During this same period, liberation theology, although condemned by John Paul II in Puebla, found its strongest expression in the Grassroot Ecclesial Communities (GEC), indicated by the “media” as the great emergent power in Brazil. In the name of the Gospel, they advocated class struggle and social transformations with a Marxist stamp for the country.
The most effective condemnation of the revolutionary action of the Grassroot Ecclesial Communities, was the book The Grassroot Communities, many speak of them but few know them — the TFP describes them, that appeared in August 1982 and was immediately distributed throughout the country.76 The study, a work by the brothers Gustavo Antônio and Luis Sérgio Solimeo, was preceded by a section written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, in which the president of the TFP, in presenting The goals of the GEC in the Brazilian context, demonstrated how the CNBB was exercising the role of a “Fifth branch of government” in Brazil by using GECs as their tool.77 The work went on to analyze the Genesis, organization, doctrine and action of the GECs, using a vast documentation. The subversive nature of the Grassroot Communities was clear as they promoted invasion of urban and rural properties, revolts in the factories, intimidation and unrest of every kind, with the aim of overthrowing the present socio-political regime in Brazil. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira defined the GECs’ effort as “crusade without a cross”.78
“Essentially the GECs are a political crusade (…) that does not exclude the possibility of going from a legal civil struggle to that of violence, whenever there is no other way to impose the reforms envisioned.”79
The Spanish historian Ricardo de la Cierva, in his book Jesuítas, Iglesia y Marxismo, thus describes the main aspects of the TFP study:
“The ideological key of the Grassroot Communities is almost always liberation theology. (…) Although their promoters consider them as a series of isolated points, the TFP scholars demonstrate that actually they form a perfectly co-ordinated network that starts from the left wing of the Episcopal Conference. (…) One of the keys of the Grassroot Communities consists in their schismatic tendency to form a new Church in opposition to the institutional Church”.80
The Spanish historian is also amazed at the support given by the institutional Church to these protesting communities:
“The Conference of Bishops of Brazil is the most numerous in the world. It is composed of a ‘silent majority’ generally dominated by a tendencially left-wing and liberationist minority that does not exceed 60 bishops but which often drags the ‘moderates’ in favour of its decisions. (…) It is this same left-wing of the Brazilian episcopate that controls the movement of the Grassroot Communities that has introduced into Brazilian society a completely new form of doing politics, to the point that the Communities as a whole have been converted into an ‘emerging electoral force’.”81
On 6 August 1984, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published the Instruction, Libertatis Nuntio,82 in which “liberation theology” was irrevocably condemned. On 22 March 1986, this document was followed by a second one on Christian liberty and liberation, Libertatis conscientia,83 which was presented as a “positive” intervention on the same theme. The two documents, approved by John Paul II, constitute a single message that put an end to the claims of the new theological current and of the movement of the “Grassroot Ecclesial Communities” inspired by it.
The doctrinal and practical contribution of the TFP to the struggle against “liberation theology” in Latin America is undeniable. Ten years after this denunciation campaign, one of the forerunners of “liberation theology”, Father Joseph Comblin, denounced so many times by the TFP, confessed in a 1993 interview that by now “the GECs are marginalized, thrashed, and fulminated everywhere. Today, they are but minorities without influence in the milieu of local churches”.84
Notes:
76. P. Corrêa de Oliveira; Gustavo Antonio Solimeo e Luis Sérgio Solimeo, As CEBs… das quais muito se fala, pouco se conhece. A TFP as descreve como são, São Paulo, Vera Cruz, 1982. Six editions of this work have been printed with a total of 72,000 copies plus a further cartoon-style edition of 180,000 copies. Cf. P. Corrêa de Oliveira, “Suspeita estapafúrdia e juízo temerário”, Folha de S. Paulo, 30 September 1982. Cf. also Antonio Augusto Borelli Machado, “Le comunità ecclesiali in Brasile: una crociata senza croce”, Cristianità, no. 92, December 1982.
77. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira insists that the modern State, especially Brazil is not only dominated by the traditional powers (Executive, Legislative and Judiciary), but also by two other branches that are as “informal” as they are influential: the media and the episcopate. “In a recent book, I affirmed that there are only three branches in Brazil, the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary. But, today, there are two others that are perceptibly more influential in face of public opinion. The 4th Power is the Media, whose prestige relies more on the credulity of the naive than on the adhesion of truly cultured readers. The 5th Power is the CNBB, who — save in rare instances and honourable exceptions — has much more influence over the gullible than on true men of Faith.” (P. Corrêa de Oliveira, “Prevenindo para tonificar”, Folha de S. Paulo, 5 July 1983). Cf. ID., “Ditatorialismo publicitário centrista”, Folha de S. Paulo, 10 August 1983.
78. P. Corrêa de Oliveira, As metas das CEBs, in As CEBs…, p. 86.
79. Ibid, p. 88.
80. Ricardo de la Cierva, Jesuítas, Iglesia y Marxismo, 1965-1985. La Teología de la liberación desenmascarada, (Madrid, Plaza & Janés Editores, 1986), pp. 116-18.
81. Ibid, pp. 118-19.
82. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Libertatis Nuntio of 6 August 1984, in AAS, 76, 1984, pp. 890-9; Denz.-H, nos. 4730-41.
83. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction Libertatis conscientia of 22 March 1986, in AAS, 79, 1986, pp. 554-9; Denz.-H, nos. 4750-76. This instruction was preceded by a note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (AAS, vol. 77, 1985, pp. 756-62), in which the book of the theologian Leonardo Boff O.F.M., Church: charism and power, New York, Crossroad, 1985, was condemned.
84. Cf. in “Expoente da ‘teologia da libertação’ confessa o fracasso das comunidades eclesiais de base”, Catolicismo, no. 505, January 1993.