SOS From Millions – Diplomatic Pouch – “All Is Normal” – Folha de S. Paulo, November 30, 1969

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

I am pleased to inform readers that the microfilms of the petitions signed by about two million Brazilian, Argentine, Chilean, and Uruguayan Catholics requesting Pope Paul VI to take steps to prevent communist infiltration in their country’s Catholic communities have been delivered to the Vatican in boxes measuring 80 by 50 by 20 centimeters.

The delivery, personally carried out by a friend of the TFP, occurred on the 7th of this month. The important documentation was handed over to a clerk at the Secretariat of State of the Holy See.

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I want the public to know about the vast and overwhelming amount of work that led to this delivery.

Once the campaign ended, our first challenge was sending the many pages of the petition to the Vatican. They were stacked on top of each other, forming a pile about 10 meters high. It wasn’t wise to send them through regular postal services. The only option was to request that the shipment be made using a Vatican diplomatic pouch.

Because of this, the Argentine, Chilean, and Brazilian TFPs, along with the Uruguayan Center for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, decided to centralize all signatures in Brazil as a first step so that the Nunciature would be the only entity to send them to the Holy See. TFP members who occasionally visit Brazil helped bring their lists to our country.

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However, a question arose: Would the lists be too bulky to send in the Nunciature’s diplomatic bag? Therefore, it seemed necessary to microfilm all the lists so we could give the Nunciature an alternative: sending the originals or microfilms.

Before microfilming, we faced a very labor-intensive task: recounting.

The total number of signatures collected needed careful review. The recount involved a delicate process of selection. We wanted to exclude illegible signatures, those with vague or unreadable addresses, and similar issues. We assembled multiple teams known for integrity to handle this work, including a female team to which I am pleased to give special recognition.

The selection and recounting process took a month and a half, and the TFP officially announced the results to the press: 1,600,368 signatures in Brazil, 280,000 in Argentina, 120,000 in Chile, and 40,000 in Uruguay, totaling 2,040,368 signatures.

Then it was time for microfilming. The quickest option was outsourcing the task to a specialized company, but it was very costly. We then contacted several facilities with their own equipment to see if they would handle the challenging task at a fee. After extensive negotiations, we finally received a discount.

The microfilming began and produced 85 rolls with the following lengths: 80 rolls measuring 30.48 meters, 4 rolls measuring 20 meters, 2 rolls measuring 10 meters, 2 rolls measuring 24 meters, and 1 roll measuring 26 meters. Each microphotograph measured 16 millimeters wide by 25 millimeters long.

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Meanwhile, the Apostolic Nunciature was vacant. We had to wait for the new Nuncio to arrive and settle into the country. Therefore, I wrote to Dom Umberto Mazzoni only on June 20, kindly requesting His Excellency to include this historically significant item in the diplomatic pouch. I also asked that His Excellency choose between the original texts of the petition and the microfilms.

This seemed to be the easiest and fastest part of the task. I thought that the extremely important petitions, considering the number and significance of many signatories (archbishops, bishops, ministers of state, governors and secretaries of state, high-ranking officers of the armed forces, parliamentarians, university professors, etc.), and the subject matter involved, would be easily sent via diplomatic pouch, where they would occupy only 80 cubic decimeters.

My impression was clear, as the Motu proprio Sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum of June 24, 1969, regarding the duties of nuncios, states that they should communicate “to the Apostolic See the opinions and aspirations of the bishops, clergy, religious, and lay faithful of their territory.”

How wrong I was! The distinguished representative of the Holy See responded in a letter dated July 2 that “by order of his superiors, the Nunciature’s diplomatic mail is strictly reserved for official communications. Therefore, this Nunciature cannot undertake to forward material belonging to others.” The diplomatic pouch of the Holy See’s representation in the country with the largest Catholic population on Earth seems to be too small. I do not know who is responsible for acquiring a larger diplomatic pouch, whether it is the Nunciature or the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. In any case, I urge both to address the highly damaging inadequacy of the current pouch.

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The following months were spent waiting for a dependable carrier. We found one in October. Mr. Carlos Alberto Soares Corrêa, a lawyer from Minas Gerais, delivered the microfilms to the Vatican on the 7th of that month. His distinguished friend, Most Rev. Marcel Lefèbvre, titular archbishop of Synnada, accompanied him.

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The task was tough, and waiting was painful. But even more difficult was seeing that, during this period of “hiding,” Father Comblin returned with lectures and articles meant to poison the religious media. Meanwhile, just before leaving for Rome, CNBB president Cardinal Agnello Rossi told the newspapers he didn’t know about communist infiltration in the clergy. As soon as he arrived in Brazil, Cardinal Câmara told the press that he had assured Paul VI that the clergy’s situation in Brazil was “completely normal, with no reason for further concern.”

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Paul VI has finally received the monumental SOS from millions of his spiritual children in Latin America.

What will he do? That’s what we’re waiting for, with our hands folded in prayer.