The Century of Paul VI – Folha de S. Paulo, November 18, 1973

 

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

 

 

A few days ago, the press reported that Paul VI had received a visit from “comrade” Stefan Olszowski, the foreign minister of the Polish communist government. This was the first time a pope had received a foreign minister from a communist country.

According to the diplomat’s statements, during the audience—which took place in an atmosphere of great cordiality—he extended an invitation on behalf of the Polish government to Archbishop Agostino Casaroli, who oversaw Paul VI’s Ostpolitik, to visit Warsaw in the near future. More importantly, Comrade Olszowski hinted that a visit by Paul VI to Poland, perhaps as early as next spring, was a real possibility. If this visit were confirmed, it would be a much more unexpected and sensational event than Nixon’s trip to Beijing and Moscow a year and a half ago.

Indeed, the meeting between the highest representative of the capitalist world and the two most important communist governments is intrinsically less important than the visit of Christ’s representative on earth to the capital of a country controlled from the Kremlin by the supreme representatives of world atheism based in Moscow.

Upon hearing the news of the event, my Catholic heart, devoted to the Holy See to the core, naturally feels conflicted emotions. I will share them with the reader.

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More than anything else, my heart beats with apprehension. I have repeatedly stated in these articles that the “détente” between the United States and Soviet Russia—a larger-scale version of Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik—is based entirely on the assumption of the sincerity of international communism’s pacifist aims.

Now, whether one is inclined toward the Arabs or the Israelis, it is impossible not to recognize the essentially imperialist nature of the Kremlin’s move in the Middle East conflict. Détente and Ostpolitik thus become outdated myths, as the Kremlin took it upon itself to destroy the illusion on which they were based. The Holy See’s highly astute diplomats cannot have ignored this fact, obvious to the whole world. Nevertheless, both Warsaw and the Vatican decided to act as if the myth were still alive and that Moscow could still be considered a pacifist power. This diplomatic fiction necessarily involves a complex maneuver on both sides. In this maneuver, the Vatican clearly enters with extremely peaceful intentions, and the Kremlin with extremely imperialistic intentions. As much as I trust in the sagacity of Vatican diplomacy, I —like so many other Catholics—understandably wonder what might result from this friction between the clay pot and the iron pot.

* * *

For my part, this apprehension borders on anguish. Let me explain.

In the eyes of world opinion, détente is at its lowest ebb for many serious reasons: 1) in Russia, the groans of Sakharov and his friends—which would be better called roars—express the dissatisfaction of all legitimate and genuinely representative elements with the fact that Nixon is helping to keep in power a team of tyrants responsible for the destruction of all freedom and prosperity behind the Iron Curtain; 2) in the US, Nixon’s popularity is plummeting. At first glance, this is due exclusively to the Watergate scandal. In reality, however, it amounts to a severe, albeit implicit, judgment of détente itself. If Americans saw Nixon as a brilliant politician capable of averting the horrors of war, he would be in danger of losing power simply because of the Watergate scandal; 3) Furthermore, the confessed misery of Russia and its satellites, among which I include Cuba and Allende’s Chile, is proving to the world that the communist regime only produces misery and misfortune; 4) To add to this regime’s unpopularity, it has become clear that if the scourge of severe inflation is spreading throughout the capitalist world, it is because we are forced to feed the communist world!

So I ask myself, with anguish, how world opinion will view this rapprochement between the Vatican and the communist regime. If Paul VI visits Warsaw in the spring, what kind of spring will it be for the world?

Given my eagerness to see the Papacy and the Church held in the highest esteem and love by the peoples, it is legitimate for me to fear the consequences of Paul VI’s visit to Warsaw.

 

St. Leo the Great meets with Attila, fresco by Raphael (1514), Vatican Museum

However, carried away by my filial love for the Papacy, my mind begins to dream. Alongside my anguish, palpitations of hope unexpectedly make themselves felt. I turn my eyes to the past, thinking of Popes of yesteryear who, like Paul VI today, left Rome in search of their adversary. My mind dwells on the grandiose scene—that also took place in spring—of the meeting between St. Leo the Great and Attila, the terrible king of the Huns. The great Pope was determined to confront the savage king, resolutely blocking his path to Rome. To this end, he relied solely on God’s power. At the dramatic moment of the encounter, St. Peter appeared in the sky to the barbarian king, with a threatening look on his face. The latter, overcome with respect and panic, retreated before the successor of the Prince of the Apostles and returned to distant Pannonia.

How beautiful it would be if Paul VI, facing the entire communist world in Warsaw, were to condemn the atheism, materialism, and immorality inherent in both communist philosophy and the communist regime, and to rebuke with supernatural severity those unyielding adversaries of the family and individual property; if the Pontiff were to take up the defense of the oppressed and starving masses against the Red despots with indomitable eloquence; if he were to protest against the Berlin Wall and the murderous machine guns guarding it; and if he were to demand the complete cessation of cruel persecutions and the catacomb regime against the Holy Church. What an exciting and wonderful move that would be! What emotion, enthusiasm, and tenderness such a gesture would provoke throughout the world!

What would result from it?

Everything would be possible, from an apparition by St. Peter, who would annihilate the Red Attilas of our time, to the martyrdom of Paul VI.

I do not know which of these two possibilities would seem greater to people. What is certain is that, if he were victorious, his name would be inscribed among the great popes alongside St. Leo the Great and even on the rostrum of the Saints. If he were to become a martyr, the only place in the world fit to hold his precious remains would be the tomb of St. Peter, which archaeologists have identified in the Vatican underground.

In any case, our century would have been named the century of Paul VI.

* * *

Who knows whether Our Lady, who can obtain anything from God, will make next spring a spring of the resurrected world and of the Church rejuvenated by a great miracle! It is not only my heart that beats at this prospect, but yours as well, is it not, dear reader?