Resisting and Applauding – Folha de S. Paulo, May 26, 1974

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

The Italian magazine Chiesa Viva reported in February of this year that 300,000 Catholics held a demonstration in Taipei (Taiwan) against what they described as the Vatican’s policy of subservience to communist China. The event culminated in a ceremony of touching symbolism, namely the inauguration of an image of the “Suffering Christ.”

In this regard, observers note that Taiwan’s Catholics enjoy complete religious freedom. Faith demonstrations have been held around the island’s ancient Marian shrines, drawing considerable numbers of Catholics. At the Church of the Immaculate Conception, the oldest on the island, and at Taipei Cathedral, for example, large Marian demonstrations have recently been held, with fervent participation from the faithful.

Certain observers find it difficult to understand why the Holy See keeps its nuncio away from Taipei. They also find it difficult to avoid the impression that the Vatican’s attitude stems from a desire to attract the sympathy of Red China.

This painful impression seems to be confirmed by the increasingly frequent visits that high-ranking Vatican dignitaries have been making to communist countries, with an obvious conciliatory effect. So, you have the trip of His Excellency Archbishop Casaroli to Cuba, with concomitant contacts with Fidel Castro; the trip of His Eminence Cardinal Rossi to East Berlin to commemorate the bicentennial of St. Hedwig’s Cathedral; and the visit of His Eminence Cardinal Siri, Archbishop of Genoa, to the Soviet Union. True, this last visit, according to a spokesman for the Genoese Chancery, had a purely tourist purpose…

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To speak once again—hopefully for the last time—about Archbishop Casaroli’s visit to Cuba, I must inform readers that, at my request, Mr. Federico Alessandrini, Director of the Vatican Press Office, kindly sent me the text of the note he distributed to the press, which denied the statements attributed to Archbishop Casaroli about the situation of Catholics on the island.

As readers will recall, the prelate’s statements were made to international news agencies, which then distributed them to newspapers in Brazil, Argentina, and other countries. The TFP’s “Declaration of Resistance” was based in part on those statements.

In view of this denial, after reading the text sent by Mr. Alessandrini, the TFP published a note to which it has nothing to add or remove.

However, with Mr. Alessandrini’s document in hand, we are pleased to praise, on one point, the attitude of the Secretary of the Vatican’s Council for Public Affairs. As the document shows, Archbishop Casaroli was aware of our “Declaration of Resistance.” He objected only to statements personally attributed to him regarding Cuba. At the same time, he was fair and objective enough to say nothing against our Resistance as such. Such silence would be highly unlikely, if not inconceivable, if Archbishop Casaroli considered our stand reprehensible from the standpoint of Catholic doctrine or canon law.

How much more grateful we are to applaud His Excellency than to disagree with him!