true prophet. At that time, so many illustrious minds felt entirely at ease about the situation of the Church, cradled by complacent, lukewarm, and systematic optimism. With an eagle eye, St. Louis scrutinized the depths of the present and predicted a religious crisis in terms suggesting the misfortunes the Church suffered during the [French] Revolution. ... Furthermore, to our encouragement and joy, the saint prophesied a great and universal victory for the Catholic Religion in the days to come.”[11]

Finally, My Immaculate Heart will Triumph

In 1967, on the 50th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima, he related the Message of the Blessed Virgin to the world situation in those days. He showed how, according to the common economy of grace, avoiding the punishment was highly unlikely. Yet he again insisted that we should have hope amid the trials, certain of the coming Reign of Mary:

 “It is good for our minds to dwell on the ultimate perspectives of the Fatima message. Beyond the sadness and extremely likely punishments toward which we are moving, we have before us the sacral flashes of the dawn of the Reign of Mary: ‘At last my Immaculate Heart will triumph.’ That is a superb prospect of the universal victory of the Blessed Virgin’s regal and maternal Heart. It is a soothing, attractive, and above all, majestic and exciting promise.

“What can we do now to avoid the punishment in the small degree it is avoidable, to obtain people’s conversion to the limited extent it can be obtained in the common economy of grace, to hasten the blessed dawn of the Reign of Mary as much as possible, and to get help during the catastrophes that so seriously threaten us? Our Lady herself indicates it: Increase fervor in devotion to her, pray and do penance.”^[12]

“Fear Not, for I am Announcing to You a Great Joy”

On Christmas 1971, writing in the Folha de S. Paulo daily, he encouraged authentic men of goodwill to face the trials coming to purify humanity for its sins confiding in the coming of the Reign of Mary:

“Are there today still authentic men of goodwill who keep watch during the darkness, who fight in anonymity, who gaze to Heaven hoping with unbreakable certainty that the light will return?

“Yes there are, just like at the time of the shepherds.  Those like the TFP can be found everywhere: in the streets, squares, planes, skyscrapers, basements, and even in places of luxury—still with faint glimmers of tradition—where the false elites largely dominate.  They openly smile at those who proclaim an ideal that never dies because it is based on Jesus Christ.  We see they hope for some intervention of God in History to purify mankind and that will end this cycle of darkness and open a new one full of light.

“To these authentic men of goodwill, to these authentic descendants of the shepherds of Bethlehem, I suggest they see the words of the Angel as directed to them: ‘Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people.’

“These are prophetic words echoed in Our Lady’s promise at Fatima. Communism may spread its errors throughout the world. It may make the just ones suffer. But, finally—Our Lady foretold at Fatima—Her ‘Immaculate Hear will Triumph.’

“This is the great light that, as a precious Christmas gift, I wish for all my readers and, most particularly, to those authentic men of goodwill.”[13]

*   *   *

 As we close this last Part, we repeat that it contains only some samples of the countless texts in which Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira formulates his twofold prediction, a regenerative punishment and the Reign of Mary. He never stopped proclaiming them to the end of his days.

We found it necessary to dwell more on the forecasts he made since his youth, to make clear, on the one hand, the broad views he already possessed at that time, and on the other, the exceptional continuity of his thought.

Conclusion

We conclude this book as having demonstrated that Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira possessed an unquestionable prophetic gift by which he discerned and denounced the steps of the Revolution, often anticipating them far in advance.

On making his forecasts, he clearly set out the path that peoples and ideological currents should follow to act under the ways of Providence and the Counter-Revolution, to help prevent them from surrendering to the anarchic-equalitarian designs of the Revolution.

We place these pages at the feet of Our Lady of the Good Counsel of Genazzano, to whom the TFP founder was especially devoted. May She intercede with Her Divine Son to obtain graces for our readers to understand Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s personality and mission adequately. May She sustain those who adhere to his lucid certainties and hopes in the troubled times that await us before Her blessed Reign is established on Earth.

São Paulo, April 2009

Our Lady of the Good Counsel of Genazzano (Italy)