In Spain, the Greatest Persecution – Folha de S. Paulo, January 12, 1975
by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
The well-known Madrid magazine Fuerza Nueva (August 31, 1974) published an important correspondence between His Eminence Cardinal Tarancón, Archbishop of the Spanish capital, and the Reverend Father José Bachs Cortina. This distinguished priest signs his letters as president of the Association of Saint Anthony Mary Claret, which has more than two thousand members from the secular and regular clergy. As one can see, the organization is of great importance in Hispanic religious life.
I highlight excerpts from Fr. Bach’s letters that merit the attention of Catholics worldwide.
I may discuss the distinguished cardinal’s response in my next article.
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I begin with this impressive excerpt from Father Bachs:
“The lack of Thomistic philosophical training, which St. Pius X identified as fundamental for priests who must devote themselves to social action, is evident in the proliferation of documents, including episcopal ones, in so-called Catholic magazines, in homilies, and in writings of various kinds, which demonstrate total ignorance of Catholic social doctrine, contradict the teachings of the papal Magisterium, including those of Paul VI, and deceitfully profess to be socialist.”
This passage of paramount importance follows. It is impossible to read it without considering the ruinous effects of the Vatican’s Ostpolitik toward communist countries:
“No one can ignore that the Marxist machine today has ideologues and activists in the Spanish Church who dominate the media and manipulate the few remaining organizations of what was once Catholic Action, Marian Sodalities, and other pious and apostolic associations.
“The silence of the Episcopal Conference in the face of this phenomenon is notable, despite the repeated and legitimate calls for clarification.”
* * *
No less serious is this other text:
“Considering events with supernatural faith, the tragedy is astonishing when one contemplates the damage resulting from the lack of preaching, the denial of the sacraments, the thousands and thousands of unbaptized children, the proselytism of Masonic and Marxist sects, as well as the commercially multiplied activities of moral corruption in so many centers where the purity of childhood, youth, and the family is destroyed today.
“The hierarch’s silence in the face of all these events is truly appalling. Only in this way can one understand how Paul VI could speak of the ‘self-destruction of the Church’ and the ‘smoke of Satan’ within it.”
Further on, the spokesman for the two thousand priests of the Confraternity of St. Anthony Mary Claret concludes in a striking way:
“This is the Church over which Your Excellency presides, and it is, sadly, more defeated than at any other historical period in our country, including the greatest persecutions. Then, the martyrs numbered in the thousands, while today the apostates number in the thousands.”
Further on, the courageous priest unveils a whole world of persecution and misery that dishonors those who perpetrate it and honors those who suffer:
“We also ask for the legitimate freedom of priestly brotherhoods and associations, which are currently oppressed by pressure and defamatory campaigns, forbidden from meeting, and subject to injustices whose repercussions also affect distinguished prelates, victims of sectarian hatred.”
He concludes:
“… Only God can know the fate that will befall, in eternity, the prelates who, by action or omission, allow this spiritual cataclysm to unfold.”
