by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Is what Fr. Florentino Maboni said in a newspaper interview in Pará about the subversive nature of the guidance he received from his bishop, Most Rev. Estevão Cardoso de Avelar, and from CNBB’s leadership true?
The problem is undoubtedly of interest to the defense of the rights, real or imagined (I have not had a single minute to study the merits of this controversial case), of the occupants of the disputed lands in the region. But is it of interest only to them?
For almost all Brazilians, the most pressing issue, most directly related to their daily lives, is whether the bishop of Conceição do Araguaia and the CNBB leadership have leftist or subversive tendencies, ideas, or activities. Brazilians, who formally reject communism in the vast majority of cases, feel that their highly prized security, which they insist on having continually at their disposal, is threatened. It is the certainty of being able to kneel at any moment in any confessional and to expound to any priest all the problems that torment their souls without reservations or restrictions.
If communists have infiltrated several missionaries in the state of Pará, the ranks of the bishops under whose aegis they work, and the very leadership of the CNBB, a doubt assails every Catholic wishing to open his soul to a priest: if, due to human misery, conditions in the Church today are such that communists or their sympathizers can be ordained as priests, or that priests can be perverted by communist doctrine and sent to “evangelize” poor settlers in distant corners of this immense Brazil, what guarantee is there that the priest of the nearest church, to whom I want to open myself, is not also a subversive?
What is perhaps a Catholic’s most sacred right, namely, to confide in the priest to whom one confesses one’s sins or seeks advice, is thus violated.
As much as I sympathize with the injustices ultimately suffered by the settlers of Conceição do Araguaia, one thing is sure. I am incomparably more moved by the spiritual situation of the millions of Brazilian Catholics who have been harmed in this way. First, because the goods of Heaven and the soul are worth more than those of the body and earthly life. Second, because the number of Brazilians harmed in their spiritual rights is incomparably greater than that of our poor and friendly compatriots in the prelacy of Conceição do Araguaia, who may have been harmed in their rights to material goods.
However, some progressive readers may hastily reply that the blame for this distrust of progressive or communist priests lies mainly with the military or police authorities who denounce them, and with the TFP gentlemen who, like other Catholics, continually point out, here and there, symptoms of subversion in the ecclesiastical ranks. If these many accusers were to remain silent, Dr. Plinio, the public would be unaware of the subversion in the clergy and would confess peacefully to any priest.
Yes, I would reply. The public would trust any and every priest, even those who are communists or crypto-communists. And thus, it would drink in large gulps the poison they spread whenever they could.
According to our objectors, the remedy for evil does not consist in warning the public against it and calling on those responsible to eradicate it. It simply consists of hiding it, even though that means it will spread with impunity.
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The great responsibility for the terrible spiritual insecurity that communists, and even worse, religious crypto-communists, are spreading throughout Brazil rests with the vast majority of ecclesiastical authorities.
In fact, either communists exist among the clergy and in Catholic works and associations, or they do not.
If they exist, why do so many bishops insist that there are no communists in the Brazilian clergy, as Cardinal Scherer, Archbishop of Porto Alegre, did just months ago? Why do so many others remain silent in the face of the leftist fire that, in the eyes of all the faithful, is gaining ground within the vast and venerable ecclesiastical edifice? How will history explain the absence of any investigation or effective canonical punishment of the guilty?
If, on the contrary, the fire is unreal and a few schemers are slandering so many ecclesiastics in the eyes of the people of God, why do those who suffer this injustice not defend their reputation, demand proof of what is said about them, and dispel the slander they endure?
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I return to the case. In Pará, an obscure Father Maboni accuses his bishop of inducing him to engage in subversive activities. Behold, the threads of the progressive fabric writhe with indignation throughout Brazil. “It can’t be,” the furious flock buzzes or exclaims. “It’s absurd for a bishop to be a communist. There is only one explanation for Father Maboni’s testimony: he is being tortured!”
If it causes such discomfort among the progressive flock to say that Father Maboni’s bishop is a crypto-communist and that the CNBB leadership above him is as well, then it must cause them even greater discomfort that a book circulating throughout Brazil, with a print run of 35,000 copies, transcribes scandalously pro-communist poems by another bishop, Pedro Casaldáliga, prelate of São Félix in Araguaia. Why is this well-documented accusation circulating amid the general silence of the progressive flock, which pretends to be unaware of it?
The same book reproduces a document in which CNBB’s Southern Region II, composed of bishops from Paraná, already foresees a communist takeover of Brazil and recommends that their colleagues capitulate and even collaborate with the invaders. How does the modest Father Maboni compare with an episcopal body as crucial as CNBB’s Southern Region II? If progressives throughout Brazil shudder at Father Maboni’s statements and make the most serious accusations against police authorities, why do they remain silent in the face of the highly compromising document from the bishops of Paraná?
There is more. If some Catholic sectors are so upset with us for saying that the leftist fire is spreading in the Church, why are they not protesting at all against the circulation throughout Brazil of the “Pastoral Communication to the People of God,” issued by CNBB’s Representative Commission, which we published excerpts from last Saturday? Do these progressive circles not realize that the whole of Brazil is traumatized by the document?
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These are questions that the sinuous and enigmatic behavior of numerous leftist or progressive clergymen necessarily raises.
And while they devastate the immense expanses that Our Lord Jesus Christ entrusted to their pastoral care, they seem to have a soul and heart only for a few settlers, children of God, to be sure, but ultimately only a few settlers who cannot reasonably be treated as if they were the only children of God in this immense country.
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Do not be surprised, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Monsignors, Canons, and Priests, who remain silent or semi-silent in the face of so many aberrations. I say “semi-silence” intentionally. After asserting months ago that there are no communist priests in Brazil, Cardinal Scherer now publicly states that the Brazilian panorama, as described in the recent CNBB document, is distorted. This is quite true, and we applaud the prelate for his courage in making this statement. But why does he stop at this half-statement? Why does he not inquire into the cause of this distortion, which would be impossible without the action of infiltrated clergy?
The Brazilian people continue to have faith, but not in those who preach the Marx, Lenin, or Brezhnev gospel, nor in those who remain silent in the face of “Marxist-Christian” preaching.
Brazil remains Roman Catholic as always, but an immense sense of spiritual orphanhood is spreading over it.
We ask Mary Most Holy, Queen of Brazil and Mother of all Brazilians, to watch over us, Brazilians of all latitudes—settlers and non-settlers alike.
SUMMARY
I – Where Communist Infiltration of the Clergy Leads
The most sacred of Catholic rights, the right to trust the priest to whom one confesses one’s sins or seeks advice, is violated when one can no longer be sure that the priest of the nearest church is not also a subversive.
II – It Is Essential to Denounce This Infiltration
If those who denounce this infiltration remained silent, the public would trust communist or crypto-communist priests and drink the poison they spread.
III – Are There Communists in the Clergy or Not?
If it exists, why is it not punished? If it does not exist and the accusations are false, why do those being slandered not demand proof of what is being said about them?
IV – Turning a Blind Eye to a Well-Documented Accusation
In the book The Church Facing the Escalating Communist Threat, the author presents irrefutable evidence of communist influence within the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Progressives pretend to be unaware of this, yet writhe with indignation when the same accusation is made by an obscure priest detained by the security forces.
V – CNBB’s Latest Document Has Traumatized Brazil
The same sectors that are upset by the denunciation of communist infiltration in the Church allow the recent “Pastoral Communication to the People of God,” issued by CNBB’s Representative Commission, to circulate without protest.
VI – The Responsibility of the Silent Bishops
Faced with this enormous leftist conflagration raging within the ranks of the clergy, the vast majority of ecclesiastical authorities remain silent or semi-silent.
Brazil remains Catholic, yet an immense sense of spiritual orphanhood is spreading across the nation.