Détente as a Device: The Soft Sell of Divorce Reform – Folha de S. Paulo, September 8, 1974
by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
About twenty bills are being debated in the House of Representatives and the Senate to covertly undermine the indissolubility of marriage.
The CNBB (National Conference of Brazilian Bishops) recognized this in time, and its Representative Commission has just established a special committee—“made up of bishops, jurists, sociologists, and theologians,” according to the episcopal entity—to monitor the progress of these bills.
There is much more for the CNBB to do. It must urgently launch a national anti-divorce campaign involving all preachers, confessors, teachers in Catholic schools and universities, Catholic newspapers and magazines, etc. If the divorce onslaught is not met with an even greater Catholic anti-divorce action, we will have voluntarily capitulated to the enemy.
While we await these measures, it is reasonable to expect something from the committee the bishops are forming.
However, objectivity compels me to say there are also reasons to be fearful. Who are these “bishops, jurists, sociologists, and theologians” that the CNBB will choose? Are they capable of sustaining the fight without the prevarications and accommodations that the case absolutely does not allow? I will go even further: will any of them be advocates for divorce?
I can see, in the distance, one or another reader dropping the newspaper in indignation: “This again from the TFP! How can you raise such suspicions about people trusted by the CNBB, especially bishops and theologians?”
These readers can pick up the newspaper and continue reading. I maintain that this mistrust is well-founded, and I can prove it to anyone who wants to see the proof.
For some time now, there has been a détente with divorce advocates in Catholic circles. One of its symptoms is the impunity that generally surrounds ecclesiastical figures who have supported divorce since the Second Vatican Council.
As far as I can remember, the most notorious among these was the Eastern Bishop Elias Zoghby, who, at the Council, proposed dissolving the marriage bond in certain cases of adultery.
Since then, a steady stream of clergymen has favored legislation that either openly or covertly paves the way for divorce or, in some cases, even accepts it.
From the Netherlands, I cite the theologians and seminary professors H. Boelaars, Th. Beemer, and B. Peters, as well as the Dominican E. Schillebeeckx, all of whom are world-renowned. Similarly, the Jesuit P. Huizing, a member of the Commission for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law, taught at the Gregorian University in Rome for twelve years. Also in agreement with them is the Belgian Benedictine Olivier Rousseau, editor of the important theological journal Irenikon.
On our continent, two Americans are on the same wavelength: the theologian R. Carey, a contributor to the Passionist magazine The Sign, and Msgr. V. Pospishil, a doctor of canon law from the Gregorian University and a professor of theology at Manhattan College. The Chilean Jesuit Hernán Larrain is of lesser importance.
None of these, however, surpasses the German Redemptorist theologian and former conciliar expert Bernardo Haering in importance, who is considered by progressives to be the greatest moralist of our time.
In Brazil, this trend has also been present since at least 1966. Quite a few priests in our country hold similar views. One of them, the Redemptorist J. Snoek, was recently commissioned by the CNBB to speak at a refresher course (!) for bishops.
All of this is minor compared with a recent article by Cardinal Eugênio Salles. In my opinion, it was the year’s bombshell in Brazilian ecclesiastical affairs, as it strongly favors the cause of divorce.
I intend to address this issue in my next article. If anyone asks me, I will be able to cite not only Brazilian priests who support divorce but also others from abroad, of whom there are practically countless. I will be able to refer to the texts, works, etc., of both groups.
