by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
What do you think, reader, of the following words on a poster depicting the sacred face of the Son of God, without taste or mercy:
“It is definitely interesting. Christ broke away from His familiar surroundings, where we normally found Him, and decided to become democratic. He left the churches and sacristies and began walking around. Today, we find Him among hippies, drug addicts, and those with long hair like His own. He can now be found in a slum as well as in the top chart songs by Roberto Carlos or Antônio Marcos. Good, very good! We begin to encounter Him where we least expect. And He feels very comfortable in His environment. Indeed, He has always been a man of the people. He enjoyed mingling with the masses, being among them. And now, without a doubt, He is beginning to feel at home among them again. In one way or another, in LPs or slogans, on posters or in hippie communities, He is once again becoming one of the people. We cornered Him, squeezed Him, and ended up locking Him between the four walls of stone churches. Dressed in gold, a distant God, difficult to find. But with cries of ‘come back soon,’ He begins to manifest Himself as He is. One of us, of our race, a God who mixes with us and lives with us. He comes to state it all again because we have forgotten. Or else we end up adapting what He said about our comfort zone (the cowardice of those who listen only to what suits them). All that remains for us is not to spoil His image any further. He is tired of carrying little lambs on His back.” There follow a few more references to the “golden Christ.”
In my view, this text combines confusion, demagoguery, and irreverence with a bitter undercurrent of blasphemy.
A careful analysis of this rant dispels confusion and highlights the disrespect and blasphemy.
This Christ who “decided to democratize himself,” leaving churches and sacristies, seems tailor-made to justify certain defrocked, hippy-like priests and nuns. They too “decided to democratize themselves” and left churches, convents, and sacristies. They even abandoned their vocation and plunged headlong into profane life.
Where can these unfortunate souls be found? Never in the sacred places they abandoned, but “among hippies, drug addicts, those ‘with long hair like his.’” Sometimes they can be found “in a slum,” where they distribute bread sparingly to satisfy hunger and, in handfuls, the sour and poisoned spiritual food of revolutionary preaching.
In all this, the “democratized” Christ, that is, the modernized, de-alienated, and demystified Christ of the poster, is the perfect image of the priest who has completely abandoned his vocation to follow Marx and fashion.
Faced with this strange “Jesus Christ,” the poster’s commentary reads: “Good; very good! We begin to encounter Him where we least expect.” This is a convenient justification for a prevaricating priest who carries the indelible dignity of the sacrament of Holy Orders into places the laws of the Church, common sense, and decorum would never allow him to enter.
Unsurprisingly, the author of the poster is also dissatisfied with the true moral figure of the Man-God and attacks the laws, ways, and styles the Church has always adopted. The poster adds that this sacrilegiously modernized Jesus Christ “feels very comfortable” in his environment. He has always been a man of the people. He liked to mingle with the masses, to be with them … “We cornered Him, squeezed Him, and ended up locking Him between the four walls of stone churches.” In other words, the Church has committed the unforgivable error of isolating Our Lord Jesus Christ from the people He came to teach and save. Jesus Christ has been “cornered, squeezed, and locked up” in the churches that all the generations that preceded us built to shelter Him with self-sacrifice and devotion.
Freed from these sacred prisons, this hippy-like Jesus Christ “begins to feel at home again,” with corruption on his right, subversion on his left, and a plentiful supply of drugs before him.
The Church’s twenty centuries of life, in which she spread throughout the earth, established Christian civilization, and led nations to the heights of virtue, knowledge, and strength, were supposedly twenty centuries of deviation. Jesus Christ, “clothed in gold,” is said to have been removed from the people by the Church, becoming “a distant God, difficult to find.” Thankfully, the protesters broke down the doors of the sanctuary, stripped the Divine King of the insignia of his royalty, and dragged him into the midst of hippies. The majestic adornments would have given him a false and imposturous appearance. According to the poster, the Church would have come this far in this falsehood and imposture. Desacralized, demystified, and profaned, “He begins to manifest himself as He is. One of us, of our race, a God who mixes with us and lives with us.” As if the churches had remained empty and the crowds had not entered them for two thousand years. As if Our Lord had not given Himself entirely to men in the churches, whether by His Real presence, His word, or His grace. As if, during those twenty centuries, continuous generations of priests, religious, and lay apostles had not brought Our Lord Jesus Christ to all environments where it was lawful and proper to bring Him. As if He had not been gradually brought to all corners of the earth.
I will refrain from continuing my analysis of the text. I will note this blasphemous irony in depictions of Our Lord Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd: “He is tired of carrying little lambs on his back.”
When a Catholic retains even a few drops of faith and devotion in his soul, a prayer rises from his heart to heaven as he reads such abominations: Usque quo, Domine? — “How long, Lord, how long” will You tolerate such aberrations?
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In the fortunate Diocese of Campos, Rio de Janeiro, entrusted to the astute and fearless zeal of the great Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer, punishment ensued.
This poster served as propaganda for a Mass held in the Automobile Club of Campos’ gymnasium. As the poster likely suggested, the solemnity was marred by irregularities. Ecclesiastical sanction was not long in coming. In a widely distributed statement, Bishop Mayer publicly announced his formal disapproval of the act. One need only read his courageous and succinct document to understand the follies committed during that deplorable ceremony.
I will publish only what is absolutely essential.
“By order of the Diocesan Bishop, the Diocesan Chancery has the following communication regarding the strange Mass concelebrated at the Automobile Club:
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The Curia was not consulted on this matter. It was not asked for the necessary permission to celebrate Mass outside a sacred place, nor was the concelebration submitted to the judgment of the Diocesan Bishop, as required by the Second Vatican Council (Const. de Sacra Liturgia, nos. 57, § 1, 2, and § 2) …
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The text prepared for the ceremony contains several parts worthy of reproach. Thus, the parody of the “Creed” replaces faith in God and the revealed mysteries with faith in humanity, science, technology, evolution, and the latest applications of scientific inventions. Read, for example, this article from the new “Creed”: “I believe in the woman who adorns and beautifies herself every day to be the most beautiful creation of our Father.”
Parodying sacred things in this way is never in keeping with the Christian spirit, especially during Mass; it is difficult not to call it blasphemy.
In the same vein, assimilating Jesus Christ to today’s hippies feels like blasphemy: “Hair as long as mine,” “today we find Him (Christ) among hippies, drug addicts, very much at ease in their environment.”
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This is one of those distortions of “aggiornamento” that John XXIII spoke of and that Paul VI continually deplored. … Such distortions skew people’s Catholic sense and deform souls. According to the determination of the Holy See, recently reaffirmed in a letter from the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Doctrine, it is incumbent upon the bishops to ensure that the Faith is preserved intact among the faithful, without errors or diminutions. This is the reason for this communiqué, which the failure to observe ecclesiastical laws has made necessary. Fr. José Maria Collaço, Chancery Secretary.