by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
This is the fact in its brutality: Brazil has venerated Our Lady as its special patroness for more than two centuries, and this veneration is directed to her under the invocation of the Immaculate Conception of Aparecida.
Our Lady Aparecida!
This exclamation often comes to mind for Brazilians, especially on important occasions. It may be the cry of an afflicted soul addressing God through the intercession of the Mediatrix, who refuses nothing to men and to whom God, in turn, refuses nothing. It may also be the exclamation of a soul unable to contain its joy, pouring out its gratitude at the feet of the Mother, from whom all benefits come to us.
The story of the small, dark terracotta image, with its large blue mantle on which precious stones shine and the Queen of Brazil’s crown on her forehead, would fill books. If conceived as I would imagine them, these books should contain not only the distinguished historical facts related to her but also, in a rich appendix, the legends that popular piety has woven about her. The overall image of Aparecida as it exists in the hearts of all Brazilians results from the amalgamation of serious, indisputable history and graceful legend. The slave who prayed at the feet of Our Lady conceived without original sin, while his cruel master approached him, the shackles that broke, the master’s heart that was moved, etc.; the Prince Regent greeting the statue during his journey from Rio to São Paulo, where he proclaimed Brazil’s independence and became its emperor; the new monarch’s act officially placing Brazil under the protection of the Immaculate Virgin Aparecida; the statue’s coronation with the rich gold crown studded with diamonds, offered years earlier by Princess Isabel, a coronation performed on December 8, 1904, by the bishops of the Southern Province of Brazil and other parts of the country, thanks to a decree of the Chapter of the Vatican Basilica approved by St. Pius X; the elderly former President Venceslau Brás, piously attending the silver jubilee of the statue’s coronation, the Mass solemnly celebrated by Archbishop Duarte Leopoldo e Silva, resplendent with that episcopal majesty so characteristic of him; Pope Pius XI’s solemn proclamation in his decree of July 16, 1930, establishing and declaring “the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived without sin, under the title of Aparecida, principal patroness of all Brazil, before God”; the apotheotic manifestation of May 31, 1931, when the national episcopate consecrated the country to Our Lady of Aparecida before her miraculous image, triumphantly brought to Rio de Janeiro in a sanctuary train, in the presence of the highest civil and military authorities and in union with the entire people—more than a million people! Not to mention the thousands of healings of the blind, crippled, paralyzed, lepers, heart patients, and who knows what else! Countless crowds of devotees came from all over Brazil, with mothers telling their little children, on their way home, some pious story about the Saint, invented on the spot or heard from their grandmother or great-grandmother. Of course, over the generations, the story grew richer with more wonderful details. Whoever tells a tale…
All this led the whole of Brazil to be moved—with good reason—by the small, dark terracotta statue, regarded as a tangible sign of Our Lady’s protection.
That sign has now been broken.
Is this not a sign? A sign of what?
Judging by press reports, the details of the incident are shrouded in mystery, as they contradict each other on key points. None, for example, has provided us with satisfactory and precise information about the perpetrator’s degree of criminal responsibility for the sacrilege, the specific manner in which the crime was committed, or even the actual damage suffered by the statue. The crown must have fallen from its venerable forehead onto the floor. What happened to it? Was it crushed? Damaged? Is it still intact? The news published in the press revealed nothing about any of this. As a result, our public, usually informed in abundant detail about any crime in the sad routine of contemporary large cities, knows little about this tragic sacrilege that deeply marks the history of Aparecida, the religious history of Brazil, and therefore, purely and simply, the history of Brazil.
Now, these details could help us understand the deeper meaning of what happened there.
Friends of mine who spoke a few days ago with a very high-ranking ecclesiastical figure heard that the sacrilege was related to the approval of divorce in Brazil.
The hypothesis gives pause for thought. Perhaps, deeply saddened by the enactment of divorce, Our Lady, in allowing this crime, decided to show the Brazilian people her displeasure. Could this be true? Undoubtedly, the introduction of divorce was a grave collective sin committed by the Brazilian nation. However, one could argue that the act represents much more a sin of the State than of the Nation, as the Brazilian people have utterly rejected the “gift” the Brazilian State gave them; it is clear today that no one wants to get divorced.
But two aspects of the approval of divorce can be linked to this sacrilegious crime. On the one hand, divorce was approved because resistance to it was insufficient. The nation was asleep when Mr. N. Carneiro was acclaimed with cheers by the plenary session of Congress and by a minority packing its galleries shortly after the law was approved. In turn, this slumber at such a grave moment reflects a flagrant lack of zeal. It is not enough for us not to make use of the law. If we did not want it, why did we not prevent it?
How can we fail to recognize in this reprehensible indifference, not a momentary state of mind but an attitude of the soul resulting from even more profound causes? When the morality of fashion declines alarmingly, when social customs are constantly degrading, and birth control is practiced by means condemned by the Church and attains frightening proportions, the breeding ground for communism is being prepared.
Communism, cloaked in crypto-communism, Eurocommunism, socialism, and other ideological disguises, is advancing. How can we fail to recognize this as a complex set of circumstances in which divorce fits quite naturally?
Having said this, how can we not remember the prophecy Our Lady made at Fatima shortly after the fall of Tsarism?
These are her words: “If you heed my requests, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, it will spread its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church; the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will suffer greatly, several nations will be annihilated; finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
It is impossible not to wonder whether there is a connection between this tragic and maternal prediction, ignored by the world for the past sixty years, and the equally tragic events in Aparecida. Could this be an echo of that prediction?
An echo intended especially for Brazil, since the crime occurred among us and against the statue of our Patroness.
Yes, especially, but perhaps not exclusively, for Brazil. Our country currently has the largest Catholic population in the world. After Guadalupe, Aparecida is the world’s most important Marian shrine in terms of the number of pilgrims it attracts. Therefore, whatever happens here regarding Marian devotion matters to the whole world.
Many will say that the connection between Fatima and Aparecida cannot be confirmed because the evidence is inconclusive. I will not analyze the issue here. I ask whether anyone feels they have grounds to deny it.
A traditional and beautiful hymn to Our Lady of Aparecida