The Cardinal speaks at the Princess Pallavicini Palace (in Rome) on the occasion of the launch of Prof. Plinio’s latest book, ‘Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the allocutions of Pius XII‘ (1993).
In history’s frequent periods of crises and confusion, biographies of significant men can often better reveal or indicate the right path to follow than abstract volumes of morality and philosophy.
Indeed, individuals must concretely put principles into practice. However, inasmuch as tempestuous times are more hostile to the historical realization of these principles, it is all the more necessary to recognize those who place these principles at the centre of their own lives.
This is what happened in our century with Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, the great Brazilian thinker and man of action who died in São Paulo, Brazil, on 3 October 1995, and about whom Prof Roberto de Mattei has written, within this year, the first European biography.
With the integrity of his life as an authentic Catholic, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira offers us a confirmation of the church’s continuing fecundity. The difficulties of these times for true Catholics are, in fact, occasions to influence history by affirming perennial Christian principles. Such was the case with the eminent Brazilian thinker, who demonstrated it by boldly maintaining, in an age of totalitarianism of every stripe and colour, his unshakeable faith in the fundamental teachings and institutions of the Church. Besides his fidelity to the Papacy, a characteristic trait of his spirituality that I am pleased to remember is his conspicuous devotion to Mary Help of Christians, Our Lady of the Rosary and the Victory of Lepanto, whom he venerated in the Salesian church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in São Paulo. I still remember with pleasure having presided the ceremony in Rome of the launching of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s masterful work, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the allocutions of Pius XII, a book that constitutes, in my opinion, along with Revolution and Counter-Revolution, one of the highest achievements of this Brazilian thinker’s genius.
In short, I congratulate the author of this work, Professor Roberto de Mattei, with whom I share sentiments of friendship and consonance of ideals, for the masterful way in which he has succeeded in recalling the character and accomplishments of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, of whom he is a worthy disciple in Europe.
All founders and others who have stood out in the history of the Church have had to suffer calumny and misunderstanding. It should come as no surprise, then, that Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira was, and will continue to be, the target of a campaign of denigration, skillfully orchestrated by those who oppose his ideal of re-Christianizing society. In our century, such defamatory campaigns have also attacked other Catholic associations, demonizing them as “cults”. It is interesting to note that these campaigns are much more aggressive when they are directed against associations that express a greater fidelity to the Catholic Church. This reveals that the true object of these accusations and falsehoods is the Church and that they are made to deny the Church’s role as the “teacher of truth,” recently affirmed by the Holy Father John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor. It is disturbing that these campaigns of denigration promoted by the enemies of the Church are often aided by Catholics who pretend to be orthodox.
I hope that this biography of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira can help to dissipate the criticism and misunderstanding and create an ideal point of reference for all those who generously wish to dedicate their energies to the service of the Church and Christian civilization.
These efforts, which are at the service of the Church, require not only doctrinal rectitude, but also the personal practice of an authentic interior life accompanied with a spirit of penance and sacrifice proportional to the gravity of our times.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira offers us, through his life and work, a clear example.
I assure my prayers and blessing for all those who imitate and propagate this authentically Catholic spirit and vision of the world.
Alfons Maria Cardinal Stickler
Rome, 2 July 1996 Feast of the Visitation
Cardinal Alfons Maria Stickler, a Salesian, was born in Neuenkirchen (Austria) in 1910. His special vocation to the study of legal sciences led him to teach in the Pontifical Salesian University, of which he was initially Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law and subsequently Rector from 1958 to 1966. Having placed his marked academic talents at the service of the Holy See, he first directed the Pontifical Institute of Higher Latin Sciences, and was then nominated Prefect of the Vatican Library. In 1983 Pope John Paul II raised him to the episcopate and then, creating him cardinal with the diaconal title of San Giorgio in Velabro, he made him Librarian and Archivist of the Holy Roman Church. He is the author of important theological and canonical studies which have been translated into numerous languages (Editor’s note).