Juan Gonzalo Larrain Campbell

We have seen numerous examples of Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s warnings to Catholic opinion about the revolutionary ferments and aberrations that have been penetrating the most varied environments of the Holy Church over many decades. These warnings showed the disastrous fruits that compromising with this process would produce.

Today, events fully confirm his warnings. The devastating consequences he foresaw are now taking place to the point that revolutionary agents demand that the Church relativize and forget its moral teaching on essential issues to no longer clash with the erroneous principles prevailing in the world. At times, even high-ranking prelates appear to agree with this absurd demand to the point of contesting traditional Catholic doctrine and papal authority.

On the one hand, this panorama indicates growing hatred against the Church. At the same time, the cohesion of the Catholic world suffers from numerous and frequent desertions, an aggressive expansion of heterodox doctrines, and finally, the tsunami of moral decay promoted by secular and anti-Christian governments and currents. All this converges in a movement that will soon produce brutal religious persecution, some symptoms of which are numerous.

The Divine Punishment

“Deep down, all this suffering is a fruit of Divine Mercy. By the bitterness of the remedy we experience, we can gauge the gravity of our illness.”

In our opinion, humanity’s centuries-old, deliberate, gradual, and persistent abandonment of Christian civilization moving toward establishing a neo-pagan anti-order characterizes the greatest collective offense to God after the deicide. This is so especially because revolutionaries have radicalized ceaselessly and proudly reject the most elementary Catholic principles on moral, social and theological matters.

For six centuries now, humanity has been committing this enormous sin against the laws of God, the Church, and the natural order by progressively adhering to the Gnostic and egalitarian Revolution in its increasingly bold anti-Christian manifestations. Add to this is the growing and in-your-face commitment to the Revolution of broad sectors of the clergy and temporal leaders.

This explains the severity of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s judgments about the contemporary world, which led him to announce that God would punish humanity with extensive and extreme force if men did not make amends for their sins.[1]

Obviously, many promoters and participants of the process that Paul VI described as the “self-demolition” of the Church, strongly deny that God punishes anyone. Some even deny He does so in eternal life. On the one hand, they are generally satisfied with today’s lifestyles; on the other hand, their religiosity is often not very different from mere deism. It thus seems unlikely they understand their error or are willing to abandon it. They are utterly insensitive to events that could mean divine intervention. Consequently, here we will not deal with these people

Nevertheless, in broad sectors of Catholic opinion, there is growing discontent with the revolutionary process and a desire to revitalize the Church and expand its influence. This shows in increased religious fervor, displeasure with the present moral depravity, and rejection of the abandonment of Christian tradition.

These Catholics know that if God often punishes men individually with misfortunes, diseases, accidents and tragedies, especially to lead them back to morality and the Faith and obtain their salvation, He can do the same thing—and does with some frequency—with nations and civilizations. It would not be according to divine perfection to contemplate indefinitely and inertly the degradation of immense multitudes, posing countless souls at serious risk of eternal perdition.

God’s interventions can sometimes take a long time to come. Still, when they do, they unleash a series of events that go down in history because of their circumstances and the radically different climate they generate, with intense and palpable supernatural action. Examples of this are the fall of the Roman Empire and the formation of the Middle Ages.

This being the case, the numerous predictions that Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira made regarding an eventual divine punishment stand out for their balance. He was not a one-sided herald of relentless misfortunes that will fatally ensue. Beyond the punishment, and more importantly, He always expressed the certainty that many people will convert during the chastisement and that the Reign of Mary will be established when it is over.

Thus, one should also see Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira as a man of hope who never stopped instilling hope in his his conversations, lectures and writings.

The fact his predictions in Part One of this book were fulfilled should help to strengthen our certainty that the two great prophecies of his life will also come true: a punitive but merciful and pedagogical divine intervention on humanity, and the establishing of the Reign of Mary.

In this section, we will transcribe some of his published texts, making both predictions, a purifying intervention by God, and the Marian era that will follow.

Note that the remarkably prophetic discernment he possessed from a young age led him to announce such events long before he learned about Our Lady’s revelations at Fatima, with which his predictions coincided outstandingly.

World War II, a Prelude to the Punishment Leading to the Reign of Mary

In 1929, when he was only 20 years old, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira wrote to a friend, “I increasingly have the impression that we are in the vestibule of an era full of sufferings and struggles.  Everywhere, the suffering of the Church becomes more intense and the struggle draws closer.  I have the impression that the clouds of the political horizon are becoming denser.  It will not be long before a tempest will break, having a world war as a simple preface.

“But, this war will spread such confusion throughout the world that revolutions will appear everywhere, and the putrefaction of this unfortunate ‘Twentieth century’ will reach is apogee.  Then, will be raised those forces of evil that, as worms, only appear at the moments of final putrefaction.  Society’s underlying philosophy will then appear and the Church will be persecuted everywhere.  But... ‘et ego dico tibi quia tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversus Eam’.  Consequently, we will either have a ‘new Middle Ages’ or we will have the end of the world.”^[2] 

Painful Steps Separate Us from the Fatal Outcome

In 1931, he predicted a bleak future for humanity preceded by painful events.

“Much is said about our progress. The 20th century—a comedy in its first decade—has abruptly turned into a long and bloody tragedy that is far from over.

“A long series of painful events still separate us from the fatal outcome of the struggle of so many elements that collide today.”[3]

Either the world turns entirely to the Church, or there will be no way of avoiding huge catastrophes

In January 1939, commenting on a speech by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after highlighting its liberal and Protestant flavor, he stated, “However, for contemporary society, it is not enough to have just any religion or the freedom of religion so pleasing to liberals. Either the contemporary world returns to the entire truth, which can only be found in the Church, or there will be no way to avoid the immense catastrophes that are threatening it.”[4]

The Justice of God and the Sacred Heart of Jesus ^[5]

A year and a half later, on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira insisted on the threats hanging over humanity. With moving language, he showed that the doors of God’s mercy were still open at that time (1940):

“The sight of so many crimes naturally brings to mind the idea of divine vengeance. When we look at this sinful world, groaning in the tortures of a thousand crises and anguishes and doing no penance anyway; when we consider the frightening advance of neopaganism, on the cusp of ruling all humanity; when we finally see the cowardice, unpredictability and disunity of those who still have not adhered to evil, our minds are filled with dread anticipating of the catastrophes that this generation’s obstinate impiety accumulates upon it.”[6]

 What to Expect for Humanity in this Ignominious Twilight?

 “There is something liberal or Lutheran in imagining that so many crimes do not deserve punishment and that the masses apostatized because of a mere intellectual error without committing a grave sin. That is not the reality. God does not abandon H His creatures, and if they are far from Him, they are the ones to blame.

“This is the contemporary picture: On the one hand, an evil and sinful civilization, and on the other hand, the Creator wielding the whip of divine punishments.

“Will there not be, then, for present-day humanity, any outcome other than disappearing in a deluge of mud and fire? Could one not expect a future other than a shameful decline in which final impenitence is punished by supreme scourges that the Scriptures predict as signs of the end of the world?”[7]

For us, the Gate of Salvation Still Has Not Closed

“That would undoubtedly be the case if God only allowed His justice to act. If that were the case, we would not even know how the world has reached the 20th century. Now, since God is not only just but also merciful, the gate of salvation for us has not yet closed. A humanity persevering in its impiety has every reason to expect the rigors of God. However, God, who is infinitely merciful, does not want the death of sinful humanity but that people “are converted and live.” Accordingly, His grace insistently calls all men to abandon their terrible ways and return to the fold of the Good Shepherd.

“If unrepentant humanity should fear every possible catastrophe, repentant humanity may expect all kinds of mercy. It is not even necessary for repentance to have completed its regenerative work: suffice it for the sinner to turn to God from the bottom of the abyss with a fledgling but effective, serious, and profound repentance that God will immediately help him.

“In Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit says, ‘Even if your father and mother abandoned you, I would not forget you.’ God does not tire even in extreme cases where evil exhausts maternal indulgence. His mercy benefits the sinner even as divine justice wounds the latter with a thousand misfortunes on his path of iniquity.”[8]

The Hecatombs of Our Day [1940] Already Clearly Beckon the Justice of God

“One must constantly place these two essential images of justice and divine mercy before the eyes of contemporary man. Of justice, so he does not recklessly suppose he will be saved without merit. Of mercy, so he does not despair of salvation as long as he wishes to make amends. Now, if today’s hecatombs speak so clearly of the justice of God, what better vision is there to complete this picture than the Sun of mercy, which is the Sacred Heart of Jesus?”[9]

Had men converted on that occasion, perhaps they could have avoided punishment. Yet, after dozens of years, humanity has continued on its terrifying course of impenitence and apostasy. This leads one to fear that divine punishment is becoming inevitable.

The Trial that Will Befall the Church

In July 1940, commenting on aspects of the delicate situation in which Pius XII found himself as a consequence of the ongoing Second World War, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira foresaw the difficulties through which the Church would pass, as well as the ultimate defeat of her enemies:

 “Today, the intention of the Church’s adversaries is obvious. To ensure they achieve their goal, which is to crush Catholicism, they aim with implacable obstinacy to first destroy all human factors that might give Catholicism a foothold. Evidently, this objective is on the cusp of attainment. … While we do not know what trials Providence will allow to fall on the universal Church, one thing is indisputable: That day will mark the last hour of the victors before whom today’s most proud, rich and important nations bow.”^[10]

Unshakable Certainty that God Will Intervene Miraculously and Victoriously

In 1943, in his book In Defense of Catholic Action denouncing the progressive plot, he showed how the tendencies and errors rife in the Catholic Action movement were so dynamic and powerful that if those errors were not radically rejected, only a divine intervention could prevent them from spreading and fulfilling the goals of their promoters.

“In these grim and gloomy days of 1943, to restore all things in the Kingdom of Christ, let us not confide in this or that power, leader, or ideological current. Let us trust in Divine Providence, which will again compel the seas to open wide, move mountains and shake the whole earth if necessary, to fulfill the divine promise: ‘The gates of hell will not prevail against Her’.”^[11]

As we read these lines today, when the progressivist cancer in Catholic circles has advanced frighteningly, often encouraged by ‘self-demolishing’ pastors, who would dare to claim that its metastases are trying to prevail, denying the ‘non praevalebunt’?

The prediction transcribed above will come true before that happens.

If People Forget God, We Will Head for a New Collapse

Closer to the end of the Second World War, commenting on the plans of the victorious powers for the post-war period with the creation of large federations, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira proved with solid reasons that implementing their secular and materialistic plans would not bring peace. If they did not work for moral reform of humanity, God’s justice would fall on the human race:

“However wise the economic arguments alleged in favor of the plan now outlined, there is no doubt that it will not produce peace. Where there is no order in people’s minds, there can be no peace; and far from being a factor of harmony, the possible abundance of material goods will exacerbate appetites, ambitions and discord, eventually generating a new collapse.

“Now, imagine a world divided into three or four great federations, that is, three or four great powers, each sending its representative to an international conference, say to a world league of sovereign or autonomous federations. If these potentates want to come to an understanding, the peoples of the earth will find tranquility, at least in the material sense of the word. However, what will happen if a spirit of rivalry, competition, or envy takes hold of these potentates? A war between them. But this time, it will be a terrible, universal war that will necessarily drag all peoples since they are all federated and forced to fight. Our elders called the 1914-1918 war a ‘world war,’ and we smile at this statement because these days, we can prove that the ongoing war deserves much more than that title.  When the world is ‘federated,’ they will smile at us: we will see what a truly global war can resemble. …

“Here we have touched the crux of the issue. What we really need is to reform the world. But reforming the world supposes reforming man. As long as contemporary man is what he is, the greater his works, the greater the ruins that will accumulate around him. His power will be the agent of his own destruction: sickly, incredulous, selfish, without morals or principles of any kind, he will be unable to organize anything durable. He infects all his works with his illness. The mortar with which we join the stones of our buildings contains dynamite. The beams on which we prop our houses have termites. Tomorrow the justice of God will come upon us, and then we will see that everything will be ruin.” [12]

Kissing the hand that punishes us, being grateful for the punishment that saves us, and saving us through the punishment sent to us

Commenting on a thought of Pius XII,^[13] Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira highlighted the fact that God is merciful even when He punishes:

“No other is the thought of the Sovereign Pontiff when he affirms that, “we are currently witnessing one of the greatest fires in history.” Is it a material fire? The Holy Father immediately undoes any misunderstanding by adding, “We are witnessing today one of the greatest conflagrations in history, one of the profoundest political and social upheavals in the annals of the world.” That is the fire. It is an ideological fire that burns ideas before doctrines and only manages to destroy homes, cities, and entire provinces because it previously led contemporary man’s hallucinated thinking into a fiery delirium.

 “Where does such misfortune come from? Are we not children of God? How then does our Almighty Father watch this immense catastrophe with crossed arms? Is Divine Providence sleeping?

“Never. God is merciful even when he punishes. In a sense, it could be said that God’s mercy appears most clearly when he punishes. Woe to those on whom God’s punishment is slow to come! Woe to the unrepentant sinner who lives happily and carefree! Woe to the wicked man who is surrounded by all the fortunes of secular life! The man who remains happy in crime is the greatest of wretches. If his degradation were not so great, perhaps God would visit him through his sufferings and open his eyes to his iniquity. But he fell so low that not even that bitter but healthy misfortune is granted him. He will roll unconscious from abyss to abyss until the arm of God finally falls on him. God never fails to assist the wicked or the sinner with His grace. But the punishments that God is slow to send, keep growing, accumulating, and multiplying!

“Hence, all this suffering is deep down a fruit of Divine Mercy. By the bitterness of the remedy we take, we can gauge how severe our illness really is. None of this would have happened ‘if each and every one of us had decorously and bravely fulfilled the mission assigned him by Divine Providence.” says the Pontiff. But now, what remains for us is to kiss the hand that punishes us, to be grateful for the punishment that saves us, and to save ourselves through the punishment that is sent to us.”[14]

May these lines, written so many years ago, serve to encourage us to face the multiple crises the contemporary world is going through, crises that beckon that the punishment will soon reach its apex.