Warriors of the Virgin: The Reply of Authenticity – TFP without Secrets by PLINIO CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA

Warriors of the Virgin: The Reply of Authenticity – TFP without Secrets

To the Reader In July of this year, the book, Warriors of the Virgin – Secret Life in TFP (EMW Editores, São Paulo, 1985, 201 pp.), written by Mr. José Antônio Pedriali, was placed for sale in bookstores in São Paulo and other Brazilian cities.

On June 20th, shortly before its publication, a full-page summary of the book came out in the newspaper, O Estado de S. Paulo with an extensive statement by the author, titled “Warriors of the Virgin, Slaves of TFP.” The importance the voluminous daily attached to his statement can be gauged not only by that extensive article but also by the fact it was preceded by prominent daily announcements over a full week, taking up no less than two columns about 20 centimeters in height.

Even before that, the Estado news agency had placed a report containing a summary of the book at the disposal of every newspaper in Brazil.

In so doing, O Estado de S. Paulo set in motion a new and large-scale publicity onslaught against the largest anticommunist civic organization in Brazil.

Echoing the stance of O Estado de S. Paulo [hereinafter referred to as OESP], other newspapers and magazines all over the country published news reports of varying sizes summarizing the story Mr. José Antônio Pedriali narrates in his book, with statements obtained directly from him, today part of the staff of journalists in the said daily. 1 Two days later, on July 2, 1985, the same OESP published a news item about the matter titled, “TFP Fails to Comment on [Pedriali’s] Testimony.” And as the book came out in the capital, São Paulo, on August 13, 1985, a new report was published under the title, “Former Militant Tells TFP Secrets and Tactics.”

Below are news items that have come to TFP’s attention: “Former TFP Member Will Reveal Its Secrets,” Jornal dos Sports, Rio de Janeiro, 6-19-85; “TFP’s Secrets,” Fim de Semana, Cuiabá, 6-28-85; “Warrior of the Virgin Tells TFP Secrets,” Folha da Tarde, São Paulo, 6-29-85; “Former Militant Recounts Experience in TFP,” Folha de S. Paulo, 6-29-85; “TFP Secrets in Mato Grosso,” Jornal do Dia, Cuiabá, 6-9-85; “Warriors of the Virgin, Slaves of TFP,” A Tarde, Salvador, 6-30-85; “TFP – Warriors of the Virgin,” Folha de Londrina (State of Paraná), 6-30-85; “Book Reveals Obscure Mysteries of TFP,” A Notícia, Joinville (State of Santa Catarina), 7-10-85; “Book Discloses TFP Backstage,” Diário do Pará, Belém, 7-10-85; “Book Reveals TFP Secrets and Mysteries,” Jornal da Bahia, 7-1085; “Ex-militant’s Book Reveals TFP Secrets and Mysteries,” Jornal do Commércio, Recife, 7-10-85; “Journalist Tells It All About TFP,” O Liberal, Belém, 7-10-85; “Book of the Extreme Right on the Streets,” Tribuna da Imprensa, Rio de Janeiro, 7-10-85; “TFP Secrets,” O Dia, Rio de Janeiro, 7-10-85; “Book Makes Revelations on TFP,” Jornal de Santa Catarina, Blumenau, 7-10-85; “Former TFP Member to Launch Book Showing Entity’s Fanaticism,” O Imparcial, Presidente Prudente (State of São Paulo), 7-10-85, “TFP and Book,” Zero Hora, Porto Alegre, 7-10-85; “TFP – A Trip to Hell,” A Gazeta, Vitória, 7-11-8; “TFP Secrets,” Folha de Londrina, 7-11-85; “Former Militant, in Book, Recounts His Life in TFP,” Jornal do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 7-18-85; “People and Events,” Jornal de Montes Claros, Montes Claros (State of Minas Gerais), 7-20-85; “’Former Warrior Denounces TFP Action against Youths,” Diário Popular, São Paulo, 7-21-85; “TFP: Former Militant Lets Out Steam,” Jornal da Tarde, 7-24-85; “Warrior’s Refuge,” Diário da Tarde, Belo Horizonte, 7-28-85; “TFP – The Reverse Side of the Standard,” Fatos, Rio de Janeiro, 7-29-85; “Inside TFP,” Ele/Ela, Rio de Janeiro, no. 193, July 1985; “Book on TFP Is Launched,” Jornal da Bahia, 813-85; “Journalist’s Book Reveals TFP Secrets,” Tribuna da Bahia, 8-13-85; Diário do Pará (untitled), Belém, 8-1585; “Launching,” Folha de Londrina, 11-22-85.

However, publicity about Warriors of the Virgin had started many months earlier with two different reports, “Saved from TFP!,” Brasil Extra, São Paulo, August 1984; and “The TFP Has Marked Me Forever,” Gazeta de Pinheiros, São Paulo, 3-22-85.

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*** However much the author tries to water down - at least in appearance - the acutely polemical nature of his book by employing, through most of its narrative, a calm, serene and seemingly impartial language, the effort is entirely devoted to demolishing the good name of the TFP, especially among the readership of O Estado de S. Paulo. For this paper was and still is by far the largest media organization supporting the book, Warriors of the Virgin.

According to statements by that daily, its Sunday circulation is about 420,000 copies (roughly double its normal circulation on weekdays). It was on a Sunday that the full-page summary of Warriors of the Virgin came out.

True, its readership is no longer enough to assure O Estado de S. Paulo the undeniable primacy of the daily press in our State, which it once enjoyed.

However, even though Folha de S. Paulo has been disputing that primacy with growing success, the OESP keeps not only its prestige of bygone days but also a large and influential readership.

So it was important for the TFP to answer the accusations Mr. Jose Antonio Pedriali made in his book and the reports the said daily published about it. *** Given the sensationalist nature of the June 30 report in OESP, I authorized the TFP Press Service to issue right away a note saying this Society would reply to the attacks launched against it.

While noticing right away the book’s hostile stance toward TFP, I still did not have, up until then, a right to assume that it would have characteristics that made him unworthy of a reply. And so I authorized our Press Service to also announce that I would be personally responsible for preparing the TFP defense as soon as I finished a book on the National Land Reform Plan, which I was writing (cf. O Estado de S. Paulo, 7-2-85).

Let me say from the start that if I had not committed myself to doing it, I would not be doing it now.

Indeed, on pages 40-41, 90-92 and 190-193 of his book, Mr. José Antônio Pedriali presents descriptions so immoral and in such obscene detail that they could occupy a prominent place in the abundant pornographic literature now widespread in our country. That alone makes the book unworthy of a refutation, at least for a Catholic faithful to traditional Church morals, supposing he did not allow himself to be undermined by the winds of self-destruction blowing far and wide in Catholic circles around the world.

Strictly speaking, that refutation would not even be necessary. For, in spite of the strident propaganda that preceded and followed the launching of Warriors of the Virgin, the book fell far short of causing on the public at large the effect that its author and publishers hoped for.

“Everything exaggerated is insignificant,” a 19th century French author wrote.

Mr. José Antônio Pedriali’s outlandish and obviously unlikely accusation reduced it forthwith to its deserved insignificance.

The OESP staff itself felt it: they tried to pick up Mr. Pedriali’s attack from the ground, where it had fallen, and revive it with a three-part series written by their collaborator, Prof. Roque Spencer Maciel de Barros. It was published with prominence on page 2 on Tuesdays, October 29 and November 5 and 12, 1985. Those articles only endorsed and repeated the unfounded attacks in the book, Warriors of the Virgin; and public opinion received them with the same indifference as it did the book.

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However, had I remained quiet after promising a refutation, they would say I had no answer to give. So I publish this defense of TFP to safeguard our good name against this pornographic book.

However, to make a rebuttal, there was no alternative but to make it as long as necessary to impugn all that needed to be impugned from the standpoint of TFP’s good name and the special interest of readers. "As long as necessary," I insist; for the accusations are so numerous that to refute them all would require a book unacceptably long for modern readers.

That is why this refutation is so massive.

This also explains why so much time has elapsed between Mr. José Antonio Pedriali’s attack and the publication of this work.

Incidentally, much of this time was devoted not only to refuting Warriors of the Virgin; the author of this response also had to write, together with economist Carlos Patrício Del Campo, Master of Science in Agrarian Economy, the book, A propriedade privada e a livre iniciativa, no tufão agro-reformista [Private Property and Free Enterprise in the Agrarian Reform Hurricane], a work clamorously demanded by the circumstances afflicting the country. He also had to direct a nationwide, 85-day TFP campaign to disseminate the work in 652 Brazilian cities, which sold 14,000 copies of it.

What precisely does this work refute? Does it refute the summary of Warriors of the Virgin published and commented on by OESP in its June 30 story? Or does it refute the book itself?

Almost all charges worthy of attention are contained in the summary published

by OESP. But many elements necessary for refuting the book are not included in that summary. For example, the OESP story leaves out three lewd and pornographic scenes that make clear the author’s crisis of purity, without which his expulsion from TFP ranks can be understood only incompletely.

Anyone who read only the succinct statements contained in the otherwise extensive summary of O Estado de S. Paulo, would have a flawed vision of reality in its essential and characteristic aspects.

Furthermore, for the purpose of critiquing, a summary’s contents cannot be entirely autonomous in relation to the text it is supposed to summarize. For this reason, any conscientious critic is not content with analyzing only the summary: he also delves into the original text.

But once that analysis of that text is finished, it is dispensable to make an autonomous comment of the summary. And thus the present refutation focuses on the book, Warriors of the Virgin – Secret Life in TFP, adding, when fitting, observations from the summary and other articles in OESP or other media outlets that echoed it. *** The author hereby thanks the TFP Commission of Medical Studies for their scholarly collaboration. The opinion written by two of its members, Dr. Edwaldo Marques and Dr. Miguel Beccar Varela – published in an Appendix to this volume – on the Freudian philosophy subjacent to the narrations of Mr. Jose Antonio Pedriali [JAP] was highly valuable to corroborate, from the scientific standpoint, certain doctrinal statements made during this refutation. *** We are honored to be “warriors of the Virgin.” And the work, Warriors of the Virgin – The Reply of Authenticity – TFP Without Secrets now comes out under the aegis of She who is, to her enemies, “terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata” – “terrible

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as an army in battle array” (Cant. 6:3 and 9). In it the entity reaffirms itself as it is and has always been, without veils or secrets, in the full vigor of its authenticity.

São Paulo, November 21, 1985 Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin PLINIO CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA President of the TFP National Council Prologue –TFP’s Patriotic and Effective Action against the Land Reform ‘Hurricane’ In the five hundred years of its existence, Brazil had never been on the brink of such a profound and disturbing transformation as can be foreseen from the present controversy over land reform and the ensuing dramatic land invasions and occupations.

1. The radical and egalitarian nature of the land reform movement rife in Brazilian Catholic circles One of the most efficient mentors of Agrarian Reform in Brazil has been the Most. Rev. Vicente Cardinal Scherer, Archbishop Emeritus of Porto Alegre. He is therefore well placed to testify on one of the most profound goals of the land reform movement. Perhaps no one has enunciated it more clearly than the honorable Cardinal.

He stated: “As we unceasingly proclaim, large landowners must resign themselves to a reduction of their assets. The dissemination of property is a fundamental postulate of an acceptable and just social order” (Correio do Povo, Porto Alegre, 1-3-62). On another occasion, he said: “In the rural sector, agrarian reform holds first place among the forms of distributing property.... If compensation for expropriations in land reform is made according to the [land’s] real value, in the case of large properties the same inequality of fortune will continue and extend itself to other sectors, outside the agrarian one, by the inversion of the fabulous price obtained from urban real estate properties” (Correio do Povo, Porto Alegre, 11-12-68).

The prelate is, thus, favorable to expropriation with compensation smaller than the real price of the real estate; an expropriation that constitutes an unjust confiscation of part of the property’s real value.

As can be seen, what this does is decapitate a particular sector of society, the "large landlords" mentioned in genere, without distinction between those whose properties are productive and those whose properties are not. The goal of land reform is, therefore, to take from some in order to give to others. And the argument set out above is not the alleged poverty of some rural populations, but the application of a moral and philosophical principle: equality. Inequality is seen as something inherently unjust, not only in the rural property sector but in the urban housing sector as well.

What sector should be thus leveled by the egalitarian land reform? Only that of large landowners? In appearance one would say yes, as the Cardinal specifically recommends the confiscation of large estates.

The reality, however, is altogether different. In the language of landreformers, the word latifúndio does not have its etymological and common-sense meaning of "large land holding" or “large property.”

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As land-reformists have it, “large property” has a much broader meaning. It includes, first of all, every property, whether cultivated or not, of an area 600 times larger than the average module of rural properties in its respective zone (cf. Estatuto da Terra [Land Statute or simply LS], art. 46, par. 1, b). However, it also encompasses every rural property, even small ones, which, “having an area equal of greater in size to the rural property module” 2 “is deficiently or inadequately exploited” or “is kept unexploited in relation to the physical, economic and social possibilities of the area, for speculative purposes” (cf. LS, art. 4º, entry V, b; and Decree 55,891, art. 6º, entry IV, b).

This strange nomenclature has considerably softened people’s reactions to the Land Statute. For many farmers alarmed by the risks that its literal application can bring to their property rights as owners of medium or average size properties, are reassured when shown the topics of the LS referring exclusively to large properties. They feel out of harm’s way, as they disingenuously attribute to the word “large property” its ordinary meaning, which is a large and even remarkably large property. The poor men can hardly imagine that according to the LS, depending on the circumstances, even the smallest sized properties can be called “large properties.”

As if the aforementioned statements by Cardinal Scherer were not enough to characterize the radical egalitarianism of land reformers, the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB) meeting in Itaici in 1980 issued a document titled “Church and Land Problems” approved by the powerful voice of 172 bishops, in the same direction as advocated by the Cardinal. That was an overwhelming majority, as it excludes only eight of the bishops present at the 18th General Assembly: four voted against and four voted blank.

The Itaici document was so categorical in its wording that it could easily lead incautious readers to believe that supporting the Agrarian Reform advocated by “Church and Land Problems” was a condition for every Catholic to remain faithful to Holy Church. 3 In order to dispel that impression, which could sway an almost overwhelming majority of Brazilians in favor of Agrarian Reform, in 1981 the TFP published the book, Sou católico: posso ser Contra a Agrarian Reform? 4 [As a Catholic, Can I Oppose Agrarian Reform?]. The work’s thesis, contained in its subtitle, is precisely A rural property module is an area equivalent to that of a “family-size property,” that is, a “rural property which, exploited directly and personally by a farmer and his family, absorbs all their work and ensures their subsistence and social and economic progress, with a maximum area set for each region and type of exploitation, and eventually, with manpower provided by third parties” (cf. LS, art. 4, entry II).

3 A recent statement, by Most Rev. Moacir Grecchi, Bishop-Prelate of Acre Purus, shows how widely this idea is disseminated among the nation’s bishops: “A Christian entrepreneur who attacks [land] reform places himself in direct confrontation with the Church and is in absolute contradiction with his faith” (Folha de S. Paulo, 8-29-85).

Collective or isolated pronouncements by archbishops and bishops favoring Agrarian Reform are so numerous they would overly extend the present work should we quote them here (cf. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira and Carlos Patricio del Campo, As a Catholic, Can I Oppose Agrarian Reform?, Editora Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 1982, 4ª ed., pp. 29-30, 247 to 268).

Furthermore, it is well known that top CNBB agencies have shown to be the leading promoters of the National Agrarian Reform Plan of the New Republic. If the recently approved version of that Plan has been the object of some of their criticism, it is for its so-called moderation.

Incidentally, Most Rev. Ivo Lorscheiter, Bishop of Santa Maria and president of CNBB, a leading promoter of civil and political liberties, did not hesitate to say that anyone who now opposes Agrarian Reform is subversive: “If one who opposes the norms in force in a regime is called subversive, there is no other name for them” (Jornal do Brasil, 5-30-85). Public opinion was horrified when the prelate stated, on the same occasion, that Agrarian Reform should affect large productive properties as well (cf. ib.).

4 Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira and Carlos Patricio del Campo, Editora Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 4th ed., 358 pp.

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that a faithful Catholic can and must oppose Agrarian Reform. TFP caravans sold 29,000 copies of the book throughout Brazil.

All of the above makes patent the radical and egalitarian substratum of the land-reform fever rife in Brazilian Catholic circles, a reform whose eventual victory would undermine the whole agrarian structure of the country. And not only the latter, but its urban real estate structure as well. 5 2. Urban, industrial and corporate reforms to be carried out in connection with Agrarian Reform Indeed, the 20th CNBB General Assembly held in Itaici in February 1982 approved the document, “Urban Soil and Pastoral Action.” In it, based on the theoretically true principle that a social mortgage weighs upon every private property, the bishops who signed it declare that “the natural right to housing has primacy over the positive law that governs soil appropriation. A legal title to a property alone cannot be an absolute value above the human needs of persons who have nowhere to setup their home” (doc. cit., no. 84).

To speak of a lack of place to install a home in a country with 8.5 million square kilometers, 50% of which is entirely unoccupied (federal lands) is really appalling!

That notwithstanding, the bishops who approved the document go so far as to attack the 1916 Civil Code, calling it “profoundly inadequate for present-day reality, an inadequacy based on an obsolete concept of the right of property, a privatist concept of an absolute right without any social responsibility” (doc. cit., no 100).

It is not possible to watch this avalanche of property-leveling egalitarianism without asking whether it will not end up by affecting, other than rural enterprises, also industrial and commercial ones, and finally the whole sociopolitical system in place. The answer to that must be yes.

As a matter of fact, CNBB’s own document, “Urban Soil and Pastoral Action” unabashedly declares: “Implementation of necessary reforms must not lead to the illusion that they are sufficient. In order to eliminate a situation of structural injustice, it is necessary to seek new models to organize the cities, which, in turn, require changing the sociopolitical model in force” (doc. cit., no 116).

3. Egalitarian reformism and communism As can be seen, on the far out horizons of these reformers there looms a complete and highly egalitarian transformation of the whole socioeconomic structure of the country.

Would such transformation mean an implantation of communism?

This is not the place to delve into that question. The least one can say here is that such transformation would push Brazil into a new situation only a couple of steps away from communism. And thus, these churchmen – so venerated on account of the sacred character of their office – are behaving as joyful ‘fellow travelers’ of communism, almost all the way to its last stop.

Some – perhaps a majority – may be doing the same by playing the role of ‘useful innocents.’ The same thing cannot be surmised as far as others are With the present aggravation of land reform agitation, the long-dormant movement for urban reform, which had ceased with the failure of city plot occupations, has also awakened.

At the end of the 6th Encounter of Urban Planning Entities held in São Paulo on June 27 and 28, 1985, the president of the São Paulo EMURB, architect Sami Bussab, declared that “one cannot hold one debate [about land reform] without the other [urban development and plot occupation]. It all comes down to the occupation of the territory and, furthermore, 70% of the Brazilian population is found in cities” (O Estado de S. Paulo, 6-29-85).

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concerned. 6 We will not make any statement about anyone’s intentions, as not even Holy Church would judge people’s intentions: “De internis nec Ecclesia.”

4. How strong an impact will egalitarian reformers have?

In order to gauge the amplitude of the crisis into which the country is being plunged, we need to ask how strong an impact the action developed by individuals so numerous and so highly placed in the ecclesiastical structure will have on the country.

A. Weakness of domestic communist parties Nothing is more instructive in this regard than one effect - unexpected to many – of the so-called political opening. During the military regime, people were facing a powerful government apparatus whose authoritarian character sought justification in the alleged need to keep the communist current constantly under repression. That was tantamount to affirming that current was numerous and strong, so that a strong military regime was needed to prevent it from winning.

History will tell one day what happened to the nation’s communism during the twenty-one years of this regime. So far no public data exist to permit any judgment in this regard. The fact is that once all leaders of communist agitation – great, medium and small -- had been pardoned, and once the prisons’ doors were opened to those being held, expatriates allowed back to the country and greeted with a benevolent smile by the government with the fervent applause of the macrocapitalist media, and the entire old and new guard of home-grown communists got back together in a climate of complete political freedom, the conclusion the public reached was that PCB, PC B, MR-8 and similar outfits were numerically and politically insignificant. 7

Consider, for instance, this poem by Most. Rev. Pedro Casaldáliga, Bishop-Prelate of São Félix do Araguaia (who recently made a visit to show solidarity with the Nicaraguan left and earned a well-deserved protest from the bishops of that sister nation): “Cursed be all fences! / Cursed be all private properties /that deprive us of living and loving! / Cursed be all laws / craftily composed by a few hands / to support fences and cattle / and enslave the Earth / and turn humans into slaves! / Our Earth is another, o ye all men! / A free, human Earth, brethren!” (Dom Pedro Casaldaliga, Tierra nuestra Libertad, Editorial Guadalupe, Buenos Aires, 1974, p. 129). And this one, by the same prelate: “But in order to live, / I want to have my due portion / in your large land holding: / for the land is not yours, Mister! It is no one’s! / The land belongs to all ‘cause it belongs to God! /... But in order to live, / I want to have land. / With Incra or without Incra, / with law or without law” (Id., p. 124). [N.T.: Incra stands for the National Institute for Agrarian Reform, a government agency.]

The book, A Igreja ante a escalada da ameaça comunista – Apelo aos Bispos Silenciosos [The Church Facing the Escalating Communist Threat – An Appeal to the Silent Bishops] (Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Editora Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 4th ed., 224 pp.), develops this topic with the breadth required by such a momentous matter.

7 On March 23 and 24, 1985, the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) and the Communist Party of Brazil (PC do B) held in São Paulo and other state capitals commemorations of the 63rd anniversary of their foundation in 1922.

On the park of Água Funda, lent by the Secretariat for Agriculture of the State of São Paulo, the PCB fest at the capital “included artists’ concerts, expositions, debates and homages, all in a festive climate with the participation of five thousand people in two days” (Jornal do Brasil, 3-25-85). The expositions – be it said in passing – featured propaganda books from Russia, East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

The PC do B party took place on Sunday, March 24 at Pacaembu Gymnasium with the presence of lieutenant governor Orestes Quércia, state secretaries Almino Afonso, José Serra and Caio Pompeu de Toledo, and Sao Paulo mayor Mario Covas. The audience was made up mostly of slum dwellers and modest working class persons assembled together and brought there by 80 buses of CMTC (Municipal Company for Collective Transportation). The largest crowd showed up at 15 hours, with approximately 2,500 people, and gradually diminished over the four and a half hours of the musical concert that preceded the event. The public was more interested in the soccer match taking place in the adjacent Municipal Stadium. In the beginning of the rally properly speaking, 1,500 people still remained at the place, which a clique of 300 adepts of PC do B sought to animate to no avail (cf. Catolicismo, no 412, April 1985, pp.

10-11).

Two days later, the São Paulo Legislative Assembly held an extraordinary session in support of legalizing PC do B, to which only 250 party followers were present (cf. Catolicismo, no 412, April 1985, p. 11).

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B. Deep historical roots of Catholic leftism This makes it obvious that Catholic leftism is the only great force present in the national panorama which is indisguisably ready to propel global socioeconomic ‘reform.’ 8 What, then, is the real force of impact of this leftist current?

To answer this question, it is necessary to note that this type of leftism is not merely a present and fleeting result of some passing fantasy of social and cultural snobbism. Already back in 1943 – more than forty years ago – the book, In Defense of Catholic Action denounced its early outbursts. 9 The Catholic cultural monthly, Catolicismo, directed by the group of intellectuals and men of action which later gave rise to the TFP, has been combating Catholic leftism since 1951. Founded in 1960, the TFP immediately launched forth into an antileftist public action of Catholic inspiration which it has been carrying out since the publication of the book, Agrarian Reform – a Matter of Conscience, which decisively contributed to prevent the implantation of a socialist and confiscatory land reform in Brazil at the time.

The book, A Half Century of Epic Anticommunism (Editora Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 1980, 4th ed., 474 pp. enter US edition) narrates with a wealth of details TFP’s continuous clash with leftist forces which have obstinately – and in important aspects victoriously – sought to demolish Christian civilization in Brazil. Indeed, although the TFP has managed considerably to slow down the process of corruption of our institutions, it is undeniable that leftism, especially in its religious form, has made impressive advances in Catholic circles. Nor could the TFP, all by itself, stop this inexorable march without the participation of all living forces of the nation; a participation that has often times failed. History will one day point out those who are to blame for this most grave omission.

For its part, the TFP continued to grow even as, due to a number of circumstances, many anticommunist groups in the country were gradually dying out.

And the organization’s prestige found an increasing echo abroad, to the point of giving rise to the founding of autonomous sister organizations in 14 countries. The various TFPs have become the largest group of civic anticommunist associations of Catholic inspiration in the world today.

C. Leftist, macrocapitalist media launch forth against TFP And since our exposition of events has come to this point, it is well to ask how effective the anti-land reform campaign of TFP really is.

In this regard, it is also well to mention the fiasco of the latest strike by São Paulo metalworkers in April 1985. Without making here a statement on the precise ideological position of all their members, it is certain that the communists ardently wished to have a successful strike and that they would have turned it into a success if they only could. Later, employing the well-known salamization tactic, they would or not retain, as figureheads of the strikers’ movement, the non-communist partners who first set it in motion.

8 On the wide ranging action of Catholic leftists in Brazil, particularly promoting strikes, agitation, land invasions and so on , see As CEBs... das quais muito se fala, pouco se conhece – A TFP as descreve como são [The BCC’s – Much Talked About But Little Known – the TFP Describes Them As They Are] (Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Gustavo Antonio Solimeo and Luiz Sergio Solimeo, Editora Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 1982, 6th ed., pp. 171 to 231); Brasil em chamas? [“Brazil on Fire?”] (Catolicismo, no 402, June 1984); “Esquerda católica” incendeia o País [‘Catholic Left’ Sets Country on Fire] (Catolicismo, no 406-407, October-November 1984).

9 Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Editora Ave Maria, São Paulo, 1943, 384 pp., with a preface by the then Apostolic Nuncio to Brazil and later Cardinal Bento Aloisi Masella, a work also honored with a letter of praise written in name of Pius XII dated February 26, 1949, by the Substitute of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, Msgr.

Giovanni Battista Montini, later Paul VI.

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Nothing is more telltale of the force of impact of the blows received by an opponent, than his roars of pain and the impetus of his counterattack.

In our country, communism is not a phenomenon of the masses, except in a very small scale. Instead, it constitutes to a great extent an illness typical of certain rich clubs and plush neighborhoods, some powerful macrocapitalist circles, and numerous sacristies and universities. Over these four decades of antileftist struggle, the TFP and its active defenders have been the targets of many types of aggression: a) At first, long periods of silence meant to stifle them with a systematic and almost overwhelming refusal to publish any news item at all about the association, however innocuous it might be. Without prejudice to that silence, once in a while they would spread serpentine mouth-to-ear defamation campaigns from one end to the other of our continent-sized territory. b) Alternating with suffocation by periods of silence, a whirlwind of successive publicity onslaughts soon began -- we are now in the 12th. During these uproars, many media outlets that contemptuously seemed to ignore our entity now feature it as a prime target for tabloid-style sensational news, gladly spreading anti-TFP rumors and insults to the point that even obscure or hardly known persons and fly-by-night groups benefit from prominent and otherwise expensive advertising as long as they are attacking TFP. D. TFP’s moral profile is defined before the whole country Among the multiple effects of all this, it should be mentioned that for sectors of Brazilian public opinion not "engaged" or co-opted by the left the TFP has increasingly characterized itself by a lofty and unselfish courage, and its members and volunteers are seen more and more as idealists who walk with their heads held high and with serene and joyful countenance amid the buzz of underhanded verbal detraction and the unrelenting barrage of publicity onslaughts. Their attitude is based on the vigor of their faith, peace of conscience, and the certainty they will be protected by the Blessed Mother – as they often have been Even circles hostile to our organization see it that way.

5. TFP, a paladin against Agrarian Reform and of the anticommunist struggle in general, is target of a new publicity onslaught All of the above focuses on TFP a paladin of the struggle against socialist and confiscatory Agrarian Reform, and it is as such that the public now sees it engaged in a new campaign.

Indeed, last August, as the federal government opened a debate on a Proposal for preparing the 1st National Land Reform Plan of the New Republic, the TFP launched a new book, A propriedade privada e a livre iniciativa, no tufão agroreformista 10 [Private Property and Free Enterprise in the Agrarian Reform Hurricane]. Volunteers of the Society spread it throughout the country and were warmly welcomed by rural circles. As a matter of fact, in only three months into the campaign, they sold out two editions totaling 14,000 copies, in addition to 34,000 copies of a special issue of Catolicismo containing a summary of the book.

In reality, however, TFP’s efforts against communism and its variants encompass a much broader gamut of subjects. For this reason, a summarized narration of its efforts takes up a whole, 472-page volume published in 1980, the

10

pp.

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira and Carlos Patricio del Campo, Editora Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 1985, 2ª ed., 208

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above-mentioned A Half Century of Epic Anticommunist Struggle. A book of the same size would probably not suffice to cover the very rich period from 1980 to this day.

It is indispensable to emphasize all this in order to make clear how absurd the new anti-TFP defamation campaign unleashed in our country from August 1984 onward really is.

According to that campaign, the TFP is not... an anticommunist entity!

It is not what the whole Brazilian people know it is and has been from its foundation in an uninterrupted, heroic and unmistakable way. A fact, furthermore, attested ad nauseam by the implacable opposition of hard core driving forces of international communism. 11 Instead, according to these detractors, the TFP is allegedly an obscure sect set up to satisfy the delirious pride of a founder who wishes to make himself and his mother venerated as saints on the basis of doctrinal concepts condemned by the Church and employing rites forbidden by church laws.

Thus the whole gigantic anticommunist effort the entity carries out would be nothing but a mirage and a fraud. 12 And as a consequence, the intense life of piety of its participants would be another fraud as well!

11 A news release by Tass news agency published on the front page of the Moscow daily, Pravda on 6-5-85 congratulates the Brazilian Communist Party for holding its first legal meeting in Brazil after many years underground.

The paper underlines the fact that Agrarian Reform was one of the measures called for at that meeting, making clear how attentively the Kremlin monitors events in Brazil and encourages its agents at the very moment when the National Plan for Agrarian Reform is being debated here. On the other side of the trenches, the most active force was none other than TFP. However, an episode that took place in another country is even more telltale.

On November 13, 1984, the government of Venezuela, with a tyrannical and arbitrary decree terminated the activities of Associación Civil Resistência, a TFP sister organization in that country, and forbade the bureau representing the 15 TFPs from functioning in Caracas. At the appropriate time, a book will be published to document, describe and serenely and courageously analyze the ensemble of ominous events that led up to that decree. A few days after it was signed, the newspaper Izvestia, official mouthpiece of the Soviet government, which shares with Pravda the absolute first place in the Russian press, expressed its jubilation for the fact, in a report by its Caracas correspondent published on its edition of 11-20-84.

Under the title, “The Kremlin Drops Its Mask and Cries Victory,” the TFP Press Service had the full text of Izvestia published in Folha de S. Paulo of 11-29-84, noting: “Let the telltale admission by the Kremlin serve as an eye-opener to the useful innocents who, in Venezuela and elsewhere, are incautious enough to allow themselves to be deceived by such defamation campaigns, and to curtail the influence of those who, often posing as useful innocents, are nothing but accomplices of the communist game, wolves in sheepskin.”

The TFP is not thereby claiming that each and every person behind these successive media uproars is expressly or intentionally complicit with international communism.

That would be a rash accusation as the entity is not in possession of the gargantuan pile of public and confidential documentation that would be required of anyone making such an affirmation.

Furthermore, it would constitute a flagrant manifestation of churlishness and narrow-mindedness; for, in order to explain this huge concatenation of efforts to benefit international communism, it would be enough to know the artifices of psychological warfare and the communist tricks and tactics, namely those of the “extended hand,” the “fall of ideological barriers,” “useful innocents,” “salami tactics,” “fellow-travelers,” etc. (cf. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, The Church Facing the Escalation of the Communist Threat – Appeal to the Silent Bishops, Editora Vera Cruz, 1977, 4th ed., pp. 38 to 43 and 65-67).

12 For the reader to gauge from the start how unfounded the accusation of the alleged insincerity of TFP regarding its ostensive goals really is, nothing could be more useful than to recall, as was done recently, everything the entity has been carrying out since its foundation against communism and its powerful “fellow traveler,” the Catholic left.

Anyone with a modicum of experience of the concerns, fatigue and risks that activities such as those of TFP inevitably bring about, can figure out how much disinterested self-sacrifice and untiring dedication it takes to carry out this struggle for over twenty years to preserve Brazil and Christian civilization from the communist danger.

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The TFP victoriously refuted these false versions in a two-volume work titled Refutação da TFP a uma investida frustra [TFP Refutation of a Frustrated Offensive] (Edição da TFP, São Paulo, vol. I, June 1984, 517 pp.; vol. II, July 1984, 469 pp.), written by a commission of TFP members composed by Messrs. Antônio Augusto Borelli Machado, Atila Sinke Guimarães, Gustavo Antônio Solimeo and João S. Clá Dias.

That study has received a favorable opinion from the eminent Dominican theologian and philosopher of world renown, Fr. Victorino Rodriguez y Rodriguez OP, Prior of the Convent of San Domingos el Real in Madrid, author of more than 200 books and articles on philosophy and theology, ex-professor of Theology at the Faculty of Theology of San Esteban of Salamanca and the famous, historic pontifical university of the same city; professor at Madrid’s Superior Council of Scientific Research and ordinary of the Pontifical Roman Academy of Theology. The book is based on works by theologians, moralists and canonists, ancient and contemporary, renowned throughout the Church. It also has favorable opinions by the illustrious Fr. Arturo Alonso Lobo, O.P., chaired professor of Canon Law of the Pontifical University of Salamanca, a highly respected writer in his specialty and a co-author of Commentaries on the PiusBenedictine Code published in 4 volumes by Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, of Madrid; and by the eminent Fr. Antonio Royo Marin, OP, Professor at the Pontifical Faculty of San Esteban College in Salamanca and author of works on Ascetic and Moral Theology known the world over.

In March 1985, the same media mechanism periodically employed against TFP was again set in motion. According to new slanderous and groundless accusations, TFP is not really a Catholic organization but a secret society whose members consecrate themselves to its founder as slaves.

The Society clarified the matter in another book showing how the attack targeted none other than slavery to the Blessed Mother highly recommended by Popes and saints and proposed by St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort as the most perfect

A word should be said here about the risks of this struggle, always carried out orderly and peacefully, as attested to by more than four thousand letters from police chiefs, mayors and municipal authorities, well-placed witnesses to the perfect order in which TFP campaigns were carried out in their respective cities.

On the long list of risks faced by TFP members and volunteers, two episodes should be singled out which also show the TFP style of action.

In 1969, TFP was preparing for a large, nationwide campaign to spread a special issue of Catolicismo denouncing semi-secret groups infiltrated in Catholic circles – IDOC and the “prophetic groups” – that sought to transform the Catholic Church into a desacralized, demythified and egalitarian New Church placed at the service of communism. On June 20 of the same year, at three o’clock in the morning, eve of the day set to launch the campaign, terrorists placed a bomb at the seat housing the presidency of the entity’s National Council. The explosion was heard from a great distance and destroyed a good part of the building’s façade. And it also damaged a statue of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, venerated today in the shrine which the TFP built at the same spot in reparation to the Mother of God. However, the Society did not allow itself to be intimidated and carried out the campaign as planned. As it developed, members and volunteers had to face numerous provocations and attempts at disruption by marauders egged on by leftist clerics. But thanks to their always self-restrained and peaceful stance, TFP members and volunteers managed to frustrate the fury of the adversaries with calm and courage.

Still that same year, about twenty TFP members and volunteers from Belo Horizonte were attacked by unknown assailants when leaving a church. Forced to defend themselves, they vigorously beat up their attackers.

The episode marked the TFP style of action, a contemporary version of the spirit of Christian chivalry of yore: In idealism, ardor; in human relations, courtesy; in action, unlimited dedication; in the presence of the adversary, self-control; in the fight, gallantry and courage. And through courage, victory (cf. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, “Estilo,” [“Style”] in Folha de S. Paulo, 9-24-69).

How different this is from the image that TFP detractors underhandedly seek to inculcate!

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form of devotion to Mary. It is thus a wholly spiritual slavery that has nothing to do with pagan slavery or with the slavery of blacks in Brazil.

The book, titled Servitudo ex Caritate, by TFP member, Atila Sinke Guimarães, expounds with solid doctrine and plentiful documentation the theological foundation of “slavery of love” to Our Lady. Also this book received a favorable opinion by the illustrious Fr. Victorino Rodríguez O.P., attesting to its perfect orthodoxy and recognizing the entire lawfulness of all that TFP believes and practices in this matter. 13 As expected, the attacks failed to impress the public.

Yet, it is sad to note how such far-fetched smearing found harbor in a CNBB note against TFP released on April 19, 1985 at the end of its 23rd General Assembly (cf. Folha de S. Paulo, 4-20-85).

In a legitimate action of self-defense to preserve its good name, the TFP asked the illustrious Bishops Conference respectfully but firmly if it “deems that the TFP has issued any heterodox concept or practiced any action at all to justify the communiqué of April 19, and if so, to specify which, as the TFP will undoubtedly proceed to correct it once the alleged error or unlawful action is demonstrated” (cf. Folha de S. Paulo, 4-23-85).

Up until now, no explanation has ever come.

But TFP adversaries did not let up. At that point another contender, Mr. José Antônio Pedriali (JAP) joins the media fray with his book, Warriors of the Virgin – Secret Life in TFP (EMW Editores, São Paulo, 1985, 201 pp.).

Completely ignoring all TFP refutations of the attacks it recently suffered, this former volunteer now makes his own testimony against the society. Once this new onslaught is compared to the earlier one, it is easy to note how both fit together like two wheels of the same mechanism. And they constitute two steps of an attempt to destroy; two exhalations of the same hatred; two offensives by the same adversary.

Note that both have been totally ineffective. So far, the twin media onslaughts against TFP have not entailed, for the organization, the resignation of even one member, volunteer or supporter. *** In this day and age, developments pop up at every moment in the most varied fields, causing concern and panic and even obliging public opinion to change from one subject to another with dispersive haste.

It became necessary to recall and organize all the facts narrated above so the reader would have in mind the historical context in which the long, sugary and poisonous prose contained in Mr. JAP’s book is inserted.

Chapter I – The somber journey of the author of Warriors of the Virgin before, during and after his stay in TFP Mr. José Antônio Pedriali wrote his libel against TFP in the form of an autobiography – or rather, an autobiographical novel – focusing on three phases of his 13 TFP’s defense facing such attacks was not limited to publishing the two books mentioned. The Society also published the following communiqués, perfectly clarifying its position: 1. “TFP affirms its doctrinal position and challenges opponent” (Folha de S. Paulo, 8-17-84); 2. “TFP explains worship based on theological foundations” (Monitor Campista, 8-23-84); 3. “Turning one’s back on a broken-record controversy” (Folha de S. Paulo, 8-2884); 4. “Anti-TFP Fanaticism” (Jornal da Tarde, 10-1-84); 5. “Organization wants time to respond” (Folha de S. Paulo, 3-16-85); 6. “TFP clarifies” (Folha de S. Paulo, 3-19-85); 7. “Undaunted and serene, TFP faces its 11th publicity uproar” (Folha de S. Paulo, 3-26-85); 8. “Controversy only with objectivity, elevation and doctrinal substance” (Folha de S. Paulo, 5-9-85).

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life: the one prior to joining TFP, in 1971; the six years which he remained in the entity; and finally, the period after he distanced himself from it.

1. JAP’s psychology as a young man before joining TFP A native of Londrina [State of Paraná, Brazil], Mr. JAP describes himself, at age 15, as a young man living a common, everyday life.

He hails from a likable and hard-working Catholic family that often practiced religion. He basically got along well at home, but with hiccups which are common, particularly during the crisis of adolescence.

Those discrepancies were not such as to cause seismic movements of soul as those which Mr. Domingos Pellegrini describes about himself in the preface he wrote for Warriors of the Virgin. 14 But they did exist.

They resulted above all from confused but lively longings in Mr. JAP’s soul to know and savor new aspects of life impregnated with greater elevation and beauty than those he found in his own family and in the Londrina of the time. That is what he apparently was missing, this “element I had pursued so much from childhood and which had been denied to me repeatedly and mercilessly” (WV p. 14).

That might also have been the cause of the “series of frustrations” he blames on his relatives, “for they could not even answer my concerns” (cf. Folha de S. Paulo, 6-29-85).

He criticizes not only his parents in this fashion. He issues a severe judgment on his whole hometown ambience: “In general, my teachers knew very poorly what they threw to the wind in classrooms; my friends despised everything unrelated to themselves; the few middle-aged or elderly persons I knew just limited themselves to looking back and remembering what they deemed the feats of their lives and had no structure to analyze and interpret what happened three inches in front of their own nose. There were exceptions, and my grandfather was one of them” (WV p. 14).

Notwithstanding the small reservation regarding his grandfather, one can already see here Mr. JAP’s highly pessimistic state of mind, tending to criticize everything and everyone around himself and to consider him persecuted in the various ambiences he frequented. It is well to note this psychological trait, as it explains much of his animosity toward TFP. He was disgusted with the “simple or mediocre architecture of the majority of homes and buildings in our town” and frustrated with “having to live with such provincial mentalities” (WV p. 18).

By giving himself over to prolonged daydreaming and flights of the imagination, he became used to fleeing from a reality that displeased him: “That narrow horizon stifled me,” he says. “My refuge were the long hours I spent in recollection, reading, listening to music or simply letting my thoughts wander, dreaming of other countries, other horizons, other customs” (WV p. 17).

He was a practicing Catholic and even led a group of young men whom he also criticized for lukewarmness and lack of religious mentality. But apparently the reason that attracted him to the Church appeared very preponderantly to be a diffuse and sentimental mysticism, an interior longing for, so to speak, psycho-artistic aspects of Catholic churches and ceremonies. One does not see in him an earnest effort to express his thought about doctrine or about history, or about the action of the Church in the contemporary world. The impressions the Church caused on him appeared to

“I was shaving for the first few times – he says in the preface – and during the meals I provoked an ulcer in my father; if I could, I would spit into the soup to make it splash on my family” (WV p. VII).

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have monopolized, as far as religion is concerned, the attention of this sensitive and imaginative young man.

Incidentally, the introspective and extremely impressionable makeup of the author stands out from the first chapter of Warriors of the Virgin. On the first five paragraphs – that total only 23 lines – one reads these phrases: “I was impressed;” “I felt a great inclination;” “I was confused and dizzy;” “I found no one to orient me and help me understand... the outside world; “this explained my feeling;” “I was finally realizing a great dream;” “penetrating the field of knowledge I was so fascinated with” (WV p. 11). The whole plot of the book, as we will see below, takes place inside his soul. Outside events interest him only to the degree that they reverberate in his internal world.

2. A high degree of subjectivism and introspection His initial contact with TFP took place in his high school during a visit by some of the society’s volunteers. Some time later, having been invited to attend a lecture at the local headquarters of the society, he meets “Rodrigo,” a smooth-talking TFP volunteer from Rio de Janeiro. While speaking with him – who was “captivating by his easy smile, witty phrases and sagacious observations” (WV p. 11) – he gets the idea the TFP leads souls to the marvelous world that he yearns to learn about: “I was finally realizing a great dream, finding people who could make me penetrate into the field of knowledge I was so fascinated with” (WV p. 11).

Young JAP was impressed by TFP volunteers’ good manners, culture and intelligence, which he saw as an entry door to a broader and loftier ambience that attracted him. Always guided by subjective impressions much more than by reasoning, he then begins to frequent the TFP seat in Londrina.

And since everything there was pleasing to young JAP, today in his subjectivism 15 he believes that everything was artificially disposed to attract young men like him. Even the seat’s symbols and decoration, he figures, were skillfully ordered so as to exert a previously calculated effect upon him (cf. WV pp. 48 and 74).

Naturally, one could ask him why he did not see the same ‘craftiness’ in Catholic Church buildings and rites, which also enchanted him. But as you can already see and will see further on, logic is not highly valued in Mr. JAP’s interior world.

Mr. JAP holds as very secondary, if not irrelevant, the huge intellectual work the TFP has developed to define its doctrinal positions and to justify them from the rational point of view.

Although he spent six years in TFP and heard many talks and lectures, he nevertheless displays a surprisingly reduced knowledge of the whole intellectual production of TFP. He almost exclusively mentions a few – and rudimentary – notions of Revolution and Counter-Revolution.

He is hardly interested at all in the intellectual work of the TFP – about twenty books and essays, nearly all of them with tens of thousands of copies in print and several dozen outstanding position papers, statements and communiqués widely published by the media throughout Brazil. All that affects him only when it explains internal reactions it elicited in his very peculiar subjectivity. So he believes he can indulge the luxury of writing a book on TFP capable of satisfying the readers’ curiosity

15 Since this work is destined to a public for the most part unaccustomed to philosophical subjects, we employ here the word, subjectivism only in the sense used in current language; in other words, the bad habit that many people have to see facts as they like to imagine them and not as they actually are.

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without mentioning what TFP wrote about itself or what others who studied the TFP have written about the organization. 16 As a matter of fact, his whole journey inside TFP is marked much more by a subjective problem than by an objective desire to know whether the entity’s critique of the evils of the modern world and the remedies it proposes for those evils are or not true. His book fails to deal with this whole problematic that immediately concerns the ends of the society he is writing against.

Mr. JAP feels in his soul a need for certain “values” in order to have well-being and internal equilibrium, and that is what matters to him. His field of vision is mainly interior, and if it overflows a bit from that field it is only to the concrete and immediate external reality that surrounds him.

He was not interested in the great successes that gradually turned a small initial group of Catholic friends residing in São Paulo into a nationwide organization, now already with international ramifications. Nor was he interested in the setbacks– at times dramatic – that the TFP has been suffering throughout its life and make its fascinating struggle particularly authentic.

Mr. JAP sees none of that, which is so revealing of the inner workings of the entity: it is outside the immediate ambit of his person. Nor is he interested in knowing whether TFP is actually raising barriers to the advance of communism, whether the methods it employs for that end are lawful and effective, whether it uses well the considerable pool of dedication and resources at its disposal, as all this belongs to the external world. And this world is interesting only to the degree that it has to do with him, personally.

He is interested in one topic alone and refers only to it. This topic is he: what he feels, how they treat him, what they tell him, etc.

In the final analysis, he, not the TFP, is the essential theme of his book, ostensibly written about the TFP. 3. Mr. JAP in TFP: parallel but contradictory processes – integration and crisis Some time after his first contacts with TFP, Mr. JAP participates in a Week of Studies promoted by the entity in São Paulo. It is on that occasion that he decides to dedicate his life to the entity’s ideals. His report on why he took such a grave decision underlines once again his impressionable mind, little inclined toward logic and reasoning: “I made this choice with conviction when I attended a lecture by professor Plinio, closing the first conference in which I participated. In that conference... we attended lectures and participated in debates. ...

16 Editor’s note – The TFP Documentation Service possesses 248 books, published in eight languages, containing references to the entity and to its fecund action against communism. And the written works by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, from 1929 to the present, total about 2,300 published titles, including books and articles in the press, and have been the object of a doctoral thesis defended in 1984 at the University of de São Paulo by Prof. Lizâneas de Souza Lima. Two doctoral theses, very polemic by the way, have also dealt in depth with certain episodes in the public action of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. The first thesis was presented in 1971 by Prof. Margaret Patrice Todaro at the School of Political Sciences of Columbia University in the United States, under the title, Pastors, Prophets and Politicians: A Study of the Brazilian Catholic Church, 1916-1945. The second thesis, defended in 1981 by Fr. José Ariovaldo da Silva OFM, at the Anselmianum Liturgical Institute in Rome, dealt with The Liturgical Movement in Brazil – An Historical Study, and was published in Brazil with the same title by Editora Vozes (Petrópolis, 1983, 399 pp.).

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“Doctrine, however, is what called my attention the least. What touched me the most was closeness to persons that sought the same things I did, who became enthused with the things that touched my sensibility from childhood – songs, symbols, in a word, the whole ambience” (WV p. 38).

Thus, he gradually lays roots in TFP in his own way to the point that, advised by persons from the latter he moves to Curitiba and begins to reside at the seat the Society maintains there.

Note, however, that he enters this process of laying down roots with his soul already divided. The reason is that Mr. JAP’s peculiar longings had not been satisfied merely by TFP. They were also satisfied– in a different fashion – by “Suzan,” a colleague of his in Londrina whom he had been dating in what he calls a “naïve and virginal” way (WV p. 18).

Still in Londrina, TFP invited him to dedicate his whole life to a crusader’s ideal. Possibly trying to keep her boyfriend, “Suzan” sought to be in sync with TFP during her conversations with Mr. JAP However, she was unable to understand the Society. As he moves to Curitiba, Mr. JAP leaves her but takes with him the nostalgic longings of his sentimental mindset.

His gradual distancing from his family constitutes yet another factor in his internal division.

In Curitiba he successively frequents two schools, where colleagues opposed to TFP treat him with mocking hostility. On one occasion, three girls studying on the same grade subject him to an obscene temptation, which he resists. He succumbs, however, to the entreaties of “Marta,” another colleague, for whom he is sentimentally attracted. “Disguising herself under the appearance of naïve and pure romanticism, she would turn out be capable of neutralizing resistance and fatally leading me to the same point: sex, sin” (WV p. 93).

This new sentimental attachment also leaves nostalgic divisions in his soul: “The impossibility to give vent to what I felt toward Marta created in me a focus of friction that grew more and more latent, making me even more troubled because of the break with my family” (WV p. 96).

On the other hand, at the same time that he marvels at TFP’s description of the Middle Ages and the luminous hopes for the coming Reign of Mary – an epoch of splendor which, as he learned in TFP, will succeed the present era of darkness – he becomes broken hearted at other statements in which this great subjectivist sees all kinds of terrifying ghosts. Along these lines are the chastisements with which God punishes sinners already in this life, and above all in the next, with the eternal torments of Hell.

In this way, and with shrewd innuendoes, Mr. JAP describes his approach and consequent integration into TFP as a crafty process of “brainwashing” (while he does not employ this expression at all, everything he says is meant to lead the reader to this conclusion). As a consequence of his singularly fanciful and self-centered mindset, Mr. JAP imagines that everything that ambiences, persons and events produce upon him, as far as impressions are concerned, was obviously disposed, said and done to produce that result.

In any case, at this stage of the process he sees the formation in his soul of a reservoir of nostalgia for the world he had left. Remembrances of “Suzan,” “Marta,” his distant family, and sexuality, which he sees everywhere and particularly in school, lay germs of division inside his soul.

Soon enough an internal conflict erupts between these two poles: the real world, which he found insipid, banal and even prosaic when he left it, and which now,

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from a distance, begins to appear attractive; and on the other hand, the marvelous world of TFP which he enters and yet begins to weigh on him.

Hence the fact that his evolution is marked by a profound internal division; and seeing himself as an archetypal model of all young men who join the ranks of TFP, he imagines that his own internal drama necessarily is their lot as well.

4. Impossible conciliation For a logical mind, the proper remedy for this obviously tense and stressful situation would be to make explicit and weigh the pros and cons of each pole of attraction and come up with a choice, a direction to follow with a peaceful conscience and in a free, decisive and manly fashion.

It is no wonder that with his peculiar psychological makeup, the young JAP allowed himself to become indefinitely torn apart with doubt and to fall prey to a nervous breakdown… for which he blames TFP. As a result on June 30 he states to OESP that he had arrived “at the brink of madness”!

Advised by TFP friends to seek treatment with competent physicians in Belo Horizonte, he is lodged at a seat of the entity. Now then, at that seat were also lodging other TFP members or volunteers in Belo Horizonte to receive health care for free or at very low prices from renowned specialists. True to his style – that is, seeing himself as an archetypal individual -- Mr. JAP imagines that that seat was exclusively intended to lodge patients with disorders analogous to his own.

Nor is it any wonder that the treatment did not work – people with introspective and fanciful temperaments used to feeding and cultivating their own problems often times create obstacles to the cure rather than help it. Mr. JAP feels worse and worse and increasingly misses worldly life. His desire to stay in TFP slowly dwindles; and his internal division is aggravated.

TFP advises him to terminate his full-time participation in the life of the Society and follow a path according to the new yearnings of his soul, within the principles that Catholic morals established for those who do not feel called to a special vocation. And the TFP earnestly strives to support him at every step in this new way with a kindness and solicitude that he narrates in very general lines but without a word of thanks. As he gradually breaks away from the entity, his sensuality becomes more and more exacerbated, all the way to the torpid scene in the last chapter, which describes his visit to house of prostitution in Londrina.

Slowly but surely, all his affinities with the marvelous world of TFP die out in his soul: “I gradually lost faith in the ideal, ideal which had illuminated my adolescence and disturbed the beginning of my youth” (WV p. 185). Once again, doctrinal problems appear to have little influence over this “loss of faith.” Impressions, emotions and sensations play the major role.

In other words, this dwindling of the “faith” does not appear to result from doctrinal doubts but only from psychological and subjective factors. In a testimony to Folha de S. Paulo (6-29-85), he explained: “It was a very slow and painful process of abandonment. Little by little, I felt that my enthusiasm was no longer the same. I did not reason it out; it [my departure] was the same way I entered, unconscious and irresistible.” 17 As can be seen, Mr. JAP’s narrative pretty much ignores free will, which man possesses, according to Catholic doctrine. The more man’s will is strengthened by the virtuous use of his free will, the better his conditions to overcome a crisis like the one he describes and thus recover interior peace and normalcy.

Mr. JAP says that he prayed a lot (cf. WV pp. 169, 182-183) but Heaven did not heed him. Nor was TFP able to help him. The conclusion would be that TFP was guilty by action and omission and God was guilty by omission, as He turned a deaf ear to Mr. JAP’s copious and afflicted prayers. He alone, a mere victim of circumstances, is blameless!

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17

As he frequents TFP less and less, he feels gradually reintegrated into the neopagan ambience of the contemporary world. Thus, solicitation by the two opposing poles gradually ceases. At that point – he recounts – the crisis disappears and he recovers a state of soul he deems balanced: “Having overcome the trauma and with my nerves back in order, I recovered, over these eight years, the potentialities that flourished in my adolescence and were partly stifled by TFP” (WV p. 200).

He thus appears satisfied with his return to an ambience he had once left in boredom, if not disgust, and with which he is now reconciled.

5. A solution of an eminently psycho-collectivist nature As can be seen, along with a furious attack on TFP, this whole autobiographical novel is, as it were, a veiled apology of today’s neopagan world, the object of severe criticism by this entity.

Indeed, as far as Mr. JAP is concerned, this world is the way it is. And if it is not accepted as such, if you do not live in it participating in it as it is, you are treading the path of unreality, severity, repression and fanaticism. According to Mr. JAP, that is what TFP does. If you take that path you run a serious risk of having a nervous breakdown on the way to imbalance. That is what allegedly has befallen him.

The remedy? Return to contemporary neopaganism. Accept it. Adjust to it. Let yourself be molded by it. Gladly accept its defects even in their more repulsive expressions such as obscenity, filth, contradiction. Then, internal tensions disappear. 18 Should one also acquiesce to collaborate with the Red pole, toward which the West is inching, rather than stick to a die-hard anticommunist position like TFP? Why not? One needs to overcome all disagreements and learn to live together with opponents. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis... 19 Note the eminently psycho-collectivist nature which the autobiographical novel of Mr. JAP, an unbridled subjectivist, discreetly appears to display.

As will be explained in greater detail in Chapter X, today’s world is for him the point to fall back on and to recover, not because of its qualities and defects but simply because it is the world. Because it is everybody. Because it is the society of humans in which one must live in harmony lest one should slide into the grim abyss of neuroses and psychoses.

In the final analysis one must accept everybody’s psychic dictatorship and, as it were, let one’s brain be dominated by everybody, or else perish.

Non-conformists who oppose this dictatorship are crazy and produce craziness. There can be no freedom for them in this century of democracy.

6. The price of the solution To be more specific, there was a price to pay for Mr. JAP’s reconciliation with today’s world. This world’s trivialities, prosaic aspects, immoralities and obscenities no longer bother him. He accepts and assumes them. He no longer sees them as contradictory with the positive factors that exist in the same world. For, when contradiction must be assumed and accepted as such there is no longer true In August 1984, almost one year before the publication of Warriors of the Virgin, Brasil Extra, an organ of the so-called “alternative press” of São Paulo published a photograph of Mr. JAP with a brief text in which these phrases stand out: “This man spent six years inside TFP... and is now writing the final pages of a book – The Warrior of the Virgin.... He does not wish to reveal his name for the moment. He is afraid. This man is looking for an apartment to establish himself definitively in São Paulo. He avoids certain neighborhoods and becomes enthused when near the ‘boca do lixo’ prostitution zone. There he feels safe.”

19 According to Jornal do Brasil (7-18-85), Mr. JAP “guarantees he now has a mind open to any political solutions, whether from the right, left or center.”

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contradiction; that is, there is no antagonic contradiction. On the contrary, positive and negative factors must live together and balance one another. And, as he sees it, a relaxed and panic-free “equilibrium” results from the acceptance of this coexistence.

That is why, to him, the traditional Catholic conception that clearly distinguishes between truth and error, good and evil, both in perpetual opposition, appears unreal. 20 It is tension-causing. It causes imbalances that can give rise to neuroses and psychoses.

The reality that brings tranquility to his fearful and security-minded mentality is a balanced mixture of truth and error, good and evil. An effect of that “equilibrium” is a relaxed smile in the face of communism (which “will not come” or “in the final analysis, is not that bad”).

In him, the “warrior of the Virgin” – the militant anticommunist of former times – is dead.

And he thus presents himself to the public very characteristically sponsored by a writer who claims to have given up communism just as he, JAP, has given up TFP and anticommunism.

Trouble is, Mr. JAP really has left anticommunism entirely. Apparently, if his sponsor has left communism, he is not living far from the neighborhood.

Chapter II – Under the insinuating appearance of impartiality and good humor, a furious libel of vague and often implicit, but always well concatenated, accusations As he narrates with seeming naturalness the varied stages of his autobiographical novel, Mr. JAP slowly inoculates his accusations against TFP into the minds of unwary readers.

Perhaps because he feared his attack on the entity would fail like a recent one, he preferred to avoid an incendiary style, opting instead for a smiling method of exposition, as it were. He tries to convey the impression that he has no passion or wrath and even recalls events with a kind of bonhomie, with that kind of sugary smile that some skeptics adopt when they take on airs of impartiality to better demolish an adversary.

But if the reader scratches off that little sugary veneer, he can feel all the bitterness of the accusations, steaming with hatred, of the author of Warriors of the Virgin.

1. The main points of Mr. JAP’s accusations against TFP What are, precisely, Mr. JAP’s accusations against TFP? Since Mr. JAP’s technique in building up his libel consists much more in insinuating than making explicit accusations, we need to formulate the latter in an adequate and orderly way so the TFP is able to organize its defense.

In its general lines, Mr. JAP’s libel includes the following points:

Mr. JAP’s present “religiosity” is entirely consistent with his new philosophy of life: “To admire a sunset, a beautiful female body or someone’s disinterested gesture is an attitude with more profound religiosity than to mechanically say a rosary. I do not go to mass often” (Jornal do Brasil, 7-18-85).

Mr. JAP declared to Folha de S. Paulo and Folha da Tarde of 6-29-85 that after he left TFP “he never went to mass again.” And in Folha da Tarde on the same date he referred to the martyr, St. Sebastian, with a blasphemous expression that decency prevents us from quoting here.

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A. Initiatory cult Combating communism is the goal with which TFP presents itself to the public.

But behind this goal there is supposedly a more profound one which is only gradually revealed to the initiate. To the latter, the entity bills itself as a prophetic organization that develops on the margins of the Church with a mission to save the Church itself, restore Christian civilization and implant a utopian Reign of Mary, a golden era for humanity during which TFP members would have ascendancy over Popes and kings.

Thus, in this view, TFP is an initiatory cult that hides its true goals and actually wishes to place itself above the Church and the State. In the final analysis, the whole action of the entity is destined to quench a leader’s insatiable thirst for power and homage, who lends himself to clandestine veneration.

B. Recruiting teenagers through Machiavellian methods of “brainwashing” or “subconscious manipulation” TFP purportedly attains this obviously sacrilegious and infamous goal on an ever larger scale by multiplying its ranks by means of a subtle process of recruitment and initiation.

This process allegedly includes underhanded techniques of “subconscious manipulation” and initiatory conversations in which the entity’s arcane secrets are gradually revealed, all of it characterizing a refined method of “brainwashing.”

Adolescents, with their ideas still in formation and thus incapable of resisting that Machiavellian process, are the main targets of this operation.

As a result of this process, TFP would “wash away” and replace the young men’s previous mentality and convictions making them definitively committed to the “cult,” from which they would manage to free themselves only with great difficulty and sacrifice.

C. Isolation from family and removal from natural ambiences A necessary condition to carry out that process of integration into the Society would be to gradually take the young man away from his natural ambiences: the family, which the TFP is said to always frown upon; and from his circles of friends and even his home town. Neophytes would thus be confined to the association’s ambiences and have almost no contact with outsiders, whom the TFP is also said to look askance at.

D. Shock treatment, iron-clad discipline, paramilitary drills to break the young man’s personality and form a typical, “robotized” TFP member Even after adhering to TFP the neophyte maintains traits of his former personality, which need to be eliminated. For this end the young man or adolescent is allegedly subjected to brutal and arbitrary treatment – real shock treatment – which, supplemented with iron-clad discipline and paramilitary drills turn him into a typical TFP member: depersonalized, flattened and “robotized.” Thus, the young neophyte becomes receptive to any indoctrination, obedient to any order, carrying out in a docile and submissive fashion the campaigns the entity promotes in streets and public squares.

The young man would thus attain what TFP sees as the supreme perfection, that is, identification with the spirit of its leader, which in fact is nothing more than complete depersonalization. Such would be the end result of the “brainwashing” practiced by the entity.

The proof of the pudding would be the formation of a new human type characteristic of TFP, uniform in his way of thinking, acting and even dressing, by which a TFP member or volunteer can be distinguished from a distance.

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E. The life of a TFP member or volunteer: under constant terror The terror that TFP instills in its adepts regarding many aspects of man’s life today plays a prominent role in the “brainwashing” process. a) Panic regarding the action of secret forces The contemporary world is in crisis. TFP exploits this banal statement by presenting it as the result of the action of secret forces that, inspired by the devil, conspire to destroy the Church and Christian civilization. With this conspiratorial view of the crisis of the West, TFP is said to create, in its internal ambiences, a climate of terror auspicious for “brainwashing.” b) Panic of a worldwide hecatomb By thus describing the contemporary world in crisis and the risks of complete destruction hovering over it not only with the possibility of nuclear war but other factors as well, the TFP causes terror and panic in the neophyte. Incidentally, from a religious standpoint that note of terror is singularly aggravated by the revelations of Our Lady at Fatima in 1917, announcing the advent of communism worldwide and other catastrophes if mankind persisted on the path of wickedness and corruption in which it already found itself. Those converging scourges, known in TFP parlance as the Bagarre, would constitute a huge punishment for all humanity. c) Panic of the pains of Hell Another terror would add up to the first: that of eternal chastisements with which God punishes every sinner who fails to abandon, until his death, the path of eternal perdition. This punishment, even more terrible than the others, was also mentioned by Our Lady in the famous revelation of the first Secret of Fatima, in which she showed the little shepherds countless impenitent souls being cast into Hell. d) Panic of sin in general and of the sin against chastity in particular Between the panic of a universal hecatomb (Bagarre) and the panic of the eternal punishments of Hell, TFP is also said to instill in its “initiates” an anguishing terror of individual sin, which entails both punishments, and notably a panic of falling into the sin of the flesh, a sin into which anyone can fall in today’s life, so full of traps for men’s morality, and one into which, incidentally Mr. JAP fell several times. In fact, he portrays them in three descriptions fit to figure prominently in any hard core pornographic publication (cf. WV pp. 40-41, 90-92 and 190-193).

F. An assembly line of nervous wrecks and madmen So one understands how this whole process could not fail to affect the health of a TFP member or volunteer, who would often wind up a nervous wreck bordering on madness, into which he would actually fall if he did not escape soon enough. For this reason, Mr. JAP’s book is supposedly intended to caution unwary young men susceptible to being attracted by TFP so they will not allow themselves to be seduced and join it.

To summarize in only one phrase Mr. JAP’s whole body of accusations, one may say that, according to him, TFP is an initiatory cult that causes harmful effects on its members through “brainwashing.”

2. A conclusion contrary to evidence Ignoring factual evidence, Mr. JAP does not hesitate to publish this description of nervous and sad robots as being TFP-formed people. Apparently he fails to realize that the same public has had, has and will have countless opportunities throughout Brazil to maintain personal contact with TFP members and volunteers, whether they are carrying out their gallant and intrepid action in our cities streets and squares or walking the streets in jovial groups to work or rest in the places they reside. Now

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then, these contacts belie in a clamorous fashion the ‘robot’ image he seeks to inculcate as an element of TFP. With a temperament highly subject to anguish and fear (cf. for example, WV pp. 14, 97, 157, 161-162), Mr. JAP appears to see terror and panic as the sole cause of so much idealism and authentic heroism. know

3. A useful but missed lesson – the type of Brazilian Mr. JAP does not

In order to understand the unlikelihood of his thesis, especially in the case of young Brazilians, it would have been advisable for Mr. JAP to consider, before writing his book, a proverb attributed to an ancient Portuguese warrior.

After the battle of Aljubarrota (1385), he is said to have been asked how was it that the Constable of Portugal, Blessed Nun’Alvares Pereira, heading such a small army, managed to defeat a much more numerous enemy army. The warrior, a keen connoisseur of the soul of his people, answered: Our King has won because his army is not one of soldiers: it is an army of sons!

This is the very Portuguese – and very Brazilian – explanation of the national psychology that Mr. JAP failed to understand. Placed before the fearless and intrepid actions of TFP young men, he asked himself where that came from, in their mentality.

And the only explanation he found was the terror he felt regarding certain aspects of TFP. The poor man does not know that true heroes are not born from terror. They are born from love. Nor does he know that in the mentality of Brazilians, brutality, rough treatment and threats do not lead to submission but to an exacerbation of injured self-respect, revenge, inconformity and just revolt.

Even when treated with the affection and consideration due to a son (cf. WV pp. 163-181 and 193-194) during his long crisis strewn with infidelities and moral falls that culminated in the final scene of which he gives a complacent and sordid description (cf. WV pp. 190 a 193), Mr. JAP is so far removed from reality that he fails to notice that the TFP conduct toward him was always the exact opposite of the terror of which he claims to have been a victim.

As a matter of fact, TFP’s behavior was typically Christian and impregnated with Brazilian goodness, a genuine development of Portuguese affection.

He was treated as a son until the very last moment. Though deserving to be expelled, he was invited to raise himself up morally again and allowed to frequent the seats of the entity in spite of his no longer suitable moral behavior.

This is the norm of behavior employed in TFP, a norm that was applied to him and which he nonetheless attempts to denigrate.

Chapter III – Subtle sleights-of-hand to disguise an absence of proofs 1. An accuser who is the sole witness and intends to be the only judge Mr. JAP recounts the whole inside story of the reactions of a young man ready to be classified as belonging to a certain gamut of psychologies that exists in today’s youth. That archetypal young man is none other than himself.

Having joined TFP in 1971, he remained in it from age 15 to 21, that is, until 1977. Now, about eight years later, reflecting on his psychological journey inside TFP, he figures his mind was the object of a whole series of concatenated manipulations by this Society. Such manipulations, he believes, were intended to produce certain interior changes in him to transform him into a “total” TFP member.

A subjectivist tending to imagine himself at the center of events (cf. Chap. I), Mr. JAP sees himself as a typical or archetypal young TFP recruit. And from this he

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infers that an analogous mental process would have to produce an analogous effect if applied on other young man.

And since he calls the effect of this process highly noxious, he deems himself obliged to denounce it to the benefit of many other young men. This is what he claims to intend by publishing Warriors of the Virgin.

Now then, any sensible person ready to read a denunciation based on the narration of a personal experience will naturally ask: where are the factual proofs to corroborate this accusation? If such proofs are insufficient, the book is not an autobiography but a mere novel.

Since, according to the author, TFP recruits mainly young men with a given mentality, of which he is a type, and since these men are said to be subjected to an action analogous to the one he suffered, it should be easy for him to find numerous testimonies among other ex-TFP members, consistent with one another, to corroborate his denunciation.

Yet, in controversial matters such as this, statements agreeing with one another - whether in favor or against a particular thesis - are not necessarily conclusive.

Indeed, many people, driven by passion or interest, may confer with one another to provide the same false testimony.

Thus, even this recourse - which Mr. JAP very prudently avoids employing would have been for him an extremely uncertain advantage in view of the whole refutation developed in this book.

At any rate, by presenting other testimonies Mr. JAP would have at least avoided the preliminary obstacle he runs into with his reasoning: the lack of credibility of a single witness testifying in support of his own thesis.

Given this fundamental flaw, it is quite plausible that had Mr. JAP made similar accusations to parties other than TFP, many of them would not have bothered to come up with the whole argumentation this Society will now carefully develop.

“Present other testimonies or shut up,” they would have told him. Which would not be very different from saying, “Grow up and then speak up.”

The TFP itself would probably also do the same were it not chronically grappling with the ferocious media attacks of a certain left-or-center-left macrocapitalism that obliges it to take special care (cf. item 7 below).

In any case, let us underline from the outset the objection to which Mr. JAP’s testimony gives rise.

The story he tells is exclusively about what he saw, what he heard, what (a few) others have said or done to him, and of the internal reactions that he felt.

The few instances in which he broadens a bit the predominantly subjective and inner scope of his narration, he almost always mentions inexact data easy to disprove (cf. for example, WV pp. 29, 30-31, 67, 144-145).

Thus, in order to prove the existence of initiation in the TFP “cult,” the author cites a series of conversations with successive “initiators.” However, he narrates each of those conversations with such a wealth of detail and subtle expressions that the slightest failure to remember one word or another would make the alleged initiation inexpressive and empty.

And he fully realized that, since ten years have elapsed, he can no longer remember all that nor give the exact order in which the dialogues took place.

Fancying being able to remedy this grave flaw, he decided to write his recollections in the form of imaginary dialogues – quite unlikely, by the way, as each interlocutor speaks as if he were on a stage. In other words, each participant only interrupts the

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other at the right place and never strays from the subject. This procedure is completely alien to the usually lively conversations of young Brazilians.

Nevertheless, Mr. JAP intended to use this method to describe dialogues whose ‘initiatory’ nature is inferred from a cagey nuance of concepts and language the ‘initiator’ employs to gradually prepare the mind of the candidate according to his reactions, often unpredictable.

If said ex-abrupto, the same thing might not have an initiatory character, which it acquires only as a consequence of that spin.

Thus, if the dialogues Mr. JAP quotes are imaginary in their form, this fact implies recognizing that the proof of their initiatory nature is also imaginary. For even if the dialogues preserved “maximum fidelity in their content” as Mr. JAP claims (WV Notice 2, p. VI), they would be unfit as proof of the initiatory method he seeks to denounce.

Now then, Mr. JAP insists very much on this point. He continuously insinuates the existence of a gradual, Machiavellian psychological method of initiation allegedly employed in TFP. And to make the reader “feel” this method... he starts to write imaginary dialogues!

Ever an incorrigible subjectivist, he does not seem to ask himself the question: if he does not remember the words nor has the slightest notes about those dialogues, how can he guarantee that his fictitious rendition is actually reproducing the method?

Furthermore, how can he guarantee “maximum fidelity in their content”?

The word, maximum is very categorical and highly damaging to the author.

Either he means “absolute fidelity” or “the greatest possible fidelity.”

If he means “absolute fidelity” Mr. JAP fancies he has attained an actually impossible result. Or at least, such an arduous result that one cannot admit, absent other proofs, that he has attained it.

If he means “the greatest possible fidelity,” this implies recognizing that it is only a partial, incomplete or relative fidelity. In that case, what probatory value does his narration have?

At this point the reader will naturally ask: how does this narration differ from a novel? And how credible are these dialogues that he presents – worthy of a theater skit?

Such questions apparently have not dawned on Mr. JAP. One would say he would find them unusual and eccentric. Pedriali dixit. How could anyone doubt him?

In his libel-story, he is essentially the sole narrator and for the main points the only witness, the only accuser and the only judge!

As an old legal aphorism puts it, “testis unus, testis nullus” (one witness is no witness).21 Thus, this libel’s persuasive power is tantamount to zero.

21 Probably feeling the lack of documentary value of a single witness, Mr. JAP decided to dedicate the book “to the memory of Ricardo, my cousin, who also went through this experience” (WV p. VI), implying that he had received from that young TFP volunteer, before his death, confidences about experiences in TFP analogous to his own.

So that confirmation comes… from a dead man!

In this regard, it is well to clarify that Mr. Ricardo Pedro Romagnolli, indeed a cousin of Mr. JAP, frequented the TFP successively in Londrina, Curitiba and Porto Alegre between 1971 and 1982. That year he died in a banal motorcycle accident. He was 23.

Quite the opposite of his cousin, the young Romagnolli continuously was a model TFP volunteer whose conduct never showed any symptoms that might suggest any possible crisis similar to the one that Mr. JAP so fancifully describes himself in on the pages of Warriors of the Virgin.

TFP relations with the respected Romagnolli Family were always most cordial, and they have gladly given their assent to the publication of this note.

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To attenuate the fundamental groundlessness of Mr. JAP’s narration one could argue that at least he is a direct witness, as he was in TFP and tells his personal experience.

This does not remedy the fact that in this case he is the irremediably insufficient “testis unus.”

A direct testimony does know the truth. But he has the possibility of telling either the truth or its opposite.

Thus, his alleged condition as a direct witness is not enough to make him ipso facto a sufficient witness.

2. A suspect witness, to boot Moreover, Mr. JAP is an ex-TFP volunteer. What value, in such cases, can have a defamatory testimony by a former adherent? If on the one hand it is true that he gives the testimony of his experience, on the other hand he is led to criticize that experience in light of the reasons for which he left the entity and became an enemy of it. That, a priori, makes his testimony suspect of partiality.

Testimonies by former members – above all when they are many and basically do not substantially contradict one another –undoubtedly can be taken into account; but they cannot be accepted as sufficient and indisputable. This is what Professors David G. Bromley, Anson D. Shupe Jr. and J. C. Ventimiglia, of Texas University, shrewdly note about testimonies similar to Mr. JAP’s: “O papel do apóstata, que tem sido largamente negligenciado pelos sociólogos, tem um peso significativo para desacreditar um grupo dissidente e para justificar medidas de controle social. Como um indivíduo que abandonou a fé à qual aderia anteriormente, o apóstata é uma valiosa fonte de information e pode representar o papel de testemunha ‘astro’ em processos públicos ou em campanhas de propaganda Counter o grupo. Pode revelar atividades e segredos internos do movimento, de forma a confirmar as suspeitas e as alegações Counter este, condenálo com um conhecimento e uma certeza que os de fora não podem ter, e reafirmar os valores da sociedade convencional, ao confessar voluntária e publicamente o ‘erro’ ou seus caminhos.

“Os apóstatas contribuem substancialmente para o teor inverossímil dos contos de atrocidades. Tendo desprezado os valores do sistema dominante, o apóstata dificilmente pode esperar reconquistar sua aceitation na sociedade convencional mediante simples manifestation de que já perdeu o interesse pelo grupo dissidente. Cabe a ele mostrar, de modo convincente, que sua reafirmation dos valores dominantes é autêntica, que ele compartilha com os demais os sentimentos de desaprovation em relation àquele grupo, e que seu compromisso anterior não era sincero.

“Juntamente com uma confissão pública aceitável, o apóstata sente provavelmente alguma necessidade de explicar sua própria conduta. Outros poderão perguntar: se o grupo é tão manifestamente mau como ele agora afirma, por que ele abraçou essa causa anteriormente? Na tentativa de explicar como fora seduzido, e confirmar os piores temores em relation ao grupo, o apóstata é levado a pintar uma caricatura do grupo, que é elaborada mais pela sua condition atual de apóstata, do que por suas reais experiências do grupo.” ( The Role of Anedoctal Atrocities in the Social Construction of Evil, in DAVID G. BROMLEY & JAMES T. RICHARDSON [ed.], The Brainwashing / Deprogramming Controversy: Sociological, Psychological, Legal and Historical Perspectives, The Edwin Mellen Press, New York – Toronto, 1983, p. 156).

These considerations are entirely applicable to Mr. JAP.

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And since Mr. JAP’s nearly whole narration takes place inside TFP, other testimonies by TFP members or volunteers can be mentioned as well.

Now then, by their very perseverance in the entity, TFP members and volunteers constitute a living and continuous denial of everything that Mr. JAP alleges.

For if some of them were to admit his narrations as true, all they would have to do would be cut off any relations with this Society.

Therefore, TFP’s witnesses testify to the contrary of Mr. JAP’s claims. And while they could be deemed suspect by adversaries of the entity, they could not be summarily dismissed.

Someone could object that from this perspective, no organization of an ideological nature could be properly investigated due to the impossibility of obtaining completely reliable testimonies of what happens in it.

This objection does not stand. A comparative analysis of the degree of reliability of each witness according to his intellectual and moral gifts, the jobs and positions he held, and his greater or lesser possibilities of knowing the facts through those positions, and finally a verification of the consistency among the various elements of each testimony – not to speak of a proper inspection of the entity’s accounting, publications and files – can provide investigators with more conclusive proofs. Finally, it is well to recall that testimonies favorable to the entity by exmembers or volunteers are especially valid, since their condition places them beyond any suspicion of partiality. *** But, some reader could ask, isn’t Mr. JAP’s description of his interior crisis perfectly plausible and thus credible?

Being plausible is not sufficient for something to be ipso facto considered as demonstrated. For it is normal for Mr. JAP at this point to re-interpret the whole history of his passage through TFP according to the new criteriology he has adopted and to try to do it with the appearance of plausibility.

Incidentally, moved by reflexes of soul so frequent in those who abandon an ideal, he cannot fail to see in a bad light and malevolently interpret certain facts which he found entirely normal during his stay in TFP – at least until the beginning of his spiritual decadence. For, as the Gospel says, “The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome. But if thy eye be evil thy whole body shall be darksome” (Mt. 6:22-23).

3. A veneer of sincerity and impartiality to convince without proofs In view of all that, the only way left to Mr. JAP when writing his book was to “convince” readers without producing any proofs. He only could pull that off with incautious minds prone to accepting his narration at face value for the mere impression of sincerity and impartiality it managed to convey.

Indeed, the author apparently pulled all the stops to attain that end: a) The book is a furious and novel-like libel against TFP. This is made patent by the fact that it invites credulous readers to form an entirely negative global judgment about this Society in spite of one or the other positive aspect that “impartially” comes across its narrative. However, the author disguises this aspect of his work by placing the brunt of his accusation at the end, when the reader, having ingested his long narration, is predisposed to believe in his novel-libel. As we noted before, this caution was perhaps motivated by the failure, with public opinion, of another recent anti-TFP offensive based on the old methods of incendiary attacks with high-sounding words but empty arguments.

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B) The book adopts a system of exposition highly appropriate to gain the reader’s confidence, as the author appears to limit himself to merely narrating the facts he lived or saw, something he does with a literary agility that conveys the impression that the facts speak for themselves.

His method of exposition is more of the “conversational” type than of the “thesis” kind.

Subjects appear to flow from Mr. JAP’s pen with the rested and relaxed naturalness of someone telling his personal souvenirs to a circle of friends.

This enables him to go through the various topics he deals with in different speeds: slow and detailed when he wants to cause an impression on the reader (for example, on pp. 115-134 the long and protracted description of his visit to one of the TFP seats in São Paulo, the Hermitage of São Bento) 22 or when he aims to entertain the reader with some unexpected and sensual episode (WV pp. 40-41, 90-92 and 190-193). Instead, he is quick and short when he wants to avoid details that would run against his spin (for example, WV pp. 176-179). In reality, however, in the eyes of an experienced reader all these artifices belie the nature of its true thesis.

C) The language the author chose also appears to be serene and smooth. In more up-to-date words, one would say it is “spontaneous” and “relaxed.” It is animated from beginning to end – as we have noted – by the slight and almost easygoing grin which some skeptic and relativistic minds adopt to sweeten the “experiences” they have gone through and even the injustices they suffered – or fancy to have suffered – during those “experiences.”

“This is the apex of impartiality” – a naïve reader will comment in his internal forum, moved by what he sees as a great authenticity of soul. And he will begin to believe!

Anyone who reads Mr. JAP’s book can see he employs these artifices with undeniable ability. 23

22 Some TFP seats introduced – on the wish of members or volunteers residing or working there – a regime of silence outside of meetings or leisure time to obtain a climate of recollection propitious to work or study.

The first who suggested the adoption of this system was the much regretted member of the TFP National Council, Fábio Vidigal Xavier da Silveira, deceased in 1971. Some years before his death Dr. Fábio had visited the famous Eremo dell’Carcere, a place of recollection and prayer graced by the supernatural presence of its builder, St. Francis of Assisi. Dr. Fábio became enthused as he recalled the Hermitage of St. Francis; and in his imaginative Brazilian vivaciousness he soon began to employ the Italian word to designate the TFP sector he directed.

The name was welcomed in TFP circles with great sympathy. And, naturally, other Hermitages soon appeared. And so this regime of recollection, study, prayer and work in common gradually became institutionalized.

In fact, the Hermitages are nothing more than study or work centers where a greater concentration of the mind is required or whose residents simply seek to optimize their activities. The Hermitages turned out to be highly effective as factors of intellectual development and increased productivity. By extension, those residing in the Hermitages are called hermits.

23 The seemingly serene impartiality Mr. JAP strives to make the hallmark of his work is rather incongruous with the presentation that Mr. Luiz Fernando Emediato, an OESP news reporter and director of Coleção Testemunho [Testimony Collection] of which Warriors of the Virgin is volume #7, makes on the book’s inside cover: “This is a book about extreme right fanaticism, the delirium of a man who sees himself as predestined to rule peoples and rise to the heavens at the end of time in a fiery chariot like the biblical prophet. It is an impressive and terrifying, yet well-humored book on the experience of an adolescent lured into the hosts of that fanatic and manipulated there for six years, during which he was almost driven crazy, obliged to see a communist on every corner, a demon in every woman, sin in every pleasure. Warriors of the Virgin is a great denunciation: for the first time in its history, TFP is really scrutinized and laid bare for society to find out what goes on in its secret monasteries, where militants are trained not only to venerate Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, their top leader, but also – if necessary – to confront with weapons the sinful communists who, in the delicium [most certainly, delirium] of Dominus Plinius, threaten all corners of the Earth.

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But once the subject is seriously analyzed, it is easy to see that the reality is altogether different. In Mr. JAP’s testimony about his interior six-year journey in TFP, one finds not even a word, little story or phrase not carefully studied to make the reader accept the distorted image of the entity that emerges at the end of the book.

In his narration, nothing is really spontaneous, nothing is relaxed or well-meaning.

Everything is weighed, numbered and measured according to a carefully veiled ulterior motive. And it is fiercely accusatory.

Nonetheless, noticing it requires experience in a specialized analysis, so to speak; an experience that most readers naturally lack.

4. Mr. JAP’s peculiar display of impartiality ignores TFP’s public action almost completely and keeps mum about the profound roots of that action Secret life in TFP is the subtitle Mr. JAP gave his book.

The author pretends to present a sufficiently complete picture of that “secret life” in a 201-page narrative, format 21x13.5 cm, type 10 letter-size. Yet, in it, as we have seen, he almost completely ignores TFP’s vast and heroic public action. This method is unilateral and distorting also regarding the association’s mentality and internal life, which the author sets out to describe.

Indeed, the public action of a person, group or association is the natural fruit of a whole internal preparation. Thus, appreciating the fruit of an organization, be it TFP or any other, provides safe criteria to know one’s own organization. “For there is no good tree that bringeth forth evil fruit; nor an evil tree that bringeth forth good fruit. For every tree is known by its fruit” (Luke 6:43-44), the Divine Master teaches.

No description of daily life in TFP will be complete as long as it fails to analyze its public action and thus provide some knowledge about the most profound roots in its soul. This is all the more obvious since the entity’s public action is very farreaching and has been enthralling friend and foe on the five continents for decades. It “It is no coincidence that this sincere and courageous testimony by a former tefepista is prefaced by an excommunist, writer Domingos Pellegrini. As he himself recalls in his preface, the extreme left and the extreme right have more similarities than differences. The warlike militants of MR-8 wear jeans. The zombie-like fanatics of TFP wear suit and tie. Both are directed and manipulated by interests they not always understand entirely. As the Church has already done a whole lot, and the State will do as long as the draft is obligatory, both right and left recruit young men, Pellegrini notes. Both those who adore the Virgin Mary and those who adore Lenin must follow, develop and spread the idea of their leaders. Thinking for oneself is tiresome – being led is easier and more prudent. Woe to him who decides to be an independent, despised by the right and the left, a double traitor condemned to wander around corners like a renegade. On a planet polarized by an ideological confrontation of unpredictable consequences for common mortals, there is no middle ground between pseudo-socialist Soviet gerontocracy and genocidal American consumerism. Nevertheless, Dominus Plinius and his TFP fanatics have no doubt: a catastrophe of apocalyptic dimensions will destroy the Siberian bear and the Rocky Mountains eagle, taking the rest of mankind with them. After the catastrophe, the world will return to what once was, according to TFP, the golden age of man: medieval principles will prevail, the devil will be defeated, and Dominus Plinius, immortal, will reign next to the Holy Virgin.

“Warriors of the Virgin, which José Antônio Pedriali wrote at the cost of his own suffering, as no one easily frees himself from ghosts of the past, is a revealing testimony as an accusation and a warning. Thousands of young people in this and other countries are lured today to fight for some cause which is not always very clear. One must know before making an option. One needs to be free in order to fight for something. Otherwise there will never be freedom for all.”

This presentation – ostensibly presented on the cover flap of Warriors of the Virgin as “key” to help readers understand Mr. JAP’s diffuse prose – makes explicit much of what the book itself deftly implies.

Note, in passing, that Mr. L. F. Emediato – unlike Mr. JAP – does not try to veil his anti-TFP fanaticism.

Instead, he displays a complete lack of critical sense by taking as absolutely proven everything that Mr. JAP affirms – even before hearing the TFP testimony.

Now then, it is not believable that this presentation was added to Mr. JAP’s book without his acquiescence.

And by consenting to have his book introduced with so much name-calling, he reduces to shreds the image of impartiality so necessary to give his testimony a modicum of credibility.

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is an action carried out with the faith, disinterestedness and heroic jubilation of crusaders.

Now then, albeit in passing, Mr. JAP’s, narration – by the very fact that he strives to make it appear impartial – uncovers beautiful episodes in TFP’s internal life.

However, at no moment does he stress the ensemble of principles and doctrines taught in TFP or exemplary facts one learns about during daily life in the entity, facts which explain how these qualities actually flourish.

The plot is always calculated to persuade the reader about the book’s gravely defamatory theses. The author never fails to emphasize what he sees as unfavorable aspects of life in the entity. For this end he often employs a novel-like, poisonous style – a style most of the time as implicitly venomous as they come in today’s technically efficient media tactics.

There is more. Mr. JAP well sees that the individual lives of TFP members and volunteers present no moral stain. In fact, to give his testimony airs of strict objectivity, he would be obliged to point them out if he saw them. Yet he skips over this absence of faults without the least analysis, as if it were the most common occurrence in this day and age. This shows the kind of impartiality he really has: one that leaves out aspects worthy of the warmest praise.

5. Another recourse: to make himself likable to the reader…

In order to become credible, Mr. JAP also employs a similar recourse: to gain the sympathy of the reader. He attempts to do this by making a seemingly natural and unpretentious description of himself, which is in fact “embellished” and wholly geared toward stirring up the reader’s compassion.

From the outset of his narration (cf. WV pp. 11-20), Mr. JAP introduces himself as a pious and good young man from Londrina – one would say a male version of “Red Riding Hood” – though with a slightly peculiar psychology.

At the service of the President of TFP’s National Council – an insatiable devourer of admiration, enthusiasm and dedication – other deceived or ill-intentioned young men approach Mr. JAP and, through a mysterious psychological process attract him and try turning him into a fanatical and aggressive youth with a mentality at the same time shackled and overexcited with panic.

All that tends to reduce him into a mere robot at the hands of those mind manipulators.

Hypnotized by the elevated aspects of their behavior and the goal they present to him, the young man heroically sets out on a path that now – eight years after leaving TFP – he likens to a gloomy, dark and stifling tunnel. As a consequence, the state of his nerves deteriorates and gradually gets worse. Even so, the selfless idealist resists. He resists by trying to adapt entirely to the methods indicated and by praying, praying and praying. “The statue of the Virgin of Zion had become my confidante in sleepless nights, on suave and fresh mornings, on evenings strewn with bitterness and solitude” – he says on p. 161 with a considerable dose of romanticism, referring to the statue of Our Lady venerated in the garden of the old seat of Curitiba, which had previously belonged to the Zion High School in the same city.

Say, reader, don’t you find likable the figure of this nice, idealistic, selfless and suffering young man? With such a description, who would not tend to believe him?

6. … even to the point of recognizing his own weaknesses All this heroism undoubtedly attracts sympathy. But the era of immaculate and unbreakable theater heroes of the great [17th century French dramatist] Corneille is long gone. Today’s public only applauds a hero without reservations when it sees in him one or more weaknesses. Today’s hero must be an idealist but also must

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democratically show himself an equal, or perhaps even better, an accomplice. At the present historic juncture, as the world inches toward permissive anarchy under the aegis of Freudism, a hero must be “relaxed,” concessive, compassionate and sensual.

Thus, the author narrates – incidentally, with a poorly disguised selfcontemplative penchant – the strong and even uncontained urges that sensuality arouses in him. The pornographic scenes referred-to above are effects of this. So the picture is completely palatable to the countless fans of obscenities on TV, radio and the press, gaining their sympathy.

Furthermore, these impulses toward unbridled sexuality play an outstanding role on his internal division: on the one hand, an ideal calls him to climb to new heights; on the other, fear of a psycho-pathological catastrophe and the impulses of the flesh invite him to a psychically relaxed but prosaic daily life within palpable reality.

This tension leads him to nervous imbalance and he fears plunging into madness.

Then comes the coup de grâce: a purported episode related with the temporary disability of the President of the TFP National Council, victim of a car accident in 1975, makes a bad impression on him regarding the good intentions of the entity’s highest-ranking directors.

He gradually takes a distance from TFP, loses interest in it entirely, and finally resumes the mediocre lifestyle, prosaic and without ideals, of most people nowadays.

7. Though no one is obliged to prove his innocence, the TFP refutation does get all the way there From all this the accusation emerges – very diffusely throughout the book but more clearly insinuated on its last pages, when the ground is already prepared – that the TFP is an initiatory cult that employs “brainwashing” on its members to the detriment of their mental health.

What is the real scope of this accusation, which, so to speak, is the main axis of Mr. JAP’s defamatory novel?

Strictly speaking, what has been said about the absence of proofs in Warriors of the Virgin is so conclusive that of itself it would definitely suffice to respond to Mr. JAP’s attacks. However, in the concrete case of TFP that is not sufficient, as it has had numerous, successive detractors over many decades constantly striving to cast it into a bad light with public opinion. However, thanks to Our Lady, their work has been in vain. Some of these detractors are actually remote, albeit unconscious, instruments of Moscow (“useful innocents,” we say in Portuguese; “useful idiots” they say in Spanish, perhaps more appropriately). The mentors of communist propaganda find them along the way and exploit them as much as they can together with other, conscious and disciplined communist agents. Moscow organizes all these human instruments into a huge machine of continuous detraction.

Now then, Moscow’s hatred is indefatigable. While a concise and rock-solid argumentation can stop one of its defamatory offensives on its tracks, communist propaganda continues to harp on secondary aspects of the refuted thesis, until, one by one, they have all been refuted.

Moscow’s offensives could be compared to dantesque trees whose branches are serpents. Once the trunk is cut off, these serpents continue to stir with a life of their own, biting and poisoning.

We say this to explain to the reader the methodological peculiarities of our refutation, as we are not satisfied merely with the affirmation – sufficient of itself – that Warriors of the Virgin is devoid of any proofs.

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True, no one is obliged to prove his innocence, as the burden of proofs falls on the accuser: “Actori onus probandi incumbit” – as the legal adage has it.

But TFP wants to go even further and eliminate the serpents from the felled tree. Only thus will its refutation be complete. And to do this it is necessary to prove, as much as possible, that the accusations leveled against it are false.

Thus, we will now analyze the main accusations showing how vulnerable and intrinsically false they are, and how they clash with uncontroversial public knowledge.

And we will simply oppose Mr. JAP’s uncorroborated testimony with the testimony of TFP. It is an indisputable right of the accused party, facing a gratuitous accusation, to respond with a simple denial: “quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur”. In other words, that which is affirmed without proofs can be validly replied to with a simple denial.

Chapter IV – “Brainwashing” and “cult”: clichés carrying a great emotional charge but empty of any real content 1. “Brainwashing”: an implicit, craftily insinuated accusation Although the expression, “brainwashing” occurs neither in the book, Warriors of the Virgin nor in its summary published in OESP on June 30, in fact the impression Mr. JAP wants to create is that his brain was “washed” over the years he frequented TFP. In the June 30 OESP report, the “brainwashing” accusation becomes fully materialized in the topic titled “My brain has been taken over.” In highly emotional and suspense-building language in the best tradition of police novels, Mr. JAP strives to present himself as having been increasingly “dominated” by a mysterious force that compelled him to act against his will: “increasingly regular contacts with members of the organization induced me to see the world in a repulsive fashion and, slowly, to change my habits.... Everyone perceived, I perceived that I was changing, but I was incapable of reacting, as my brain, six months after that first night, was already dominated by TFP principles. These principles would rule my life over the six following years; they would tear me away from my family; they would consecrate me a slave of the Virgin; they would turn me into a disciple of the prophet; finally, they would take me to the brink of madness” (O Estado de S. Paulo, 6-30-85).

Thus, the author presents himself as having been “dominated,” coerced to act in a certain way and made incapable of “reacting” by dint of “principles” he figures were mysteriously instilled or inoculated into his brain from the outside through a predominantly psychological process where logic was instrumentalized to play a secondary role. Once installed in him, those principles irresistibly compelled him, or so he claims, to behave in a certain fashion.

He thus accepts a premise shared by all theories on “brainwashing,” “mind manipulation,” “mind control” etc.: the existence of psychological techniques capable of extirpating from a person’s mind the convictions he professes and replacing them with convictions chosen exclusively by the manipulator. That also confiscates man’s free will, turning him into a robot totally subjected to the manipulator.

2. The mysterious mental process to which TFP allegedly subjected Mr. JAP: a fairy tale? A “show”?

In his book, Mr. JAP emphasizes very much his incapacity to react to the process of integration into TFP: “My life appeared to flow normally, though I could

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already feel that something was changing inside and outside of me. I knew I was changing but my hands were tied so I could not prevent the process of transformation from advancing all the way to the end. Little by little I assimilated with lesser resistance the new ideas, reflected in my behavior. I was vulnerable to these ideas and my handlers knew very well how to exploit my weak points” (WV p. 17).

Why did Mr. JAP feel his “hands tied”? What mysterious force had “dominated his brain” and made him “incapable of reacting”? The author of Warriors of the Virgin speaks about this force enough to clearly insinuate the existence, in TFP ambiences, of something like “brainwashing”: “There was an indescribable force in the air which drove everyone to think the same way, to employ the same arguments and have the same reactions facing a trite everyday fact or a spectacular event. In TFP ambiences there was a force that influenced by osmosis those who frequented them. Its symbols, furniture and decoration had meanings which, even without perceiving it, the spectator in one way or another, with greater or lesser intensity, would unconsciously absorb” (WV p. 48).

After asking what force was that, capable to overcome resistance, Mr. JAP goes on: “I found no answer for it. There was something way too strong around me, which my senses perceived, but which my reason was unable to discern, and in the face of which my will had no way to react. What could justify for a handful of young men to exchange their dreams of a comfortable and secure life for an austere behavior, an uncertain future, a present marked by incomprehension from society and rife with continuous self-denial?” (WV p. 48).

It is rather strange for Mr. JAP to “describe” this mysterious action of which he claims to have been a victim and yet seek no scientific explanation for it.

Indeed, he should fear that looking at this description – of whose veracity he does not and cannot have any proofs – some reader would merely move on with a skeptic grin, saying, “Why, this is nothing but a fairy tale!”

Since the objectivity of his narration is indispensable to give Mr. JAP’s libel some force of persuasion, it would be absolutely in his interest to look up some contemporary scientific source to somehow corroborate the viability of the strange operation of which he claims to be a victim.

Yet, he enigmatically shies away from it. Why? Several hypotheses are possible. One is that the spectacular media coverage bestowed on Mr. JAP’s libel seemed to convey the idea that, as soon as Warriors of the Virgin was published, some specialist in psychiatry or social psychology, trusted by the author, would speak up in no less spectacular a fashion, proclaiming that the phenomenon Mr. JAP described but left unnamed (understandably not being conversant in psychiatry or social psychology) actually is scientifically explainable as a typical case of “brainwashing,” “mental manipulation” etc.

The intervention by such a specialist would work as a veritable Deus exmachina, with a wonderful propaganda effect.

And Mr. JAP could find such a ‘specialist’ in our country in the person of some credulous or retarded follower of the “brainwashing” theory.

There are no elements to prove that such a show has been prepared. But if Mr. JAP’s book had been written with the intention of giving rise to this show, in its main lines his text would be precisely as it is.

In any case, this hypothesis opens a flank for an objection that Mr. JAP could make: if this show had been in the works, why has it not been launched until now?

This question is explicable. However, Mr. JAP is the one best qualified to answer it...

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Did he find it prudent to wait for the publication of this refutation?

3. OESP appears to make explicit the accusation that Mr. JAP preferred merely to insinuate At any rate, Mr. JAP clearly claims that what goes on in TFP is a Macchiavelian and irresistible process of mind control with the consequent inoculation of new ideas and behaviors. What is missing to characterize the famous “brainwashing”? Nothing.

Furthermore, in a story published on July 2, 1985 OESP clearly says that Mr. JAP “recounted [sic] the ambience of terror and the brainwashing to which he was subjected.”

Faithful to the technique of exposition already commented on (cf. Chap. II and Chap. III, 3), Mr. JAP does not explicitly formulate this accusation, at the same time impressive (to the poorly informed public at large) and discredited (in the scientific world).

Thus, less explicit and more cautious than his OESP colleagues who would later elaborate on what he had to say, Mr. JAP appeared eager to give the impression that he never even perceived he had been “brainwashed.” He candidly limits himself to narrate facts which, coincidentally, speak for themselves. And the reader concludes for himself what the author, naïve and candid, appears not to have perceived: that what happened was a blatant, indisputable case of “brainwashing.”

In this way, Mr. JAP’s seemingly unassuming exposition attains the ferociously defamatory goal he had in mind: denouncing TFP to public opinion as a harmful destroyer of the minds and wills of those who frequent it and accept its doctrines.

That is the effect Mr. JAP’s testimony strives to produce on an incautious reader unaware of what “brainwashing” is.

However, being skilful is not as easy as Mr. JAP fancies. Among the multiple cautions to take when trying to pull such sleights-of-hand, is precisely the one of not letting an excess of skill show through. For, when manifested, such excess reveals the artificial nature of the maneuver and the absence of impartiality and naturalness, two indispensable conditions for a narration to be credible.

This is precisely what happens with Warriors of the Virgin. The book has not even one fact not intended to lend credibility to its accusation against TFP. One would say the author has read some pocket book on “brainwashing” and “laid out” the plot in such a way as to fit events into the framework of a typical case of “brainwashing.”

But his narration, meant to sound natural and candid, ends up by appearing to have been tailor-made.

Indeed, his own silence on “brainwashing” gives away how artificial the narration is. The latter resembles way too much a “brainwashing” operation (as described by those who still believe in it), making it obvious that he knew it. Why, then, does he not clearly draw the conclusion to which his narration appears to lead?

What is the ulterior motive hiding behind such great ‘candor’?

4. “Brainwashing,” a purportedly irresistible method to change people’s convictions and behavior In order to find out whether “brainwashing” tactics are being applied on someone, it is necessary first to define what those who believe in such possibility understand by “brainwashing.”

To wash something – a glass window or a stone-covered wall, for example – is to exercise upon it an action that rids it of negative elements – in this case, dust and soot – and makes it clean. The same could be said of a drawer that was emptied out and cleaned, thus freeing up room to put whatever you want in it.

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Thus, the role of the wall, window or drawer is merely passive, whether you take something off of them, or – in the drawer’s case – get something into it or out of it.

Likewise, “washing” a person’s brain would be exerting upon him through prolonged mistreatment, threats, malnutrition and extenuating work, an action whereby physical weakness and terror place him into a state of complete intellectual passivity.

Once that passivity is attained, the victim no longer has means to defend himself from new beliefs they wish to inculcate in him. As his mind is reduced to total passivity, his former convictions are “washed away.” As long as his abuser – to whom he is increasingly subjected as the sole and prestigious guide – teaches him new ideas contrary to his old ones, they penetrate his brain and are installed in it like pieces of a mosaic or objects placed into an empty drawer.

For this operation to be successful, the brain “washer” must employ some additional tactics other than the above-mentioned panic and oppression techniques.

He needs to completely remove the patient from the atmosphere in which he used to live, give him new companions, different activities, limit him to an ambience completely consistent with the ideas being “placed” into him and the new behavior being imposed on him.

That way, “brainwashing” could attain its full results.

And all that happens – note well – with the person’s intelligence and will definitely unable to raise an insurmountable obstacle to that process.

5. Fundamental difference between “brainwashing” and conversion How does the process summarily described above differ from conversion in the current sense of the word, that is, the action of the mind and will whereby someone renounces the religious, philosophical, political, artistic or other convictions he possesses and assumes a contrary position on any of these matters, making this change on his own or with someone else’s help? And how does it differ from a change in behavior – be it individual or social – whereby a person begins to condemn practices and attitudes he formerly accepted?

Essentially – abstracting from the primordial action of grace – the difference is in the fact that in a conversion, the converted one is the agent. Others (his parents, pastor, teachers, apostles or activists of any kind) can exercise a greater or lesser influence on him, speak to his reason and impress his sensibility to solicit his will toward one direction or another, more or less profoundly. But the person himself, with his intelligence and will, necessarily is and always will be the judge who freely makes this or that choice and picks this or that system.

In “brainwashing”, on the contrary, the human mind is said to be a mere patient totally at the mercy of a skilled brain “washer” without the possibility of resisting him.

As can be seen, according to this second, pseudo-scientific version there would be a method capable of inserting into a patient, against his will, a personality manufactured in the outside. The action of the inserting agents would meet with resistance from the victim’s personality existing before the “brainwashing.”

Thus, supported by the inserters, the artificial personality would end up by overcoming the natural one.

At that point the individual would have entirely changed his personality: he no longer would be the same. The “brainwashing” process would have been victoriously concluded.

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Described from this latter point of view, Saint Paul’s ancient and venerable metaphor on the “old man” who fights deep in his soul against the “new man” has a merely occasional and superficial analogy with the phenomenon. In fact, both are diametrically opposed to each other. 24 Indeed, according to the Catholic conception, buttressed on plenty of texts in the Old and New Testaments, both the tendency toward good and one toward evil are viscerally rooted in man. It is up to him, using his free will, to pick the winning solicitation by his own personal decision made in the very bosom of his soul.

The supernatural action of grace reinforces man’s tendency toward the good.

And thus, in a Catholic man faithful to grace, the “new man” wins. For its part, the preternatural action of the devil can reinforce man’s tendency toward evil. If it prevails, the “old man” will have won. But in any case, both actions – supernatural or preternatural – solicit but do not force man’s will, which always remains free.

On the contrary, according to the “brainwashing” conception, the opposing “two men” inside the patient’s soul have nothing to do with God, grace, the devil or temptation. It is a totally naturalistic panorama in which human free will is not even mentioned.

Furthermore, always according to the “brainwashing” theory, the factors in this struggle are not God, man and the devil, nature and grace but “brainwashing” technicians and the pre-existing natural mentality. The latter’s reactions appear to be merely instinctive. Perhaps like those of an animal’s organism subjected to veterinary treatment. From what it seems, at least in the case of “brainwashing,” the “treatment” is always said to prevail upon the “animal,” that is, the patient whose brain is being “washed.”

Finally, as consequence, the resulting new mentality produced by "brainwashing" is said to have all the conditions for stability in the ‘washed’ brain. And this prodigious replacement could last forever in the patient’s mind without the least interference from his free-will. Not to speak of or his intelligence, whose role in this “brainwashing" soap opera is hazy to say the least.

Now then, such an operation whereby a human being would be entirely deprived entirely of his free will and unable to resist an outside action to change his mind and behavior does not correspond to any reality. It is a myth.

6. An expressive metaphor that has made it around the world The expression, “brainwashing” was coined in 1950, when American journalist Edward Hunter Jr., writing for The Miami Daily News and The Leader Magazine described a method the Chinese communists were said to be employing to obtain spectacular “conversions” to their ideology by people adamantly opposed to it, particularly Catholic missionaries and political opponents of the regime.

Making a free translation of a Chinese expression, the journalist coined the undeniably expressive locution, “brainwashing.”

This simple metaphor – for it is nothing but a metaphor – was destined to attain great success. It was very much in vogue for a few years and was widely employed in the press all over the West to explain confessions made before communist courts even by prisoners of great valor such as the late Joszef Cardinal Mindszenty.

24 St. Paul says: “If so be that you have heard him, and have been taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus: To put off, according to former conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind: And put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth” (Eph. 4:21-24).

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With the end of the Cold War, in the early ‘60s the expression slowly fell out of favor and ended up by disappearing almost completely from the news.

However, in the mid-70s it went back under the spotlight in a completely different context.

“Brainwashing” began to be employed to explain sudden changes in ideas and behavior whereby persons without faith or lukewarm in their religion were led to believe in God and to surprisingly intensify their religious practices.

Needless to say, everything said here about religious convictions also applies to convictions on philosophical, political, socioeconomic matters etc.

In its new look “brainwashing” was no longer employed by communist governments but by organizations or groups with religious and political ends – often with a rightist or conservative position. And its victims were no longer prisoners but individuals – more often than not young people – lured by these organizations or groups and turned into victims of crafty manipulators. Such victims allegedly had their brains “washed” in a regime of greater or lesser isolation, under physical or moral coercion.

Thus, in a remarkable turnaround, the metaphor used in the ‘50s to designate a communist technique, twenty years later came to be insistently employed by leftist sectors to attack and defame their adversaries on the right.

7. The proliferation of “cults” relaunches the metaphor In this regard, it is necessary to consider the proliferation, over the last ten or fifteen years, of extravagant religious organizations in various countries, but notably in the United States, which preach myths and exotic ways of being strongly at variance with current habits and customs.

Some of these organizations usually designated as “cults” – a vocable with obvious pejorative connotations – at times have provoked hideous crimes which have strongly impressed public opinion and caused just indignation.

But other associations do not necessarily lead to any crimes or the least illegality. They are merely the expression of new philosophical or religious systems, which a Catholic could not fail to censure with severity but which, from the secular standpoint of modern States and the religious freedom guaranteed in their Constitutions (even in communist countries, albeit pro forma), there is no way they could be considered illegal.

As was natural, the expansion of these cults provoked a likewise strong and influential reaction – the so-called anticult movement – which largely contributed to the revival of the “brainwashing” expression.

Indeed, in these times of conformism many people fail to understand how so many persons could adhere to ideas and ways of being so shockingly different from those accepted by most of their contemporaries. So that was something new and enigmatic, something like “brainwashing.” This was the view that led many to become ardent militants in the anticult movement.

From that was born an intimate correlation between the two terms – cult and brainwashing – both powerfully impregnated with an emotional charge even as they remained undefined in their concept and outlines.

In Canada in 1978 the government of the Ontario Province designated a highlevel commission presided by sociologist Daniel G. Hill to study the phenomenon of “cults” and the “brainwashing” attributed to them. Another member of the Commission was Dr. Saul V. Levine, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, a well-known scholar on problems of adolescents and religious movements.

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After 18 months of work, the Commission presented a report to the Toronto administration. Among its conclusions, this one stood out: “Nenhuma das fontes que o presente estudo consultou, incluindo muitos psiquiatras, pôde definir em termos legislativos funcionais conceitos como brainwashing ou coertion mental. Nenhuma fonte pôde oferecer meios de distinguir entre aqueles que usam técnicas de desenvolvimento mental e similares, de modo qualificado, e aqueles que as usam de modo não-qualificado.... Tampouco puderam – e pela mesma razão – definir o que é um culto, uma seita ou uma nova religião, para efeitos legislativos e em termos que satisfaçam os ditames da justiça” (DANIEL G. HILL, Study of Mind Development Groups, Sects and Cults in Ontario / A Report to the Ontario Government, 1980, pp. 588 to 590).

Indeed, how can one define ‘cult’ from a secular perspective? Many opine that a cult is a group that obtains adepts through “brainwashing.” But just what is “brainwashing”? The same people will answer: it is the method employed by cults to recruit adepts…

Unfortunately, this burlesque vicious circle is far from rare, especially when one analyzes criticisms subjacent to many offensives of the anticult movement.

It follows that the “brainwashing” metaphor has been playing a singular role on the current onslaught against cults; and note that even organizations or movements officially and even emphatically recognized by the Church as Catholics 25 are placed on the same footing.

“Brainwashing has actually become the main offensive weapon of the anticult movement which, through it, has at times obtained court permission to temporarily place adult, supposedly victimized cult adepts under tutorship to undergo "treatment" and thus return to "normalcy."

This treatment is the so-called “deprogramming,” whose obvious premise is that cult adepts have been “programmed” by their brain “washers” like computers.

In a well-documented monograph recently published in Brazil by the magazine, Catolicismo, under the title “‘Brainwashing’ -- a Myth at the Service's of a New, Therapeutic Inquisition” (No. 409, January 1985), a Study Commission of the American TFP shows that behind the anticult offensive a terrible specter looms in the horizon: a dictatorship of a psychiatric nature.

8. Cults: a merely pathological case or a much more profound problem?

For a Catholic, the word cult or sect has a very clear meaning. In its theological sense, it can be defined as “a group of men who have separated themselves from the universal Church with the intention to obstinately defend the excellence of some of their own principles and openly profess them” (J. Carrol, entry Secta, in Dictionarium Morale et Canonicum, published under the direction of Msgr.

Pietro Palazzini, Officium Libri Catholici, Romae, 1968, p. 252).

Note that this meaning of sect is founded on the certainty of the Faith that the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ is the sole Mistress and Custodian of the revealed truth.

From the doctrinal standpoint, what reference point does a relativist have to define a ‘sect’? None. For one who does not admit the existence of absolute

25 Presumably for the same prudential reason that led Mr. JAP not to employ the word “brainwashing” in Warriors of the Virgin, TFP is not explicitly insulted with the ‘cult’ label. But as we have seen (cf. Chap. II), the idea that TFP is an initiatory cult is clearly present in the book.

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philosophical or theological truths, the notion of cult cannot correspond to any reality definable in doctrinal terms, since every school or current of thought is limited to an ensemble of opinions as defensible as any others.

Thus, for a relativist the term, “cult,” is nothing but a derogatory label, an insult he throws at religious or philosophical movements he does not like.

Yet an explanation for this arbitrary labeling – often caused by subjacent ideological dislike – is then sought in psychiatry and psychology. And the whole complex problem of the cults with their nuanced theological, philosophical and sociological implications is reduced to a merely pathological issue.

The above-mentioned study by the American TFP judiciously observes that one is thus faced with a mock “Inquisition” that claims the right to issue judgment and condemnations with changing and merely subjective criteria, in the name of a supposed mental normalcy.

Right would be that which physicians and psychologists (those with a certain orientation, as you can see) deem right; and wrong, “heretical” and worthy of repression would be that which they diagnose as sickly, unhealthy for one’s mental sanity etc. And the specter of a psychiatric dictatorship looms in a perhaps not-toodistant horizon.

9. “Brainwashing:” a myth that denies the existence of free will The doctrine which constitutes the philosophical premise to all theories on "brainwashing" is none other than determinism, which denies man’s free will.

According to this concept, manipulated by an external factor which acts directly and irresistibly on his intelligence and will, man is in no condition to freely preserve his intelligence and will from that evil action.

Instead, according to Catholic doctrine, man is a rational creature endowed with free will. That means he has the ability to discern truth from error, to opt for good or evil. This is the invariable teaching of the Church, which St. Thomas Aquinas expressed as follows: “It is written (Sirach 15:14): ‘God made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his own counsel’; and the gloss adds: ‘That is of his free-will’ “Man has free-will: otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards, and punishments would be in vain. In order to make this evident, we must observe that some things act without judgment; as a stone moves downwards; and in like manner all things which lack knowledge. And some act from judgment, but not a free judgment; as brute animals. For the sheep, seeing the wolf judges it a thing to be shunned, from a natural and not a free judgment, because it judges, not from reason, but from natural instinct. And the same thing is to be said of any judgment of brute animals. But man acts from judgment, because by his apprehensive power he judges that something should be avoided or sought. But because this judgment, in the case of some particular act, is not from a natural instinct, but from some act of comparison in the reason, therefore he acts from free judgment and retains the power of being inclined to various things. For reason in contingent matters may follow opposite courses, as we see in dialectic syllogisms and rhetorical arguments. Now particular operations are contingent, and therefore in such matters the judgment of reason may follow opposite courses, and is not determinate to one. And forasmuch as man is rational is it necessary that man have a free-will” (Summa Theologica, I, 1. 83, a. 1).

Free-will is so profoundly inviscerated in human nature that, according to Catholic doctrine, a man’s will is not directly and immediately accessible to the action of a foreign agent, be it another man or even an angel. God alone can act directly upon man’s soul.

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This is what St. Thomas explains once again, with his customary clarity, on answering negatively the question of whether the angels could move the human will: “The will can be changed in two ways. First, from within; in which way, since the movement of the will is nothing but the inclination of the will to the thing willed, God alone can thus change the will, because He gives the power of such an inclination to the intellectual nature. For as the natural inclination is from God alone Who gives the nature, so the inclination of the will is from God alone, Who causes the will. Secondly, the will is moved from without. As regards an angel, this can be only in one way--by the good apprehended by the intellect. Hence in as far as anyone may be the cause why anything be apprehended as an appetible good, so far does he move the will. In this way also God alone can move the will efficaciously; but an angel and man move the will by way of persuasion, as above explained (106, 2). In addition to this mode the human will can be moved from without in another way; namely, by the passion residing in the sensitive appetite: thus by concupiscence or anger the will is inclined to will something. In this manner the angels, as being able to rouse these passions, can move the will, not however by necessity, for the will ever remains free to consent to, or to resist, the passion” (Summa Theologica, I, q.

111, a. 2).

Therefore, it is impossible for anyone to exercise an irresistible action upon anyone else to change his thought or behavior against his will.

10. “Brainwashing,” a media slogan no high-level scientist takes seriously Researching in their own fields, modern psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologists of worldwide renown have attained this same conclusion, so limpid from the standpoint of Catholic doctrine and healthy philosophy.

Initially employed by news reporters in a uninformed and sensationalist fashion, the expression, “brainwashing” became generalized to the point someone even branded commercial advertising, learning processes in schools and worker improvement courses in corporate ambiences as “brainwashing,” aptly notes the said monograph of the American TFP Study commission, “‘Brainwashing’ – a Myth at the Service of a New Therapeutic Inquisition,” based on 38 specialists of worldwide renown in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, sociology and other social sciences.

For example, social psychologist Trudy Solomon, of the National Science Foundation, shows the “brainwashing” has been abused “para designar praticamente qualquer forma de influência humana” (Trudy Solomon, Programming and Deprogramming the Moonies: Social Psychology Applied, in David G. Bromley and James T. Richardson [ed.], The Brainwashing / Deprogramming Controversy, The Edwin Mellen Press, New York-Toronto, 1983, p. 166).

According to the same specialist, “brainwashing era vista como um dispositivo todo-poderoso, um método irresistível e mágico para obter o controle total da mente humana.... Na realidade, o intenso uso e o abuso do conceito praticamente o esvaziaram de qualquer valor” (op. cit., ib.).

Always according to the American TFP study, psychiatrists Lawrence E. Hinkle Jr. and Harold G. Wolff, consultants to the U.S. Department of Defense, played an important role in undoing the myth.

In 1956 they wrote an important report on methods of interrogation and indoctrination employed by the political police in communist countries. In the strictest scientific rigor, they concluded that there was nothing new or mysterious about the communists’ “brainwashing,” that it was not irresistible nor had any scientific foundation. Furthermore, it was little effective both regarding the number of victims it modified and the duration of its effects on the same victims. In

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short, it was nothing but the application, in a perhaps more refined, and certainly more brutal way, of current police methods elaborated empirically.

These conclusions demythified the version, then very current among the public at large, that “brainwashing” was an infallible method to produce “zombies” by turning rational beings into robots incapable of thinking.

Soon after Hinkle and Wolff, two other American scientists, psychiatrist Dr. Edgard Schein and social scientist Albert D. Biderman, a consultant to the U.S. Air Force – each researching for himself – attained analogous conclusions.

Dr. Thomas Szaz, of New York University Upstate Medical Center, author of many books and leader of a psychiatric current, is incise and ironic in his statements.

“Que é ‘brainwashing’? Existem, como o termo sugere, dois tipos de cérebros, os lavados e os não lavados? Como saber qual é um e qual é o outro? De fato, é muito simples.

“Como muitos outros termos dramáticos, ‘lavagem de cérebro’ é uma metáfora. Uma pessoa não pode lavar o cérebro de outra por meio da coertion ou da conversa, do mesmo modo que não pode fazer alguém sangrar com uma observation cortante. Se não existe a brainwashing, o que quer dizer a metáfora? Serve para designar a mais universal das experiências e dos atos humanos, a saber, a influência de uma pessoa sobre a outra. Contudo, não chamamos brainwashing a todos os tipos de influência pessoal ou psicológica. Reservamos o termo para as influências que desaprovamos” (RICHARD E. VATZ & LEE S. WEINBERGER [ed.], Thomas Szasz primary values and major contentions, Prometheus Books, New York, 1983, p. 135).

British psychiatrist James A. C. Brown, ex-director of London’s Institute for Social Psychiatry, is the author of a prestigious study on modern persuasion techniques, in which he studies “brainwashing” in depth, comparing it with the said techniques (Techniques of Persuasion – From Propaganda to Brainwashing, Penguin Books, Middlesex, England, 1979). He is also categorical in his affirmations: “A noção de que a percepção subliminar, a brainwashing ou qualquer outro artifício possa produzir na mente humana e de modo permanente, uma idéia completamente estranha a esta, e assim influenciar o comportamento, deve ser repelida como absurda” (op. cit., p. 221).

“Toda a falácia sobre a brainwashing (se por isto se entende que uma ideologia possa ser implantada de modo permanente na mente de uma pessoa, independentemente de suas crenças primitivas e das circunstâncias exteriores) é uma notion estranha, implícita no livro de Sargant, ‘Battle for the Mind’, de que uma idéia é uma ‘coisa’ localizada no cérebro, que pode ser implantada ou retirada à vontade” (op. cit., p. 253).

“A violência direta ou a ameaça de violência podem produzir a submissão à vontade de outro indivíduo ou grupo; mas os pensamentos são criados e modificados sobretudo pela palavra, falada ou escrita. Assim, embora na chamada ‘brainwashing’ as palavras possam ser complementadas por um tratamento físico constrangedor, e na publicidade comercial por música ou imagens agradáveis, é evidente que mesmo nesses casos as armas essenciais são verbais, ou, de qualquer modo, simbólicas, e os resultados procurados são de ordem psicológica. De maneira geral, e com poucas exceções, transformações psicológicas exigem técnicas psicológicas, e é principalmente com essas influências, antes que com a obediência externa acarretada pelo emprego exclusivo da força, que nos preocuparemos neste livro” (op. cit., p. 9).

Indeed, since man is a rational creature, it is impossible to change his convictions without addressing his intelligence. This is what C. A. Mace says in the

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preface to Dr. Brown’s above-mentioned book: “O homem tem uma capacidade para raciocinar e ser influenciado pela razão, que um tigre faminto, for example, não possui. É interessante e significativo o fato de que os propagandistas religiosos e políticos, bem como os agentes de publicidade, se esforcem tanto para conceber argumentos (capciosos) dirigidos à razão do homem. Estes argumentos constituem um testemunho involuntário da racionalidade do homem” (op. cit., p.

7).

Now then, anyone who claims that it is possible, without any rational argumentation, to “remodelar coercitivamente a visão política de um indivíduo a fim de que abandone suas crenças anteriores”, e levá-lo a “aceitar como verdadeiro o que ele previamene aceitava como falso e a considerar falso o que antes via como verdadeiro”, which, according to American social scientist Albert Somit, is the goal of “brainwashing,” is denying man’s rationality (cf. ALBERT SOMIT, entry Brainwashing, in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, The McMillan Co. & The Freee Press, 1968, vol. 2,p. 138).

11. The “brainwashing” theory, a threat to the legal system In the mid-70s, a famous case of abduction in the United States brought the “brainwashing” issue into the civil courts and the media, causing a polemic among specialists.

In 1974, Patricia Hearst, a young heiress to a powerful newspaper network was abducted by a terrorist group. Having adhered to their captors’ ideology, she became a dangerous urban guerrilla fighter and even participated in armed attacks.

Arrested by the police, she was judged in the beginning of 1976.

Her defense, supported by the newspaper chain of the Hearst Family, tried to exploit the “brainwashing” thesis as much as possible. Based on psychiatrists hired by the young lady’s family, her defense attorney, F. Lee Bailey, argued that she had acted unconsciously, as her brain had been “washed,” so she should not be convicted.

As a matter of fact, the whole legal system was at stake behind that judgment, as rightfully argued Sanford Kadish, director of the Law School of Berkeley University in statements to Newsweek magazine (“What is brainwashing?,” 3-1-76, p.

31): “[This hypothesis] abre as portas para abusos e ameaça os fundamentos do Direito, na medida em que este se baseia no livre arbítrio e na responsabilidade”.

Dr. Walter Reich, professor of psychiatry, director of the Psychiatric Program for Education and Training in Washington’s prestigious National Institute of Mental Health, and director of the Program for Medical and Biological Sciences at the Washington School of Psychiatrics, warned of the danger of psychiatrists presenting themselves as “experts” on “brainwashing” in the course of legal suits, as there are no scientific studies and proven methods to enable such clinical tests. Regarding this intervention into such a controversial area, Dr. Reich warned: “Duas importantes instituições estão ameaçadas: o Direito, que terá de rever seus fundamentos filosóficos, e a Psiquiatria forense, que poderá perder a credibilidade tão penosamente conquistada.... O direito criminal se baseia no pressuposto da responsabilidade pessoal de cada um sobre seu comportamento; e isto, por sua vez, se baseia na presuntion do livre arbítrio.... A idéia de que os seres humanos têm uma vontade que governa livremente seu comportamento, parece ser essencial para o funcionamento do Direito criminal. Sem este conceito seria impossível sustentar a responsabilidade pessoal e, portanto, também a sociedade. Se o livre arbítrio fosse um mito, então aquilo que sustenta e protege a sociedade seria um mito” (Walter Reich, “Brainwashing, Psychiatry, and the Law” in Psychiatry, vol. 39, November 1976, no. 4, pp. 400-403).

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This note by the well-known psychiatrist had broad repercussions; it is often quoted by authors dealing with “brainwashing”, whether from the juridical, sociological or psychological standpoint.

Common sense prevailed in the case of Patricia Hearst, and the jury sentenced her to seven years in prison.

12. “Manipulation of the subconscious,” another concept empty of scientific meaning If “brainwashing” is nonexistent from the standpoint of rigorous scientific scrutiny, could one speak perhaps of a more underhanded “mind control” technique which, falling short of the extreme brutality that characterizes the former, would inhibit the exercise of man’s free-will so as to dominate a person’s mind by the action of external agents?

A. A concept intimately connected to that of “brainwashing” In Warriors of the Virgin, Mr. JAP states that, “though manipulated and in an age when I was not responsible for my actions, I joined [TFP] because I wanted to join” (WV p. 200).

In passing, let us say that this statement is particularly appalling in Brazil, where teenagers usually stand out for their precociousness.

“I was not responsible for my actions:” this general and unqualified statement is tantamount to saying that his irresponsibility was complete, it encompassed all his actions.

Clearly, at 15 – age in which Mr. JAP joined TFP – an adolescent does not have the full responsibility of a mature man. But he can already have, over many things, a defined and undisputable responsibility of his own. 26 Such as to join – supposing his parents’ consent -- a society with ideological ends such as TFP. By the way, once having attained the not-so-distant threshold between 17 and 18 years of age, the young man can already vote and freely join political parties, thus participating in public life. Furthermore, he can be emancipated by his parents, thus acquiring legal majority with its respective rights.

The Church, albeit so zealous in having parental authority respected, expressly recognizes the moral responsibility of minors.

Indeed, the Code of Canon Law in force says: “Canon 98, § 2. A minor person, in the exercise of his rights, remains dependent on the power of his parents or tutors, except where the minors are exempted from their powers by divine law or by canon law.”

Fr. Jiménez Urresti, dean of the School of Canon Law of the celebrated Pontifical University of Salamanca, writes: “As far as pre-canonical or divine law rights are concerned, that is, the right to follow the dictates of his own conscience, the minor does not depend on his parents or tutors; and the Code [of Canon Law] sets forth this right a few times, establishing it, for example, as it both requires and admits the age of sixteen to enter a novitiate (c. 643, § 1, 1o.); seven years to receive the baptism on his own decision (c. 868, combined with cc. 865-866), and even less than seven years to receive Communion if prepared (cc. 913-914).

“As far as canonical rights are concerned, the Code also exempts minors from patria potestas or tutorship in some cases; for example, seven years are required and sufficient to acquire a quasi-domicile of his own, and if he is emancipated, also a domicile (c. 105, § 1); fourteen years to choose the rite in which to be baptized (c. 111, § 2) and to return to his previous Latin rite (c. 112, § 1, 3º); sixteen years to be a godfather (c. 874, § 1 2º, e c. 893 § 1)” (Teodoro I. Jimenez Urresti, commentary on canon 98, in Lamberto Echeverria [dir.], Código de Derecho Canónico – Edición bilingüe comentada, BAC, Madrid, 3rd ed., 1983).

In the same sense, the theologian and canonist, Fr. Jesus Hortal SJ comments: “By divine right, minors are not subjected to patria potestas in that which has to do directly with their salvation” (Fr. Jesus Hortal, commentary on canon 98, in Código de Direito Canônico, official translation by CNBB, Edições Loyola, São Paulo, 1983).

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All this shows to what point Mr. JAP is mistaken when he claims to be a typical Brazilian adolescent or young man.

He says he was “manipulated.” Manipulated in what? How? By whom?

The obvious insinuation here is that TFP carried out an ominous operation in his soul by resorting to fraudulent and Macchiavelian means, something like “brainwashing.”

This impression becomes clearer in another text by Mr. JAP, not taken from his book but from his June 30 testimony to OESP: “My adhesion to TFP demanded – like most of its members – a long process.

From the first approach on the street, school or church, we were subjected to a scientific treatment....

“I allowed myself to be manipulated, many times consciously, other times not.”

On August 13, on announcing the launching of Warriors of the Virgin in São Paulo, the newspaper OESP is even more explicit: “In the work, Pedriali describes, from the allurement techniques to which he was subjected all the way to the conflicts he had to overcome to leave the organization, with his gradual reintegration into society. He describes in detail, for example, the scientific application of a method to allure adolescents, the manipulation of the subconscious, constant monitoring and shock treatments.”

It is curious that the OESP journalist employs the expression, “manipulation of the subconscious” rather than “mind manipulation,” usual among specialists.

Is it a mere coincidence?

The fact is that, if it is to have any sense at all, the expression “manipulation of the subconscious” is closely related with “brainwashing.” And, as we will see, it is just as inconsistent and empty.

The wearing out of the expression, “brainwashing,” is precisely what gave rise to more or less equivalent, vague or ill-defined expressions such as “mind manipulation,” “mind control,” “thought reform,” “coercive persuasion” etc.

All of them suggest that it is possible, with much less radical means than those employed in the much ballyhooed “brainwashing” (which is believed to include imprisonment, beatings, physical and moral torture, drug administration etc.) to attain the same alleged result, that is, the rape and confiscation of man’s mind and will.

B. Manipulation: a word that means everything and nothing What does “manipulation” mean precisely?

According to current dictionaries of the Portuguese language, it means, among other things, to prepare with one’s hand, to shape something with one’s hand. But they do not mention necessarily pejorative applications. The Dictionnaire du Français Contemporain (Larousse, Paris, 1966), includes pejorative senses: to transform through suspect operations (for example, to manipulate statistics) and to carry out maneuvers to deceive or defraud (for example, electoral manipulations).

In these senses the word has already entered current Portuguese. For example, one says that a newspaper manipulates the news before presenting it to the public. In other words, it “arranges” the data in such a way that the news comes out according to the paper’s ideological premises or political line. A government is accused of manipulating inflation data; commercial advertising of manipulating consumers by creating artificial needs or pushing second class products on them as being the best etc.

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Another modern French dictionary, the Petit Robert (Paul Robert, Dictionnaire Alphabétique Analogique de la Langue Française, Société du Nouveau Littré, Paris, 1979) already records in manipulation the meaning of “hidden domination [emprise] exerted upon a group (or individual.”

It is clearly in this sense that OESP and its writer, Mr. JAP employ it in relation to TFP. Thus, for a while now the word “manipulation” has been slowly taking on a “talismanic” meaning (cf. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Inadvertent Ideological Transshipment and Dialogue, Editora Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 1974, 5ª ed., pp. 49 a 59). And it has increasingly acquired a broader and less defined meaning, imparted above all by clever ways to employ it. We could say this word has been more and more “manipulated” in its meaning.

It can mean everything and nothing at the same time. When employed to create suspense and mystery, it is turned into a terrible ‘semantic weapon.’ It can defame and cast suspicion on any person or group it is used against, like an obvious accusation that dispenses any proofs.

What do you need proofs for? – Just as it happens with other words of “talismanic” effect, it suffices to say that such and such attitude is manipulating for many people – based only on non-explicit sensations they do not know how or where they got them from, and impressed by the emotional charge that accompanies the word – to judge that the accusation in fact has been demonstrated without the need for proofs.

What is often implied in the utilization of the talismanic word is that manipulation involves a kind of evil influence and coercion over people. Harmful because hidden and unnoticed, it aims merely at serving some ulterior interest of the manipulator. And coercive because it subjugates the will of its victims, who most of the time lack the resources to defend themselves against such a vile form of influence.

In other words, manipulation would be a kind of “mental coercion” very similar to “brainwashing.”

It remains disconcerting, incidentally, that certain media harp so much about manipulation in this era of tyrannical domination by television. Network influence penetrates freely in all homes and leads children and adults, sometimes entire nations, without their clearly perceiving it (but not without their consent, at least remote, as they voluntarily expose themselves to that influence) to radically alter one custom or the other and even their own psychology. In many cases, this dependence on television is so great that its effect has been compared to a drug (cf. Marie Winn, The Plug-in-Drug, Bantam Books, New York, 2nd printing, 1978, 258 pp.). Note that all that happens without a global and effective protest from the vast majority of authorities. What logic is there, therefore, to fearing so much manipulation and manipulators?

C. It is an error to see man as a merely passive receiver of influences in his ambience Just as the idea of “brainwashing” starts out from a false premise – a denial of the natural and inalienable freedom of man’s intelligence and will – so also those who employ related expressions such as “mind manipulation,” “mind control,” “coercive persuasion” etc. start out from a similar error.

Indeed, they deny something obvious as such: the fact that in relation to his ambience, every person is in a cognoscitive and volitive process of interaction.

Everyone influences everyone. But everyone has the capability, if he wishes, to reject the actions that he receives. And therefore one cannot imagine, as it were, a one-

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way, mechanical and irresistible influence as if man could be durably reduced to a mere receiver of information, influences and pressures.

This is what Trudy Solomon, the above-quoted social psychologist from Washington’s National Science Foundation, explains. After noting that concepts such as “mind control”, “thought reform,” “coercive persuasion” etc. are nothing but reincarnations of discredited “brainwashing,” she shows that practically every form of human influence can be covered by those labels: “Pouco depois de sua introdution – diz ela – o conceito de brainwashing era aplicado a uma variedade de contextos, incluindo técnicas de doutrination... e a fenômenos do passado como a Inquisition e certos processos de bruxaria. Por causa das conotações predominantemente más e negativas que rapidamente ficaram associadas com a expressão brainwashing, foram inventados vários derivados semânticos mais neutros, como controle da mente, coertion mental, reforma do pensamento, persuasão coercitiva e menticídio. É nestas últimas encarnações que o conceito de brainwashing tem sido usado ao longo dos anos, para designar praticamente toda forma de influência humana, inclusive o hipnotismo, a psicoterapia, os meios de comunication de massa, a propaganda, a education, a socialization [isto é, a integration das pessoas na sociedade], a education das crianças, as mudanças de comportamento e uma miríade de formas conexas de técnicas de mudança de atitude e de comportamento” (Trudy Solomon, Programming and Deprogramming the Moonies: Social Psychology Applied, in David G. Bromley and James T. Richardson, The Brainwashing / Deprogramming Controversy: Sociological, Psychological, Legal and Historical Perspectives, The Edwin Mellen Press, New Tork-Toronto, 1983, pp. 165166).

After mentioning the role of Kurt Lewin in the theorization of human behavior under social influence and the interaction between the person and the influence of his social ambience, the psychologist states that “do ponto de vista cognoscitivo, o indivíduo submetido a técnicas de influência social dentro do contexto de um grupo é visto como sendo um organismo ativo, continuamente empenhado em estruturar e avaliar as informações que recebe” (Trudy Solomon, op. cit., p. 172).

Therefore, the much-trumpeted and exploited idea that an individual passively suffers the influence of a social group without knowing it and without being able to appreciate the information he receives is totally devoid of foundation. *** A question still remains: why did Mr. JAP base his whole libel against TFP on an accusation so highly discredit in scientific circles – though still capable of making an impression on the poorly informed public – such as “brainwashing” or “mind manipulation”?

The answer is presumably that having left this Society, he stopped reading its publications with the necessary attention. So he failed to see the report printed in Catolicismo last January. Or perhaps he learned of it and found it more prudent not to make the accusation head-on by employing the discredited expression, but rather do it in the indirect and underhanded fashion commented on earlier.

13. One more laborious attempt at a scientific explanation: the alleged TFP initiatory process is said to take place through manipulation by “social interaction” or “group interaction” As we have seen in Chap. II, the broad ensemble of accusations Mr. JAP makes against the TFP can be summarized in one phrase: TFP is an initiatory cult that causes harmful effects on its adepts through “brainwashing.”

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All the other accusations are structured around this central accusation like vertebrae around a person’s spine.

Now then, the concept of “brainwashing” is of primordial importance to this central accusation. Without that mysterious and irresistible process to change someone’s conviction from the outside in, the very axis of the libel crumbles.

Thus, it would be of the essence for Mr. JAP, so earnestly committed to demolishing TFP, to be clear, precise and unmistakable regarding the nature of that mysterious process.

But as the reader may have noted, the opposite is precisely what happens. A whole argumentation was necessary to reach the conclusion which Mr. JAP had in mind when writing his book -- that it really had been "brainwashing" or some substitute, an undefined "manipulation of the subconscious.”

Indeed, he carefully avoids using these expressions, employed only by some warm but incautious advocates of his.

Since Warriors of the Virgin, if not true, is at least a well-written book -- Mr. JAP took no less than one year and four months to write it (cf. Jornal do Brasil, 7-1885) – it would be unfair to blame the vagueness of his accusation on the ineptness of the young author, whose talent so enthused readers like his fiery apologist, Prof.

Roque Spencer Maciel de Barros (cf. O Estado de S. Paulo, 10-29-85).

So if it was not due to ineptness, the ambiguity in the accusation was intended. And in that case, it was well attained.

What was the reason for that?

We have already referred here, as a possible explanation, to the wearing out of the “brainwashing” myth and its ill-fated re-launching under the label of “mind manipulation.”

At any rate, Mr. JAP’s systematic omission of the term "brainwashing" indicates that he fears that such an accusation would be attributed to him. And this fear certainly led him to figure out other explanations if he were asked about the matter. After all, as his book also proves, he lacks no agility or dexterity.

What could be that possible explanation? This is question is interesting because we want to clarify until the end all the slanders and dispel all the dark clouds Mr. JAP places before the reader's eyes.

But, as we scrutinize Mr. JAP's text, so many hypotheses come up, all of them only remotely possible, that one’s mind is lost in conjectures, worth as much or as little as a few others. As a result, all we can do is wait and see what Mr. JAP has to say about this.

Just look at these two equivalent conjectures: 1. On describing TFP’s supposed initiatory process, Mr. JAP would answer he wanted only to announce his finding and make it public, but not explain it.

If we admit that for the sake of argument, what degree of likelihood does his narration have, which becomes even weaker and awkward without this explanation?

And how can such a hollow accusation have been met with sensationalist support from a newspaper that prides itself on its circumspection, such as OESP? 2. One can also suppose that Mr. JAP will make a public statement explaining that the initiatory process of which he claims to be a victim consists, at least in part (if so, where is the ‘other part’?) in manipulating the so-called phenomena of “social interaction” or “group interaction” largely studied in sociology and social psychology.

In other words, it consists of the mutual stimulation of persons forming a social group, with the consequent mutual modification of individual behavior inside the group and by its action.

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This phenomenon would thus offer a scientific explanation for something which Mr. JAP attempts to dramatize and show as mysterious, and which in fact is the most banal of social phenomena: people influence one another from cradle to their last breath (for example, a dying person accepts the suggestion of a relative to go to confession, or only to take another injection). Persons in a group are influenced not only by individual members but by the ensemble, the group.

A phenomenon derived from, and connected to this is the particular phenomenon of conformism whereby someone abandons his own beliefs and behavior to adopt those of the group as a result of the latter’s real or imaginary pressure.

If one admits that this is the scientific explanation Mr. JAP can offer to what happens in TFP, one must note that conformism is not an inevitable phenomenon, as American psychologist Dr. Charles A. Kiesler makes clear: “Todos pertencemos a grupos de pessoas. Além disso, tais grupos influem em nós. Nosso comportamento e nossa atitude se modificam à medida que interagimos com os outros. Um grupo deseja que o indivíduo que dele participa atue como os outros e acredite no que os outros acreditam. Por isso, o resultado final da influência do grupo é que nossas crenças e nossas ações serão mais semelhantes às de outras pessoas do grupo. Às vezes, um membro de nosso grupo terá mais influência em nós do que outros.... Se cada membro do grupo influi nos outros e é influenciado por eles, os participantes se tornam cada vez mais semelhantes entre si quanto à atitude e quanto à action. Portanto, em muitos grupos, cada participante muda suas atitudes e ações a fim de que estas sejam mais semelhantes às dos outros, e, no conjunto, o grupo se torne mais uniforme em comportamento e crença.

“Evidentemente, isso não ocorrerá com todas as pessoas. Se você participa apenas nominalmente de um grupo, os seus membros podem não exercer qualquer influência sobre você. Ou, se você participa de um grupo apenas porque isso é necessário (for example, se os seus pais insistem para que você entre num clube de que não gosta) você pode resistir a todas as tentativas de influência. Apenas descrevemos o que pode acontecer como consequencia de participation num grupo” (Charles Adolphus Kiesler & Sarah B. Kiesler, Conformismo, Editora Edgard Blücher/EDUSP, São Paulo, 1973, pp. 2-3).

Further on, Dr. Kiesler establishes a distinction between two types of conformism, that of a “skeptical obedient” and of a “true believer”: “Esses dois tipos de conformismo foram denominados, pelos psicólogos sociais, obediência e aceitation íntima. A obediência refere-se ao comportamento explícito que se torna mais semelhante ao comportamento que o grupo deseja que seus membros apresentem. O termo refere-se às ações explícitas, independentemente das convicções íntimas do ator. Quando falamos de ‘apenas obediência’, queremos dizer que a pessoa se comporta como o grupo deseja que o faça, mas, na realidade, não acredita naquilo que está fazendo. Vale dizer, acompanha o grupo, sem que intimamente concorde com este. A aceitation íntima refere-se a uma mudança de atitude ou crença, e na diretion das atitudes e crenças do grupo. Nesse caso, a pessoa pode, não apenas agir de acordo com os desejos do grupo, mas também mudar suas opiniões, de forma que passe a acreditar naquilo em que o grupo acredita. Este termo tem seu paralelo na expressão ‘mudança de atitude’ usada em estudos de comunicações persuasivas” (idem, pp. 3 a 6).

As can be seen, this process, which is so clearly possible to resist, is not identified with the irresistible action that Mr. JAP claims to have suffered in TFP. And thus this laborious hypothesis also crumbles.

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Chapter V – Forced analogies between events in TFP and “classical” methods of “brainwashing” To give some substance to the "brainwashing" accusation against the civic, philosophical or religious movements they combat, their opponents try to make analogies between what goes on within these groups and descriptions or interpretations of “classic” authors on "brainwashing". For this end, they try to point out similar elements between the two processes, such as isolation, information control, humiliation, poor diet, sleep privation, continuous indoctrination, selfaccusation in public etc..

Partisans of the “brainwashing” theory manipulate such analogies and gradually pile on more subtle “probatory” elements to add acceptability to the idea that any alleged similarity in this matter is itself proof of the existence of the famous “brainwashing”.

The above cited monograph by the American TFP on “brainwashing” (cf.

Catolicismo, no 409, January 1985) expounds this mechanism in detail.

This is how social scientists Richardson and Kilbourne summarize this artificial construction, which they go on to critique: “A conversão a tais grupos também é conceituada essencialmente em termos de um modelo de resocialization em três etapas. A primeira etapa consiste no que temos chamado de controle do estímulo e no típico processo do despojamento. Supostamente, os indivíduos que são atraídos ao grupo recebem intensa atention personalizada, são submetidos a pressões sociais extremas, bombardeados com rituais e atividades, privados do sono e da alimentation, e são sistematicamente induzidos a estados alterados de consciência.

Esta primeira etapa é calculada para ‘amaciá-los’ e fazer com que o neófito seja mais receptivo às idéias e ideologias, muitas vezes estranhas, próprias da ‘seita’. Na segunda etapa, de controle da reation (isto é, treinamento e identification), o neófito é submetido a uma ‘maratona de conferências e a intensas atividades de piedade ou confessionais, calculadas para manter e fortalecer a receptividade do neófito’ (Clark et al., 1981, 14). O neófito é induzido constantemente a adotar e a ensaiar as idéias, práticas e comportamentos aprovados pela seita. Na terceira etapa, de controle normativo e renascimento do novo eu, ‘uma segunda personality artificial – a personality da seita – começa pouco a pouco a adquirir uma certa autonomia, à medida em que luta com a antiga personality para tomar position preponderante na consciência’ (Clark et al., 1981, 17)” (Richardson & Kilbourne, Classical and Contemporary Applications of Brainwashing Models: A Comparison and Critique, in Bromley & Richardson, op. cit., p. 37).

The two specialists very appropriately comment on this conception: “A personality do indivíduo é vista, por aqueles que adotam uma perspectiva de reforma de pensamento ou brainwashing, como se fosse determinada por poderosas forças instintivas, biológicas, culturais e sociais.

Os indivíduos são simplesmente receptores passivos de suas personalitys (ou seja, esta é algo que lhes ocorre ou que lhes é dado) desde a mais tenra infância até a idade madura.

“A suposition meta-teórica da auto-transformation é também evidente em cada um dos quatro modelos de brainwashing [Sargant, Merloo, Lifton e Shein]. Isto é, o eu da pessoa pode ser transformado em novas formas do eu, como os bichos-da-seda se transformam em borboletas. Esta suposition está na essência de todos os modelos de brainwashing” (Richardson & Kilbourne, art. cit., in Bromley & Richardson, op. cit., pp. 34-35).

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Now then, Mr. JAP’s whole narration seeks to “lay out” the episodes of his autobiographical novel so as to resemble descriptions of the alleged “brainwashing” or “mind manipulation.”

The next few chapters will deal with the imaginary ambience of terror allegedly created in TFP, the so-called “allurement” techniques and the requirement of chastity for the entity’s members and volunteers. For ease of exposition we will analyze "similarities" with the "brainwashing" and "mind manipulation" process suggested by Mr. JAP, to show at once how this absurd accusation against TFP lacks any real foundation.

1. Are the seats’ ambiences scientifically planned to act upon the subconscious of those who frequent them?

According to Mr. JAP, the whole atmosphere of the seats and the whole relationship among those who attend them tends to influence more or less inadvertently the young man being ‘initiated’ in order to anchor him in the entity and change his old tastes and preferences. For this end, TFP has thoroughly planned the decoration of its seats, the songs played in them, the various modalities of personal treatment etc. (cf. WV pp. 48 and 74). In the entity’s ambiances, everything converges for that end without being explicitly known to the young man being ‘initiated’.

Indeed, TFP does strive to make the decoration, environment and human relationships in its seats in compliance with the principles and spirit that animates the association, as well as with the norms of good taste and good upbringing, and more particularly with the teachings and morals of Holy Church. 27 But contrary to Mr. JAP’s claims, in TFP all that is done naturally, without any artificial imposition or scientific planning.

His doctrinal premise appears to be the same as that of rationalists who condemn the subsidiary appeal to people’s senses, a classic pedagogical tool widely used by the Church and educators of all time.

Much of this rationalism is found on the criticism which Protestants -accustomed to a liturgy stripped of elements that speak to the senses – have made to the Catholic Church for the sumptuousness of its religious buildings, the beauty of its statues, the richness of its symbols, the splendor of its vestments and the pomp of its magnificent liturgy.

For people with such a stiff mentality of a rationalist background, the role of sentiment is not to help a person’s intelligence in the process of knowing, nor to stimulate the will in the upright process of sympathies and rejections. According to them, a sentiment is always suspected of serving as an insidious enemy of logical thought and purpose and of a really free act of the will.

That is diametrically opposed to what the Catholic Church has always taught and put into practice.

To give just one short quote, let us see, for example, the comments on this matter by a very well-respected manual currently used: "Experience denies that intellectual life is in inverse ratio to emotional life; instead, both of them develop, grow richer and are mutually attuned... Sentiment directs the course of our cognitive activity: our perceptions, our associations, our ideas about things, our judgments and beliefs; it transforms our certainties into very dear personal convictions; it makes us adhere to rational certainties toward On the influence of the arts and ambiences on the good or bad formation of mentalities, see Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, Part I, Chap. X. 27

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which we once were indifferent or emotionally rejected because, under the influence of a person we like, we end up by studying his proofs, which then convince us by their intrinsic strength” (Fr. Enrique Collin, Manual de Filosofia Tomista, Luis Gili ed., Barcelona, 1950, 2ª ed., tomo I, p. 454).

Consider, by the way, some examples highly distinct from one another: a liturgical function, a military parade, an oratory debate, a minuet.

However different they may be as to their basic purposes, all these various actions have an undeniably lofty goal: to make their audiences feel through words, gestures, uniforms, music, voice intonation, literary forms etc. the profound meaning and high degree of dignity they intrinsically have for what they are.

Hence the fact that the environment in which each of these actions takes place - a church, a parade field, the auditorium of a literary academy, a seventeenth or eighteenth century ballroom – also has a scenario in accordance with its respective end.

Are these institutions thereby carrying out "brainwashing"? Do they manipulate the subconscious of those who attend such functions? Or are they simply acting as civilized institutions?

If having headquarters where decoration, music (which, let us say in passing, is not nearly played as much, as often and as intensely as Mr. JAP insinuates) and courteous treatment somehow symbolize the principles of an entity, its purpose and inherent dignity, does TFP thereby carry out a kind of "brainwashing"? Or does it simply show that it is civilized?

Indeed, isn’t social life in a civilized country marked by the habit of using such resources, even in the private sphere? What does a family do at home, for example, other than making explicit a certain mentality and communicating it to all its members for the good of the family unit? It thus creates - sometimes only instinctively, and very slowly – its own environment.

Can one say, therefore, that in so doing, the Church, the family, the military and many other institutions are "brainwashing" their own members or the public in attendance? Or that they are moved by a whole series of Machiavellian and secret motives which, distorting reality, Mr. JAP (noticing similar practices) attributes to the TFP? But Mr. JAP might object, if this influence of ambiences on a person is inadvertent, it can only be fraudulent.

Undoubtedly, this influence is often implicit; but it is not completely inadvertent, nor is it a fraud.

A person in church, for example, may feel the effect produced on his soul by the sound of the organ or by Gregorian chant, the scent of incense, the penumbra of the environment. He does not even know how to clearly say precisely what effect it causes on him. But this does not mean that he is the victim of a fraudulent action.

Indeed, a person often goes to church precisely because he wants that effect. Because he knows that it will bring him beneficial consequences.

Moreover, the mere act of liking or disliking music, parades or rhetoric contains a selective, conscious and free choice deeply rooted is the individual’s mentality. And he has this mentality partly thanks to congenital factors, and partly thanks to acquired factors. He can modify the congenital factors. As for the acquired ones, he can freely modify, refined or suppress them. Ultimately, the act of liking or not liking results from freedom. The fact that man does not always makes conscious connections between his tastes and ideas does not mean that freedom is absent from his choices.

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Incidentally, if it were necessary to remove everything that inadvertently acts upon man, we would have to suppress civilization.

For example, how many inadvertent effects can the Mona Lisa painting cause on those who look at it? Or a Gothic stained glass? Or the Parthenon?

Mr. JAP appears to see all this as "brainwashing," "mind manipulation" or the like... *** A little-known excerpt by Engels is very opportune to illustrate these considerations. It reveals the prejudice of a Marxist atheist against the liturgical pomp of the Catholic Church. But it also illustrates the mentality of certain people with a rationalist formation who want to see every appeal to sentiment as a dangerous affront to human reason.

This is how Marx’s friend and financier describes his visit to the Cathedral of Xanten, Germany: "The cathedral of Xanten... surrounded by old buildings and convent walls, is separated from all things modern...

"I went into the church; a solemn Mass was being celebrated. The organ music majestically flowed down from the choir like a merry band of bewitching warriors and crossed the resonant nave to get lost in the farthest corners of the church... But as soon as the trumpets herald the miracle of Transubstantiation, when the priest raises the shining monstrance and the consciousness of the whole community is drunk on the wine of recollection, run outside, flee, save your faculty to think outside of that ocean of feeling that submerges the church with its waves" (Telegraph für Deutschland, no. 197, December 1840, MEGA, I, 2, 92, apud Henri Desroche, Socialismes et Sociologie Religieuse, Éditions Cujas, Paris, 1965, pp. 189-190).

If Mr. JAP were to visit the Cathedral of Xanten with the same attitude with which he recalls TFP ambiences, he might not describe it differently. For he describes TFP seats with the same psychological assumptions as Engels.

“Run, flee from TFP”— is the message that his very ‘serene’ book appears to cry out on every page and in every letter...

2. Are TFP members and volunteers obliged to take a distance from family and other ambiences outside the Society?

In order to more easily change the ideas and behavior of young candidates for "initiation," TFP is said to seek to keep them as confined as possible to the ambience of the seats and systematically distance them from family and from ambiences outside the association. This is what Warriors of the Virgin deftly states or implies in several places (pp. 46-48, 54, 75-76, 96-97, 98, 139, 159, 186 and 200).

For starters, it is not true that young men in TFP live confined in its seats and away from the outside environment. Since by its very nature the association works with the general public, a very large majority of its members and volunteers have constant and intense contact with people outside the Society. Furthermore, the public has become used to seeing young TFP volunteers everywhere, always dignified, always cheerful, always so characteristically TFP that Mr. JAP - invariably malevolent sees such uniformity inexplicable without "brainwashing"...

The fact that they have broad and frequent contact with the public does exclude their instinctively taking a distance from certain environments. What are these?

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First of all, hostile environments in which they are subjected to a true psychological guerrilla warfare by in-your-face scorn, mockery or sarcasm, if not with slanderous and untiring libel.

Mr. JAP himself gives examples of such ambiences (WV pp. 15, 19, 90-97) when he refers to the pressures – at times cruel – he had to suffer from classroom colleagues for frequenting TFP seats. 28 “Cet animal est très méchant: quand on l’attaque il se défend” (“This animal is very mean: it defends itself when attacked”) – says a popular song currently quoted by the French (La Menagère, 1868). This is the strange position of certain TFP critics who find it très méchant for its members and volunteers, for the sake of their own dignity, to take a distance from ambiences in which they are disconcertingly reviled.

This is all the more disconcerting as we live in an increasingly permissive society in which even the right of citizenship for homosexuality finds ardent advocates.

Though ambiences that reach this extreme are not rare, they are fortunately not the general rule. Nevertheless, there are other factors that explain why TFP members and volunteers will take a greater or lesser distance from them depending on the circumstances. Not only members and volunteers, but also supporters of the Society29 spread all over Brazil – mostly fathers and mothers who, by an undeniably respectable imperative of their consciences, firmly intend to remain faithful to the practice of the traditional morals of the Church.

Over the last twenty or thirty years, an impressive number of social ambiences have gradually driven away from that practice; in them, topics of conversation, liberties in social relations between sexes, television sets constantly turned on and so often showing immoral scenes, could not fail to have a profound discrepancy with the consciences of non-progressive Catholics.

Rather than adapting as needed to the convictions and moral sensibility of non-progressive Catholics, such ambiences, in their presence, keep exactly the same attitude as if they were absent.

That is tantamount to telling them: "You are a backward bunch of dislikable, narrow-minded people. We will accept you among us only if you consent to trample underfoot the moral principles you profess.”

With that kind of “welcome,” what could non-progressive Catholics do?

- Break with their consciences? – Were they to do so, they would deservedly receive the mute scorn of those to whom they surrendered.

- Protest? – By that they would unleash the irate indignation of the ambiance’s masters, giving rise to arguments and dissension. Paradoxically, the fame of intolerance would befall those whom the despotic modern mentality failed to tolerate.

- Withdraw? – The heralds of modernity would brand them as “weirdoes.”

The end result of this situation is that often times it is better for a nonprogressive Catholic to simply keep his distance.

It would not be too much to recall here the pungent episode, in Venezuela, of a father who, on a television debate, accused his son of avoiding the family home. The son answered that his father had gone so far as to order him to take his meals for ten days next to the dog house as a punishment for frequenting the seat of Associacion Civil Resistencia, a sister organization of the TFPs in that country. At that, the father remained quiet.

29 TFP supporters are persons from both sexes who, solidary with the entity’s thought, goals and methods, habitually lend it their support by helping carry out, with dedication, different tasks to promote the entity and make it known, an indisputably useful help.

Supporters propose to distribute the entity’s bulletins and communiqués to the local press, radio and television and – when the occasion naturally presents itself – to spread TFP principles and ideals among their family, social and professional relations etc. At present, the TFP has supporters in more than one hundred cities in Brazil.

28

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Few people have the courage to write everything we said here in capital letters and with so much frankness and detail.

But, once and for all, it needed to be said. And it has been. *** A few clarifications should be made regarding Mr. JAP’s malicious accusation that TFP obliges people to take a distance from their families, which, he claims, the association necessarily dislikes.

First of all, it is not true that people are obliged to take a distance from their families. A considerable number of members and volunteers live with their families: obviously, those who are married, and also many who are single.

A large majority, however, freely choose to reside at the entity’s seats. Why do they do it? In order to be able to better dedicate themselves to its activities, and also because the company of their brethren in ideal is a factor to mutually increase their fervor.

Does that mean rejecting their family, as Mr. JAP explicitly states (WV, p. 46)?

Absolutely not. There are many circumstances in which a man can leave the company of his own without by any means disowning them.

A young man will opt for a diplomatic career, knowing that he will always live abroad; a merchant will settle in another city in another state or even another country; a sailor from the merchant marine, a professional pilot, a member of the Army, Navy or Air Force will be subjected to continuous displacements imposed by his function. All these people leave their families and no one figures they should be blamed for having an aversion for their families, let alone for the institution of the family as such. As a matter of fact, except for very special cases where their presence at home is indispensable, they act uprightly by following a legitimate aspiration that any man can have for a certain type of honest life albeit it accidentally deprives him of the advantages of family life.

Someone also may happen to leave his family for the sake of a higher ideal.

Such is the case, for example, with an army volunteer who goes to war leaving his parents, wife and children in consternation; a missionary who leaves to faraway regions, a religious man or woman who enters a convent whose Rule usually entails the sacrifice of having contacts very limited contact with family. Are all of them wrong? Are they doing it for an aversion to family? To these questions, common sense can only answer no. They are following a higher vocation for the sake of a higher ideal and without belittling their love for relatives.

That is precisely what happens with a TFP member or volunteer, who feels he has a vocation which, while not the same as the above-described careers or states in life, is nevertheless analogous to both.

Moreover, following a modern tendency, young men and girls often leave the family home, not to marry soon but simply because they like to live by themselves.

This does not necessarily result from a conflict with family or incompatibility with their parents. Now then, if that is so, why cannot TFP members, who commit themselves to such a high ideal, do the same?

It is well to insist: If the general consensus sees that with all naturalness, why look with such a blunt and fanatic hostility the fact that TFP members and volunteers (for a very lofty and pressing need of their country and of Christendom) reside in TFP seats?

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Obviously, TFP members or volunteers maintain full respect and affection for their family, and if they ever need him, he will be the best and most devoted son.

Many parents have actually seen that happen in especially difficult circumstances.

Finally, we should add that minors are admitted into TFP only with written parental consent; and the same is true when they move to the Society’s seats. And they cease to frequent TFP as soon as their permission is revoked. The Society’s directors always welcome parents, especially those of minor children, who seek clarification or information.

A. TFP’s high vocation: to combat revolutionary psychological warfare, the principal tactic of conquest employed by communist imperialism today But why is this alleged calling of TFP such a high vocation?

Let us be absolutely clear in this matter: 1. Experts commonly believe that the onslaught of revolutionary psychological warfare, the main tactic of conquest of modern Communist imperialism, is today a war weapon as genuine as artillery, infantry or aviation, and as disloyal as, and even more dangerous than espionage. 30 Both western and communist experts recognize the existence of revolutionary psychological warfare: Soviet Marshall Nikolay Bulganin states: “Modern warfare is a psychological war, and the Armed Forces should only serve to stop armed attack or eventually to occupy a territory conquered through a psychological action” (apud Hermes de Araújo Oliveira, Guerra revolucionária, Biblioteca do Exército Editora, Rio de Janeiro, 1965, p. 60).

Terence H. Qualter, da Universidade de Waterloo (Iowa), Estados Unidos, observa: “Originariamente, a guerra psicológica era planejada como uma preliminar da ation militar, com o objetivo de desmoralizar os soldados inimigos antes que o ataque fosse lançado, ou como auxiliar da ation militar, apressando e reduzindo os custos da vitória.

Hoje ela se tornou um substituto da ation militar.... Uma derrota na guerra fria poderia ser tão real e tão definitiva quanto uma derrota militar, e, certamente, seria seguida da derrota militar” (Propaganda and Psychological Warfare, Random House, New York, 1965, pp. XII-XIII).

General Humberto B. Martins, Commandant of Portugal’s Military Academy, presents it as follows: “A new, secret weapon has been found and is ably employed by those who intend to attain complete hegemony in Europe and Asia. Lethal techniques based mainly on resources to psychological maneuver the masses are masterly consolidated into systems by converging forces aiming at annihilating the moral, economic and military structure of the nations targeted in each stage” (Preface to the book by Hermes de Araújo Oliveira, Guerra revolucionária, Biblioteca do Exército Editora, Rio de Janeiro, 1965, p. 21).

French specialist Maurice Mégret observed that “from Clausewitz to Lenin, the evolution of techniques and the progress of psychological sciences have conspired to give psychological warfare the quasi magical powers of an ‘art of subversion’ ”(La guerra psicológica, Editorial Paidós, Buenos Aires, 1959, p. 31).

Another well-known French specialist, Roger Mucchieli, adds: “The classical conception saw subversion and psychological warfare as war machine among others during the time of hostilities which ceased as the latter ended. Today’s States, immobilized by that archaic distinction, have not understood that psychological warfare blows away the classical distinction between war and peace. It is a nonconventional warfare alien to the norms of International Law and the known laws of warfare; it is a total war that disconcerts jurists and pursues its goals covered by their codes.....

“Modern warfare is above all psychological and its relation with classical weapons has been inverted.

Today, field combat (guerrilla warfare) has become an auxiliary arm of subversion” (La subversion, Bordas, Paris, 1972, pp. 26-27).

The same Roger Mucchieli explains: “Subversion [as he calls what others designate as psychological warfare] is not agitation, not even political propaganda properly so-called; it is neither an armed conspiracy nor an effort to mobilize the masses. It is a technique to weaken the powers that be and demoralize the citizenry. This technique is founded on knowledge of the laws of psychology and psycho-sociology, as it is aimed at public opinion as well as the government and the armed forces at its disposal. It is an action upon [public] opinion by subtle and convergent means, as we will describe.

“Subversion is, therefore, more insidious than seditious. The ruin of the State (through internal subversion) or the enemy’s defeat (through subversion organized from abroad) are pursued and attained in ways radically different 30

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2. Indeed, as far as this revolutionary psychological warfare is concerned, its success is to conquer part of public opinion for communism, paralyze another segment of opinion by artificially causing it to be completely absorbed with its own private affairs (with the consequent lack of diligence and vigilance for the common good), and by attempting to drown few who resist in a relentless campaign of calumny and discouragement.

Once that ominous result is attained, the country is unable to react to external Soviet aggression and/or to an armed communist socioeconomic revolution.

And the victory of the Soviet offensive entails the destruction of Christian civilization and an atrocious persecution of all those in the Church who do not adhere to progressivism and Liberation Theology, not to mention the loss of national independence to the benefit of Moscow.

3. In this supremely critical juncture, it is understandable for TFP members and volunteers to consider that Brazil finds herself in far greater danger than if some point of her boundaries had been invaded and part of her territory occupied by an external aggressor. Accordingly, it is only natural for them to proudly devote to the peaceful and legal action promoted by the entity, the time and effort that every good Brazilian would not deny his motherland in case of foreign aggression.

4. They are all the more pressed and enthralled as they watch at every moment the rising tide of this psychological warfare against our homeland and Christian civilization and the neglect – if not complicity – of so many prominent figures in high-ranking capitalist circles, parts of the clergy and important university sectors and media facing the onslaught that sweeps the country as a whole.

Is TFP really dreaming? – Who around the world today has not heard of "useful innocents,” “fellow travelers” and so on?

5. Focusing more directly on the religious aspect of the problem, it is understandable that, as Catholics, TFP members and volunteers carry out with religiously-inspired dedication this patriotic action against the greatest enemy of the Church in our times. For they see this real twentieth century crusade as an eminent way to sacralize the temporal order, a task proper to lay Catholics for which Pope Pius XII called them on his famous Allocution to the participants of the Second World Congress for the Apostolate of the Laity, on October 5, 1957: “As relações entre a Igreja e o mundo exigem a intervention dos apóstolos leigos. A ‘consecratio mundi’ [sacralization do mundo] é, no essencial, obra dos próprios leigos, de homens que estão intimamente entremeados à vida econômica e social, que participam do governo e das assembléias legislativas” (Alocution aos participantes do II Congresso Mundial para o Apostolado dos Leigos, Documentos pontifícios, no. 127, Vozes, Petrópolis, 1960, 2ª ed., p. 18) 31.

from revolution (in the sense of popular uprising) and war (in the sense of confrontation between enemy armies and territorial battles). The target State will sink by itself amidst indifference from the ‘silent majority’ (because the latter is a product of subversion); the enemy army will stop combating on its own, because it will be completely demoralized and disorganized by the scorn that surrounds it” (op. cit., p. 7).

Marius Trajano T. Netto, of the Brazilian Army, rightly concludes that “Revolutionary Warfare… is much more a war of souls than one of guns” (“A guerra revolucionária e o misoneísmo,” in Military Review, Portuguese edition, August 1974, p. 53).

31 For its part, the Second Vatican Council says: “Christ's redemptive work, while essentially concerned with the salvation of men, includes also the renewal of the whole temporal order. Hence the mission of the Church is not only to bring the message and grace of Christ to men but also to penetrate and perfect the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel.

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6. Is it not worthy of applause for a large number of young people to save up even the crumbs of their available time, or even more, to devote themselves full time to studying and working to confront, within the boundaries of law and order, the insidious enemy of the nation’s sovereignty, Christian civilization and the Church herself? And that precisely at a time when so many young men waste their time in less noble or even downright reprehensible occupations?

B. TFP’s judgment on the modern family “in genere” Mr. JAP says that TFP passes a severe judgment on modern families.

It is undeniable that we live in a highly paganized world. Since this world is made up of families, we must necessarily recognize that very many of them, in this day and age, have been paganized. And consequently, that they have toward their children a purely materialistic approach, not taking into due account the spiritual formation that must be given to them. Incomprehension goes up a notch regarding the service a family must render Church or country by giving to one or the other the children who feel called to serve them. Due to a lack of faith, such a family would also have difficulty understanding a son who adhered to TFP. It is also beyond doubt that countless families do not see the danger in which Christian civilization finds itself, threatened by the expansion of communism, as they ought to. This can happen out of ideological sympathy – or, even more frequently– for believing that communism is such a remote danger to Brazil that it is a waste of time to worry about it. Naturally, if a young man from one of these families wanted to devote himself to TFP’s anticommunist struggle, they would not be pleased because they lack the premises for it.

Finally, in addition to the sorrow at seeing a prejudice to what they regard as the true interest of their sons, such parents have a cooperative-type conception of the family, one in which each member is obliged to work for the good of all. If a son wants to leave that closed circuit and work for the good of the whole religious or temporal society, they think that he (particularly if a gifted person) is denying the family a help to which it is entitled.

Incidentally, this bad habit is common to many families in times of religious decadence. Last century, for example, it was not uncommon in Europe but also in Brazil, to orient less intelligent or less gifted children to the priesthood or religious life.

And people tried at all costs to retain those most gifted in worldly life, as if they wanted to give God only fruits that will not be sorely missed. Somewhat like the fruits that Cain offered to God, which provoked his anger... (Gn. 4:5).

Unfortunately, on the other hand, today the institution of the family is very far from having always and everywhere that holy stability it often had a few decades ago.

The unbridled immorality of so many media venues (it is impossible not to mention the ravages of TV in households), an increasingly permissive legislation, the introduction of divorce, the free flow of contraceptives, “decriminalized” abortion “In fulfilling this mission of the Church, the Christian laity exercise their apostolate both in the Church and in the world, in both the spiritual and the temporal orders.... In both orders the layman, being simultaneously a believer and a citizen, should be continuously led by the same Christian conscience. ...

“The laity must take up the renewal of the temporal order as their own special obligation. Led by the light of the Gospel and the mind of the Church and motivated by Christian charity, they must act directly and in a definite way in the temporal sphere. As citizens they must cooperate with other citizens with their own particular skill and on their own responsibility. Everywhere and in all things they must seek the justice of God's kingdom. The temporal order must be renewed in such a way that, without detriment to its own proper laws, it may be brought into conformity with the higher principles of the Christian life and adapted to the shifting circumstances of time, place, and peoples” (Apostolicam Actuositatem, nos. 5 and 7).

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spreading more widely around the world, all these factors have systematically eroded the traditional and holy institution of the family. 32 However painful these truths may be, it is imperative for the sake of intellectual honesty to see them as they are: What degree of love will a father or mother willing to kill their unborn child, have for a child who is actually born?

It is sad to say it, but we must recognize that in our day, in a large majority of cases, countless families have a negative influence on their children who wish to live entirely in accordance with the Law of God. That is to say, in one way or another it leads to the transgression of that Law through direct pressure (rather common…) favoring frequentation of near occasions of grave sin, or at least through permissiveness loaded with indulgence or smiling empathy.

This easily gives rise to a situation in which a Catholic young man – still abstracting from the concrete case of TFP –may have to defend himself from negative pressure by family members. It is his right and even duty to do so because “one must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) of course, without prejudice of the love, respect and obedience due to one’s parents within the boundaries of the Law of God. But – someone may ask – is it not absurd to judge so severely such an undetermined but extremely vast number of families?

If today’s world finds itself in the situation in which it is – and no one denies it is being devoured by multiple and ever more serious crises – it is largely due as a reflection of the situation of the institution of the family as we have just described it.

A person who sees the world from the perspective of Our Lady when She appeared at Fatima in 1917 - devoured by multiple crises in a crescendo and heading for a tragic outcome with wars, revolutions and the annihilation of many nations (See below, Chap. 6: 3) all because of an extremely bad moral situation – naturally can only conclude that very many families are not fulfilling their duty today.

This whole overview of the world today - which appears to be completely outside Mr. JAP’s thoughts - is however necessary to destroy the false impression, suggested by Warriors of the Virgin, that TFP is on the war path even against exemplary Christian families. 33 Incidentally, Mr. JAP himself, in the final paragraph on the topic more especially dedicated to the subject, makes clear what he understands by family, as he

Last July 14, Jornal do Brasil published a six-page supplement on “The New Family.” Its introduction reads: “As sociologists, anthropologists and psychoanalysts have said, the Brazilian family has changed. Some signs of that change: the middle class in the great urban centers no longer feels so scandalized with the fact that someone decides to have two women at the same time, maintain four families, become a homosexual, prefer not to live with his loving partner, to live as a single person or as a single mother. Thirty years ago, it would be very different.”

33 At no moment, throughout out this exposition, have we intended to refer to the excellent Pedriali Family, which we know as worthy of respectful sympathy, nor to what Mr. JAP narrates regarding his relations with them while he frequented TFP. Indeed, in this refutation, which the imperative to defend the good name of TFP is already making too long for the average reading time of contemporary men, the need to summarize obliges us to deal only with issues of general interest, leaving aside the casuistry of this or that concrete situation. On the other hand, Mr. JAP himself – always imagining himself to be paradigmatic – deals with this episode much less as an aspect of his biography than with a case typical of TFP relations with families of its members and volunteers.

Now then, this general topic has been the object of systematic exploitation by TFP adversaries. Already during the torpid onslaught of calumnies unleashed during the media storm in Venezuela in 1984, this topic was the object of the most blatant distortions of the truth. Not to speak of similar flare ups in Brazil and in more than one country, which have seen attempts by progressivist clerics to exploit the issue.

So it is well for this topic to be dealt with in its broad aspects, ad perpetuam rei memoriam.

Hence this exposition hovers above concrete cases.

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includes it into a single context with dances, conviviality among young people of the opposite sex, music, cinema etc. He says: “The judgment that tefepistas made of the family sounded as strange to me as many of their opinions regarding manifestations of modern life, dancing, conviviality among young people of the opposite sex, music, cinema, theater, magazines, newspapers and books. Everything, everything – according to them – had been contaminated by the Revolution or simply produced by it” (WV p. 48).

From his standpoint, all this forms a solidary ensemble in complete and unabashed conformity with contemporary customs, since this is the position that he expressly adopts. And he therefore deems TFP thinking on this whole ensemble as unfair. Now then, it is obvious that in the aspects of modern life that he enumerates (of which he inexplicably left out television) there is a lot of immorality (for someone who preserves the notion of what is moral).

C. TFP and the families of its members and volunteers In the concrete case of the families of TFP members and volunteers, is it true, as Mr. JAP claims, that the Society sees them askance and tries to hinder relationships between sons and their families?

Also here, Mr. JAP distorts reality.

Already in his time a considerable number of exemplary families, gladly gave their sons to the TFP and warmly supported their dedication to the entity’s ideals.

Thanks be to God, over the last few years the number of these families has substantially increased.

This is so much so, that in the early 70’s, when the vast and vigorous network of the Society’s supporters began to be formed, the movement started precisely among families of members and volunteers. And although today it has expanded into other circles – including ex-members of the Basic Christian Communities (BBCs) disappointed with the increasingly leftist orientation of the progressivist clergy – it still finds much of its driving force among the families of members and volunteers.

Indeed, in the latest TFP National Supporter Conference held in São Paulo from August 2 to 5, 1985, 274 of its 1,418 registered participants were close relatives (fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons or daughters) of members and volunteers of the entity.

If the TFP systematically obliged its members to break family ties, as Mr. JAP affirms, they would only have met with enmity and hostility from their relatives and the Society could never have formed such a vast and well-deserving network of sympathizers.

Of course, even outside the ranks of TFP supporters there are many families who welcome their children’s participation in the entity. That includes fathers and mothers who support TFP not so much out of ideological sympathy but because they see it as a powerful moral factor to preserve their children at a time when immorality, drugs and crime spread with impunity among young people. These parents fully support their children’s attendance at the Society’s seats. Indeed, 864 documents by fathers and mothers of members or volunteers attest to that fact, praising the formation TFP gives their children and supporting it against media attacks.

D. “FMR”: a derogatory and insulting expression?

What to say of the expression, “FMR” – “fountain of my revolution” – which, Mr. JAP claims, is used in a pejorative and disdainful fashion to designate the families of members and volunteers?

The Revolution, according to the above-cited work, Revolution and CounterRevolution, is a movement that appeared at the end of the Middle Ages from an

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explosion of pride and sensuality that gave rise to the whole process of decadence of Christian civilization. From stage to stage, through the Protestant pseudoReformation, the French Revolution and Communism, this process has reached all the way to our days.

The Revolution as a whole has permeated the most divers ambiences in such a way that practically no field of man’s activity has been spared from its nefarious influence to a greater or lesser extent. This influence is noticeable even inside TFP seats, and in the souls of very many of its best members and volunteers, as the book, Warriors of the Virgin, emphasizes in many instances (pp. 80-81, 110, 159).

Only someone unaware of the important role that cultural osmoses play in history – osmoses which at times influence even die-hard ideological adversaries – could be astonished at that.

For example, throughout the dramatic ideological, political and military struggles between revolutionary France and monarchist Europe (1789-1815), it is notorious that there was ideological permeation from both parties. As a result, after the period of Terror, France gradually evolved to the Republic of the Directory, the Consulate, Napoleon’s crowned dictatorship, and finally the non-dictatorial monarchic regime of the Bourbons; and in parallel, monarchic nations gradually ingested Republican influences which caused, throughout the Continent, an evolution of absolute monarchies toward constitutional monarchies and from the latter toward democratic republics.

Those transformations on both sides would have been impossible without the cultural permeations that often take place in the minds of the most ardent republicans and monarchists, and without their realizing they were inching toward the evil whose advance they intended to curb.

Even the best and most enthusiastic counter-revolutionary families are not exempt from revolutionary influences. On the other hand, families usually exert a very large and profound influence on their children. Hence the custom arose for some young people to refer to their own families as "fountain of my revolution," "FMR" for short. By that they intended to refer to the most sensitive point of revolutionary influence they felt within themselves.

It is well to clarify that this expression appeared 15 years ago more like a joke that at a certain point became habitual among TFP young men. But more than once the TFP board of directors disapproved it and recommended that it not be used to refer to families, as it appeared susceptible of malicious interpretations such as the one by Mr. JAP This is the understanding of parents who look at this matter with impartiality.

E. TFP, a factor of division inside families?

With all this, is the TFP not somehow a factor of division inside families?

No. Precisely the opposite takes place. Undoubtedly, TFP young men defend their internal forum from the revolutionary influence they may suffer from their families, but at the same time they must avoid quarrels and useless arguments. They are not a factor of disunion in their family, except on points indispensable to their own perseverance in good doctrine and good customs. And even in these extreme cases, they always seek to show exemplary respect toward their parents.

Incidentally, it is amazing that someone would be so concerned with the imagined division of families allegedly carried out by TFP. For the sake of argument, let us admit the absurd hypothesis that TFP really divides the families of its members and volunteers.

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How many are those families? A little over one thousand. That is a minuscule number if you consider the millions of families affected by today’s countless factors of division and disintegration and tragically divided as a consequence of those factors.

Immoral television plays an important role among those factors. For example, Globo TV is public and notorious for its immorality. This is precisely the network which in 1978 carried out a noisy and virulent campaign against TFP, accusing it, among other things, of dividing families...

3. Are an iron-clad discipline and ‘shock treatment’ employed to extirpate from TFP members or volunteers all the revolutionary remnants from their past life?

According to Mr. JAP, another component of the alleged “brainwashing” would be TFP’s “rigid discipline” (WV p. 36) which, he claims, coerces people’s legitimate freedoms and breaks their personality.

From the outset, it must be said that TFP’s internal discipline is a very long way from having the rigidity Mr. JAP tries to make believe in his novel-like book.

Catholic doctrine on human freedom teaches that it is not the right or possibility to do everything one’s senses and imagination approve of, but to follow the dictates of reason, enlightened and supported by the faith. 34 This is precisely the opposite of the doctrine of Freud and the psychological and psychiatric schools that came after him.

This is the luminous teaching of Leo XIII, in the Encyclical, Libertas Praestantissimum, June 20, l888: "Liberty, then, as We have said, belongs only to those who have the gift of reason or intelligence.

Considered as to its nature, it is the faculty of choosing means fitted for the end proposed, for he is master of his actions.....

“For, as the possibility of error, and actual error, are defects of the mind and attest its imperfection, so the pursuit of what has a false appearance of good, though a proof of our freedom, just as a disease is a proof of our vitality, implies defect in human liberty. The will also, simply because of its dependence on the reason, no sooner desires anything contrary thereto than it abuses its freedom of choice and corrupts its very essence. Thus it is that the infinitely perfect God, although supremely free, because of the supremacy of His intellect and of His essential goodness, nevertheless cannot choose evil; neither can the angels and saints, who enjoy the beatific vision......

“This subject is often discussed by the Angelic Doctor in his demonstration that the possibility of sinning is not freedom, but slavery. It will suffice to quote his subtle commentary on the words of our Lord: ‘ Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin.’ ‘Everything,’ he says, ‘is that which belongs to it a naturally. When, therefore, it acts through a power outside itself, it does not act of itself, but through another, that is, as a slave. But man is by nature rational. When, therefore, he acts according to reason, he acts of himself and according to his free will; and this is liberty. Whereas, when he sins, he acts in opposition to reason, is moved by another, and is the victim of foreign misapprehensions. Therefore, `Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin.' " (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_20061888_libertas_en.html In this regard, Fr. Victorino Rodríguez y Rodríguez OP, a theologian and philosopher of worldwide renown, comments: “A psychological analysis of liberty.... shows us that it is more than a mere desire to love or hate, much more than merely an attainable desire as someone fancies it.

"Free choice implies deliberation, selection in one’s tastes and desires; it is the fixation of means ordered to an end; it is the ‘electio mediorum servato ordine finis' of which St. Thomas Aquinas speaks (Summa Theologica, I, 62, 8 ad 3).

"A spontaneous search of an elementary good is not an exercise of freedom. Human freedom is more than spiritual spontaneity (Bergson) and, above all, it is more than instinctive spontaneity which causes pleasure (Freud) and which also gives takes place with animals in an environment conducive to life. You can freely opt for such spontaneity, but it is not freedom. Both things are confused, for example, in this passage by Andre Gide: 'We need to have no laws in order to hear the new law. Oh, liberation! Oh, freedom! I'll go all the way where I can attain my desire' (Los nuevos alimentos, Buenos Aires, 1962, p. 117)” (Fr. Victorino Rodriguez OP, Temas-Clave de Humanismo Cristiano [Key Themes of Christian Humanism], Speiro, Madrid, 1984, p. 110).

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Now then, in such conditions, subjection to a discipline aimed at preventing man from placing himself on occasions to be dragged by the irrational and turbulent cry of his instincts is not bondage nor restraint on freedom but rather a powerful protection for it.

Thus, to forbid a young man to smoke cannabis is not to limit his freedom but to guarantee it against the tyranny of vice, toward which a subtle or powerful temptation can assail him from one moment to the next.

And when a man religious obliges himself by vow to obey his superior, he aims to better ensure his own freedom against the assaults of human nature, unbridled as a result of original sin and actual sins and "instrumentalized" by the devil. Such assaults often expose him to the risk of behaving in ways and acquiring habits that his reason and religious principles absolutely condemn. And so, with the vow of obedience, he practices the heroic perfection of Christian freedom.

But - Mr. JAP could reply - the procedures specified in Warriors of the Virgin as symptoms of strict discipline in TFP do not manifest obedience properly speaking but an exaggeration of obedience. 35 We will deal with this below and make it clear that no such exaggeration exists. *** In his autobiographical novel, Mr. JAP particularly dramatizes training exercises carried out in two TFP seats at the São Paulo borough of Itaquera. According to him, the iron-clad discipline imposed, continuous and extenuating activity with sudden and unexpected program changes, so-called ‘paramilitary exercises,’ rough treatment and punishment for the least faults committed had no other end than to break the remaining resistance in TFP militants “toward what was deemed the ideal behavior” (WV p. 146). So the “Itaquera” courses allegedly were “shock treatment” sessions to extirpate revolutionary remnants from the past lives of members and volunteers. From Mr. JAP’s standpoint, this would correspond, as it were, to the final stage of the “brainwashing” process that would end up by shaping them in the typical TFP mould (cf. WV pp. 55 -67, 142-147, 159-160).

Furthermore, strict life rules (“Ordos”) 36 and intense conviviality allegedly ensure “the standard behavior that makes a TFP member distinguishable from afar” (WV p. 146).

What idea of religious obedience does Mr. JAP have and what distinguishes heroic obedience from exaggeration? It is not believable that he will venture into a field he is so unfamiliar with. If he wants to do it, it would be advisable for him to first read a few items of the abundant bibliography on the subject. In order to facilitate his research, here are a few leads: St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Del Precepto y de la Dispensa, in Obras Completas de San Bernardo, BAC, Madrid, 1955, vol. II, pp. 777-823; St. Catherine of Siena, El Diálogo, part V (De la obediencia), in Obras de Santa Catalina de Siena – El Diálogo, BAC, Madrid, 1955, pp. 514-548; St. Francis of Sales, Entretiens Spirituels, deuxième entretien Discours de l'obéissance, and douzième entretien De l'obéissance, in Oeuvres, Gallimard, Paris, 1969, pp. 1011-1019 & 1142-1172; St. Robert Bellarmine, Tractatus de Obedientia, quae caeca nominatur, in Fr. Xavier-Marie Le Bachelet SJ, Auctarium Bellarminianum –Supplément aux Oeuvres du Cardinal Bellarmin, Gabriel Beauchesne Ed., Paris, 1913, pp. 377-385; St. Vincent of Paul, Conferências às Filhas da Caridade, Lisboa, 1960, pp. 43-49, 335-348, 514-525 & 706-714; Fr. Manuel Maria Espinosa Polit SJ, La Obediencia Perfecta – Comentario a la Carta de la Obediencia de San Ignacio de Loiola, Editorial Jus, México, 1961, 2nd ed., 394 pp.; Fr. F. Maucourant, Probación religiosa de la obediencia, Garnier, Paris, 1901, 363 pp.; Dom Columba Marmion OSB, Jesucristo Ideal del Monje, Editorial Difusión, Buenos Aires, 1951, pp. 266-307; Dom Ildefonso Herwegen OSB, Sentido e Espírito da Regra de São Bento, Edições Lumen Christi, Rio de Janeiro, 1953, pp. 108-114, 395-396, 400403.

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In his well known Theology of Christian Perfection, Fr. Antonio Royo Marín emphasizes the importance of a life program even for mere laymen: 36

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As usual, in his autobiographical novel Mr. JAP continues his narration with sagacious omissions and well-calculated distortions to make a disagreeable impression on the reader. He leaves out all explanations that could shed light on the profoundly sensible and reasonable nature of those exercises, and on the other hand he distorts their basic aspects, lowering the level of his description to a mere caricature of reality.

In his view, physical exercises carried out in Itaquera – which, by the way, have not taken place since 1974 – or according to the “Itaquera mindset” (WV p. 160), were nothing but a bunch of aberrations and brutalities fit to break any personality, somewhat like the so-called “brainwashing” to subject it to the arbitrariness of the entity’s directors. Needless to say, all this is seen from the standpoint of Mr. JAP’s interior drama, which matters to him more than the true nature of events and their objective and logical justification.

First of all, one does not understand why he wanted so much to take part in the training exercises carried out in Itaquera (“the so long-awaited Itaquera”, WV p.

142) which he now – seeking to denigrate and defame TFP – describes with colors apt to characterize the process arbitrarily called “brainwashing.”

Naturally, Mr. JAP will say he felt coerced to participate as, according to his present stance, the TFP had “dominated” his mind through a “brainwashing” process. Only now, freed from the Society’s claws, he is able to interpret everything he suffered and denounce it to public opinion.

"Como é sabido, o plano de vida consiste em traçar para si um horário completo e detalhado das ocupações e dos exercícios de piedade que se há de praticar durante o dia, a fim de, uma vez aprovado pelo diretor espiritual, cumpri-lo fielmente.

“A grande utilidade do plano de vida está fora de qualquer discussão, sobretudo para os espíritos caprichosos e inconstantes. Sem ele, perde-se muito tempo, aumenta-se a indecisão, descuidam-se as obrigações, ou se cumprem desordenadamente, e se desfecha na inconstância e na volubidade de caráter. Pelo contrário, submetendonos a um plano sabiamente traçado, não cabe lugar a vacilações nem a perdas de tempo, nada de importante fica sem prever, sobrenaturalizamos as menores ocupações pela obediência ao diretor, e educamos nossa vontade submetendo-a ao dever de cada momento.

“Tal plano de vida é utilíssimo para os leigos, para o Sacerdote secular, e ainda para pessoas que vivem em comunidade.

"Para os leigos – Vivendo, como vivem, no mundo, sem um superior a quem obedecer nem um regulamento a que sujeitar-se, dificilmente poderão evitar os inconvenientes de que acabamos de falar sem um plano de vida aprovado pelo diretor, e ao qual se submetam com a mais exímia pontualidade, ao menos na forma compatível com as mil circunstâncias imprevistas que comporta a vida no mundo.....

“Para obter do plano de vida o máximo rendimento e utilidade, é preciso traçá-lo sabiamente, de acordo com o diretor espiritual.... Em geral, será preciso ter em conta as seguintes normas: "1º) Deve estar, antes de mais nada, perfeitamente acomodado aos deveres do próprio estado, às ocupações habituais, às disposições de espírito, do caráter e do temperamento, às forças do corpo, ao nosso grau atual de perfeition e aos atrativos da graça.

“2º) Será ao mesmo tempo flexível e rígido. Flexível, para não nos sentirmos escravizados por ele, quando a caridade para o próximo ou uma circunstância grave absolutamente imprevista nos obrigue a omitir algum exercício ou a substituí-lo por outro equivalente. Rígido, para não deixar uma válvula de escape para a inconstância e o capricho do momento.

“3º) Deverá abarcar duas partes essenciais: o horário, ou quadro de ocupações desde a manhã até a noite, e a lista das más inclinações a reprimir e dos bons hábitos a fomentar. E tudo isso deve estar perfeitamente controlado pelo exame de consciência diário.....

"O cumprimento do plano de vida será severo e perseverante, se não queremos tirar-lhe quase toda a sua eficácia. Como já dissemos, a menos que a caridade, a impossibilidade material ou uma circunstância grave absolutamente imprevista no-lo impeça, devemos ser inflexíveis em ajustar a ele nossa conduta" (op. cit., BAC, Madrid, 1955, 2ª ed., pp. 741 a 743).

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This argumentation has no value, as it suffers from the defect designated in logic as a “petition of principles” (a reasoning flaw that consists in providing as a probatory argument the same thesis you want to prove).

He includes the “Itaqueras” as part of the “brainwashing” process and “proves” that the persons were not free not to participate in the Itaquera courses because they had been “brainwashed”...

Since Mr. JAP had previous knowledge of what he would find during the two or three day “Itaquera” (cf. WV p. 66): unexpected, prolonged and tiresome activity, a state of continuous spiritual and corporal mobilization; and since he voluntarily subjected himself to it for reasons that were perfectly clear to him at the time, he cannot now allege that it was a “brainwashing” process that broke the remaining resistance in his personality; for according to those who admit the that process’ effectiveness, coercion is the basic element that characterizes “brainwashing.”

The statement that the long “Itaquera journeys” were stages in a process to break resistance in people’s personalities is totally groundless. The goal of those exercises was precisely the opposite, that is, to strengthen soul and body. That being the goal with which TFP promoted them, it is easy to understand the enthusiasm with which members and volunteers participated.

For no other reason, incidentally, do the Armed Forces promote boot camp exercises and the so-called “alertness training,” which are not the same as specific military training.

Nor is there any reason to call those exercises “paramilitary” because they are mostly practiced in the Armed Forces. Our very civilian secondary schools even today teach military-like formation and marching together, if only for the parades of Independence Week. And boy and girl scouts also practice alertness exercises in various degrees, naturally proportional to their physical and mental development, from age 7.

But since such exercises are carried out more characteristically in the Armed Forces, it is in them that we should study their goal and effects.

The theory that such exercises are a factory of madmen or robots should be rejected a priori; for if they were, so would the Armed Forces. That is obviously not true no matter how hard intensely civilian-minded people wish to see defects in the military way of being.

What is the goal of these exercises as far as military preparedness is concerned? They are obviously subordinated to the soldier’s ultimate goal: action in warfare.

One does not need to a war specialist to understand that in war a soldier has to act with discipline, rigorous obedience to the orders received, precise and consistent movements, energy, dexterity and agility facing the unexpected, tenacity in the fight, and capacity for suffering.

None of that is possible without an ably dosed and prolonged training to increase (rather than break) the soldier’s resistance and make him used to confronting tiredness and suffering with a cheerful mind, making his physical and mental reactions more agile, and finally turning him into a tough and agile man in soul and body.

It is an axiom of military formation that you can count on the soldiers’ performance in the battlefield only when they have learned to “bite their teeth” so that, with great effort, they are able to remain in formation during peacetime exercises.

One should add to this physical training a specific moral preparation which is reflected in the psychological domain, instilling into the soldier the conviction that he

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is defending a just cause, developing in him love of country, a profound understanding of his historical destiny, confidence in his leaders, and the feeling of his own value as a combatant.

Thus the soldier will be completely formed to shed his blood, if need be, in defense of his country.

This situation does have analogies with very different ones from the standpoint of their goals.

The Sisters of Charity, who dedicate themselves to care for the sick in hospitals, children in orphanages, the aged in nursing homes, need just as great a strength in body and soul; and in the Novitiates they are prepared accordingly and follow a strict Rule.

In their seminaries, missionaries, who abandon everything to take the Catholic Faith to pagans in the Orient and in Africa, or to Indians in the hinterland of Brazil, are also formed accordingly.

No less detachment and work capacity are required from a simple village parish priest; he bears indescribable tiredness which public opinion is often unaware of.

In light of these considerations, it is easy to understand the position of TFP: with a specific vocation to do lay apostolate, it devotes itself to defend the basic values of Christian civilization. For this end, TFP adopted the method of direct contact with the public, be it in peaceful country towns or in bustling megalopolises.

How can one fail to understand that the formation of a TFP member or volunteer requires this multiform dedication, this preparation for the unexpected, this capacity to face tiredness, this behavioral discipline required by direct contact with pedestrians in the streets and squares of this immense Brazil?

All these reasons were quite clear to Mr. JAP when he decided to subject himself to the Itaquera exercises, "the so long awaited Itaquera" (WV p. 142).

If the light of those reasons went out before his eyes, it was not totally erased from his memory; and he does describe them in his novel-like biography, though in a distorted way (loc. cit.).

But none of that entitles him now to reinterpret, in a false light, the events he saw during the “Itaqueras” by adapting them in the mould of the “brainwashing” science-fiction.

4. Standardization in thought and action to break the tefepistas’ personality?

From what one gathers reading Warriors of the Virgin, TFP obliges its adherents to have uniform ideas and ways of dressing and behaving even in the most common daily tasks to force them to reject their whole past and to break their individual personality (cf. WV pp. 19, 21, 36, 37, 81, 145, 146, 171 etc.).

This raises three different questions: A. Whether TFP imposes standardization of ideas; B. Whether it imposes standardization in the way of dressing of its members and volunteers; C. Whether there is such thing as a TFP behavior properly speaking, if it is imposed, and if it breaks individual personalities.

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A. Whether TFP imposes uniform thinking More than one relativist can find it strange that TFP has a cohesive and logical body of principles which has been consistently enriched and developed through the years but has remained unaltered in its essential lines.

It may seem even stranger that this solid and vast ensemble of principles is accepted by such a large number of people from all walks of life, ages and conditions, without the continuous occurrence of contradictions, contestation and dissidence.

For a person stuck in modern relativism and permissiveness, that phenomenon could only be explained by imposing “brainwashing” to change the thinking of new adepts and then subjecting them to a dictatorial intellectual discipline to prevent their “washed brains” from straying from the “orthodox” line.

Any Protestant fanatic of the sixteenth century and many even today, facing the majestic and monumental uniformity in Faith that characterizes the Catholic Church, would certainly think the same. *** But is there an intellectual dictatorship in TFP? First of all, it is necessary to keep in mind that TFP is a school of thought, and not a small one at that.

What characterizes schools of thought is precisely the fact that their followers share not only great general principles but also a whole series of lesser principles, secondary by nature but still important, such as operational principles.

In this common patrimony, in this fundamental order, it is proper for wellestablished schools of thought to have great variety and freedom in the application of general principles.

It would not be far-fetched to make an analogy, naturally within due proportions, with the classical principle whereby the Church admits, in her maternal bosom, legitimate differences among various schools of thought: In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas – unity where necessary; freedom in what is doubtful; and charity, that is, love of God, in all things.

What is necessary in the TFP school of thought? First of all, a complete and enthusiastic adhesion to the doctrine of the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church as expressed in the teachings of the Roman Pontiffs and the ecclesiastical Magisterium in general (giving each document, according to its nature, the full adhesion prescribed

by Canon Law).

Next, adhesion to a series of basic theoretical principles, or theoreticalpractical principles, deduced strictly according to logic, from Catholic doctrine or from an analysis of reality – present or historic – according to a carefully elaborated TFP methodology and criteria whose foundations are largely expounded in the already mentioned essay, Revolution and Counter-Revolution.

Finally, adhesion to a series of operational principles gradually built up through an attentive analysis of many decades of practical action in common. The foundations for such principles are also laid out in Revolution and Counter-Revolution (Part II, Chaps. V to XI).

All these principles form an ensemble which is the fundamental patrimony of the TFP school of thought. Thanks be to God, there has been great cohesiveness around them, so that the persons who have left the Society out of doctrinal discrepancies could be counted on the fingers of a hand. ***

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This great unity of goals, methods of thought and action does not at all mean that TFP imposes ideas by force.

The existence of a wholesome and ample freedom in the TFP school of thought is easy to demonstrate. For without the necessary degree of liberty, no school of thought can really be fecund. On the contrary, it becomes repetitive and boring in its productions, the ranks of its adepts thin out, its readership disappears and it withers and ends up dying.

Now then, more than 20 books or essays published by the Brazilian TFP (see list at the end of this work) attest to TFP’s vitality, fecundity and dynamism as a school of thought. That includes voluminous and scholarly collections of Legionário from 1933 to 1947, and Catolicismo from 1951 to this day.

In its books, as well as on the pages of those journals, TFP has dealt and deals with the most varied topics – religious, philosophical, sociological, artistic, psychological, historical, economic etc. – always within the general lines above but with an ample freedom of application and development.

Not to mention the very considerable intellectual production of TFPs from 14 other countries, which, without prejudice to their full autonomy, are based on the same principles as the Brazilian TFP and belong to the same school of thought. All of them publish newspapers and magazines and many have published books (see list at the end of this volume).

Besides, anyone a bit familiar with TFP internal ambiences – and Mr. JAP boasts that he is – knows how great is the freedom that exists within the entity for anyone to study whatever he wants, how he wants and when he wants it with nothing artificial or forced about it. Typically, the intellectual initiatives that arise in various sectors of TFP are received with good will and met with all the encouragement of its directors.

Mr. JAP was surprised at the intellectual respect he found within TFP walls. He acknowledges that he was not used to being treated with such consideration. Yet that does not prevent him from seeing even that kindness as an “allurement technique.”37 It is a rule of the TFP board of directors never to launch a public campaign or an important initiative without assembling its members and volunteers – even the very young – and expound its reasons and goals, hear everyone’s questions, clarify doubts and respond to possible objections.

In all regular meetings, everyone in attendance – even the youngest – is allowed to speak; and everyone can freely ponder, ask or object whatever he wishes.

At these meetings, whoever the lecturer may be, there is never a less-thanpolite word, never is a thesis expounded without abundant arguments or documentation, never an affirmation made without all those present having the time, ambience and occasion to examine the issue and counter-argue at will. Never is an objection or difficulty resolved without all due regard and fraternal affection.

While Mr. JAP recognizes that this is so when a novice approaches the Society, he claims it is only an artifice to attract him into TFP’s claws. As for those already in those claws, Warriors of the Virgin maliciously insinuates they are treated very differently. In TFP meetings, everyone is said to be intimidated and terrorized, passively listening to the most abstruse statements without uttering even a single doubt.

"People were cultured and courteous, there was intellectual respect. I did not find that kindness in my religious and social circle..... In the organization, any stupidity I uttered was discussed with attention and even received with kindness. I later found that that too was part of allurement techniques,” he told Folha de S. Paulo, 6-29-85.

37

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Nothing could be more contrary to reality; and Mr. JAP is perfectly aware of it.

Incidentally, it would never be possible to obtain the cohesion of those turbulent, agitated, restless and often aggressive 20th century youths without affection and logic, and above all, without a profound spirit of Faith.

Given the Brazilian temperament, this is especially true in our country (cf.

Chap. II, 3).

No other is the “secret” of the enthusiastic adherence the TFP stirs up among the young.

B. Whether TFP imposes standardization in dress If TFP did have a common way of dressing, in no way that could be seen as a result of "brainwashing" or imaginary abuses of the principle of authority. But for the sake of the truth it must be said that TFP has no such uniformity.

For a long time, TFP members and volunteers have usually worn suit and tie, as was customary for every man or boy leaving home to work, study or frequent any social ambience. This habit still exists in many places in Brazil today and remains widespread in many countries like the United States and Britain.

This custom came from the early decades of the century, but in Brazil it has gradually fallen into disuse from the mid '60s. And men’s fashions that followed – to speak only of men – had a sharp note of extravagance.

That extravagance was particularly noticeable in fashions for young men, strongly influenced by styles that emerged late in the decade with hyppism and resulted from a revolutionary modern tendency to generalize extravagance to all life’s domains.

As a reaction, a spontaneous tendency arose in TFP to preserve as much as possible the custom of wearing a suit and tie. It was not an imposition as Mr. JAP claims (WV cf. p. 177); nor was it any official decision by the entity but merely the result of a tacit consensus, thus preserving a custom which everyone saw as appropriate given the context just described.

Already in the mid-70s, young men in Brazil had almost completely given up wearing suit and tie. And the fact that TFP young men wore it had began to cause as great a puzzlement as would an old man who were to walk the streets with the cane and bowler hat he had worn when young ...

For an entity that usually addresses the public at large, it is not well to be at variance with current customs. "When in Rome, do as the Romans,” says the old proverb, which, with due nuances, should be taken into account.

Moreover, certain media outlets opposed to the entity began to present the suit and tie as elements inseparable from the figure of a TFP member or volunteer; a sort of a uniform, something which never corresponded to reality.

For these reasons – and not as a disguise to act in an underhanded fashion, as Mr. JAP maliciously claims (WV cf. p. 177) – in 1975 the entity’s directors deemed it appropriate to recommend to its younger members to pick, among clothing styles usually worn by youths of their generation, those they could adopt without prejudice to the composure and dignity that has always characterized the attire of TFP members and volunteers.

Did that mean the entity compromised on principles? Was that recommendation an opportunistic concession to sartorial laxity? – No, for although wearing suit and tie was preferable to what came later, the TFP had never presented

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it as an ideal. It was highly objectionable from many standpoints. 38 If those in TFP adopted it back then, it was for the same reason that young men from later generations adopted other dress modes. That is because people usually should dress as their contemporaries in the same social condition. Except, of course, when immoral or extravagant fashions seriously offend common sense, becoming incompatible with human dignity.

Today, most TFP young men prefer to wear windbreakers or jackets and only seldom will don a suit and tie as do most people who have reached a certain age.

Nevertheless, to maintain the note of composure and dignity characteristic of TFP, both the older and younger people wear a very broad range of designs and colors.

Yet that does not prevent Mr. JAP, in his permanent and poorly disguised illwill toward all things TFP, from seeing the costumes of its members and volunteers as a “uniform” (WV, p. 11).

C. Whether there is a TFP behavior properly speaking; whether it is imposed and breaks individual personalities It is undeniable that there is a characteristically TFP way of being and behaving. In fact, that way of being is so unmistakable that only Mr. JAP could imagine that the clothing adopted by young volunteers of the Society from the mid70s could enable them to act incognito without being immediately identified as TFP...

In this regard, it is well to remember that the emergence of a specific human type is not a TFP peculiarity. It is the natural product of a vibrant and organically formed society. The various kinds of professional activities, for example, are likely to engender characteristic human types: priests, soldiers, doctors, artists are often easily identifiable even when not wearing any visible sign of their profession.

Interaction in certain human groups tends to distill a common way of being and behaving, reflected at times with a particularly strong note in minute details such as the way they write, speak or walk down the street.

It is common, for example, for a rookie journalist entering a newspaper or magazine staff room to gradually assimilate the style of the older ones and by that mechanism - which can have something of mimicry but is very legitimate and traditional – establish, after a while, a style proper to that newspaper. 39 Cf. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Indumentária, Hierarquia e Igualitarismo, [“Dress, Hierarchy and Egalitarianism”] in Catolicismo, no 133, January 1962.

38

39

In the early 20th century, OESP itself (the newspaper where Mr. JAP works) was accused precisely of depersonalizing its writers: "The first impulse of a writer who joins it as a staff member is an irrepressible exasperation of his personal pride....

"Taking advantage of that pleasant swooning of the soul in which his colleagues wallow, the staff secretary general craftily obtains, without anyone perceiving it, a complete capitulation of their personal responsibility facing the irresponsibility of collective criteria – simbolyzed by the autocratic power the secretary holds in his despotic hands.

Personalities merge and disappear swallowed by that central vortex that absorbs all isolated efforts; some stop producing, hurt in their natural stimulation to mental work; others produce only according to the all-powerful secretary’s inflexible orientation, and therefore with an absolute breakdown in their intellectual independence. Plinio Barreto is the only exception I have known so far.....

“In addition to complete accommodation to the personal tastes and inclinations of the top secretary, writers for O Estado strive to imitate the writing style of Mr. Júlio de Mesquita. There is no servile or sycophantic intention here: an irrepressible and spontaneous impulse of admiration leads them to behave thus..... Soon enough they will be writing like he does, in short sentences, nervous and vibrant locutions. If in the course of a momentous discussion, some mishap prevents the director from leaving his mark, he is replaced and yet the other writers have so assimilated his style that only highly experienced professionals will notice – and even then with difficulty! – that the man at the rudder

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That influence is felt very strongly also in the language of everyday conversation. For example, no family home, workplace or human group exists in which the intense experiences of its members fail to gradually coin a series of expressions that everyone understands with a certain sense and that a newcomer will probably not understand the first time around. This forms a characteristic jargon of that social or professional group. *** Such standardization in human groups not always takes place naturally; at times, styles are molded artificially.

In this regard, we contest the general principle underlying certain of Mr. JAP’s criticisms, that every uniformization, standardization or stylization necessarily compresses and distorts the personality.

This principle, which smacks of Freudianism, denies all norms of cleanliness, composure, good breeding, and leads to anarchy in mentalities and customs.

Undoubtedly, artificial molding can stereotype a person and make him lose his legitimate peculiarities. This is to a great extent, what television does nowadays. But not every molding necessarily stereotypes, and at times it is a powerful means to develop one’s personality. Far from stymieing it, it allows all its potential to develop.

At times this molding is taken to the point not only of modifying some exterior aspects but a person’s whole approach to life and his whole mentality; and it is obtained in a context of rigid discipline and constant teaching.

Does that amount to “brainwashing”? Not at all, as can be seen in contact with religious men or women, the military and many others who go through similar molding and yet display a marked personality. This is elementary common sense.

Social scientists David G. Bromley and Anson D. Shupe Jr. have made interesting considerations along this line.

According to them, severe indoctrination and discipline imposed on a group of people in a regime of internment (often presented as the main characteristics of “brainwashing”) do not in fact turn people into mere “robots” but are adopted by institutions that require individuals to have a great personal capacity for decisionmaking such as Armed Forces academies and Catholic convents: “Em outro estudo clássico, o sociólogo Sanford N. Dornbusch examinou as técnicas de doutrination utilizadas na Academia Naval Guarda-Costeira dos Estados Unidos. Os cadetes são primeiramente despojados de suas identidades civis anteriores: suas cabeças são raspadas e se lhes entregam uniformes; seus antigos empregos, realizações e laços familiares, não só são desvalorizados, mas muitas vezes nem lhes é permitido referirse a eles. Um novo sistema de prêmios e castigos substitui gradualmente seus valores, e eleva os novos objetivos – os da academia militar – acima de quaisquer outras lealdades e interesses. O contato com o mundo exterior é estritamente controlado. A princípio, as cartas e as visitas não são permitidas. Até mesmo as reflexões pessoais sobre sua vida atual são desestimuladas: os diários íntimos são proibidos. Segundo os padrões civis convencionais, o sistema de vida de um cadete guarda-costeiro é restritivo e mesmo repressivo. Ele remodela os valores, altera as personalitys. Disciplina os indivíduos e determina suas perspectivas, mas não os converte em robôs. Técnicas similares são utilizadas correntemente nos campos de treinamento de todas as forças armadas, assim como em muitos conventos e

has been replaced” (J. Alberto de Souza, Amadeu Amaral - Urzes, névoas, espumas, ed. d’O São Paulo Imparcial, São Paulo, 1918, pp. 15, 16, 21 and 23).

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mosteiros da Igreja Católica Romana" (BROMLEY & SHUPE JR., Strange Gods – The Great American Cult Scare, Beacon Press, Boston, 1981, pp. 97-98).

Classical religious formation for seminarians strove to mould their whole way of being so they would acquire the maintien (bearing, posture, way of presenting himself in society) more fitting a priest.

The Council of Trent (1545-1563) already enunciated the general principle that should govern a cleric’s maintien: "It is absolutely fitting that clerics called to be the Lord’s inheritance dispose their life and customs in such a way that their dress, gestures, walk, conversation and everything in their conduct display nothing but gravitas, temperance and religiousness” (Sess. XII, Chap. 1, De Ref.).

General principles of behavior were not only taught in seminaries but practical life as well. In the last century, the classical manual, Politesse et Convenances Ecclésiastiques, by Sulpician Fr. L. Branchereau (Vic et Amat, Libraires-Editeurs, Paris, 12th ed., 572 pp., with a preface by Msgr. Félix Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, dated 3-22-1872) was very much in vogue.

At a time in which, so to speak the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice set the tone for other seminaries in Europe and around the world, that manual containing the whole Sulpician mentality and way of being spread all over church circles. The manual even tells how to balance one’s head upon the shoulders, carry an umbrella, step on the ground with greater or lesser force when walking, and modulate the voice in conversation. Everything is dealt with in minute detail with the goal that every seminarian work on his exterior aspect to make it as close as possible to the standard considered ideal for an ecclesiastic. Some commercial or industrial corporations also hold courses to form their employees and at times descend into minute details. And this is done not only to help the company’s image with the public but for the effectiveness of the work itself. Even today there are many career improvement courses at all levels, from executives to public relations personnel, secretaries, salesmen etc. And the normal effect of these courses is to mould persons so they acquire the way of being proper to their profession or even their company. Does that “depersonalize” a professional? The opposite is normally what happens. *** What happens or has happened in TFP along this line?

In 1976, some persons did consider preparing a kind of “ordo” or general directory for TFP members or volunteers with norms on maintien, behavior, personal treatment etc. so the entity’s image they convey to the public would correspond to the elevated ideals of the association.

A first draft of that directory was written and, as an experiment, some points began to be adopted by certain groups in TFP. However, that was not artificial or arbitrarily imposed. Much of it was a compilation and ordination of customs which had been organically adopted in TFP through the years. And since they were customs, they would gradually suffer the influence of changing circumstances.

Unfortunately, given the great development the entity experience over the last decade, and due to its many and ever-growing social activities, it was not possible to complete that directory, let alone extend its application to the entire TFP. For some, it remained as an ideal to be attained at the opportune moment and with Our Lady’s help, always in an organic and customary fashion. For others, fell into oblivion. *** Mr. JAP claims that members and volunteers have become depersonalized and turned into robots (cf. WV pp. 19 e 197).

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“Depersonalize”: an elastic expression that can lend itself to confusion.

According to Catholic doctrine and the experience of many centuries of wisdom, influence from a person with exemplary personality and behavior is essentially beneficial, as “verba movent, exempla trahunt” (words move, examples drag). Depending on the case, that influence can reflect not only on this or that aspect of the influenced personality, but even mould it as a whole. This is what Our Lord did with the Apostles and these with the faithful they attracted to the nascent Church. The example of the Martyrs gave rise to other Martyrs; that of the Apostles, to other apostles. And so one sees the immense trail of good examples succeeding one another in the Church through the ages. When the Church raises a saint to the honor of the altars, she presents him as an example for all men through all centuries.

For persons called to the state of evangelical perfection, fidelity to the founder of their respective religious institutes must mould their whole personality. In this regard, an extremely authoritative biographer of Blessed Miguel Rua, the first successor to the glorious founder of the Salesian Congregation, St. John Bosco, affirms that Dom Rua "was known as a personification of Dom Bosco" (Memorias biográficas del Reverendo Padre D. Miguel Rua, primer sucesor de Don Bosco, por el Sac. J.B. Francesia, salesiano, Tip. Salesiana del Colegio Pio IX, Buenos Aires, 1911, p. 120). 40 Did St. John Bosco “depersonalize” Blessed Miguel Rua? On an even higher level, did the Divine Savior “depersonalize” so many saints and glorious faithful who made the perfect imitation of Him the ideal of their lives?

Anyone who claimed that would show ignorance of the very essence of Christian perfection. The latter seeks to have the individual faithful conform himself in everything with the Commandments and the evangelical counsels. This in no way destroys any of his personal characteristics but on the contrary, confirms, purifies, rectifies and elevates them.

40

In his work, Fr. Francesia – who worked with Blessed Miguel Rua for 60 years and with St. John Bosco for about 40 – recalls some episodes that enable us to gauge to what point Dom Rua sought to imitate the virtues and assimilate the spirit of his Founder: "When Don Bosco offered us some work and we were too busy and unable to take it to the end, he would always call on Dom Rua certain he would be helped. Many times I heard these words from the mouth of Don Bosco: 'be assured that Dom Rua will do everything, and like a dream.’ That did not surprise me because I knew very well that Dom Rua was faithful interpreter of Dom Bosco’s thoughts ..... He foresaw what he had to do and proposed the means for its execution, seeking to adapt, in practice, to the thought of Dom Bosco ..... The humble Dom Rua worked in silence, almost as if he did not exist. Dom Bosco gave him directions and he worked in earnest to fulfill the wishes of his father .....

“In 1883 Dom Bosco triumphantly visited France.... It boggles the human mind to describe the enthusiasm Dom Bosco aroused in Paris ..... Thousands of visitors slowly parade, many of them content to speak only to 'Dom Bosco’s Secretary,’ as Dom Rua was called in those days. Many cried after having spoken to him: 'He is a faithful copy of Don Bosco; he looks like him even in his gestures’ .....

“On December 8, l885 [Dom Bosco] named Dom Miguel Rua as his Vicar General: 'From now on he will replace me in the government of the whole Pius Society; and he will be able to do everything that I can, with full powers.’ At first glance, it seems that the new post would place Dom Rua in closer contact with Dom Bosco to exchange ideas with him more often and confer matters with him. But in fact, the new Vicar would not change any proceedings from any point of view.... Actually, up until that moment Dom Rua had made every effort to interpret the thoughts of Dom Bosco even in their smallest details and then put them carefully into practice ..... It was no small consolation for Dom Bosco to watch how his children addressed his new Vicar, especially when they uttered phrases like: 'He is another Dom Bosco, he inherited much of his spirit'.....

"Dom Bosco having died, Dom Rua did not want to introduce any modification around himself..... Just as in France the King’s death was announced with the words: 'the King is dead, long live the king', so also we could have exclaimed, 'Dom Bosco is dead, long live Dom Bosco,’ since for us, Dom Rua was Dom Bosco” (pp. 131-133, 134-136, 141-143, 159-161).

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The wholesome effect of Morals and Christian civilization on all peoples through all centuries is undeniable and proven by experience.

If anyone were to delve even deeper into this matter, already so obvious, it would be well to recommend reading the above-mentioned book, Servitudo ex caritate, by Atila Sinke Guimarães (Artpress, São Paulo, 1985, pp. 184 to 210).

Incidentally, it is public and notorious that TFP members and volunteers easily stand out for their presence wherever they are. Is it a lack of personality to mark so much an ambience? On the contrary, isn’t the courage and gallantry with which TFP men face adverse pressure without retreating or becoming discouraged the symptom of a robust and well-built personality?

Still according to Mr. JAP, TFP reduces its own to a kind of inhibition and prevents each one’s potentialities from developing (cf. WV p. 200). Yet, wherever they go they behave uninhibitedly, expound their ideas clearly, know how to defend them with logical arguments and in a courteous but firm manner. In their contacts with leading personalities in the most varied fields of human activity, public or private, they have been fulfilling delicate missions, often times asking embarrassing questions to socialist leaders visiting the country. 41 Yet Mr. JAP deems them incapable!

5. TFP, a factory of madmen?

According to Mr. JAP, TFP members and volunteers live under continuous psychological pressure; they are tense, nervous, terrorized, isolated from the world and watched inside the seats and repressed as far as sexual practices are concerned, so there is a high incidence of nervous or mental disease among them (WV p. 169).

TFP is even said to have a house especially setup in Belo Horizonte to treat these patients (WV pp. 163-164).

There are a growing number of people with psychic disorders in the contemporary world. It is an obvious fact, confirmed by numerous statistics, as we will see.

TFP ranks are obviously not spared by this evil, which affects every country, organization, social and professional classes.

Is the number of neuroses or psychoses greater in TFP than in other segments of today’s Brazil?

Has anyone ever bored to check whether these ailments exist in the ranks of PCB [Brazilian Communist Party], PC do B [Communist Party of Brazil] or MR-8? No. That which anticommunism never carried out against these organizations, antianticommunism does not hesitate to employ against TFP. In the neighborhoods of Brasilia there are many organizations of a more or less philosophical-religious type with marked peculiarities. Has any believer in, or fanatical follower of, the “brainwashing” myth and the thesis of the intrinsic evilness of “cults” ever thought of investigating those organizations one by one to find out, for example, what are the neuro-psychic conditions of those who frequent them?

A while ago there was much talk about the devastation that spiritualism is supposed to be causing among its adepts. Nevertheless, what practical measures have been arisen from those claims?

What about the candomblés and macumbas, so beloved by many politicians seeking votes or a “talismanic” boost?

Cf. Catolicismo, no 390, June 1983, p. 6; no 397, January 1984, p. 6; no 398, February 1984, p. 8; no 417, September 1985, p. 2.

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With the superficiality he never lets go when it suits him, Mr. JAP says nothing of all that as he seeks to alarm readers about the allegedly numerous cases of neuroses or psychoses he claims to exist in TFP. His agile simplification goes even farther. In a world devastated by mental illness, he simply ignores the possibility that some TFP member or volunteer affected by such infirmity might have already been a discreet carrier of the disease (be it due to hereditary factors, instability in the family so often torn apart by quarrels between father and mother, TV watching from early childhood, the hustle and bustle of modern life). And, completely arbitrarily, he surmises that absolutely everyone enjoyed healthy neuro-psychic conditions when joining TFP. Furthermore, the fact that Mr. JAP’s nerves were frayed when he was in TFP does not prove that the Society caused him to lose his equilibrium. He would have to begin by proving that he had no tendency toward imbalance before joining TFP. And – as can be seen by the psychological traits he reveals in his book – that is very debatable to say the least.

Indeed, as he describes the way he was before encountering TFP, he makes no small effort to show himself as a normal, 42 balanced and sociable young man with many friends. TFP is the one who allegedly took him “to the brink of madness.”

In spite of that effort, the mentality he presents as his own before joining TFP turns out to be highly susceptible to imbalance (cf. Chap. I).

Thus, when he speaks of the attraction the Church exerted upon him, he only describes an imaginative, sentimental and almost infantile attraction. It is not a normal young man’s attraction for Religion.

It is proper for a manly person not to dwell only on sensibility but to analyze, reason things out and look for the reason why things happen. The subjectivism and egocentrism Mr. JAP reveals throughout the book were already present in his description of the supposedly normal young man he was before meeting TFP. Nonetheless, Mr. JAP does not hesitate arbitrarily to conclude that all disorders in TFP members or volunteers were acquired solely through the entity’s fault.

For the information of Mr. JAP, as well as those who may have read his copious prose, here are some data from leading newspapers: • "From 1976 to this day, 123,000 people have been interned with mental illnesses in Brasilia’s hospital system. And the number is growing: two years ago, the monthly rate was 2,890 patients; that number is now over 4,000 per month" (Folha de S. Paulo, 11-10-1980).

• "Nervous illnesses are the most common disease treated by the [government-run] health-care system in Brazil” (Folha de S. Paulo, 5-8-1981).

• About 20% of the French suffer or have suffered from depression (cf. Le Matin, Paris, 2-17-1984).

• About 15% of the people present some kind of mental problem that requires psychiatric attention. Of that total, one third suffers with serious illnesses, according to estimations from the World Health Organization (cf. Folha de S. Paulo, 5-19-1985).

42

It is interesting to see what Mr. JAP understands by “normal.” In a testimony published by Folha de S. Paulo on June 29, 1985 and by Folha da Tarde on the same date, referring to the phase in which he was drawing closer to TFP, he says: “I went on studying, flirting, masturbating, and even had had sex with a girl; I still had a normal life but was allowing myself to become more and more involved with TFP.”

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• 25% of the population of Buenos Aires needs psychiatric assistance, and the problem tends to worsen, according to the City of Buenos Aires’ Secretariat for Health and Environment (cf. Tiempo Argentino, Buenos Aires, 2-10-1985).

• More than 20% of the supposedly healthy population of Peru suffers from some psychiatric problem; 14% of Peruvian teens take alcoholic beverages in excess and at the end of 10 years suffer from mental disorders (cf. O Estado de S. Paulo, 519-1985).

• “In São Paulo, about 150 young people commit suicide every year, which amounts to one death every two-three days. There is a suicide attempt every 40 minutes, resulting in an average of 30 to 35 per day and 15,000 per year. Of this total, 75% are carried out by young people, mostly women.... in the 12 to 24 age bracket. More: suicide attempts are also increasing among children 7 to 12 years of age” (Folha de S. Paulo, 6-17-1985).

• “Ten percent of the Brazilian population (about 12 million people) suffer from some kind of psychic disorder that requires psychiatric treatment or psychotherapy.

The Brazilian Psychiatry Association estimates that figure will reach 32 million by the end of the decade if no prevention work is carried out by the government” (O Globo, Rio de Janeiro, 7-21-1985).

• “Sedatives, sleeping pills and psychotropics are no longer the privilege of adults..... A survey carried out by Dr. Alain Lazartigues, of the psychiatric clinic for children and adolescents at the Salpetrière Hospital in Paris, reveals that 15,7% of children under seven take medications that act on the nervous system relatively frequently..... According to statistics, consumption of such medicines is a common trend in countries of the West, where they are called ‘psychological aspirins’” (Folha de S. Paulo, 10-130-1985).

If mental illness affects contemporary man to the point that it has been called the “illness of the century,” nothing could be more explicable than the fact that affected people can also be found in TFP. But a daily and constant observation of internal life in TFP allows us safely to affirm that the number of nervous patients in the entity is considerably inferior to the average of the population.

During the brutal persecution the socialist government of Venezuela has carried out – and is carrying out – against the representation bureau of the TFPs in Caracas, as well as against the Association Civil Resistência, a sister organization of the TFPs in that country, the police subjected some members of the entity to psychiatric tests. At the same time, the young men looked for a renowned private psychologist to eventually present a counter-expertise. The result was that the young men were perfectly normal from the mental and nervous standpoints. And it should be noted that such tests were carried out in circumstances particularly unfavorable to them, as they had been subjected to psychological pressure of all kinds for over ten days, answering successive and extenuating police interrogations lasting several hours each, all under an unrelenting siege by the press, radio and TV networks hostile to the entity. *** If this is so – someone could ask – why have so many members and volunteers gone to Belo Horizonte to receive health care?

For entirely circumstantial reasons, in Belo Horizonte TFP had three doctors - a general practitioner, an allergist, an ophthalmologist and two dentists, members of the Society or very close to it, who treated members and volunteers for free.

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These well-deserving professionals - highly regarded among their colleagues and with good relationships in different hospitals - could also facilitate matters for TFP members and volunteers who needed medical care in other specialties.

There was, moreover, in Belo Horizonte, a clinical laboratory belonging to a member of the entity then residing in the city, who later sold it as he moved, which provided free services to TFP. All that made it very worthwhile for our people to go to Belo Horizonte when they needed any medical or dental treatment of greater importance. Many have gone and still go there for that purpose, to treat the most varied problems, undergo different surgeries etc.

Hence in 1978 TFP rented a house at Marquesa de Alorna St. designed to host these persons.

When Mr. JAP was in Belo Horizonte, he stayed at Paraíba St. headquarters. It was a common lodging place not intended to host people on medical or dental treatment, as was later the case with Marquesa de Alorna Street.

There were also some cases of neuro-psychiatry at the time Mr. JAP was there; and there continued to be. And the normal course of events in Brazil and the world makes us think there will still be. Of course, we have no right to reveal people’s names. But we can safely say that these are cases of very different origins, some of them from proven hereditary factors.

The facts having been thus expounded in their simplicity and emptied from their emotional content, the reality that emerges is completely different from the one imagined by Mr. JAP in his novel-like autobiography.

CHAPTER VI - Terror in the formation of a TFP member or volunteer As we showed in earlier Chapters (IV and V) the entire groundlessness of the "brainwashing" accusation we intentionally left aside, for the easy of exposition, a question related with the topic: in the formation it gives the young men who join it, does the Society employ a ‘terror method’ to make them more flexible to its education?

That is what Mr. JAP insinuates, for example, in this passage of his book: "The more I became enthused with the things I discovered or was taught in the organization, the more I feared being incapable of attaining the perfection that was demanded of me. At the same time, I felt fear: fear of the Secret Forces, fear of sin, fear of people who did not share our ideal. Fear also of the chastisements foreseen for perverted humanity, fear to succumb before the Bagarre, fear to lose myself during it.

Fear of myself. Fear of everyone. Fear even of Dominus Plinius, the prophet who could, through God’s grace, discern souls" (WV pp. 161-162). 43 And in the course of his book the fearful author of Warriors of the Virgin underlines the topics which he claims the TFP especially emphasized for that effect: 1. Interpretation of Modern and Contemporary History as a great ideological combat between the small, residual forces of Christendom against a conspiracy of The word,” terror" is not found in Mr. JAP’s book. But such is the role he attributes to fear in the rocambolesque version of “brainwashing” of which he accuses TFP that this oppressive, continuous and omnipresent fear takes on the scope of an obsession, of terror.

Some defender of Mr. JAP could allege that this comment is overblown.

To counter that assertion, it is well to recall that the above-cited report by OESP of July 2, 1985 expressly refers to the "ambience of terror" that the book "reports" [sic] to exist in TFP. 43

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secret forces led by masonry and Judaism and invisibly guided by the devil, who seeks to extirpate the Church and Christian civilization from earth and thus bring about the victory of Evil.

2. A somber conception of the world’s present situation related to what was said above: humanity lives under the aegis of the devil and nearly all of it has been conquered by sensuality and egalitarian pride. It is thus marching toward an unprecedented cultural, socioeconomic and political catastrophe during which sinners who remain impenitent will be killed and their souls cast into Hell.

In TFP language, that is the Bagarre.

After that, the whole humanity, punished and purified, will see unprecedented days of order and splendor. It will be the Reign of Mary.

3. TFP’s insistent reference to Our Lady’s 1917 revelations to the three Fatima shepherds – Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta – reinforcing the terrifying impression produced by the expectation of a chastisement for all mankind.

4. Finally, the remembrance of Hell and the consideration of the danger that every man runs with the possibility of dying in the state of mortal sin and thus be condemned to eternal fire. 44 *** Needless to say, when Mr. JAP expounds these topics, and particularly the first three, he falsifies the terms of the matter. He often distorts TFP thinking by adding or leaving out important details and by exaggerating certain aspects at the whim of his fertile imagination, mixing up reference sources etc. to convey the worst possible image of TFP to readers unfamiliar with the subject.

In fact, Mr. JAP appears to insinuate that in TFP such fears play a role to replace the panic caused by cruelties in ‘classical’ ‘brainwashing’ methods.

But there is no term of comparison between the two. However much the terror allegedly employed in TFP were taken to an almost inconceivable degree of exacerbation (which Mr. JAP does not affirm), it would be absurd to attribute to them effects as drastic or devastating as those of a “classical” “brainwashing" method.

This whole subject requires several clarifications: 1. The action of the “Secret Forces”: a notion TFP did not fabricate The notion that a huge conspiracy of hidden forces inspired by the devil spread around Europe and later in America is not current among the Brazilian public. For example, the media are completely or almost totally silent about it. Thus, one who reads in one bout pages 33-34 of Warriors of the Virgin can easily get the impression that everything Mr. JAP attributes to TFP in those pages is nothing but a bunch of inventions by the latter.

Mr. JAP craftily avoids clarifying the readers on this point.

In Warriors of the Virgin Mr. JAP also mentions two other ways to instill terror he claims are used in TFP: consideration of individual punishments that God can send still in this life to those who leave TFP (cf. WV pp. 99 and 183-184), and the disciplinary punishments in force in the entity (cf. WV pp. 167 and 168).

As for God’s punishments in this life, according to Sacred Scripture and Catholic doctrine, they do happen once in a while. And a balanced consideration of such punishments can only do good to souls. That is the case, for example, with the very impressive punishment God inflicted on Ananias and Saphira. If the episode is narrated in the Acts of the Apostles (V, 1 to 11), it is by an evident design of divine Providence so all men will have it in mind till the end of the world.

Regarding the disciplinary punishments Mr. JAP mentions, he fails to say that they apply only to young men and are not at all excessive in view of their natural resistance.

44

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In fact, the notion of hidden forces has not been “fabricated” by TFP, nor is it, as Mr. JAP claims (WV p. 148) based on the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Sion. It is grounded on successive documents by the Roman Pontiffs.

The oldest papal condemnation of Masonry dates from April 28, 1738 – almost 250 years ago. It is the Apostolic Letter In eminenti, by Pope Clement XII. Many other papal documents later renewed that condemnation and warned Catholics against the action of secret forces plotting against the Church and Christian civilization.

Clement XII’s condemnation was followed by the Apostolic Constitution Providas, of Benedict XIV (5-18-1751), the Constitution Ecclesiam a Jesu Christo, of Pius VII (9-13-1821), the Constitution Quo graviora, of Leo XII (3-13-1825), the Encyclical Traditi humilitati, of Pius VIII (5-24-1829) and the Encyclical Mirari Vos, of Gregory XVI (8-15-1832).

Under Pius IX (1846-1878) secret societies were condemned in no fewer than 116 documents, 11 of them Encyclicals, 53 Letters and Briefs, 33 Allocutions and Speeches, and 19 Curia documents. From his pontificate came the Encyclical Qui pluribus (11-9-1846), the Allocution Quibus quantisque (4-20-1849), the Encyclical Quanta Cura (12-8-1864) and the Allocution Multiplices inter machinationes (9-251865).

Over the 25 years of the pontificate of Leo XIII (1878-1903), the Holy See issued at least 226 documents condemning Masonry, the Carbonari and secret societies in general; the best known of those documents is the Encyclical Humanum Genus of April 20, 1884 (cf. Jose A. Ferrer Benimeli, Bibliografía de la Masonería – Introducción Histórico-Crítica, co-edicion Universidad Católica Andrés Bello de Caracas/Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, 1974, 385 pp.; and Jose A. Ferrer Benimeli/Giovanni Caprile, Massoneria e Chiesa Cattolica - ieri, oggi e domani, Ed. Paoline, Roma, 2nd ed., 1982, 287 pp. Although these are excellent woks from the standpoint of bibliographical documentation, their thinking on this matter is at variance on many points with that professed by TFP).

The Code of Canon Law in force until recently, written under the pontificate of St. Pius X (1903-1914) and promulgated in 1917 by Pope Benedict XV, punished with excommunication a Catholic who became affiliated with Masonry (cf. canon 2335).

Although the new Code of Canon Law that went into force in 1983 suspended excommunication as a punishment, Catholics are still forbidden to join Masonic associations, as clarified by a recent Declaration by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. 45

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Here is the document’s full text: DECLARATION ON MASONIC ASSOCIATIONS

It has been asked whether there has been any change in the Church’s decision in regard to Masonic associations since the new Code of Canon Law does not mention them expressly, unlike the previous Code.

This Sacred Congregation is in a position to reply that this circumstance in due to an editorial criterion which was followed also in the case of other associations likewise unmentioned inasmuch as they are contained in wider categories.

Therefore the Church’s negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.

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So numerous is the bibliography of Catholic authors about the secret forces that it would be impossible to provide a complete list here. Perhaps the best overall theological and historical work on this subject still is The Anti-Christian Conspiracy, by Msgr. Henri Delassus, Canon of the Diocese of Lille. 46 It is well to recall the famous anti-Masonic pastoral letters by the Most. Rev. Vital Maria Gonçalves de Oliveira (1844-1878), Bishop of Olinda, whose beatification process has been filed with the Holy See. 47 At times a bit uneven in the choice of its writers, but usually presenting articles of great interest for the study of anti-masonism in the early decades of this century, we could not leave out the very well-known Revue Internationale des Sociétés Secrètes (fortnightly bulletin of the “Anti-Jewish-Masonic League ‘La France Catholique’”) published from 1911 onward under the direction of Msgr. E. Jouin, honorary canon of Notre Dame of Paris and Apostolic Protonotary.

Nor is it possible to leave out the books, strongly contested by Fr. Ferrer Benimeli, but worthy of note, by Léon de Poncins. 48 It would be ridiculous to blame the inspiration of so numerous papal documents and this whole rich current of thought on Nazi-Fascism, as the oldest works on the subject date from the 18th century. Such is the case with the famous Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du Jacobinisme, by Fr. Barruel, published in London in 1797, which blame Masonry for the irruption of the French Revolution.

Nazism and Fascism did nothing but distort and discredit, with their exaggerations, the anti-Masonic theses. 49 It is not within the competence of local ecclesiastical authorities to give a judgment on the nature of Masonic associations which would imply a derogation from what has been decided above, and this in line with the Declaration of this Sacred Congregation issued on 17 February 1981 (cf. AAS 73 1981 pp. 240-241; English language edition of L’Osservatore Romano, 9 March 1981).

In an audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II approved and ordered the publication of this Declaration which had been decided in an ordinary meeting of this Sacred Congregation.

Rome, from the Office of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 26 November 1983 Joseph Card. Ratzinger, Prefect; Fr. Jerome Hamer, O.P., Titular Archbishop of Lorium, Secretary.” http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19831126_declarationmasonic_en.html 46 Msgr. Henri Delassus, La conjuration antichrétienne – Le temple maçonnique voulant s'élever sur les ruines de l'Église catholique, Desclée, Lille, 1910, 3 volumes; with a congratulatory letter written on behalf of Pope St. Pius X by Cardinal Merry del Val, Secretary of State of the Holy See. 47 Pastoral Letter by the Bishop of Olinda Against the Ambushes and Machinations of Masonry, Recife, 1873, 45 pp.; and Pastoral Instruction on Masonry and the Jesuits, Rio de Janeiro, 1875, Petrópolis, Ed. Vozes, 1957, 197 pp.

48 Works by Léon de Poncins: La Franc-Maçonnerie anglo-saxonne, Mercure de France, 8-15-1931, 62 pp.; Les forces secrètes de la révolution – La Franc-Maçonnerie – Puissance occulte, Ed. Bossard, Paris, 1932; La Dictature des puissances occultes – La Franc-Maçonnerie, Beauchesne, Paris, 1934, 319 pp.; La Franc-Maçonnerie d'après ses documents secrets, Paris, 1934; La Société des Nations – Super-État maçonnique, Paris, 1936; La mystérieuse internationale juive, Paris, 1936; Histoire secrète de la révolution espagnole, Beauchesne, Orleáns-Paris, 1938, 286 pp.; La Franc-Maçonnerie contre la France, Paris, 1941; Freemasonry and the Vatican, Britons, London, 1967; Christianisme et Franc-Maçonnerie, L'Ordre Français, Versailles, 1969, 272 pp.

49 On pages 151 to 155 of his book Mr. JAP speaks at length about matters commented during TFP’s “Clippings Meetings.” Elsewhere in the book (WV pp. 84, 107) he also mentions these meetings, whose aim is to analyze, based on news reports, national and international events in light of the principles expounded in Revolution and Counter-Revolution.

Wasting no time to critique Mr. JAP’s description, impugnable on various points, we will say that the impression it conveys the reader is that TFP systematically ventures into pretentious explanations to problems above and beyond the entity’s capacity for information and analysis.

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2. The devil’s action in the world: another issue not invented by TFP “The whole world is seated in wickedness,” St. John the Evangelist warns (1 Jn 5:19).

And St. Peter calls for vigilance: " Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pt. 5:8).

As for the action of the spirit of darkness in this world, there are also countless references in liturgical texts and papal documents.

For example, in 1884 Leo XIII wrote his famous Exorcism that he ordered said at the end of the Mass. 50 In his Encyclical, Humanum Genus, the same Pontiff writes: “The race of man, after its miserable fall from God, the Creator and the Giver of heavenly gifts, "through the envy of the devil," separated into two diverse and opposite parts, of which the one steadfastly contends for truth and virtue, the other of those things which are contrary to virtue and to truth. The one is the kingdom of God on earth, namely, the true Church of Jesus Christ ….The other is the kingdom of Satan, in whose possession and control are all whosoever follow the fatal example of their leader and of our first parents, those who refuse to obey the divine and eternal law, and who have many aims of their own in contempt of God, and many aims also against God” (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_lxiii_enc_18840420_humanum-genus_en.html).

The notion of a devastating contemporary crisis and the chastisements it can bring about, along with the action of the prince of darkness in our days, is not absent from documents of the Supreme Magisterium of the Church.

Thus, in his first encyclical to the Catholic world, Pope St. Pius X (1903-1914), after describing impiety, already impressive in his time, pondered that the days of the anti-Christ, supremely afflictive for Catholics, might have arrived: "When all this is considered there is good reason to fear lest this great perversity may be as it were a That unfavorable impression is based on an erroneous premise so simplistic it is mind boggling. It essentially consists in deeming it inadmissible that an observer of national or international politics with longstanding experience in public life and highly knowledgeable in history and philosophy could ably make conjectures or prognoses based merely on news clippings.

In this regard, it is well to ask: does Mr. JAP not realize that by affirming this premise he denies the reason for being of the very newspaper that so generously employs him? For, if a reading of international news in daily papers does not enable readers to form conjectures or prognoses, it is the case to ask if it is good for much.

As for the quality of such conjectures and prognoses, they depend partly on the news, partly on people’s experience, on how they apply their cultural formation, and on their political savvy.

By denying that, Mr. JAP reduces the role of newspaper readers to that of mere sheep whose conjectures and prognoses are strictly dependent on “think tanks” or “data banks” manipulated by large media holdings.

If that is how public opinion is formed, then what is democracy, of which Mr. JAP is certainly an enthusiast, at least now that it is fashionable?

He could answer that the subjects about which TFP opines are way too complex for a mere private person to form an opinion about them.

Now then, nowadays the sheer gigantism of the contemporary crisis causes unfathomably serious problems inside each country. Yet their solution is entrusted to this immense sum of simple private persons called the electorate, and furthermore there are calls for allowing the illiterate to vote on such issues! That has actually occurred in the latest mayoral elections without raising eyebrows...

50 Here is the text of that Exorcism: “St. Michael the archangel defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.”

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foretaste, and perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days; and that there may be already in the world the "Son of Perdition" of whom the Apostle speaks (2 Thess. 2:3). Such, in truth, is the audacity and the wrath employed everywhere in persecuting religion, in combating the dogmas of the faith, in brazen effort to uproot and destroy all relations between man and the Divinity!" (Encyclical E Supremi Apostolatus, 10-4-1903, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_x/encyclicals/documents/hf_px_enc_04101903_e-supremi_en.html).

More recently, analyzing disturbances that occurred in the Church in the period following the Council, Paul VI said he felt as if “through some fissures the smoke of Satan has found its way into the temple of God” (Allocution of June 29, 1972 in http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/homilies/1972/documents/hf_pvi_hom_19720629_it.html And on March 26, 1981, during a homily at the Vatican Basilica addressing university professors and students, John Paul II spoke at length about the struggle between the Kingdom of God and that of Satan in our days: “Christ confirms the existence of the evil spirit and of his kingdom, which is guided by a program of its own. This program demands a strict logic in acting, a logic such that the ‘kingdom of evil’ may last and may develop among men, to whom it is directed. Satan cannot act against his own program; an evil spirit cannot cast out an evil spirit. Thus says Christ.

“The fight between the kingdom of evil, the evil spirit, and the Kingdom of God has still not ceased, not ended. It has only entered a new stage, a decisive one by the way. At this stage, the fight continues in the ever newer generations of human history.

“Will it perhaps be necessary to demonstrate that this fight continues also in our days? Yes! It is certain that it still continues. And it even develops in the various peoples and nations, step by step with the history of humanity. And it likewise continues in each one of us. And by following that history, including the history of our time, we can also find how the kingdom of the evil spirit is not divided but seeks in various ways to have a unified action in the world, to act upon persons, ambiances, families and societies. As in the beginning, also now it centers its program on man’s liberty… on his seemingly unlimited liberty.....

“The activity of the evil spirit in us and among us.... seduces man with a freedom that is not his own. It seduces ambiences, societies and whole generations. Finally, it seduces to manifest that this freedom is nothing else but adapting oneself to a multiple coercion: to the coercion of one’s senses and instincts, to the coercion of information and the various communications media, to the coercion of current schemes of thought, assessment and behavior which keep silent about the fundamental question, which is whether that behavior is good or bad, worthy or unworthy.

“Gradually, the same program judges and issues rulings about good and evil, not according to the genuine value of the works and issues but according to momentary advantages and circumstances, to the ‘imperative’ of pleasure and immediate success.

“Can man still wake up? Can he clearly tell himself that, after all, that ‘unlimited freedom’ turns into slavery? ...

“Learn to think, speak and act according to the evangelical principles of simplicity and clarity: ‘Yes, yes. No, no.’ Learn to call white white and black black – evil evil and good good. Learn to call sin sin, rather than liberation and

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progress, even if all fashions and propaganda are opposed to that” (Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1981, vol. IV, 1, pp.

788 to 791) [our translation].

3. The Fatima revelations, another reason for terror?

The Fatima revelations speak of a tremendous punishment to befall humanity if it does not abandon the ways of sin into which it has sunk. The announcement of that punishment is found in the famous second secret revealed to the three little seers - Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta - on July 13, 1917. These are the words of Our Lady according to Sister Lucia, the only seer still alive: “You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go; in order to save them, God wants to establish devotion to my Immaculate Heart in the world.

“If they do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and there will be peace.

“The war will come to an end. But if they do not stop offending God, in the reign of Pius XI a worse war will begin. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that it is the great sign that God gives you that He will punish the world for its crimes by means of war, hunger and persecutions against the Church and the Holy Father.

“To prevent it I will come to ask the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are fulfilled, Russia will convert and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer and many nations will be annihilated. Finally, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, she will convert and the world will be given some time of peace.

“In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will be always preserved, 51 etc.”

As is known, in the same apparition of July 1917 Our Lady announced to the three shepherd children a third secret whose text is in the possession of the Holy See since late 1958 or early 1959.

According to Sister Lucia, the third part of the secret deals with matters other than those two parts already revealed and could be released only after 1960, when their content would become "clearer" as she told Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office (cf. La Documentation Catholique, Paris, n° 1490, 3-19-67, p. 542).

So far, the Vatican has not disclosed this third secret and there is no guarantee as to the authenticity of a version of it that circulates widely in Catholic circles.

Nevertheless, a contextual analysis of the two parts already revealed (the first deals with the vision of Hell and the second announces the punishment) enables one to make a plausible conjecture that the third part of the secret, distinct from the

Cf. Antonio Augusto Borelli Machado, As aparições e a Mensagem de Fátima conforme os manuscritos da Irmã Lúcia, Ed. Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 1984, 20ª ed., pp. 44 to 47). [REPLACE WITH ENGLISH EDITION] 51

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previous ones, deals with the crisis in the Church, which is becoming increasingly clearer since the 60's. 52 Mr. JAP summarily mentions these revelations (WV pp. 77-78). But he commits two serious flaws such as attributing to them the prophecy that two-thirds of mankind will perish during the chastisement. Though there may be private revelations that speak about that, the Fatima ones do not.

TFP sees the chastisement Our Lady predicted at Fatima as a supreme act of God’s mercy toward a sinful world, as during that extraordinary suffering, many souls may repent and do expiation for their sins. Just as the Great Flood, according to St. Peter, was a motive of eternal salvation for many who had remained incredulous as Noah was building the arch. However, when the tremendous chastisement fell upon them, they repented and asked God’s forgiveness, accepting death as expiation for their sins. 53 About the Fatima revelations, as well as those of Lourdes and many others, it should be said that since the cycle of official revelations closed with the death of the last Apostle, they are definitively included in the category of private revelations. Now then, while a Catholic must give his assent to the official revelations under pain of sinning against the Faith, he can freely believe in or refuse to believe in private revelations, according to his own prudential criteria.

However, a Catholic who believes in the Fatima revelations is far from the danger of being called credulous, superficial or heterodox. In fact, the Roman Pontiffs, as prelates from the world over have shown such high regard for devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, that such epithets would be wholly inappropriate. 54 Interesting considerations on this matter can be found in the article, “A mensagem de Fátima e a crise na Igreja” [The Message of Fatima and the Crisis in the Church] by A. A. Borelli Machado, in Catolicismo, no 317, May 1977.

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“He [Our Lord Jesus Christ] preached to those spirits that were in prison [in Limbo]: which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God [for their conversion] in the days of Noe, when the ark was a building: wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. Whereunto baptism being of the like form, now saveth you also” (1 Pt. 3:19-21).

On the interpretation usually given this excerpt, see José Salgueiro OP, Bíblia Comentada, BAC, Madrid, 1965, vol. VII, pp. 129-130.

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54 Leaving aside the acts and documents by bishops worldwide calling for devotion to Our Lady of Fatima in one way or another (just listing them would take a whole volume), the Holy See and high-ranking Roman prelates have also often expressed support to this devotion as manifested at Cova da Iria and the Fatima Shrine: 1926, November 1 – The Apostolic Nuncio to Lisbon, Msgr. Nicotra visits the site of the apparitions.

1927, January 21 – The Holy See grants Fatima the privilege of a votive Mass.

1929, January 9 - Pius XI gives holy cards of Our Lady of Fatima to teachers and students of Colégio Português in Rome.

1929, December 6 - Pius XI blesses the statue of Our Lady of Fatima destined for Rome’s Colégio Português.

1930, October 13 – The Bishop of Leiria publishes a pastoral letter approving devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and declaring the apparitions worthy of credit.

1931, May 13 – Great pilgrimage by the Portuguese Episcopate led by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon and the Apostolic Nuncio to Portugal; consecration of Portugal to Our Lady of Fatima.

1942, October 31 – Closure of the commemorations of the 25th anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions. The Holy Father Pius XII addresses Portugal in Portuguese and consecrates the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

1946, May 13 – At Cova da |Iria, the Papal Legate, Cardinal Aloisi Masella, crowns a statue of Our Lady of Fatima as “Queen of Peace and of the World.” The number of pilgrims rises to about one million.

1950, May 8 - Pius XII declares: "Gone are the times when one could still doubt Fatima.”

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In his homily of May 13, 1982 on a pilgrimage to Fatima to thank Our Lady for having survived the sacrilegious attempt on his life at St. Peter’s Square precisely on May 13 of the previous year, John Paul II said the following words, attesting to the urgent need for the Fatima message today:

1951, October 13 – In the presence of 50 bishops, Cardinal Tedeschini, as Papal Legate, closes the Universal Holy Year at Fatima and reveals that at the end of the Holy Year of 1950 Pius XII had seen for four times, in the Vatican gardens, the “Miracle of the Sun” just as it had happened at Cova da Iria on October 13, 1917.

1952, July 7 - Pius XII consecrates the peoples of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Apostolic Letter Sacro Vergente Anno).

1955, May 13 – Cardinal Ottaviani presides over the ceremonies of a pilgrimage to the Fatima Shrine.

1956, May 13 – Beginning, at the Shrine, of the commemorations of the 25th anniversary of the consecration of Portugal to the Immaculate Heart of Mary under the presidency of Cardinal Roncalli, the future John XXIII. 1956, October 13 – Cardinal Eugene Tisserant, Dean of the Sacred College, presides over the closure of the pilgrimage on the 25 anniversary of the consecration of Portugal to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and blesses the headquarters of the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima.

1957, October 15 - Pilgrimage led by Cardinal Cicognani.

1959, February 8 – Cardinal Fernando Cento, Apostolic Nuncio to Lisbon, newly named member of the Sacred College, bids farewell to Fatima.

1960, May 13 – The Apostolic Nuncio to Lisbon, Msgr. Giovanni Panico, lights at the Shrine a candle offered by the Pope, saying: “This candle represents the heart and soul of the Holy Father, who came to pray at thy feet in the Fatima Shrine.”

1960, October 12 and 13 – This pilgrimage is recorded in Fatima history as one of the largest collective manifestations of prayer and penance. It is presided over by Cardinal Lercaro, Archbishop of Bologna (Italy).

1961, May 12 and 13 – The pilgrimage is led by Cardinal Luigi Traglia, Vicar-General of Rome.

1961, October 13 – The Holy Father John XXIII sends a signed letter to the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, "as I know and can imagine the spiritual ardor preparing for the second National Pilgrimage to Fatima.”

1963, August 28 – With great ceremony, Cardinal Tisserant blesses the Byzantine Chapel of the Blue Army.

1963 – In addition to a visit by five Cardinals, the year is marked by a legacy from the late Pope John XXIII – his Pastoral Cross – to the Fatima Shrine which he visited as a pilgrim, and by the concession of a Mass specific for Fatima.

1964, May 12 to 13 – The pilgrimage is led by Cardinal Agostino Bea. 1964, November 21 – At the end of the 3rd Session of Vatican Council II, after declaring Our Lady to be the “Mother of the Church,” Paul VI entrusts humanity to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and announces he will send a Golden Rose to the Fatima Shrine.

1965, May 13 – This pilgrimage sees the unforgettable delivery of the Golden Rose to the Shrine. In attendance are the Legate of the Holy Father, Cardinal Fernando Cento, and another 25 Portuguese bishops, in addition to the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon.

1966, January 21 – Visit by Msgr. Mario Nasalli Rocca, Master of the Household of His Holiness Pope Paul VI. 1966, May 12 and 13 – The pilgrimage is led by Cardinal José António Ferreto.

1967, May 13 - Paul VI visits the Fatima Shrine and takes part in the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the act by Pius XII, which would take place on October 31 of that year.

1982, April 20 - Cardinal Casaroli, the Secretary of State, sends a letter to all bishops communicating that John Paul II would visit Fatima on May 13, when he intended to renew, spiritually united with all the world’s bishops, the two acts carried out by Pius XII. 1982, May 13 – John Paul II visits the Fatima Shrine and consecrates the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, renewing the acts of Pius XII in 1942 and 1952.

1983, December 8 – John Paul II sends a letter to the world’s bishops inviting them to unite themselves with him in the act of delivery and consecration of the world he was going to carry out on March 25th of the following year.

1984, March 25 – In Rome, John Paul II makes an offering and consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and especially of the men and nations most in need of that offer and consecration.

Data for this list, up until the year 1966, were taken from Fátima – Guia histórico e turístico, organized by Fr. José Domingues Fernandes Silva, 1967, 112 pp.

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“In the light of the mystery of Mary's spiritual motherhood, let us seek to understand the extraordinary message, which began on 13 May, 1917 to resound throughout the world from Fatima.....

“If the Church has accepted the message of Fatima, it is above all because that message contains a truth and a call whose basic content is the truth and the call of the Gospel itself…

“This call was uttered at the beginning of the twentieth century, and it was thus addressed particularly to this present century. The Lady of the message seems to have read with special insight the "signs of the times", the signs of our time…

“The message is addressed to every human being. The love of the Savior’s Mother reaches every place touched by the work of salvation. Her care extends to every individual of our time, and to all the societies nations and peoples. Societies menaced by apostasy, threatened by moral degradation. The collapse of morality involves the collapse of societies….

“The appeal of the Lady of the message of Fatima is so deeply rooted in the Gospel and the whole of Tradition that the Church feels that the message imposes a commitment on her.

Further on, after asking how the Successor of St. Peter presents himself before Our Lady of Fatima, the Pontiff answers: “He presents himself, reading again with trepidation the motherly call to penance, to conversion, the ardent appeal of the Heart of Mary that resounded at Fatima sixty-five years ago. Yes, he reads it again with trepidation in his heart, because he sees how many people and societies—how many Christians—have gone in the opposite direction to the one indicated in the message of Fatima. Sin has thus made itself firmly at home in the world, and denial of God has become widespread in the ideologies, ideas and plans of human beings.

“But for this very reason the evangelical call to repentance and conversion, uttered in the Mother's message, remains ever relevant. It is still more relevant than it was sixty-five years ago. It is still more urgent” (Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1982, vol. V, 2, pp. 1570-1575 – emphasis in the original]. Translation by L'Osservatore Romano, Weekly Edition in English, May 17, 1982 in http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP820513.HTM [TRANSLATOR’S NOTE TO THE EDITOR: THE REASON I QUOTED INSEGNAMENTI IS THAT THE BOLD EMPHASIS IS FOUND ONLY IN THAT ORIGINAL EDITION, NOT IN THE OSSERVATORE’S VERSION]. *** It is conceivable that the Secret of Fatima will arouse antipathy and even complaints from communists and socialists and the vast hordes of useful "innocents," "fellow travelers" and the like. And, as a result, that the Catholic left will work in earnest to discredit the Fatima apparitions and those who spread them and comment

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about them. The "weapons" Mr. JAP has wielded here appear to have been taken from that arsenal prepared in Moscow. 55 *** As a result of all this, Catholics who believe in, disseminate and comment on the Fatima revelations have a right not to be criticized or challenged simply on that account. At Fatima, Our Lady herself asked for this dissemination. And commentaries that strictly adhere to the message’s contents without expansion or distortion do nothing but increase the effectiveness of the dissemination, making the message it easier to be understood and appreciated in its true scope. That is what TFP does.

If such behavior implicitly and necessarily spreads terror, as Mr. JAP claims, the one to blame for it would be… the Mother of God herself!

It is not admissible that the contents of all the documents mentioned in the earlier items and on this one create imbalanced terror… in balanced persons; for it is not believable that Church teachings and revelations from Our Lady could harm souls.

If someone’s nerves are frayed after studying these matters, the evil is not in them but in the psychic or nervous shortcomings of those who study them.

So, if some drawback resulted to Mr. JAP, the cause is in him, rather than in what he learned in TFP. 4. Recalling the pains of Hell is opportune at all times The same can be said of the fear of Hell, which Mr. JAP appears to relate especially with his own crisis of purity.

It is certain that, even before Vatican Council II, many preachers displayed a tendency to speak less and less about Hell. There is a mutual cause-and-effect relationship between this tendency and the disinterest (if not growing antipathy) among a certain mundane or exquisitely “intellectualized” public toward preaching on this topic.

It is no wonder: a sinner is usually as refractory to hearing about the punishing of his sins as a bad debtor avoids talking about his debts. On the other hand, pragmatic and expedient preachers avoid dealing with topics that displease their listeners. All that notwithstanding, the words of Sacred Scripture continue valid for all men at all times and places: “In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin” (Eccli. 7:40).

As is known, the last things are: Death, Judgment, Hell and Heaven.

Accordingly, very serious documents of the ecclesiastical Magisterium, treatises and sermons by theologians, moralists and most eminent preachers, as well as countless saints have dealt with this theme per longum et latum in their writings, for the greater benefit of the faithful.

At another place, the Ecclesiasticus says: “The fear of the Lord driveth out sin; for he that is without fear, cannot be justified” (1:27-28). And also: “There is nothing better than the fear of God: and that there is nothing sweeter than to have regard to the commandments of the Lord” (23:37).

Note this criticism of Fatima by French Communist ideologue Roger Garaudy on 5-19-1970 during a debate with Cardinal Jean Daniélou before French TV cameras: "Don’t forget that when Marx wrote ‘Religion is the opiate of the people’ he placed himself in that part of the 19th century when the spirit of the Holy Alliance still subsisted; and I must say that spirit has not died everywhere; it is even encouraged at times. So as not to mention anyone, I will simply evoke Fatima" (Roger Garaudy, “Chrétiens et marxistes devant le monde moderne,” in La Documentation Catholique, no 1564, 7-6-70, pp. 546-547).

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The idea that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom appears in the Sacred Scriptures no fewer than seven times (Ps 110:10; Prov 1:7; 9:10; 15:33; Eccli. 1:16; 1:25; 21:13).

So, in principle, to speak about the pains of Hell with commensurate insistence can only be beneficial.

For example, St. Alphonsus Marie de Liguori organized his famous popular missions carried out by the Redemptorist Fathers with great popular participation at least until the end of the so-called “pre-conciliar era.” According to St. Alphonsus’ norms, preachers should go to the streets and squares at nightfall and exhort the people to show up at the Mission. The Saint himself set the norms on how those “nocturnal exhortations” should be: “Sem estas exortações, pelo menos nos primeiros quatro ou cinco dias, verse-á a igreja freqüentada apenas por aqueles que menos necessitam da Missão. A experiência tem demonstrado com evidência que as exortações da noite conseguem de modo maravilhoso acordar essas almas preguiçosas e levá-las à Igreja.

“Essas exortações, é de se notar, devem ser de curta duration e até mesmo bem curta, não devendo ir além de quinze minutos.....

“Serão feitas em tom veemente, não faltarão aí palavras de terror, que firam com freqüência o coration e os ouvidos dos assistentes.....

“Não devem elas terminar com o ato de contrition, mas sim com uma sentença aterradora..... “É bom retornar sempre ao argumento, assim: "Ouviste, pecador? Se vens ao Senhor, tu o enCounterrás clemente e misericordioso; se recusas seu abraço paternal, Ele te fugirá, não te chamará novamente...'....

“Finalmente se conclui com uma sentença aterradora, que deve estar em conexão com o argumento, com a proposition. Sentença curta em termos graves, aterradores, que façam profunda impressão e toquem o coration do ouvinte.

Por exemplo: "Treme, pecador, treme! Quiçá esta noite ainda Deus te mandará a morte, quando não queres mudar de vida! E serás assim um condenado!' Ou: "Geme, lamenta teus pecados, faze-o agora para não o teres que fazer na eternidade!' Ou: "Continua, na tua vida desregrada, continua a ofender a Deus; escuta, porém: no Vale de Josafá hás de ouvir a sentença de Jesus Cristo: Ide, malditos, para o fogo eterno...' Poder-se-á terminar também com as palavras do cântico, caso elas se prestem a isso, assim: “De um dia para outro? Assim morres, pecador!” (Saint Alphonsus Marie Liguori, Os exercícios da Missão, Vozes, Petrópolis, 1944, pp. 9 a 14). [MISSION EXERCISES IS IN GOOGLE BOOKS BUT IT IS NOT IN WORD FORMAT AND ONLY PARTLY READABLE] Who would dare claim that the fruit of the Redemptorist Missions was to fill madhouses or mental wards with patients? Over 200 years of practice shows exactly the opposite. Missions have always been the occasion for great conversions and moral recovery, thus creating propitious conditions for mental sanity. *** In short, TFP deserves no censure for alerting its members and volunteers to the dangers to which their souls are exposed, especially today.

If there was any harm in that it would be impossible not to say that the Mother of God’s maternal message to sinful humanity today is harmful as well. In fact, in this regard, TFP does nothing but implicitly or explicitly promote, explain and comment on the message of Fatima.

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It is also well to recall that on her third apparition at Fatima on July 13, 1917, the Blessed Mother showed the three shepherds Hell, a vision that was the first part of the famous secret. Sister Lucia recounts: “Upon saying these last words, [Our Lady] again opened her hands as in the preceding two months. The reflection [of the light they emitted] appeared to penetrate into the earth and we saw, as it were, a sea of fire. Submerged in that fire were demons and souls in human shapes who resembled red-hot, black and bronze-colored embers that floated about in the blaze borne by the flames that issued from them with clouds of smoke, falling everywhere like sparks in great fires, without weight or equilibrium, amidst moans of pain and despair that horrified us and made us shake with terror (that must be when I shouted “aahhi” people said they heard). The devils had horrible and disgusting shapes of scary and unknown animals but were transparent like black burning coals” (apud Antonio Augusto Borelli Machado, As aparições e a Mensagem de Fatima conforme os manuscritos da Irmã Lúcia, Ed. Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 1984, 20th ed., pp. 43-44).

Commenting on the terror that this vision caused on the three children – and particularly on Jacinta, the smallest – Sister Lucia thus expressed herself in her memoirs (III): “Some persons, even pious ones, do not want to talk about the pains of hell to children so as not to scare them; but God did not hesitate to show it to three children, one of them only six years of age, and who He knew would become so horrified – I would almost dare say – to the point of withering” (Memórias da Irmã Lúcia, edição da Postulação dos Processos de Beatificação de Francisco e Jacinta Marto, Fatima, 1978, 3rd ed., p. 97).

Undoubtedly, as happens with other religious themes, fear of Hell can lead people who meditate on it to an unbalanced rigor that fits their personal preferences rather than the rules of wisdom. That also happens, for example, with a meditation on God's mercy, which can favor laxity if made inappropriately.

But these possible abuses do not prevent most souls from developing or absorbing such themes in a balanced way. “Abusus non tollit usum” (abuse does not preclude use) says a rule of law that also applies in the religious field.

Incidentally, in this kind of preaching, just where does normality end and abuse start? It all depends so much on the peculiarities of the lecturer, his audience, the occasion and manner in which the subject is dealt with, that it is very difficult, in a considerable number of cases, to draw the line exactly between one thing and the other.

In this particular case, criticism could be fitting if the way to deal with the subject were objectionable on account of excessive insistence or charlatenesque drama. *** Mr. JAP appears to insinuate something of that when, talking about a visit he made to TFP’s “secret monastery” he makes a long report about a magnetic tape he heard containing the recording of an exorcism (WV pp. 116-119).

Yet, this tape was heard during a plenary meeting at TFP’s auditorium without causing on anyone the disproportional panic Mr. JAP describes himself in. And always tending to bill himself as paradigmatic, he imagines the reaction of others: “My companions and I, all livid, some trembling, strove to recover our normal breathing; and some, more tense than others, had their skin wet with sweat” (WV p. 119).

If one analyses the charlatenesque drama of this episode, it is actually found only in the way Mr. JAP recalls it.

Incidentally, note that as he narrates this episode Mr. JAP mentions no conversations with his colleagues but only what he believes to have noticed in their

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physiognomic expressions. For a subjectivist observer like him, prone to imagining in others what he himself felt, that is quite understandable.

Furthermore, look at this excerpt: "Suddenly, the [exorcised] man, lying on the sofa, was slowly showing signs of coming to; but instead of appearing normal he woke up with a gloomy and pale aspect, muttering incomprehensible words. Gradually, his muscles began to contract and the man, with goggle eyes frightening enough to give the impression that they would jump from their sockets, aligned himself in his chair, dug his fingernails into the upholstery and took on a proud and defiant stance, increasingly turning up the volume of a desperate and chastening groan.

"Vade retro, Satana! - Shouted the priest, looking hastily for the crucifix and the holy water bottle. Frightened, the man’s friends and relatives approached him, expecting to have to restrain him again ...." (WV pp. 118-119).

One would say the narrator has watched a movie in Technicolor. For you need a lot of imagination to compose, on the basis of a mere recording, such a lively and richly detailed report. *** Once these various “terrors” are duly explained, one sees the crumbling of another column supporting the empty and feckless accusation that “brainwashing” is practiced in TFP.

Chapter VII – Chastity before marriage: an arbitrary imposition by TFP? One of the components of Mr. JAP’s crisis has to do with chastity.

1. Chastity according to one’s state: a precept of the Law of God In this regard, we must note first of all that chastity before marriage was a duty of conscience for Mr. JAP both as a youngster and then as a young man during his stay in TFP. The Sixth Commandment of the Law of God clearly says: "Thou shalt not sin against chastity," thus forbidding all Catholics, male and female, to commit any impurity by action, thought or desire, and particularly to have any sexual relation outside the sacred bonds of marriage.

Even in that state the precept of chastity remains, albeit with specific peculiarities.

For that reason, Catholic morals coined the expression "to practice chastity according to one’s state" in life.

During his stay in TFP, Mr. JAP should keep chastity not because of an arbitrary imposition by TFP but by virtue of the Law of God. The TFP undoubtedly strives to help young people observe the virtue of purity, an arduous and difficult virtue against which fallen human nature rebels as a result of original sin. Hence one can say that in the moral order a chaste man is a miracle. But, as paradoxical as it may seem, with the help of grace, which God denies no one, and in a Christian order of things a chaste man is a frequent miracle. Provided, of course, that he really wants to be chaste, that he prays and is vigilant and careful to keep strictly away from near occasions of sin.

Having thus obtained habitual chastity, it is normal for a man to feel stable in that virtue, albeit keeping in mind the admonition of St. Paul: "Qui se existimat stare videat ne cadat ("Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest

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he fall" - 1 Cor 10:12). Unless God in his infinite wisdom decides that he should go through temptations, at times even stormy, during which his fortitude is strengthened even further and he is able to expiate for others or perhaps for disorders in his own past life.

This stability gives his soul a balance and well-being which are already in this life a reward for the moral battle he has won.

But if man falters in prayer or vigilance and takes the fateful path of small concessions to impurity, nothing is more difficult for him than to remain chaste.

That is precisely why Catholics habitually followed certain behavioral guidelines before the present process of autodemolition in the Church of which Paul VI spoke (cf. Allocution to the students of the Lombard Seminary, December 7, 1968 in Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, vol. VI, p. 1188). Mr. JAP, who saw these rules practiced in TFP, now distorts and interprets them in a foolish or malevolent fashion as if they were symptoms of an aversion to women as such (WV pp. 42-43). 56 A prudent behavior in relations between people of the opposite sex is one of the basic characteristics of Christian civilization no matter how much modern mentality and customs are refractory to it. In relation to the state of religion, which is the state of perfection, founders of religious orders and congregations have gone into minute details concerning relationships of their members with persons of the opposite sex. Such details could disconcert sensual and permissive mentalities today. “Between a male saint and a female saint, let there be a hefty wall,” says an old Portuguese maxim. And another goes even further, in an ironic note: “A male saint and a female saint [should never be together], not even on the same altar.”

It would be impossible to expound here all the guidelines of traditional Catholic morals regarding relations between the two sexes as explained by orthodox Catholic moralists.

Thus, there is nothing strange about the fact that TFP recommends that its members and volunteers be very careful in this matter and discourages them from attending mixed swimming pools, beaches, dance venues, houses in which immoral dress or the nonstop watching of television recklessly open to any kind of programming can easily put their purity at risk. Mr. JAP, continually undermined by his pusillanimous division between chastity and impurity, apparently fails to understand that.

But, someone may ask, by clinging to that obsolete morality 57 does TFP refuse the refreshing moral liberation that occurred in the Church during the post-conciliar period?

Catholic morals, wholly founded on the precepts contained in Revelation, can not change according to the whims of the times. H.H. John Paul II recently recalled it in Amersfoort last May 14 during his tumultuous journey to Holland as he addressed the young:

The accusation that the TFP nurtures this alleged aversion for women is all the more false as everyone knows that since the early 70’s and increasingly over the last few years, the TFP has counted on the precious help of female supporters.

At the latest National TFP Supporters Conference held in São Paulo from August 2 to 4 this year, 801 out of the 1,418 registered participants were females.

57 Those who think the world is tumbling down the abyss of immorality without healthy and even admirable reactions are mistaken. On such reactions in the United States these days, see “Valores familiares ganham impulso” [“Family Values Gather Steam”] and “Combate à imoralidade e drogas” [Combat against Immorality and Drugs”] in Catolicismo nos. 368-370, August/October 1981.

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“In fact, the Gospel presents to us a very demanding Christ who invites for a radical conversion of the heart (cf. Mk. 1:5), detachment from earthly goods (cf. Mt. VI, 19 a 21), forgiveness of offenses (cf. Mt. VI, 14 ff.), love of one’s enemies (cf. Mt. 5:44), bearing affronts with patience (cf. Mt. 5:39 ff.) and even sacrificing one’s own life for the love of neighbor (cf. Jn. 15: 13). In the sexual sphere, particularly notable is His position in defense of the indissolubility of matrimony (cf. Mt. 19:3-9) and his condemnation of adultery even if committed only in the heart (cf. Mt. 5:27 ff.). And how can we not be impressed with his precept to ‘tear out one’s eye’ and ‘cut one’s hand’ if such body parts were the occasion for ‘scandal’ (cf. Mt. 5:29 ff.)?

“Given these precise references from the Gospels, is it realistic to imagine a ‘permissive’ Christ in the area of conjugal life, abortion, pre-marital, extra-marital or homosexual relations? The first Christian community, instructed by those who had personally known Christ, was certainly not permissive. Suffice it here to mention the numerous passages of St. Paul’s epistles in this matter (cf. Rom. 1:26 ff.; Cor. 6:9; Gal. 5:19 etc.). The words of the Apostle are certainly not lacking clarity and rigor.

And they are inspired from on High. They remain as norms for the Church at all times.

In light of the Gospel, she teaches that every man is entitled to respect and love. Man is important! In her teaching, the Church never passes judgment on concrete persons.

But on the level of principles, she must distinguish good from evil. Permissiveness does not make men happy. The human being only realizes himself to the degree he accepts the requirements derived from his dignity as a being created in the ‘image and likeness of God’ (Gn. 1: 27).

“Therefore, if the Church today says things that are not pleasing, it is because she feels an obligation to do so. She does it out of duty and out of loyalty. Indeed, it would be much easier for her to stick to generalities. But at times she feels a duty, in accordance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to maintain ideals in their full scope, though running the risk of challenging current opinions.

“Is not true, then, that the evangelical message is one of joy? On the contrary, it is very true! And how is it possible? The answer is one word, a short word whose contents are as vast as the sea. That word is: love. Rigor [following] the precept and joy of in one’s heart can be perfectly reconciled if the person acting is moved by love.

He who loves fears no sacrifice. On the contrary, he seeks in sacrifice the most convincing proof of the authenticity of his love” (L’Osservatore Romano, 5-16-1985) [our translation from the Portuguese].

2. Mr. JAP’s culpable division of soul – “He that loveth danger shall perish in it” At any rate, the struggle for purity is a hard one, particularly these days.

Chastity is less and less understood, and is subject to campaigns of derision which at times border on ferocity. One example is the case Mr. JAP himself told, of three teenage girls who attended the same college with him and one day surrounded him with lewd provocations.

That, plus the solicitations of the flesh, of whose violence – which also appears in other topics of the book – Mr. JAP boasts unabashedly (and even with some pride) as he describes an act of masturbation, makes clear that his good resolutions in this matter were rather precarious, one would almost say sporadic (WV pp. 20, 40-41, 8994 and 186-194).

He was divided between the law of the flesh and the law of the spirit: “But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin, that is in my members” (Rm 7:23). But instead of overcoming the law of the flesh with the law of the mind through a serious, firm and heroic

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resolution to remain pure, it is patent from his narration that he often, and even more or less habitually and avowedly, gave the solicitations of the flesh a semi-consent.

He actually never failed, in his softness, to grant the latter some place in his affections, dreams, nostalgias and, inevitably, in his hopes.

Obviously influenced by the Freudian theory that repression is at the root of neuroses, he appears to see the above-expounded TFP teaching on purity as intrinsically conducive to nervous imbalance. But – avoiding to directly confront official Church doctrine in this matter – which the TFP simply repeats – he blames the entity for all the problems he encountered in his struggle for purity. It is impossible not to call this behavior disloyal.

Now then, the real one to blame for the nervous tensions and disorders Mr. JAP’s refers to is not TFP, let alone the Church. It is Mr. JAP himself.

Indeed, the more a Catholic who wishes to be pure makes concessions to impurity, the stormier will be its attraction upon him. Each concession makes the fight harder and is usually followed by even greater concessions.

Such states of mind, unfortunately, are not rare among human beings. And genuine Catholic moralists do their best to highlight all the risk they bring to the soul.

“He that loveth danger shall perish in it,” says Holy Scripture (Eccli. 3:27).

This sentence summarizes the entire history of the "struggle" that Mr. JAP carried out to remain pure. And it also explains his ultimate failure. He sympathized with the danger, loved it ... and finally, through his own fault, perished in it.

Unfortunately, this summary of his moral life is the banal story of the thousands and millions of moral disasters taking place in the grim and convulsed days in which we live.

Mr. JAP says he prayed a lot to obtain the graces necessary for his situation and gives to understand that Heaven remained deaf to his prayers. No wonder. God rejects prayers offered in the spiritual condition in which Mr. JAP describes himself: “Do not offer wicked gifts, for such he will not receive” (Eccli. 35:14). And the Prophet Isaías warns: “Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha. To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims, saith the Lord? I am full… Offer sacrifice no more in vain…. Your assemblies are wicked. My soul hateth your new moons, and your solemnities: they are become troublesome to me, I am weary of bearing them. And when you stretch forth your hands, I will turn away my eyes from you: and when you multiply prayer, I will not hear….. Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do perversely, learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. And then come, and accuse me [if I treat you not with mercy] saith the Lord:” (Is. 1:10-18).

Prayer alone, therefore, is not enough. Without man’s cooperation, there is no perseverance in virtue. That is why St. Augustine said: “Qui creavit te sine te, non salvabit te sine te” – “He Who created you without your help, will not save you without your help.”

Obviously, a divided state of soul like that of Mr. JAP can be harmful to the nerves. But the cause of that division is not found in the 6th Commandment of the Law of God but rather in the culpable, dilacerating and psychically exhausting hesitations and transgressions of that Commandment to which Mr. JAP consented and which increasingly undermined his good resolutions.

The action of TFP was merely one to support his tottering will as much as possible by helping him – as much as he wanted – to rebuild in his soul the interior

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unity compromised by his indecision. Mr. JAP never fully accepted that help, but increasingly refused it. It is not too much to repeat that from the standpoint of Catholic morals, this is a typical, garden-variety story of a sad spiritual decadence.

3. TFP recommends celibacy to its members and volunteers who freely desire it; but the Society never imposes it in any way whatsoever Furthermore, according to the norms of the Brazilian Civil Code, on turning 21 Mr. JAP was free to pick a spouse and marry. As a matter of fact, he could already have done it at 18, as long as he obtained parental authorization or emancipation. 58 However, moved by the vanity of remaining celibate without renouncing his pusillanimous concessions, he did not do it. Why did he prefer to “be burnt” rather than “marry” 59 and thus failed to enter a chaste matrimony when he was able to do it according to the laws of God and of the State? TFP pressure?

First of all it is well to point out that in the times of Mr. JAP there were married people in TFP and even in positions of great prominence. And they had married after becoming members of TFP or the "Legionário Group" or "Catolicismo Group," the initial core from which TFP germinated.

In this Society, celibacy has never been an absolute condition for membership without exception, as many imagine. Certainly, TFP favors their members and volunteers’ free option for celibacy, a more excellent state than marriage. And in that it does well, for it is laudable for Christians to advise the most perfect. 60 However, the entity never wished to impose continued celibacy on persons who would not face the tough battle for purity with the necessary generosity or who simply felt attracted to the conjugal state. Nor did it have any means to impose it.

All this has a bearing on the analysis of Mr. JAP’s autobiographical novel. From the moment his inner crisis took certain proportions, "Mister Leonardo” was the first to advise him to ask for dispensation from the promises he had made 61 and return to his

Brazilian civil law forbids the marriage of [minors] still subject to patria potestas [their parents’ authority].

But as long as they are authorized, it allows the marriage of young men from age 18 and young ladies from age 16.

59 "But I say to the unmarried, and to the widows: It is good for them if they so continue, even as I. But if they do not contain themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to be burnt" (1 Cor. 7:8-9).

60 This is the teaching of the Apostle St. Paul: “Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife. But if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned: nevertheless, such shall have tribulation of the flesh. But I [wish to] spare you [from it]” (1 Cor. 7:27-28).

In his Encyclical Sacra Virginitas, of March 25, 1954, Pius XII develops this teaching: 58

“And while this perfect chastity is the subject of one of the three vows which constitute the religious state (cf.

CIC can 487) and is also required by the Latin Church of clerics in major orders (cf. CIC can. 132 par. 1) and demanded from members of Secular Institutes (cf. Const. Apost. Provida Mater, art. III, § 2; AAS, vol. XXXIX, 1947, p.

121) it also flourishes among many who are lay people in the full sense: men and women who are not constituted in a public state of perfection and yet by private promise or vow completely abstain from marriage and sexual pleasures, in order to serve their neighbor more freely and to be united with God more easily and more closely.

“To all of these beloved sons and daughters who in any way have consecrated their bodies and souls to God, We address Ourselves, and exhort them earnestly to strengthen their holy resolution and be faithful to it” (AAS, vol.

XLVI, p. 163) also http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_25031954_sacravirginitas_en.html This teaching is precious to dispel the foolish prejudice of many who think perfect chastity is advisable only to those who receive the grace of priestly vocation or a holy calling to the religious state.

61 Promises note well, but not vows as Mr. JAP incorrectly narrates on p. 181 of Warriors of the Virgin. By the way, what he narrates about these “vows” on pp. 170-171 is full of incorrections.

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hometown of Londrina. That was tantamount to cordially pointing out marriage as the normal solution for him.

During his long process of reintegration into ambiences extrinsic to TFP (WV pp. 181-197), the latter kept its doors wide open for his return. But at no time did it put any pressure on him in that direction. And his break with TFP came only when he wanted. That is, when undermined by doubts and disenchantment and on the other hand a desire for sexual practice that at least for the moment showed no signs of leaning toward marriage, he decided to terminate his relationship with TFP. Hence the highly objectionable final scene of his book that takes place in a brothel in Londrina, which he describes in every detail (WV pp. 190-193).

4. Mr. JAP’s doubts and disenchantments “You must live as you think under pain, sooner or later, of ending up by thinking the way you lived” is a shrewd observation by Paul Bourget, a novelist and member of the French Academy of Letters who stood out not only for its literary style but also for his psychological penetration (cf. Le Démon du Midi, Plon, Paris, 1914, vol. II, p. 375).

Divided at first sporadically and later continuously regarding his resolutions to remain pure, Mr. JAP was unable to preserve the initial enthusiasm he once devoted to TFP. Disenchantments and doubts assailed him.

What did TFP do to remedy them? How did it help him avoid or at least attenuate the inner division that would lead him to a nervous crisis?

Let us keep in mind Mr. JAP’s unique psychological structure where sensations and emotions far outweigh reasoning. As events and sensations interact in an interior cauldron heated with the fire of genuine subjectivism, in times of crisis he becomes impenetrable by any outside gaze or action.

In that last phase, only very little could be done for him. And unfortunately, what was done actually availed him nothing. For even the moving graces Mr. JAP received before the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima 62 did not change his refusal.

His unhappy, vacillating soul showed only one unwavering determination: never to abandon the vice of pusillanimous vacillation however insistent the calling of grace might be. *** Naturally, by the very fact they are based on Catholic doctrine, the rebuttals to Mr. JAP contained in this Chapter, considered as a whole, collide head on with the materialistic and deterministic conceptions of psychology and psychiatry of which Freud was the pioneer and “prophet” at the end of the last century and early in this century, (cf. Miguel Beccar Varela and Edwaldo Marques, O pensamento de Freud no livro “Guerreiros da Virgem” [Freud’s Thought in the Book, Warriors of the Virgin] by Mr. José Antônio Pedriali). But that collision goes way beyond the scope of this refutation.

The question of vows in the TFP family of souls is amply explained in the above-mentioned book by Atila Sinke Guimarães, Servitudo ex caritate, Artpress, São Paulo, 1985, pp. 176 to 183, 223-230 & 262-268.

62 In 1973 at the TFP seat in São Paulo, Mr. JAP saw the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima that shed tears in New Orleans. He made a beautiful description of what he observed on the statue and its excellent effect on his soul (WV pp. 137 & 138-139). Reading his narration one has the impression he really received supernatural graces to which, unfortunately, he did not correspond. As a result, grosso modo, his journey toward the abyss remained unchanged.

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Let Mr. JAP stick with Freud and his followers or with those who, though broadly denying his thought, do not reject his naturalist and determinist legacy.

For our part, we will stick with Catholic doctrine, which inspires the action of TFP. *** CHAPTER VIII – TFP: an “initiatory cult” that “lures” adolescents by hiding its true nature and most profound goals?

1. TFP recruiting: a Machiavellian process to “lure” adolescents? Mr. JAP describes TFP system to recruit new adherents as an “allurement” process (WV pp. 72-74).

Mr. JAP presents TFP’s expansion, natural to any society which is neither stagnant nor decadent, in a negative and insulting fashion.

Its recruiting process is said to be aimed mainly or exclusively at adolescents.

Not just any adolescents, Mr. JAP explains, but a specific type of youth: “Adolescent, middle class, not conformed with the world, and with only a few friends – this is the profile of the ideal person to do apostolate with” (WV p. 106).

A. Vocations for activities such as those of TFP, which require disinterested dedication and heroism on behalf of a great ideal, are more frequently found among youths and adolescents First of all, it must be said that the statement that TFP recruits exclusively or almost exclusively among adolescents is entirely anachronistic.

In the beginning of the 70’s, the TFP strove to form a supporter network made up, as we have seen (cf. Chap. V, 2, Note 3), of people from both sexes and the most varied ages, but more notably with persons 30 years of age or older.

Nevertheless, it is true that TFP strives especially to recruit young and even very young people for its ranks of members and volunteers.

Indeed, it is well known that in Brazil, already from adolescence, young men already start asking fundamental questions about the most varied aspects of reality and life (cf. Chap. IV, 12, A). So begins an often precocious process of intellection and volition during which a person’s intelligence and will gradually mature.

It is also known – and it is even banal – that during adolescence and young adulthood the human mind usually opens up more generously toward great horizons, great ideals and great calls for disinterested dedication and heroism.

For this reason, vocations for all activities that particularly call for those qualities, such as the priesthood, the religious state or military life, for example, usually appear in adolescence or early youth. This is why dioceses, religious orders, the Armed Forces etc., strive particularly to attract adolescents and young men to their specialized houses of formation.

Obviously, for analogous reasons, the high goals pursued by TFP, the abnegation it asks of those enthralled with such goals, and in short the whole epic struggle of TFP especially attract adolescents and young men. As a consequence, the Society strives especially to make itself understood (amidst the obstacles of frequent misunderstandings and the constant spread of calumnies) by those who naturally have a more open mind toward it. Nothing could more sensible or normal.

Thus, although in principle TFP welcomes people of all ages among its members and volunteers, nothing is more explainable than for it to prefer recruiting among youths and adolescents. None of that makes it an “initiatory” society or reveals

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any designs of “brainwashing” or “mind control,” as Mr. JAP claims. That is, unless he were to make the same accusations against seminaries, novitiates, military academies and so son.

B. A conception of recruitment that completely ignores the informal habits of Brazilians The Novo Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, by Aurelio Buarque de Holanda Ferreira, records, at the entry aliciar “(From Latin alliciare, allicere) [equivalent to the English allure or entice] transitive verb. 1. Attract, seduce: he enticed his friend by telling him the secret; 2. Bribe: he enticed witnesses to testify in his favor. 3. Attract, canvass: “while they enticed new adepts… Mr. Ramiro visited us often” (Graciliano Ramos, Infância, p. 233). T.d. & i. 4. Seduce, lure: He was arrested for enticing minors for prostitution. 5. Incite, instigate: He enticed parties to assume opposing positions” (Nova Fronteira, Rio de Janeiro, 1st ed., 14th printing, p. 69).

In Enciclopédia Saraiva do Direito [Saraiva Encyclopedia of Law] one reads that to entice is to “seduce, provoke, incite with promises, deceive almost always for an unlawful end.”

In the Military Penal Code, enticement is defined as a “crime committed by a civilian or military person, or both, who, at wartime or peacetime make deceitful promises, deceive or seduce someone to rebel against the internal or external order of the State” (cf. Pedro Nunes, Dicionário de Tecnologia Jurídica, Livraria Freitas Bastos, Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo, 1961, 5th ed., vol. I, p. 71).

The Civil Code deals with the allurement of persons committed to third parties by means of agricultural service contracts (art. 1235).

And the Penal Code (arts. 206 and 207), defines allurement as “a crime that consists in enticing with promises or seducing workers to take them to a foreign territory or any other locality inside the country” (cf. Pedro Nunes, op. cit., p. 71).

Thus, although the word does have a neutral meaning, there is a notorious tendency to employ it both in daily life and in juridical terminology in a pejorative sense that even involves crime or transgression.

Therefore, to say that TFP allures adolescents can only mean that it attracts them fraudulently through lies and shrewd omissions, with ulterior motives.

Mr. JAP repeatedly formulates or insinuates this accusation throughout his book (WV pp. 12-13, 14, 57 ff., 68, 72 ff., 167, 200 etc.).

For example, he claims that he was “surreptitiously” invited to join TFP. “Surreptitiously, yes, for at no moment in the initial phase of the contacts I kept with the Organization I was told that I should or could become one of its members” (WV p.

13).

The candor and naïveté of the author of Warriors of the Virgin are astonishing.

TFP volunteers promote the Society in his high school and ask him, as one of their colleagues, whether he would like to receive its publications. Mr. JAP gives his name and a while later receives a couple of visits by one of the volunteers, with whom he has long and very cordial conversations. He accepts an invitation to attend a lecture at the Londrina seat. He goes and likes it. He goes a second time, then a third, and ends up by adhering to TFP. Always the sole witness to support his own accusation, he claims that during those contacts he was not told they wanted him to join TFP. For the sake of argument, let us admit that it was so. Would it be necessary to tell the obvious, the blatantly obvious to a normally alert Brazilian adolescent – of whom Mr. JAP sees himself as an archetype?

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What did he need to receive in order to understand it? A formal invitation in official letterhead with the pompous formulas of old?

Here too he appears to completely ignore the informal habits of Brazilians, and particularly Brazilian adolescents.

C. Mr. JAP gratuitously discards the ideological aspects of argumentation, seeing in it nothing but a most shrewd psychological artifice

the

TFP

On pages 72-74 of his book, Mr. JAP describes the “allurement technique” employed in TFP: “Once picked out, the candidate needs to be dragged by an overwhelming chain of precise arguments, launched at the right time. His reactions should be meticulously monitored, his points of affinity exploited as much as possible, his resistance smothered with caution and in the most painless way possible.

“Never frontally oppose a candidate’s idea; do not haste to refute his arguments against our theses,” the itinerant apostle explained to me. “Limit yourself, at first, to discuss the points he shares with us, praise the positions he shares with the ‘group.’ In a word, gain his confidence and friendship. Later, and only later, slowly go into the subjects we disagree upon by casting doubt, here and there, on his opinions.

He will naturally try to defend his ideas. When he reacts in that way, we cannot swoop down on him like a lightning bolt but must advance with caution by raising new doubts. That will make him think about what we talked when he is by himself and to try and find an answer to our thoughts. The process has now been unleashed. And he will reach a point in which he will no longer have conditions to resist our argumentation.

“And my adviser continued: “We must create attrition inside him. An ideological attrition which will inevitably trigger the spark. Then, either he adheres to our cause or consciously decides to reject it” (WV pp. 72-73).

Note the insinuation. Rejection is presented as “conscious.” Nothing is said of acceptance, which appears to be unconscious. What does this insinuate? How is it demonstrated? Ambiguity, shadow… still an accusation!

On the other hand, just what “ideological attrition” is this? What is this spark?

How does it work? He does not say it. And yet this is at the very core of his topic...

Mr. JAP pretends to know perfectly the essay, Revolution and CounterRevolution, the bedside work of TFP members and volunteers. So it is to be supposed that he remembers what the book says about the counter-revolutionary “shock,” an operation of “attrition” which his “adviser” may have occasionally referred to: “C. The ‘shock’ of the great conversions.....according to history, it seems that the great conversions usually occur by a fulminating thrust of the soul caused by grace on the occasion of a given internal or external fact. This thrust is different in each case but often has certain similar features. In fact, when a revolutionary converts to the Counter-Revolution, this thrust not infrequently takes place along the following general lines: “a. In the soul of the hardened sinner who, in the rapid march of the process, went immediately to the extreme of the Revolution, there are always resources of intelligence and common sense and tendencies toward good that are more or less defined. Although God never deprives these souls of sufficient grace, He frequently waits until they have reached the very depths of misery, wherein He suddenly brings home to them the enormity of their errors and sins as if in a brilliant flash. Only when

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he had fallen into the state where he would fain have filled his belly with the husks of the swine did the prodigal son really see himself as he actually was and return to his father's house (cf. Lk 15:16-19). b. In the lukewarm and shortsighted soul, which is slowly shipping down the ramp of the Revolution, there still act certain supernatural leavens not entirely refused; values of tradition, order, and religion still glow like embers under the ash. Such souls, by a wholesome shock in a moment of extreme disgrace, may also open their eyes and instantly revive everything that was pining and wasting away within them; it is the rekindling of the smoking wick” (cf. Mt 12:20) (Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, Boa Imprensa, Campos, 1959, p. 50).

In our times of confusion, even more so than in others, every ideological action must have very defined outlines so those whom it addresses can know precisely what consequences the principles being proposed to them entail.

Clearly, this loyal behavior eventually places the candidate in a situation where he has to make choices that are not always easy. And that may provoke in him a shock or internal attrition between what St. Paul called the “old man” and the “new man” (Eph. 4:21-24).

But Mr. JAP’s short reference to the creation of an internal “attrition” in a soul theretofore free of attritions gives an unaware reader the impression of a mean and harmful action: a sly focus, always seeking to distort TFP. In the ambience this focus creates, also the word “spark” – easily related with the term flash, employed in Revolution and Counter-Revolution – appears to acquire a connotation unfavorable to TFP. Sparks... how many kinds of sparks there are! A spark can clarify, illuminate, dazzle. But it also can set ablaze, cause an explosion, and turn everything to ashes.

Presented as having a connection with the unlikable notion of “attrition,” here the “spark” can be seen much more in its evil and destructive aspect as something that unleashes or completes the creation of the “ideological attrition.” This is very much Mr. JAP’s style.

This whole exposition presents candidate recruits as persons endowed with Mr. JAP’s very personal psychology. That is, people who ingest arguments without any interest in analyzing their logical value; people who are sensitive only to the personal impressions that the apostle may cause on them. How different this looks from the youth of his time, so prone to arguments and contestation!

What could be the so-called “overwhelming chain of arguments” capable of “dragging”? With these words, Mr. JAP probably wants to convey the idea that TFP presents its arguments manipulated in such a way as to inhibit analysis in the person’s mind so the person is “dragged” where he does not want to go. So it would be something along the lines of “brainwashing.”

Thus, Mr. JAP gratuitously throws out the intrinsic probatory value of all the arguments presented by TFP, seeing them as Machiavellian psychological artifices to “drag” the candidate by “smothering his resistance.” For this reason, he describes the TFP recruiting process in such a way that at the end the candidate “will reach a point in which he will no longer have conditions to resist our argumentation” (WV p. 73).

Undoubtedly, in any work of persuasion, one cannot take into account only its logical aspects, neglecting the psychological ones; for man does not act before a truth or an error merely as a cold and indifferent reasoning machine. He may have been influenced by the ambiences he attended (schools, universities, professional organizations, social groups etc.). A greater or lesser mental deformation and the

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resulting narrow mindedness can hinder his vision of the truth; he may be attached to long-cherished errors and his vices will resist his renouncing such errors and adhering to the opposite truths that would force him to change his life.

Nothing is more natural than foreseeing all these difficulties and proceeding though always with complete loyalty – to help the candidate to be well disposed to receive the truth, and as a consequence to correct his intellectual and moral defects.

Thus, in a process of conversion, in addition to the logical element there obviously enters a psychological factor, so to speak a pedagogic factor. Above all, there is an intervention of God's grace which operates in man’s soul, drawing him to accept the truth and to do good. Not to speak, finally, of the action of the devil.

In his description, Mr. JAP does not entirely neglect the spiritual aspect – which he deals with soon afterward – but he misses its logical aspect and tries to reduce the TFP recruitment system to a predominantly psychological process that dulls the intelligence and inhibits the will. This allegedly happens to such an extent that, deep down, the neophyte is not responsible – or at least not fully responsible -for making the decision to join the Society. He is allegedly deceived by an extremely shrewd psychological process that constitutes the "allurement."

But Mr. JAP does not bother to demonstrate – note well, demonstrate rather than just say or imply – that the TFP argumentation lacks logical value to persuade in a wholesome and loyal fashion a person who learns about it. He simply discards its logical aspect, seemingly failing to realize that his narration will not be convincing without it. Logical insufficiency inexorably causes his accusation to crumble.

And that is not all. When one reads attentively the transcribed paragraph, as well as the whole excerpt in which he describes TFP’s “initial allurement technique” (WV pp. 72-74), this essential point remains unclear: precisely and definitely, just what does the deception employed by the Society consist of?

Let us admit the obvious principle that every method of formation, or simply of persuasion, must proceed in stages, subject to the weaknesses and idiosyncrasies of the learner. Now then, just what in Mr. JAP’s view of the recruitment or formation system he attributes to TFP, distinguishes what is clear, normal and honest from what is deceitful? He does not say.

And as long as he will not say it, his narration alone is tantamount to an empty accusation.

It is thus clear how simplistic Mr. JAP’s narration of the TFP recruitment process is. It is a manipulated simplicity to always to project a negative image of this Society.

D. The “common ground” tactic or “unperceived ideological transshipment”: other elements in TFP’s so-called “allurement method”? ““Limit yourself, at first, to discuss the points he shares with us, praise the positions he shares with the ‘group.’ In a word, gain his confidence and friendship.

Later, and only later, slowly go into the subjects we disagree upon” (WV p. 73). Thus Mr. JAP describes a tactic TFP employs to attract neophytes.

In our book, In Defense of Catholic Action (Editora Ave Maria, São Paulo, 1943, pp. 220- 243) we describe and strongly criticize the “common ground” technique, an artifice of apostolate then very much advocated by certain progressivist ambiences of Catholic Action. That tactic consisted in remaining systematically silent about (and deep down, complicit with) doctrinal errors or moral defects of persons one was supposed to be doing apostolate with. And in overrating affinities between

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the apostle and the neophyte. In practice, this tragic error resulted into frequent apostasies and – let us say it in passing – it is at the root of many excesses of present-day ecumenism.

In the work, Unperceived Ideological Transshipment and Dialogue (Editora Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 1974, 5ª ed., 126 pp.) we denounce another psychological trick whereby many Catholics gradually are turned into communists.

Is this one of the methods Mr. JAP is attributing to TFP? If so, wouldn’t the Society be crazy to denounce them, if it was employing them as an “allurement technique”?

At any rate, if the tactics Mr. JAP attributes to TFP were to be condemned always and everywhere, so would the legitimate endeavors of diplomacy and commerce, which are part and parcel of daily life.

Yet, nothing even remotely similar takes place in TFP, which is guided by diametrically opposed principles. These principles are secret to no one, having been amply expounded in the essay, Revolution and Counter-Revolution: “Thus, in the journey from error to truth the soul does not have to contend with the crafty silences of the Revolution nor with its fraudulent metamorphoses.

Nothing it ought to know is hidden from it. Truth and goodness are thoroughly taught to it by the Church. Progress in goodness is not secured by systematically hiding from men the ultimate goal of their formation, but by showing it and rendering it ever more desirable The Counter-Revolution must not, then, disguise its whole breadth. It must adopt the eminently wise rules laid down by Saint Pius X as the normative code of behavior for the true apostle: "It is neither loyal nor worthy to hide Catholic status, disguising it with some equivocal banner, as if such status were damaged or smuggled goods’ (Letter to Count Medolago Albani, President of the Italian Economic-Social Union dated 11-22-1909 – Bonne Presse, Paris, vol. V, p. 76). Catholics should not ‘veil the more important precepts of the Gospel out of fear of being perhaps less heeded or even completely abandoned’ (Encyclical Jucunda Sane, 3-12-1904, Bonne Presse, Paris, vol. I, p. 158).

To this the Holy Pontiff judiciously added: ‘No doubt it will not be alien to prudence, when proposing the truth, to make use of a certain temporization when it is a matter of enlightening men who are hostile to our institutions and entirely removed from God. Wounds that have to be cut into, as Saint Gregory said, should first be touched with a delicate hand. But such skill would take on the aspect of carnal prudence if made a constant and common norm of conduct. This is all the more so since in this way one would seem to have very little regard for Divine grace, which is conferred not only upon the priesthood and its ministers but upon all the faithful of Christ, so that our words and acts might move the souls of these men’ (doc. cit., ibid.)” (Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, Boa Imprensa, Campos, 1959, pp. 49-50).

E. The candidate: a passive being “around” whom a combat is waged between Good and Evil, angels and demons, who will inexorably drag him to one side or the other Continuing to describe TFP’s “allurement” process, Mr. JAP refers to the spiritual combat waged “around” the candidate: “This is the most critical period of the apostolate [the moment when the neophyte gives his adhesion]: the fact is that we must fight so he will not distance himself; for if that happens he will be running the risk of losing his soul, as outside the TFP – you know that very well – there is no salvation. At this moment we can give him no quarter, as our omission will be exacted from us when we render

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accounts to God for our actions here on Earth. Only omission? No! Also our ideological lack of preparedness and spiritual lukewarmness. Recruiting a militant is above all a spiritual work. From the first contact he maintains with us he will be incessantly coerced by demons to drive himself away from us. At the same time, the angels will be waging an implacable fight on your side to overcome the devils. What happens around every candidate – just as happened with us – is an inexorable combat every second between Good and Evil, Truth and Lie, Light and Darkness – in the final analysis, between God and Lucifer” (WV p. 73).

Note in passing, in this narration, the seriously incorrect vocable, “coerced.”

Someone is coerced to do something only when he is really forced to do it. Now then, according to Catholic doctrine, diabolical temptation can solicit man to do something but not force him to do it.

This excerpt needs many other reservations.

The idea that “outside TFP there is no salvation” is utterly false. There are countless cases of dying people found along highways or city streets, victimized by accidents or bouts of illness, in which TFP members and volunteers make their best effort to bring a priest to give them the last sacraments. If “outside TFP there is no salvation,” why would members and volunteers go through all that effort? This fact alone suffices to demonstrate the utter falsity of this information.

And what goal do TFP campaigns have (cf. A Half Century of Epic Anticommunism, Editora Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 1980, 4ª ed., 472 pp.) other than to shore up some still standing columns of Christian civilization to give glory to God and thus prevent countless sins that seriously endanger souls who do not belong to TFP but whose salvation TFP ardently desires?

For example, campaigns against divorce.

What is said in TFP about the salvation of those who do not belong to it is altogether different. Considering today’s ambiences, salvation is extremely difficult because it is hard to persevere in the complete practice of the Commandments. As matter of fact, those known to practice all the Commandments are extremely few.

Thus, it is rather likely for a young man who leaves TFP that he will have to live in an ambience that will make observance of the Commandments difficult and thus bring him a serious risk of losing his soul. Of course, members and volunteers are keenly aware of this reality. But from here to saying that “outside TFP there is no salvation” there is a chasm which, as usual, Mr. JAP transposes with great ease.

Curiously enough, when he describes the spiritual combat waged for the fixation of the neophyte, “an inexorable combat every second between Good and Evil, Truth and Lie, Light and Darkness – in the final analysis, between God and Lucifer” (WV p. 73) involving angels and devils the whole combat revolves “around” the neophyte. As if the latter were passively solicited to one side or the other and finally dragged to the side of the external force that prevails... This is a peculiar understanding that leaves out the spiritual combat in man’s interior, through which – according to Catholic doctrine – he is fully responsible by accepting or rejecting the grace which God refuses no one. Again, this approach is aligned with the “brainwashing” theory, in which the victim is a mere “patient” in the whole process to which he is subjected.

F. Personalized treatment for each candidate: the “theory of the three springs” Mr. JAP continues his description of the “initial technique of allurement” he claims is employed by TFP: “- The treatment given each candidate must never be the same – he [the TFP volunteer who was supposedly teaching Mr. JAP] continued. – Every person is different from the others; he possesses inside himself a whole universe of

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individualities, potentialities and aptitudes. Every individual analyzes events from the standpoint of the sum of knowledge and experience accumulated during his life. Each person reacts to facts and circumstances according to his temperament. Therefore, to be successful in our work, it is indispensable for us to know the psychology of the person we are recruiting” (WV pp. 73-74).

This pompous statement, to which Mr. JAP wants to give an air of Machiavellian wisdom, leads as a conclusion to the shallowest commonplace: can anyone conceive of any form of recruitment that fails to take into account the mentality of the person being recruited?

Mr. JAP’s narration continues: “‘But, how to find out what his psychology is?’ he asked, rushing to give the answer: at first sight this appears to be a very complex task. But it isn’t. First it is important to find out the way whereby we can enter his soul. We call this way a spring. And there are only three springs that can be explored...

“Which? – I asked, excited over the novelty.

“The psychological, the religious, and the social spring. Let me explain: the psychological spring is the one whereby people are inclined toward music, theater, painting, in short, to beauty; the religious one, well, that is self-explanatory; and the social involves those concerned with political and social developments, seek explanations for them and get involved with them. It is also common for a person to have two springs at the same time, and in some rare cases, all three.

“While he spoke about the manifestations of these three springs, my brain was compiling the information and recalling the first moments I frequented TFP. Without much effort, I reviewed the reactions I had on entering the seat of the organization for the first time, Rodrigo’s talk on international politics, classical and religious music played insistently, and the symbols and paintings displayed in each room, which caused, on those who stopped to analyze them or simply went by them, an effect studied in advance.

“The initial allurement technique described by the itinerant apostle was perfectly adjusted to my case. I believe it was not difficult for my recruiters to immediately perceive my inclination at the same time to religiosity and politics. From then onward, all they had to do was to exploit my favorite subjects, manipulate them according to TFP’s ideology and employ the ‘correct’ arguments at the right time to dispel my doubts and conquer my adhesion” (WV p. 74).

Note once again Mr. JAP’s complete disregard for TFP’s logical and doctrinal aspects and for the intrinsic persuasive value of its arguments (as anyone can easily realize reading the books it publishes, as well as its journal, Catolicismo). He thus reduces everything to a psychological mechanism set up to “exploit” the neophyte’s “favorite subjects” and “manipulate them according to TFP’s ideology” to gain his adhesion.

On the other hand, Mr. JAP appears to content himself with the idea he has already demonstrated that it is a skillfully setup system. He does not bother to mention what is unlawful about the system. His reasoning is rather simple: it is skillful, therefore it is unlawful.

Note, furthermore, the almost infallible efficacy Mr. JAP attributes to this “initial allurement technique.” If it were what he claims, TFP would have today a far greater number of members and volunteers, as nearly all candidates would have adhered to the Society and remained in it; which is obviously false.

Finally, a special comment should be made on the “doctrine of the three springs,” which is indeed talked about in TFP. The metaphorical expression, “springs” designates a threefold criterion to classify -- in the vast number of subjects TFP deals

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with – the issues that raise greater interest among novices and should be approached preferentially so they will take an interest in TFP right away and can better gauge, right from the outset, the scope of the Society’s action.

Obviously, the preliminary knowledge of these matters implies that neophytes will gradually become more deeply acquainted with other aspects of TFP’s doctrinal horizon. This knowledge serves as an introductory path for them, by delving deeper into the topics of their interest, to get to know the whole vast doctrinal ensemble into which these topics fit.

Nothing could be more natural.

But Mr. JAP’s describes this threefold classification criterion of topics – “springs” according to the interests of the candidates, in an insufficient and partly inexact fashion: a) The “psychological spring” includes all topics especially attractive to persons who take an interest in the human soul, the analysis of psychologies (including his own) and the themes related with all that. Music, theater, painting, beauty as such are not included in this spring except if they are not considered as such but as expressions of different psychologies; b) The “religious spring” concerns people particularly prone to piety, to the consideration of great themes related to God and to Revelation in general; c) The “sociopolitical spring” is the one Mr. JAP describes with the least flaws.

It encompasses matters concerning not individuals but human societies such as the Church, the nation, institutions, associations, and notably the family. This springs includes, for example, history, sociology, crowd psychology etc.

All this is much broader, precise and reasonable than one could imagine looking at Mr. JAP’s poor and imprecise dissertation.

Note, however, that by no means do these three “springs” encompass all the vast field of human knowledge and thought. They serve for a classification of subjects (and, correlatively, of the psychological profiles attracted in different ways by one of these three groups of subjects) that more frequently interested candidates in the remote early fifties, when the “theory” arose, and in the subsequent decade.

That “theory” was the object of lectures in more than one week of studies promoted by Catolicismo, the monthly cultural journal which gathered those that later became TFP members and volunteers. Numerous young men learning about the movement for the first time would attend these lectures. Such is the terrible initiatory secret Mr. JAP imagines – absent other proofs – to portray TFP as a secret society and thus unfavorably impress the public.

This exposition on the matter would be incomplete if we failed to add that the mentality, way of being, and to some extent the very language of the successive waves of newcomers approaching TFP in the mid 70’s – and consequently their option for, and focus on, the different subjects – changed rather quickly. As a result, the “three springs” metaphor, always valid as a didactic recourse to designate an immutable classification, also quickly lost sync with the circumstances. Today, people in TFP still refer to it once in a while but only seldom and in passing. Just as it happens, for example, with thoughts and conversations now in vogue in all ambiences, regarding the way of dressing and automobiles used in the first half of the 70’s.

Today the “three springs” belong much more to TFP history than to the present. They are a souvenir and a lingering habit from a past which is becoming remote and never had nor has anything initiatory or secret about it.

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2. TFP, an initiatory society. Why? Once having gained the neophyte’s adhesion, his “initiation” properly speaking would begin and develop on two fronts: the entity’s true goals and true nature would be revealed to him, demanding ever greater dedication and self-renunciation.

This characterizes a secret society; and it is why Mr. JAP likens TFP to Masonry, to TFP’s disadvantage: “In TFP,” he says, “the process of attracting a person is identical to that of Masonry, with one disadvantage: With Masonry, the person knows that it is a secret organization and that he has to go through various degrees and will learn Masonry’s complete doctrine only when he attains the 33rd degree. I say this freely about Masonry because my grandfather attained the 33rd degree. At the time I looked at him as if he were an agent of Satan on Earth. In TFP they are dishonest: to the degree that a person lets himself become involved and dominated, they gradually show him the rules and impositions” (Fatos, Rio de Janeiro, 7-29-85).

For example, Mr. JAP alleges he was not told from the start that he should dedicate himself to TFP entirely, devoting to it all his available time and thus considerably diminishing contacts with family. As far as abstaining from marriage, that was reserved to be communicated to him later.

He claims he was also not informed immediately about the existence of strong opposition to TFP in the most varied sectors of the contemporary world and, as a consequence, of struggles in which TFP is the least powerful contender. Instead, he says, the association was presented to him as always victorious from the beginning.

Yet he was able to feel opposition to TFP as soon as he began to frequent it.

Two days after having visited the seat of the entity for the first time, as he told a classroom colleague, he ran into “silence and cold” (WV p. 15). From that moment onward he began to feel “the weight of maintaining ties with TFP and the isolation that surrounds its members” (WV p. 15).

And thus he presents other examples of aspects of TFP’s internal life which he claims were not shown to him and which he got to know only little by little.

Now then, this whole description is completely flawed. Both through his internal and external experience a neophyte never fails to realize from the outset the readiness and full dedication that animates TFP members and volunteers, the state of celibacy adopted by the great majority of its veterans, and the whole ideological opposition that TFP encounters in this or that person in his family circles, which, for an adolescent, are an exact image of the general ambience in the city and even in the country.

Any program TFP tried to establish to hide these facts from neophytes would soon fall apart in the face of sheer reality.

Indeed, simply by frequenting any TFP seat it was impossible for a neophyte not to know that a certain number of young men resided there. What were those young men doing who did not live with their respective families? What kind of a profession were they looking forward to? What hopes for a career did they express? If no one had told him that he could just as easily have asked any one, veteran or novice. Why await the revelation that would be communicated to him at the precise initiatory moment? This unusual behavior, of itself, is enough to cast doubt on his narration.

On the other hand, TFP seats remained opened all day until the wee hours of the night, naturally favoring a very intense conviviality even outside meeting hours. It is custom, after hours, for short improvised and informal conversations in small circles to form. In those circles people talk about anything they want; now older ones mix in with young, now the older and young flock and meeting by themselves, in an improvised and bubbly social ambience.

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In any of these occasions he could have asked the questions he wanted and would certainly have received honest answers; for even if someone wished to hide anything from him, he would immediately realize the truth, particularly regarding the issues of full dedication, career and celibacy.

In Curitiba, where he moved, all this was even more obvious. And in Sao Paulo, where TFP is more numerous, he was able to see reality for himself even more clearly, with no need for anyone to tell him anything.

As a result, it would not make any sense to hide any of those things.

Curiously enough, Mr. JAP does not say that he ever asked anyone a question about these points and was denied a response. This is surprising, as he describes himself at that point in his life as an extrovert "unable to hide what went on in his innermost recesses" (WV, p. 17). Why did he fail to ask questions precisely about on those things he finds so strange today?

Mr. JAP keeps silent about it all to make his description of TFP fit the mold of an esoteric and sectarian initiation so he can finally draw the completely unreal conclusion toward which he wants to steer the reader.

Although he refers in passing, one time or another, to informal (“relaxed”) conversations in TFP (cf., for example, WV p. 42), Mr. JAP insinuates, without saying it expressly and without producing the least proof, that the formation of TFP members and volunteers took place through strictly directed conversations. As if such formalist dirigisme could have any possibility of success in noisy circles of lively young Brazilians!

While narrating some of those conversations, he mentions the renunciations he gradually made regarding the outside world. And to the degree he made those renunciations, he shows how they kept asking him for more.

Really – there is no reason to deny it – this is how the formation of a TFP volunteer takes place. Indeed, a person should not be asked to take, in the line of perfection, a step he is not ready to take at the moment. This is simply good old pedagogy. But the fact of not asking someone for something hic et nunc [here and now] is not the same as hiding that some day that sacrifice will be asked of him, if necessary.

Anyone who frequents TFP has seen comments – even in informal conversations – that this or that person has done this or that good to the entity, has made such and such effort or sacrifice. This clearly indicates to everyone they have a path of dedication and sacrifice ahead of them, and encourages them to follow such examples.

The Church has always taught and led souls along this way to perfection with gradualness in sacrifice and in renunciation.

3. Does TFP hide its true nature and ultimate ends? It is a civic society of religious inspiration, in perfect order vis-à-vis civil and ecclesiastical laws But Mr. JAP sees the most cogent proof that TFP is a secret and initiatory society in the fact that it ‘hides’ from neophytes its true nature and ultimate ends.

He says: “In order to attract me and others, the organization initially donned civil attire, exalted its philanthropic and political ideals; but with the passing of time it showed, underneath those trappings, its true clothing: it was not just an organization – or a society, as it preferred to be called –dedicated to combat communism, defend private property, fight for good customs and for strengthening the family – it was a religious organization that developed on the margins of the Church, attributing to itself the mission to save the Church herself; an organization composed of men who execrated society and took refuge in their seats,

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where they believed they imbibed themselves with the sacrality rejected by the world; a hierarchical and disciplined organization in which everyone had a superior to whom they owed strictest obedience even in the most intimate matters; finally, a prophetic organization that believed to have received from God the mission to lead humanity to the point it deviated from – and was thus targeted by a silent conspiracy directed, since the eruption of the Revolution, by astute and diabolical men who gave themselves over to Satan as we gave ourselves to the Virgin " (WV pp. 97-98).

In an interview with Folha de S. Paulo published one day before the one in O Estado de S. Paulo, Mr. JAP expresses himself in analogous terms: “The novices were going through a surge of enthusiasm. We were discovering new things and beginning to make out a true doctrine: the ‘True Doctrine.’ We had overcome the stage of believing we were in a civic anticommunist organization moved by Catholic principles. We saw all that was only one degree in a long and hitherto, for us, endless ladder. At this second degree we learned – or were taught, I don’t know – that TFP was something far greater than all that: it was a prophetic organization created by divine providence to restore Christian civilization” (Folha de S. Paulo, 6-2985).

These texts give rise, almost entirely, to an impression that Mr. JAP’s book leaves more or less ingrained in the reader’s mind and which he carefully avoids to make explicit, as it would shock the average reader.

This impression is that TFP’s Catholic-inspired doctrinal position against Communism is not sincere.

Some of the metaphors he employs border on this grave accusation. For example, right in the beginning of the topic quoted here (WV pp. 97-98), TFP’s duly registered character as a civic society would be a “trapping.” The same goes for its philanthropic and political ideals. The reality (hidden by those “trappings”) is that TFP is an association with occult and spurious ends.

Do the “trappings” correspond to something sincere on the part of TFP and its goals? Apparently not, as they would be used “to attract me and others.”

So, they would be nothing but baits.

However, in his confused language, Mr. JAP goes on to state that TFP “was not only an organization.... dedicated to combat communism” etc. The adverb “only” indicates that at least in part the goal of TFP is in fact to combat communism. Hence the accusation of insincerity is attenuated, though not entirely dissipated. At the end of the day the reader is left without knowing what story he should stick to.

This is all the more so since in his testimony to Folha de S. Paulo Mr. JAP changes his language once again. He now adopts a metaphor of degrees, rather than trappings, to express the different aspects in which he claims TFP manifests itself.

Now then, unlike the overlapping trappings hiding one another, the stairway and its various steps are shown as a whole and complete one another. In this visualization, TFP’s Catholic-based anticommunism is not an insincere position but only a first step.

Yet will a common reader, amidst the hustle and bustle of modern life with its preoccupations, pressures and anguishes, have the leisure and mental serenity to disentangle the contradictions in Mr. JAP’s tortuous wording? Or facing the imbroglio of metaphors and language, will he just go on, carrying in his mind a confusing and disagreeable impression? Clearly, that is what will happen in a vast majority of cases.

Voltaire said: “Lie, lie, something will always stick” to people’s minds.

“Denigrate through confusing and insulting innuendos and something will always stick,” one could say, paraphrasing that maxim.

At any rate, according to Mr. JAP the TFP hides its more profound goals and true nature from the young men it seeks to attract. Nevertheless, his own description

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shows that TFP gives successive and increasingly profound explanations of those very goals.

Now then, that does not permit at all to conclude, as Mr. JAP insinuates, that this is a process of initiation, that TFP is a secret society, and that it allures new adepts by baiting them and then switching to its real goal.

By making this insinuation Mr. JAP manifests, first of all, an astonishing ignorance of what any formation process really is, be it cultural, philosophic, religious, or simply scientific. For how is it possible to present in one full sweep all the knowledge a person must acquire? Every apprenticeship goes deeper and deeper through successive stages, as it is the only possible way to assimilated all the knowledge dispensed.

This is a most elementary finding in pedagogy.

As the great teacher he was, Saint John Bosco (1815-1888) understood it in a magnificent way and put it into practice, as can be seen in a classic biography of his first successor, Blessed Dom Miguel Rua: “It was with extreme prudence that [Dom Bosco] cast in the souls of his boys the first seed for future harvests. Early on, a single ill-employed word, one overly clearly reference to his true design would have sufficed to drive away their good will forever.

“In the beginning he asked them for only one thing: that they be willing to help him. Nothing more. His angelic preaching on Sunday night versed about Christian and religious virtues; but when he manifested his powerful attraction to make them loved in practice, Dom Bosco appeared to have in mind only the formation, at his side, of helpers totally devoted to his beneficent labor.

“This method is identical to the one Our Lord employed in his relations with the Apostles, a method of progressive revelation that allows them to penetrate the depth of his thoughts little by little to the degree that their souls are prepared to receive him and their minds to understand him” (Augustin Auffray SDB, Dom Miguel Rua, Central Catequística Salesiana, Madrid, undated, Imprimatur of 1957, p. 52).

And in his famous Memoirs from the Oratory, the Saint himself recounts the care with which he slowly revealed to his disciples his design to found a new religious congregation: “I saw that it was still not the time to propose to my work companions a novitiate and formal vows. I prayed and had others pray that God would inspire us.....

“The theologian, Borel, and those who worked with me, seeing and appreciating the religious and social good that was being done, insisted that we start the Congregation. And I would answer: ‘Let us continue like this for now until God gives us a clear sign to begin.’

“I had serious reasons to still keep this kind of arcane The times were so bad for such matters that had I uttered the words ‘novice,’ ‘novitiate,’ 'religious profession’ I would have startled even the most determined and, if not them at least their parents. There were so many prejudices, errors, slander and mockery with which impiety railed against all things relating with them. For its part, the government had suppressed religious orders and congregations. Moreover, those good boys were too young and inexperienced....

“At any rate, I needed to present a Rule. After much prayer, meditation and consultations I had written one basically equal to that of many Congregations approved by the Church and different in certain ways to accommodate it to the mentality of the times. It seemed to me that such a Congregation would inspire greater confidence and empathy.....

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“And we tried [the Rules], applying them to the small group of adepts to whom we prudently explained the Rules in special lectures. Those were still not the definitive Rules but a first outline.....

“No matter how hard we tried to keep it a secret, the news of that Regulation transpired outside the Oratory.....

“Taking advantage of the feast of St. Francis of Sales, I prudently insinuated to a few students a vague idea of [creating] a religious society. For that end, in a meeting we dealt with the great good that many of us together could do to our neighbors in general and to boys in particular. We made a promise. The young cleric, Miguel Rua, put it in writing, and it is kept in our files” (Biografia y Escritos de San Juan Bosco, BAC, Madrid, 1955, pp. 305-306).

Is that a secret, initiatory, dishonest procedure? How can anyone think so, when it is employed by a Saint canonized by the Church?

In a recent book, Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, Archbishop of Genoa (Italy), defends the Church from analogous criticism. With penetrating shrewdness, he says: “The Incarnation of the Word was revealed as much as humanly possible given the reality of the early times of the Church, but an arcane also remained. Arcane does not always mean a secret life or a secret knowledge that must be revealed only to rare initiates.

It means that there are truths that one cannot always transmit to the world, not because of an order or a secret cult but because there are truths that require a degree of inner liberation and particular spiritual elevation to be intellectually understood and expressed at that point by a vocabulary of the external word” (Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, Gethsemani - Réflexions sur le mouvement théologique contemporain, Téqui, Paris, 1981, 2nd ed., p. 299).

Mr. JAP would be entitled to denounce TFP as fraudulent had it falsified or misrepresented its goals or knowingly hid a contradiction between its ultimate goals and what it tells its novices. But that does not happen, nor does he prove it.

Indeed, there is no contradiction at all in saying on the one hand that one wants to combat communism and socialism and foster the values of Tradition, Family and Property, and on the other hand to say one wishes to restore Christian civilization to its integrity and to the splendor of the religious and moral principles that constitute its soul, as well as conformity between temporal life and the Law of God. Since TFP aims to defend the principles of Christian civilization, as stated in article 1 of its Statutes, 63 anyone with an average consistency in his thinking can easily understand that it longs for the restoration of Christian civilization in its plenitude.

Incidentally, TFP is very well known for its whole way of acting, for the books and manifestos it publishes etc. Furthermore, this action is explained in depth to anyone who approaches TFP as long as his understanding of today’s world crisis goes beyond the immediate and concrete dangers he has before his eyes, fostered in a palpable manner by international communism.

Art. 1 of the TFP Statutes expressly says that the Society “has a cultural and civic character, aiming to clarify national opinion and the political powers that be about the deleterious influence increasingly exercised by socialist and communist principles in intellectual and public life to the detriment of Brazilian tradition and of the institutions of the family and private property, pillars of Christian Civilization in the country.”

These Statutes are registered at the 1st Notary of Titles and Documents of the District of São Paulo since the entity’s foundation in 1960.

It is public and notorious that the action of TFP has strictly followed its statutory goals. That action, furthermore, is described in the book, A Half-Century of Epic Anticommunist Struggle, (Editora Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 1980, 472 pp.). This work went through four printings in Brazil, totaling 39,000 copies.

The insinuation that TFP is a secret entity is therefore blatantly false; its activities are known to the public at large and fully correspond to its statutory goals.

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As TFP has demonstrated in works widely disseminated throughout the country, this crisis has moral and religious roots. Hence the earnest commitment of this Society to return all the temporal order to sound Christian principles.

That task is what Pius XII felicitously called “consecratio mundi,” that is, the sacralization of the world. According to that Pontiff, this is a specific task of the lay apostolate (cf. Allocution to the participants of the 2nd World Congress for the Apostolate of the Laity, October 5, 1957, Documentos Pontifícios, no 127, Vozes, Petrópolis, p. 18 - Discorsi e Radiomessaggi di Sua Santità Pio XII, Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, vol. XIX, p. 459).

Undoubtedly, all this classifies TFP as a civic entity, but one with a religious end. This is what at least until the new Code of Canon Law came into force on November 27, 1983, was called a “lay association” (in Latin, “confraternitas laicalis”).

That is to say, an association of laymen directed by its own Statutes and subject to the ecclesiastical authority in rebus fidei et morum, that is, in what has to do with Faith and morals (cf. Resolution by the Sacred Congregation of the Council of November 13, 1920, in Acta Apostolicae Sedis, 1921, vol. XIII, pp. 135 ff.). 64 Thus the TFP is perfectly defined as a civic entity before civil laws and as a confraternitas laicalis before ecclesiastical laws, at least until in-depth studies of the new Code of Canon Law indicate a more adequate terminology.

Nevertheless, always skillful in picking his terms, in a seemingly nonchalant fashion Mr. JAP describes TFP as “a religious organization that developed on the margins of the Church” (WV p. 98).

This expression cannot fail to convey the common reader the impression of an entity rebellious toward the Church, something Mr. JAP does not say expressly, let alone prove. Therefore, this is yet one more manipulation of the meaning of words in his intent to demolish TFP in the eyes of the public.

The truth, however, is radically different.

Let us just say here something essential about the matter: The action of TFP always had a marked religious note as it strived in earnest to restore Christian civilization according to the beautiful words of the Apostle St. Paul which St. Pius X adopted as the motto of his pontificate: “Instaurare omnia in Christo” (Eph. 1:10) “to restore all things in Christ.”

It is not a wonder that longings for a greater consecration to God, perhaps as a religious institute, would arise in many TFP members. But that direction depends on numerous factors, internal and external, of which the most important is to know how the grace of God touches souls. At any rate, whatever direction TFP takes in future, the entity is as it has always been, attentive to the laws of the Church and disposed to subject itself, corde magno et animo volente, to the norms of Canon Law. Inside TFP people talk in all freedom about such longings and directions, still not entirely defined and set. To present them as something secret or hidden to those “being initiated” as Mr. JAP claims, absolutely does not correspond to reality.

This is all the more so since it has all been explained in works already published by TFP and announced in the press (cf. Prologue, topic 5). Only Mr. JAP’s ignorance in regard to the works the entity has published after his departure can explain an accusation so lacking in objectivity.

64 The new Code of Canon Law appears to have introduced even easier rules for the establishment and functioning of private lay associations, though using a new terminology. Code commentators are just beginning to delve deeper into this matter. It is therefore premature to define the nature of associations like TFP in terms of the new Code.

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4. TFP’s own pedagogy: a system adequate for the new generations So are there no systematic courses in TFP? Is the whole intellectual and moral formation in the entity given mainly through “informal conversations”? This is what someone could ask after reading the above considerations.

Always ignorant of this country into which he supposes himself integrated, Mr. JAP imagines that it would natural for TFP to have – as in some imaginary Nordic association – regular meetings, perhaps more or less like in a school where novices – mostly adolescents – would be given systematic and broad notions whose global title could be, perhaps, All about TFP. That course should include the revelation and explanation of what the novice already noticed by himself and asked for explanations about during informal conversations. And, a fortiori, of the various points not raised during those conversations.

We have already noted (cf. Chap. VIII, 1, B) how much formalist dirigisme is opposed to the Brazilian mentality.

Experience shows that due to various factors of which television is probably the most active, contemporary man and particularly young adolescents have little propensity (to say only that…) to listen to oral expositions about issues of any kind: religious, philosophical, scientific, literary or others, however attractive, substantial, methodical or clear they may be. We are at the dawn (or on the brink of the abyss, if you will) of what Paul VI called the “civilization of the image.’ 65 For this reason, public lectures or speeches by renowned domestic or foreign intellectuals systematically risk not having more than a few dozen listeners.

And organizers of political rallies highly trumpeted by the media and held at central locations in contemporary Brazilian megalopolises, many times offering people free bus and subway tickets – have increasingly added all kinds of entertainment such as comedians, singers, actors, musicians, popular bands etc. And yet they attract only a few people. In spite of the far exaggerated (and contradictory) figures provided by the media, trustworthy observers note that such rallies at times fail to gather more than a few thousand participants. And that even in a city like São Paulo, a huge Babel with a population of about 13 million.

For the reader to be able to fully gauge reality, imagine that for an unexpected, last-minute reason something were to happen in one of those rallies such as: 1) Right from the start, the host announced that all comedians, artists etc. on the program would not be able to participate. In that case: a) how long would it take for the public to begin to disperse? b) how long would the dispersion take to reach its peak? c) the dispersion having ended, what percentage of the public would stay on to listen to the scheduled speeches to the end?

2) If, on the contrary, only the speakers were unable to come, let the reader repeat questions “a”, “b” and “c” above.

The Pontiff said: “We are well aware that modern man is sated by talk; he is obviously often tired of listening and, what is worse, impervious to words. We are also aware that many psychologists and sociologists express the view that modern man has passed beyond the civilization of the word, which is now ineffective and useless, and that today he lives in the civilization of the image” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 12-8-1975, in http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_p-vi_exh_19751208_evangeliinuntiandi_en.html 65

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In so doing, he will have gauged for himself how today’s average man is usually averse to courses and to a system of methodical lectures or planned formal conversations packing a full year’s schedule.

But what does TFP do, then, to communicate to those who frequent its seats the interest and even enthusiasm its members and volunteers have shown toward the entity’s doctrines and goals?

A certain author defined politics as “the art of the possible.” That is true, in spite of the many abuses people try to justify here and there based on that thought.

But it does have an application concerning the formation imparted by TFP. The entity does the “possible.” And that “possible” -- idealized and realized in a more or less groping fashion amidst the many and confused obstacles of the times – has resulted in that which follows.

It often happen for one topic or another to attract lively interest in TFP ranks during a friendly but particularly heated internal controversy arising from freewheeling conversations among seat frequenters or from some particularly sensational national or international event. The years now going by are having more and more of such events. A desire not to be content with vague and pasty opinions then gives rise to a general interest in delving deeper into the historic, technical or doctrinal knowledge about the event.

Thus, lectures or seminars are held whose speakers address an issue immediately, consistently fitting it into the whole gamut of aspects that it covers and providing the appropriate religious, philosophical or cultural explanations. Successive exhibitions are thus held on the issue and other related matters for as long as public interest in the topic endures. During this time, there is almost always a full house. If the exhibitor lacks enough insight to detect the first signs that public interest is beginning to subside, he will be exposed to an inevitable decline in the number of attendees.

To retain an audience’s attention in an issue people are no longer interested in is as impossible as holding back an ebbing tide with one’s bare hands as the waves escape under the irresistible action of the Sun and the Moon.

Is this is the ideal method of formation? No. Not by far. But it is the one possible.

What results has this system produced in TFP? In general, it has attracted to reading and studying all suitable persons in TFP ranks.

Many of them asked to reside in especially setup study houses and dedicate all their time to intellectual labor as well as prayer (cf. TFP Refutation of a Frustrated Offensive, TFP Editions, 1984, pp. 23-25). They were gladly heeded.

TFP libraries in these houses of studies and in other seats are made up of serious and valuable books, some even rare and precious. And naturally, they are at everyone’s disposal.

At the request of those interested there is a book purchasing service constantly functioning in Brazil to buy good quality books locally and abroad. Also organized was a service to summarize books, very useful for the intellectual formation of their readers and specially devised for those who lack time to read the works in their entirety. Presently there are readers and book summarizers in the following languages: Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, English, German, Dutch, Greek, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Arabic and Latin. Over two thousand book summaries are kept in one of our libraries at the disposal of those interested.

With Our Lady’s favor and protection, the fruits of this effort are increasingly better and more abundant.

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Furthermore, since the foundation of TFP in 1960 its cultural monthly Catolicismo has always been written by its members or volunteers; and excellent book writers are emerging in TFP ranks (cf. list of TFP works at the end of this volume).

At the moment, other books are in preparation.

Largely through informal conversations, which as we have seen play an important role in TFP, the product of all that study filters to those less prone to delve into such elevated matters. As a result, when people approach TFP members or volunteers with questions or objections during street campaigns, they are pleasantly surprised at the self-assurance and precision with which the latter respond to everything (particularly when they have frequented the seats for a sufficient length of time). And that happens sometimes even when the member or volunteer is very young and clearly of very modest social condition.

Having thus explained the system of intellectual formation in force in TFP, one can note once again how different all this is from the sinister image of a “brainwashing” mill that produces stupid robots – the image Mr. JAP sought to instill into the public with his fanciful descriptions.

Now then, this method which produces such bountiful results, all of it based on customs and strongly conditioned by “illiteracy-favoring” circumstances of the era of the image which has been replacing the era of thinking, was already in its early days when Mr. JAP frequented TFP seats. 66 However, he ignored all that. *** Today Mr. JAP looks at all that – which is so normal – with the eyes of a convinced and militant relativist who has reintegrated the neopagan world and tries to present easily explainable events in a false light to give TFP the false image of an initiatory and ominous society.

It is the case to recall once again the phrase of the Gospel: “The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body will be lightsome: but if it be evil, thy body also will be darksome. Take heed therefore, that the light which is in thee, be not darkness. If then thy whole body be lightsome, having no part of darkness; the whole shall be lightsome; and as a bright lamp, shall enlighten thee” (Lk 11:34-36).

CHAPTER IX – Answering some scattered accusations There are two ways to refute a book: one is to analyze its text step by step, see the errors that occur in it and contest them one by one; the other is to investigate the doctrine or doctrinal ensemble subjacent to the text and show how it is erroneous.

Mr. JAP’s book has so many open flanks to be attacked and there would be so many rectifications to be made on points of great, medium and average importance that it would be impossible to do all that in this work. So, in order somehow to encompass the whole book in this refutation we found it necessary to discern the general lines of its accusation and then proceed to refute them.

This work has made it clear that the thread subjacent to all these accusations, now more, now less explicit, is actually a doctrine that will be the object of the last chapter of the present refutation.

66 The first elements of this method began to germinate in the 50’s in the group of writers for the monthly Catolicismo, thus preceding the foundation of TFP (cf. A Half-Century of Anticommunist Struggle, Editora Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 1980, 4ª ed., pp. 409 a 455).

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However, before delving into the subject it is well to refute some scattered objections that could make an unfavorable impression on a less informed public.

Let us go right to it.

1. Reign of Mary, another notion TFP did not invent Dealing with the Reign of Mary, Mr. JAP asks: “Until when should we wait for this reign, of whose possibilities I had never heard of before, except in the closed ambiences of TFP?” (WV p. 185).

He thus insinuates – without affirming it explicitly – that this notion originated with the TFP. And the society had no other reason to invent it other than enthrall neophytes with the mirage of a golden era for the Church and for Christian civilization and thus gain their adhesion.

Now then, it so happens that TFP has taken this notion – as Mr. JAP perfectly knows – from St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort in his famous Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

The great apostle of devotion to Our Lady, canonized by Pius XII in 1947 writes: "When will that happy day come," asks a saintly man of our own day whose life was completely wrapped up in Mary, "when God's Mother is enthroned in men's hearts as Queen, subjecting them to the dominion of her great and princely Son? When will souls breathe Mary as the body breathes air?" When that time comes wonderful things will happen on earth. The Holy Spirit, finding his dear Spouse present again in souls, will come down into them with great power. He will fill them with his gifts, especially wisdom, by which they will produce wonders of grace. My dear friend, when will that happy time come, that age of Mary, when many souls, chosen by Mary and given her by the most High God, will hide themselves completely in the depths of her soul, becoming living copies of her, loving and glorifying Jesus? That day will dawn only when the devotion I teach is understood and put into practice. Ut adveniat regnum tuum, adveniat regnum Mariae: ‘Lord, that your kingdom may come, may the reign of Mary come!’” (Courtesy of the Montfort Fathers © All Rights R Reserved; Electronic Copyright © 1998 EWTN All Rights Reserved).

“That your kingdom may come, may the reign of Mary come!” – that is, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. This is the thinking that permeates the whole Treatise on True Devotion, expressed here with unparalleled clarity and ardor.

The devotion that Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort advocates is the slavery of love to the Blessed Mother, a theme developed in the Treatise.

TFP identifies that “age of Mary” or “Reign of Mary” of which the Saint speaks with the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary that Our Lady announced at Fatima. This illation is obvious.

Today’s world is laden with crime, as the Message of Fatima clearly says adding that one day the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph. That should obviously be understood in the sense that the Blessed Mother will establish her empire upon souls and therefore upon institutions, nations, and the whole world. 67 67

In his radio message to Portugal on the occasion of the coronation of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13, 1946, Pius XII says: [NT: I DID NOT FIND THIS ON THE INTERNET, PLEASE CHECK OUR LIBRARY] “Jesus é Rei dos séculos eternos por natureza e por conquista; por Ele, com Ele, subordinadamente a Ele, Maria é Rainha por graça, por parentesco divino, por conquista, por singular eleition. E o seu reino é vasto como o de seu Filho e Deus, pois que de seu domínio nada se exclui.....

“Coroando a imagem de Nossa Senhora, assinastes, com o atestado de fé na sua realeza, o de uma submissão à sua autoridade.... Fizestes mais ainda: alistastes-vos Cruzados para a conquista ou reconquista do seu

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For this reason, specifically from the Fatima standpoint the Reign of Mary will be the Reign of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That is, a reign of purity and goodness of Our Lady’s maternal heart; a reign of great splendor both in temporal society and in the Church through abundant graces poured by the Holy Ghost.

Indeed, it has always been Church doctrine that the foundation of all excellence in the temporal order is an intimate and faithful union of souls with Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Lady His Mother, and Holy Church, His Mystical Spouse.

From this union derives a faithful observance of the Commandments. And from the latter derives, in turn, an entire and splendorous harmony in human relationships.

So when men practice love of neighbor for the love of God, this gives rise to a vibrant vitality and to a good ordination of all societies, groups and institutions that make up the temporal sphere, from its basic unit, the family, to the State in its summit.

In turn, as a fruit is bore by a tree, all this gives rise to all kinds of factors of progress not only in the temporal sphere but in the spiritual one as well.

Peace! There is so much talk about it these days, and yet few know what it actually is. Even fewer are those who possess it; for true peace is the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ. 68 From St. Louis Grignion de Montfort’s Marian standpoint – which is also that of Fatima, as we have said – the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ is the same as the peace of Mary in the Reign of Mary.

Let irreducible skeptics smile at all these perspectives; nothing could be more foreseeable given their lack of faith. But TFP does not address skeptics but upright souls.

Finally, note that all these notions – which TFP has not invented – have already circulated in the Church since at least the middle of the 19th century, when the Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin was published for the first time Reino, que é o Reino de Deus. Quer dizer: obrigastes-vos a trabalhar para que Ela seja amada, venerada, servida à volta de vós, na família, na sociedade, no mundo” (Documentos Pontifícios, no 110, Vozes, Petrópolis, 1959, 2ª ed., pp.

36-37).

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Pius XI solemnly taught this in the Encyclical inaugurating his pontificate:

“True peace, the peace of Christ, is impossible unless we are willing and ready to accept the fundamental principles of Christianity, unless we are willing to observe the teachings and obey the law of Christ, both in public and private life.....

“For Jesus Christ reigns over the minds of individuals by His teachings, in their hearts by His love, in each one's life by the living according to His law and the imitating of His example. Jesus reigns over the family....

“Finally, Jesus Christ reigns over society when men recognize and reverence the sovereignty of Christ, when they accept the divine origin and control over all social forces, a recognition which is the basis of the right to command for those in authority and of the duty to obey for those who are subjects.....

“It is, therefore, a fact which cannot be questioned that the true peace of Christ can only exist in the Kingdom of Christ – ‘the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ.’ It is no less unquestionable that, in doing all we can to bring about the re-establishment of Christ's kingdom, we will be working most effectively toward a lasting world peace. Pius X in taking as his motto ‘To restore all things in Christ’ was inspired from on High to lay the foundations of that ‘work of peace’ which became the program and principal task of Benedict XV. “These two programs of Our Predecessors We desire to unite in one - the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Christ by peace in Christ – ‘the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ.’ With might and main We shall ever strive to bring about this peace, putting Our trust in God” (Encyclical Ubi Arcano, 12-23-1922 in http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_23121922_ubi-arcano-deiconsilio_en.html

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(1843). Until 1900 it had already gone through 16 editions in French, four in English, four in Italian, three in Polish, two in Dutch, one in Spanish, in addition to two in Canada and one in the United States. From then onward, those editions have multiplied; in 1966 there had been at least 300 in 20 languages. In Brazil, 13 editions have been published, the most recent in 1984.

But discussion about this matter does not end here. Mr. JAP could reply that he is not accusing TFP of having invented this notion, as all he says is that it was in this Society that he heard about it (cf. WV p. 185).

Indeed, that is what he says, textually.

Nonetheless, reading Mr. JAP’s text an average reader unaware of all the information we just called to mind will inevitably get the idea of Reign of Mary as yet another TFP peculiarity amidst so many others that Mr. JAP sought to point out. And thus, on reading that he never heard about the “possibilities” of such reign “except in the closed ambiences of TFP,” he will conclude that this notion is not found elsewhere – in other words, that it is a TFP fabrication.

All these are skills that show an agility of language which Mr. JAP did not learn in the TFP, where he describes himself as a naïve and incautious young man who received the first lessons of life in the school of hard knocks. *** Finally, nothing could be more false than the so-called intention to keep this issue inter domésticos parietes, that is, strictly inside the domestic walls of TFP. Our article, Exsurge Domine! Quare obdormis? [“Rise, o Lord, Why Sleepest Thou?”], published in Catolicismo, no 56, August 1955, specifically deals with this topic. The article closed a three-part series dedicated to St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, all with explicit references to the Reign of Mary. 69 Furthermore, the already cited book, As Aparições e a Mensagem de Fatima conforme os manuscritos da Irmã Lúcia [The Fatima Apparitions and Message According to Sister Lucia’s Manuscripts, of which in Brazil alone the entity has disseminated 24 editions totaling 505,000 copies (701,000 copies around the world), deals with the subject in a succinct but clear and direct fashion in footnote 28, p. 82.

While still in TFP, Mr. JAP likely helped distribute this book extra domésticos parietes... *** Given all of the above, one can see that the Reign of Mary is far from being the utopia whose “fabrication” Mr. JAP seeks to blame on TFP. Here the reader can grasp the absolutely unique methodology – to leave it at that – employed in Mr. JAP’s “demonstrations”: 69

The two other articles in this series are: Doutor, Profeta e Apóstolo na crise contemporânea [“Doctor, Prophet and Apostle in the Contemporary Crisis”] (no 53, May 1955) and O Reino de Maria, realização do mundo melhor [“Reign of Mary, the Realization of a Better World”], no 55, July 1955).

Other articles in Catolicismo contain references to the Reign of Mary. See, for example, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Pio XII e a era de Maria, [“Pius XII and the Age of Mary”] no 48, December 1954; O anticomunismo e o Reino de Maria, [“Anticommunism and the Reign of Mary”] no 62, February 1956; Fátima, numa visão de conjunto, [“Fatima in an Overall View”] no 197, May 1967; Cunha Alvarenga (José de Azeredo Santos), Falácias do Arcebispo de Olinda e Recife [“Fallacies of the Archbishop of Olinda and Recife”], no 235, July 1970.

Nor is it difficult to see an allusion to the Reign of Mary in the Encyclical, Ad Caeli Reginam, of October 11, 1954, in which, on establishing the Feast of the Royalty of Our Lady, Pius XII writes: “We likewise ordain that on the same day the consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary be renewed, cherishing the hope that through such consecration a new era may begin, joyous in Christian peace and in the triumph of religion” in http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_11101954_adcaeli-reginam_en.html.

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a) As a starting point, a false insinuation that the Reign of Mary is yet one more TFP allurement device; b) Then, to ‘prove it,’ an allegation laden with a disconcerting subjectivism: outside TFP he never heard anyone speak about the “possibilities” of the Reign of Mary. Therefore, no one in the world speaks about it. In other words, the diameter of the world is precisely the size of the realities Mr. JAP has “heard about.”

Yet he explicitly affirms to have read the Treatise on True Devotion (cf. WV p.

44), where one can easily find the foundation for all that is written here.

Such is the integrity of Mr. JAP, who nevertheless wants to be believed as a single witness!

2. Reign of Mary, a new Middle Ages?

Would the establishment of the Reign of Mary be a return to the Middle Ages as OESP claims in its June 30th edition with a suggestive title, “Do They Want to Dominate the Earth and Return to the Middle Ages?” Though not attacking the Middle Ages directly, the way Mr. JAP mentions that historic era is such as to give readers the negative impression that TFP purely and simply wishes to return to a long-gone era.

On the other hand, when on pages 120-124 of Warriors of the Virgin Mr. JAP writes at length about the life of renunciation and sacrifice of medieval monks, he does it with the obvious intention to shock the sensibility of modern readers and prepare them unfavorably to receive what comes next, that is, a description of a “perfect replica of a medieval monastery” (WV p. 120), that is, TFP’s “sacred monastery” (WV p. 115): the São Bento Hermitage.

The times of blind anti-medievalism born from Humanism and the Renaissance and taken by Illuminism to an apex hard to conceive in our days, are long gone.

Even right before the French Revolution, if someone were to consider building a cathedral or a castle somewhere in Europe he was more likely to draw inspiration from Greek-Roman art than from medieval art.

Only in the middle of the 19th century, as a result of the great progress of historic investigations, did historians begin to do justice to the Middle Ages.

Even then, the flaming anticlericalism that characterized certain philosophical and political currents of that century took upon itself the task of maintaining alive, in certain sectors of western culture, the bevy of anti-medieval prejudices that history was beginning increasingly to destroy. Even today, though cathedrals like Notre-Dame of Paris and the Magi Kings in Colon are objects of universal admiration as are many other religious and civic monuments the Middle Ages has left us, remnants of antimedieval prejudices still linger here and there.

Those are the remnants Mr. JAP appears eager to instrumentalize against TFP. A complete apology of the Middle Ages would take such a number of arguments and require so much space that this is neither the place nor the occasion to do it.

At any rate, if Mr. JAP wants to have more, easily available data about this matter, all he needs to do is to read, for example, a recent series of articles about medieval universities published by the daily newspaper for which he writes. 70

Cf. Ruy Nunes, “A participação estudantil no estudo medieval de Bolonha” [“Student Participation in Medieval Studies at Bologna”], 8-9-85; “Universidade-de-estudantes na Espanha medieval,” [“University of Students in Medieval Spain,” 9-6-85; “A Idade de Ouro das universidades” [“The Golden Age of Universities”] 9-13-85; “O caráter eclesiástico das universidades medievais” [“The Ecclesiastical Character of Medieval Universities”] 9-20-85; “De Oxford a Coimbra” [“From Oxford to Coimbra”] 10-25-85; “A liberdade acadêmica na Idade Média” [“Academic 70

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A scholarly and attractive book by French Historian Régine Pernoud, Lumière du Moyen Age, opens an even broader horizon on the Middle Ages. She also has an even more illuminating work on the subject, Pour en finir avec le Moyen Age. Thus, it is understandable that Pope Leo XIII wrote about the Middle Ages the famous except that Mr. JAP himself transcribes in his book: “There was once a time when States were governed by the philosophy of the Gospel. Then it was that the power and divine virtue of Christian wisdom had diffused itself throughout the laws, institutions, and morals of the people, permeating all ranks and relations of civil society. Then, too, the religion instituted by Jesus Christ, established firmly in befitting dignity, flourished everywhere, by the favor of princes and the legitimate protection of magistrates; and Church and State were happily united in concord and friendly interchange of good offices. The State, constituted in this wise, bore fruits important beyond all expectation, whose remembrance is still, and always will be, in renown, witnessed to as they are by countless proofs which can never be blotted out or ever obscured by any craft of any enemies” (Encyclical in Immortale Dei, 11-1-1885, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_lxiii_enc_01111885_immortale-dei_en.html).

As all historians recognize, Leo XIII was the opposite of a Pope who could be called reactionary or backward. So the picture he draws of the Middle Ages cannot be branded as one-sided. A man recognized to have great culture he knew very well what all men with an average education know about the Middle Ages. In other words, that it was not a paradisiacal time for the Church. On the contrary, the Church went through cruel attacks and trials at the hands of her external enemies, pagan Barbarians and followers of Mohammed. As he drew the above picture, the Pontiff was not trying to describe the whole Middle Ages from the standpoint of its relations with Christian civilization but only to emphasize the positive aspects that emerge from a lucid overall view of that time with the hindsight of many centuries.

This is also the way TFP thinks about this matter.

Does TFP long for a new Middle Ages? Nicolas Berdiaef wrote about the idea in his famous book. From all that has been said above, there is no room for hesitation.

While the Middle Ages was not an ideal age, it was during it that the Church and Christian civilization historically attained the zenith of their benefic influence.

If by a new Middle Ages one understands an age when that apex will once again mark the lives of men and nations, is that what TFP longs for?

Yes and no.

Yes, because since the entity is Catholic it cannot fail to wish for men and nations the benefits of every order that derives from the teachings of the Church.

No, if one understands that although the Middle Ages historically was an apex from that standpoint, it was very far from being the greatest apex attainable.

Now then, out of its love of the Church and Christian civilization, it is that apex that TFP makes the ultimate goal of all its aspirations and action.

Is that fanaticism? Mr. JAP may possibly think so. We believe it is love of God. In this regard, TFP members and volunteers strive to follow the maxim of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the Doctor Melifluus: “The measure of the love of God is to love Him without measure” (Treatise of the Love of God, Chap. VI, 16, in Oeuvres mystiques, Seuil, Paris, 1953, p. 50).

Freedom in the Middle Ages”] 11-22-85. See also Gilles Lapouge, “A redescoberta da Idade Média” [“The Rediscovery of the Middle Ages”] in the “Culture” supplement of the same paper, 7-7-85.

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Mary

3. What TFP thinks of itself and the role it will play in the Reign of

OESP thus summarizes what Mr. JAP says in his book about TFP’s future role in the Reign of Mary: “TFP, then, would have an arduous task. Once the ‘Reign of Mary’ was established, Plinio would be taken in a fiery chariot, escorted by legions of angels, to the Mountain of Prophets, where he would remain until the final fight between God and the ant-Christ. And we, his disciples – disciples of the Prophet of Mary – would be in charge of watching for the integrity of the Reign. Like the Templars’, our mission would be to fight against all those who, consciously or unconsciously were to reject the modus vivendi of the Reign. Like the monks of Cluny, our duty would be to radiate wholesome doctrine, immaculate habits and perfect religiosity to all dwellers of the Reign.

“As inspectors and prototypes of the Reign we would thus have ascendency upon popes, kings and legislators – therefore, upon the whole world” (O Estado de S. Paulo, 6-30-85).

In this topic Mr. JAP raises three related, though distinct, questions: A. TFP as a providential and prophetic entity; B. TFP’s role in the Reign of Mary; C. The TFP founder’s supposed immortality and his role in the latter times.

A. TFP as a providential and prophetic entity The Prophets of the Old Testament were providential men to whom God communicated certain predictions and messages to transmit to the chosen people so they would learn certain fundamental truths and be oriented regarding the behavior they should have.

The faithful must absolutely believe the prophecies in the Old and New Testaments, as they are part of the official Revelation, which closed with the death of the last Apostle.

But the Holy Ghost continues to instruct and illuminate the Church through prophetic assistance. The gift of prophecy thus continues to exist, though without the official character of the prophets of the Old and New Testaments. For the good of the whole Church, God grants this gift to a few persons, clerics or laity, men or women.

The Apostle St. Paul speaks especially about this gift of prophecy, though one should keep in mind that the opinions of theologians vary on whether this gift is always and necessarily linked to a charisma. To clarify the matter we are dealing with, it is not necessary to delve into this question.

At any rate, it is well to emphasize that the gift of prophecy is always subject to the discernment and judgment of the Sacred Hierarchy, as to it alone Our Lord Jesus Christ granted the triple mission of teaching, sanctifying and governing the faithful.

In this regard, the great exegete Cornelius A Lapide teaches: “Some prophets were from Jerusalem. – The Church had Prophets from the beginning, for prophetism was one of the graces, gratis datis, of the Holy Ghost, and as a consequence, also a sign of the true Church in which the Holy Ghost rules, as St. Paul teaches in 1 Cor. 14. Hence these also were sent to Antioch to confirm and illustrate that flourishing Church with the gift of their prophecy” (Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram - In Acta Apostolorum, Ludovicum Vives, Paris, 1877, tomo 17, p. 253).

Elsewhere, the same exegete states:

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“The Prophets were, thus, masters of the orthodox faith, doctors of the truth to announce God’s hidden designs to men and to separate the Church of God from the synagogue of Satan; and with the gift of prophecy, as an indication and most certain sign of the true Church, to spread and show to the whole world.....

“For this reason, God has illuminated his Church with Prophets throughout the ages, and through them He manifested it, certified it and confirmed it so that no one could doubt the truth and the true Church amidst so much darkness and labyrinths of errors and heresies.....

“In the New Testament, Christ and the Apostles who followed him were prophets. St. Justin, Martyr (Dialog Contra Tryphonem), is a witness of the fact that until his time there were prophets in the Church of God in an almost continuous succession. St. Augustine says the same about his century (De Civ. Dei, lib. V, Chap.

XXVI), in which, among other things, he speaks about the oracles of St. John the Anchorite....

“Thomas Bozius proves the same thing regarding other ages (lib. De Notis Ecclesiae, signo XIX). It is patent that in this century of ours, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Francis of Paul, Blessed Louis Bertrand, Saint Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, Gaspar Belga, Louis Gonzaga, Theresa and many others shone with the spirit of prophecy, as can be seen in their biographies written by men worthy of faith” (Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram - In Prophetas Proemium, Ludovicum Vives, Paris, 1875, tomo 11, p. 43).

An excerpt from the eminent theologian, Charles Cardinal Journet, gives the reader an idea of how vast this theme is: “The Church not only knows the revealed deposit; she is also enlightened on the state of the world and the movement of minds. The most richly endowed of her children share her miraculous penetration. The divine light enables them to discern the fundamental tendencies of their times; they know how to diagnose the real evils, and prescribe the proper remedies. When the masses seem to be struck blind, and even the better sort hesitate or fumble, they go straight to the point with supernatural and infallible instinct. Time merely shows how just their vision was.

“St. Athanasius or St. Cyril, St. Augustine or St. Benedict, Gregory VII, Francis of Assisi, Dominic—these saw, as with prophetical insight, the tendency of their times and the orientation that had to be given to souls. The author of the City of God, the contemplative who eight hundred years ago founded the rule of the Carthusians, St. Thomas who three centuries before the Reformation elucidated the truths that were to be most vigorously contested on the threshold of the new era, Joan of Arc, Teresa of Avila—there you have the true prophets of the Church. They were also saints, though prophecy is distinct, even perhaps separable, from sanctity. But it always occurs, when authentic, in the wake of the apostolic revelation; and as the power of the master sustains and guides the effort of the disciples, authentic prophecies are sustained and guided by the revelation of Christ and His Apostles. "No epoch," says St. Thomas," has lacked men endowed with the spirit of prophecy, not indeed to introduce some new doctrine of the faith [ad novam doctrinam fidei depromendam], but to direct human acts [ad humanorum actuum directionem] (II-II, 174, 6 ad 3).

Those prophets who deviate from this course are false prophets” (The Church of the Word Incarnate, in http://www.ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/chwordin1.htm#01 And in a footnote, Cardinal Journet twice again quotes St. Thomas: “The ancient prophets,” writes St. Thomas, “were sent to establish the faith and to amend morals.... Today the faith is already established, since the promises

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have been fulfilled in Christ. But prophecy that aims at amendment of morals has not ceased, nor will it ever cease” (Comm. in Matt., chap. xi).

“He [St. Thomas] explains elsewhere that the prophecies that dealt with the deposit of divine faith were varied by becoming more explicit with the passage of time, while those dealing with human conduct had to be varied according to circumstances, for the people began to go astray when prophecy ceased: ‘And that is why in every age men have been divinely instructed about what should be done, as the salvation of the elect might require’ (II-II, q. 174, a. 6), idem. *** Bearing in mind that the action of the TFP “family of souls” has played an important role in preserving Christian civilization in Brazil and has been radiating those ideals far beyond our borders, many inside and outside TFP have asked whether or not there is something providential and prophetic in its action – in the sense Cardinal Journet has explained. And many actually answer, yes.

Note that these thoughts are entirely consonant with Church doctrine founded on very clear excerpts by St. Thomas quoted by Cardinal Journet. On the other hand, such texts deal with a factual matter – that is, whether or not these considerations fit the concrete case of TFP – and in this matter anyone may think as he wishes.

Precisely for that reason, these hypotheses are not imposed on anyone as a condition to join the Society. People talk about them freely in internal ambiences without any concern to keep them a secret. And they thus reach the ears of all neophytes without any obstacle.

Why, then, does TFP not disclose them to the outside? For the simple reason they are hypotheses... and no one can work with the public except with certainties in whose defense one must strive.

In any case, since the orthodoxy of these thoughts has been contested, including by opponents who disclosed them in the press, TFP for its part has also published a hefty volume with a lengthy explanation of the issue in many of its doctrinal implications (cf. TFP Refutation of a Frustrated Offensive, Edições da TFP, 1984, vol. I, pp. 51-126).

That is the long and short of the conception that TFP is a prophetic entity, providential for our days. Whoever wishes to see it as an exaggerated hypothesis TFP forms about itself is perfectly free to do so. For its part, this Society only wishes to underline that this hypothesis is perfectly orthodox from the standpoint of Catholic doctrine.

B. TFP’s role in the Reign of Mary As a corollary to the earlier thoughts, the hypothesis was also raised that TFP would play in the Church and Christian civilization restored after the chastisements foreseen by Our Lady at Fatima (cf. Chap. VI, 3) a role analogous to that the monks of Cluny played in the Middle Ages. But that role does not correspond to an “ascendancy” strictly speaking, that is, superiority, governing or controlling influence, domination (cf. Aurelio Buarque de Holanda Ferreira, Novo Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, entries ascendência and ascendente), and therefore to a situation of a more or less explicit command. Influence, yes; command, no.

Always striving to push the envelope, Mr. JAP as it were “neglects” such fine linguistic points to skillfully present an image of TFP as unfavorable as possible.

Indeed, since a number of readers will interpret “ascendancy” as a position of command, TFP will look like a power-hungry entity eager to hold sway “over popes, kings and legislators – therefore, over everybody” (loc. cit.).

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But anyone who stops to consider the historic antecedents of Cluny – which Mr. JAP himself points out – will understand the true value of the hypothesis TFP raises about itself. That is, of a Society entirely and selflessly at the service of the Church and of Christian civilization, obedient to its legitimate spiritual shepherds and living in perfect submission to civil authorities. Yet, at the same time, radiating good principles and encouraging good initiatives throughout Christendom.

How is this hypothesis extravagant or contrary to the Church’s norms and discipline?

In this twilight of the 20th century, and above all in this twilight of contemporary times, it is well-known that TFP has been standing out for its publications and activities on the Brazilian scene because of its fidelity to the traditional doctrine of the Church.

In this regard, it is well to recall here the honorable words from a Roman congregation over the publication of The Freedom of the Church in the Communist State (Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Editora Vera Cruz, São Paulo, 1964, 3rd enlarged ed., 42 pp.).

Indeed, in a letter of December 2, 1964, Cardinal Giuseppe Pizzardo and Msgr.

Dino Staffa (later also a Cardinal), respectively Prefect and Secretary of the Sacred Congregation for Seminaries and Universities, thus spoke about that book: “We congratulate.... the.... author.... and wish the greatest possible dissemination to the solid booklet, which is a most faithful echo of the Documents of the Supreme Magisterium of the Church.”

“A most faithful echo of the Supreme Magisterium of the Church”: that is what TFP aspires to be now and ever, including the Reign of Mary.

C. The TFP founder’s supposed immortality and his role in the latter times In the history of schools of thought and institutions, it is not rare for enthusiastic disciples to lavish hyperbolic praise on their masters.

In a series of hyperboles that St. Augustine makes sure to contest in his reply, one of his correspondents calls him “sacrator justitiae,” “instaurator spiritualis gloriae,” “dispensator salutis aeternae” (consecrator of justice, restorer of spiritual glory, dispenser of eternal salvation) (cf. Ep. 210 - apud Choix d'écrits spirituels de Saint Augustin, Introduction et traduction par Pierre de Labriolle, J. Gabalda et Fils, Editeurs, Paris, 1932, p. 8).

This is one example among thousands.

That which happens with the greater can happen a fortiori with the much smaller. About 20 years ago, an extremely young TFP volunteer – to whom the Society today owes intellectual works of great value that beckon even greater ones – led by the ardor and daring typical of his young age, in informal conversations with his companions in age and ideal raised the hypothesis that one day this Society’s founder would play some special role similar to that of the Prophet Elias, whom commentators on the Sacred Scriptures generally admit will return to the Earth at the end of times to fight the anti-Christ. Only after that will he be killed.

One can imagine the surprise that the hypothesis naturally caused in the bubbly daily life in TFP. While some rejected it or simply brushed it aside with indifference, others looked at it in a rather positive light. Others even became enthused about it.

There was no polemic at all in this regard, as everyone realized it was merely a peripheral hypothesis that had emerged in the vast array of topics conversed about in TFP.

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Why did the president of the TFP National Council not intervene right away with fulminating energy, putting an end to that really surprising hypothesis? One can see this is what Mr. JAP would have wanted.

Precisely because TFP is not the dictatorially-ruled institution that Mr. JAP describes, the president of TFP’s National Council would intervene in this minute incident of its daily life only if there were conditions for the hypothesis to lay durable roots in the Society’s ranks. Now then, those conditions did not even remotely exist.

Such interventions can be justified only when needed, as they too, in their own way, must obey the principle: “Non sunt multiplicanda entia sine necessitate.” A good educator only makes corrections and issues warnings and reprehensions with the circumspection with which doctors prescribe medicine. In other words, they carefully avoid prescribing medicines when a person’s organism is capable to recover on its own.

In one of his works (TFP Refutation of a Frustrated Offensive, Edição da TFP, 1984, vol. I, pp. 353-369), Atila Sinke Guimarães – the young man whose name I mention with esteem and affection – has written all the fitting clarifications about this topic.

What a pity Mr. JAP is so uninformed on what TFP publishes about its own history that he did not bother to read that work before launching forth on his fiery anti-TFP invective. He presented a mere hypothesis – actually a conjecture bordering on fantasy and totally devoid of any roots in the entity’s ranks – as a thesis unconditionally admitted.

4. TFP’s “secret monastery” Mr. JAP describes a visit he made to a TFP seat in the Jardim São Bento neighborhood of São Paulo with a wealth of novel-like details (interspersed with gross errors that show how flawed his memory can be). He insinuates it is a secret monastery whose access is restricted even to certain TFP sectors (WV pp. 115-134).

It is a building that once belonged to the Benedictine Order. It was build presumably in the 1920’s or 1930’s in Romanic style and served as astronomic observatory to an old abbot of St. Benedict’s Monastery [downtown São Paulo].

What Mr. JAP does not know is that the “secret monastery” has been often open for visitation by residents in this and other neighborhoods wishing to see the seat, families linked to TFP members or volunteers, TFP supporters and their families during the semi-annual conferences in São Paulo, and to numerous foreign visitors. All of them were able to visit the premises at will. 71 Some die-hard adversary bent on taking its anti-TFP argumentation to the end will claim that the entity obviously programmed those visits and carefully removed from the place anything that could shock eventual visitors.

The fact is, on November 24, 1984, a Saturday morning, a police car with several investigators suddenly stopped at the seat’s front door. They said they were looking for a girl who had been kidnapped from her family and had received an anonymous denunciation that she was kept there. It was the ever-recurring, mysterious but methodical action of “anonymous” persons, intermittent between the many anti-TFP media uproars, picking up in a widening and agitated fermentation just before they “broke out,” and returning to intermittence as soon as they ceased.

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The same can be said of the two TFP seats in Itaquera, the main seat at 341 Maranhão St. and the seat of its General Secretariat at 246 Martinico Prado St. and so on.

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While the hypothesis was absurd, in order to prevent any doubt from lingering among the honorable policemen, the persons in charge of the seat (though they were not obliged to do it) allowed them to enter and visit the whole place and every last one of its rooms, which they did without exception.

In this search, made without notice and thus without giving the “secret monastery” time to prepare for the unusual visitors, nothing was found against the entity. The case was duly registered in a document signed by the police crew.

5. The 1975 “mutiny” Mr. JAP claims that the 1975 campaign against divorce was due to a “mutiny” among TFP veterans who wanted to “take control of the organization” (WV p. 178).

According to him, the President of the TFP National Council was led to launch the campaign due to a need to prove that his mental capacity had not been affected by a car accident he had suffered a little earlier. He did so even though he figured TFP adversaries would launch a great media uproar against the Society as a reprisal (cf.

WV p. 179).

Also here, Mr. JAP distorts events in his typical fashion.

Indeed, in February 1975 I suffered a serious car accident. It so happened that as I was recovering from the accident, pro-divorce forces – whose drive TFP had successfully halted in 1966 – again attempted to have divorce approved in the Senate and the House of Deputies with projected bills by Senator Nelson Carneiro and Deputies Rubens Dourado and Airon Rios.

Still bed-ridden but monitoring events with interest, I figured TFP could once again stop the divorce offensive. Yet I hesitated to launch a campaign because I saw that the adversaries would launch a furiously vengeful media counter-offensive which – above all in a semi-dictatorial regime – could place at risk the very survival of the Society.

On the other hand, broad sectors of the public used to seeing TFP always in the front lines combating in defense of the family could find any omission inexplicable.

Such an omission would certainly cause an unfavorable impression among TFP friends and understandably provoke among its members and volunteers a discouragement highly harmful to the entity’s future development.

I had no doubt in my mind about the crux of the problem. To me, the establishment of divorce within a more or less near-term seemed inevitable. Indeed, in 1966 when we waged our victorious campaign against divorce, although the Episcopate fought divorce with much lesser commitment than before, the Catholic public did not even notice it. They were still deeply imbued with the traditional teaching of the Church against divorce, buttressed a while earlier by Cardinal Sebastião Leme of Rio de Janeiro and then by Cardinal Dom Carlos Carmelo de Vasconcellos Motta in São Paulo. And so TFP’s anti-divorce cry victoriously resounded far and wide.

However, between one pro-divorce onslaught and the other, time had gone by. The anti-divorce insistence of the episcopate had greatly dwindled; and progressivism had led many Catholics astray and into lukewarmness. If – as could be foreseen – the bishops’ resistance did not recover its vigor of old, a victory of divorce would be guaranteed, if not immediately, at least in the medium run. 72 72

In this regard, it is well to recall the authoritative testimony by Cardinal Eugênio Sales, the present Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, about the passing of Cardinal Motta: “If the Church in Brazil had fought as did Cardinal Carlos Carmelo de Vasconcellos Motta, divorce would not have been approved” (O Globo, 9-21-82).

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As I carefully weighed the pros and cons of the situation, it seemed preferable to launch the campaign. It was a calculated risk. Most Rev. Antônio de Castro Mayer, then Bishop of Campos, wrote a substantial and valiant pastoral letter that TFP spread throughout the country. The move quickly attained its goal: divorce was effectively halted once again. But it had become impossible to stop it in the medium run. And as the same, factors kept working to shrink the anti-divorce majority, Brazilian legislature would up by overcoming the indissolubility of the marriage bond. And between the last victory against divorce and the first victory for divorce, TFP had to face – which it did gallantly and successfully – the greatest media uproar ever carried out against it in Brazil.

As an impartial observer commented, that uproar – undoubtedly provoked by TFP’s victorious campaign against divorce – was so huge it would have sufficed to overthrow a government. However, auspice et afflante Beata Maria Virgine (under the auspice and protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary), the TFP came out of this battle even stronger. 73 This whole episode is what Mr. JAP portrayed as a “mutiny” and a “conspiracy.”

Nevertheless, the TFP volunteer whom he claims revealed the existence of that plot in a meeting (cf. WV pp. 178-179), as well as the other volunteers who were part of the same group, definitely deny that meeting or any talk about the so-called “mutiny” ever took place.

Both meeting and “mutiny” exist only in Mr. JAP’s fertile imagination.

6. Prayers, kindness and well-wishing: general norms of TFP behavior toward those who left The “apostates” is another topic thoroughly exploited by Mr. JAP so that nothing would be missing in his 200-page “summa against TFP.” That is a remarkably concise volume if compared to the 300-plus pages of this refutation. No wonder: it is easier to put together a bunch of random accusations in passing, as in an inflammatory pamphlet, extracted from the inexhaustible sources that a subjective mind egged on by hatred can draw from its own fantasy.

Mr. JAP essentially claims that people in TFP saw its dropouts with scorn and hatred. For example, they were mocked and avoided, their greetings left unreturned, and they could not even count on a prayer to return to the right path or at least save their souls (cf. WV pp. 183-184).

TFP clearly and definitely responds that all these claims are false.

Let the facts speak for themselves.

1. Mr. JAP himself is the first witness in this regard. Blinded with a passion to denigrate TFP at every turn, he failed to realize that his own narration of TFP’s exemplary conduct toward him throughout his process of “apostasy” shows the Society’s wholly benevolent attitude toward those who, succumbing to external

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A telltale sign of Mr. JAP’s partiality: regarding the CPI [Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry] on TFP setup at the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio Grande do Sul on the occasion of that media uproar, he says that “its ruling has not come to my knowledge” (WV p. 179). Yet, he had left tithe TFP ranks only two years after the CPI closed its work; and furthermore, to write his anti-TFP libel he consulted the work, A Half-Century of Epic Anticommunism, where these facts are narrated in every detail (cf. pp. 257-270) so he could not be unaware of the CPI’s outcome. And, as is known, the latter found nothing against TFP and closed its work on October 18, 1975 without presenting the customary report.

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pressure or inner solicitations to sin, abandon half-way TFP’s selfless and glorious journey.

In this regard it is telltale that to prove his claim he fails to mention even one single fact which might have occurred after he left TFP. That, in a book of memoirs, is simply inadmissible.

But he does have good reasons for it. A TFP member residing in Londrina, who prefers to keep his name unpublished for the time being, attests to the fact that even after Mr. JAP’s break with the Society he received him several times and gave him all kinds of assistance.

Mentioning such an episode could only get in the way of Mr. JAP’s general and unqualified accusations.

2. The latter also fails to say that every once in a while a TFP dropout asks for readmission. And no one remembers any such request which, having been made in the right conditions, failed to receive a ‘prodigal son’-like welcome.

3. It is well to note that more than 100 dropouts of the Society today have joined the ranks of its supporters – something that did not happen as an abrupt reconciliation but as a result of continuing cordial relationships through the years.

Where are, then, the scorn and hatred?

4. Furthermore, TFP keeps with affection numerous letters from former members expressing nostalgia, admiration and touching gratitude for the formation they received and recommending themselves to the prayers of the Society’s members and volunteers.

5. The question of prayers is a whole other chapter. Prayers for “apostates” have been offered in TFP, more than once. Many years ago, in a plenary meeting the President of its National Council said he prayed every day for those who have been, are or may become TFP members or volunteers and recommended that those present to the same.

6. As for the punishments that divine Providence can unleash on those who refuse to follow a vocation clearly recognized as such, see Chapter VI. *** Needless to say, in an organization as vast as TFP it is possible that one or the other of these general rules of behavior was violated. We will not delve into concrete facts to avoid an endless and all in all irrelevant casuistic.

Indeed, what organization would accept to be branded as a whole according to the behavior of those who were to violate its norms and customs?

To put a close to this matter, suffice it to say that in his narration of four concrete episodes (cf. WV p. 184) Mr. JAP commits a number of considerable errors.

One them is to call “apostate” a young man who left the ranks of the American TFP to immediately become a supporter, a position in which he died.

7. The attack Mr. JAP fears Mr. JAP made it a point to inscribe, in the contract he signed with his book publisher, a clause that foresees the possibility of his “disappearance.” In that case, royalties should be paid to his mother (cf. Brasil Extra, São Paulo, August 1984). In so doing, he maliciously insinuates – as usual – that TFP, lacking an answer to his venomous and serpentine attack, could take revenge by abducting or killing him.

This calumnious insinuation is also found in the summary of Warriors of the Virgin which OESP published this June 30th.

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It is not believable that Mr. JAP really has such fears. He perfectly knows TFP’s peaceful nature certified by more than 4,000 letters from mayors and sheriffs from cities and towns all over the country.

Does Mr. JAP really imagine his book would be so terribly ruinous to TFP that the Society would forfeit a line of conduct which, faithful to its Christian principles, it has kept unaltered from its foundation?

At any rate, if his apprehensions were real he should not only have assured the continuity of royalties for his family but also made provisions for his own personal security by asking for police protection. There is no record he ever did so.

And if he did not do it – a failure highly contradictory with his noisy alarm -let him do it right away. That way, not only will his life be guaranteed against potential aggressors but TFP, for its part, can be assured that if any such attack takes place the police will swoop down on the attackers and identify them.

And TFP’s innocence will be proven once again. *** Warriors of the Virgin was published in mid-July. When this volume is published, it will be close to a half-year since the publication of Mr. JAP’s pamphlet.

And the chimerical attempt on his life, which the fantasist subjectivist so feared, remained entirely in the realm… of fantasy.

His insulting hypothesis is graying as time goes by.

At any rate, he would be hard-pressed to claim he is still afraid after this refutation is published. Indeed, with such a plethora of arguments to overcome his bungled attack, silencing him would not offer anyone the slightest advantage.

CHAPTER X – Warriors of the Virgin: a Hegelian-Freudian book that beckons a future religious persecution Having read the book, Warriors of the Virgin, perhaps more than one reader will ask what the more profound claim it makes against TFP actually is. That question would be explicable, as the author and the preface and introduction writers apparently opted to leave it non-explicit. On the other hand, Mr. JAP presents such a wealth of information (untrue in different degrees) and clear accusations and innuendos that an average reader is lost amidst all that. Hence it is perfectly reasonable to ask what the main note in this whole concert of defamation is.

It thus appears appropriate to dedicate this last Chapter to make an investigation on this point.

This investigation appears to lead to the conclusion that this main note does exist and constitutes the most profound criticism in Warriors of the Virgin. It is a real subliminal “message” addressed to the reader which can be felt throughout the book but more especially in the preface by Mr. Domingos Pellegrini.

1. “The left and the right are like tips of a horseshoe: seemingly opposed extremes but which almost touch each other” Mr. Pellegrini describes himself in 1966, when he “shaved for the first few times” (WV p. VII) as the type of young man prone to taking a defined position in the clash between the great ideological forces then facing each other around the world. As he sees it, he was at the right point to be recruited.

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What actually happened, in his own words, is that both extremes tried to recruit him. First the TFP, whose seat he visited for a few hours. Soon afterward, communism, to which he actually adhered.

He goes on to speak about his “experience” in the communist movement and the remorse he felt on leaving it. The whole thing gives the impression that his evolution and that of Pedriali were analogous even though they treaded radically opposed routes.

Both also ended up in similar breakups as the two men, with a personality of their own, did not content themselves with a mediocre, robot-like stance within their respective movements.

Nevertheless, in his comparative analysis between the first communist ambience he frequented and TFP, Mr. Pellegrini manages to show his preference for the former.

Indeed, he says that “the smaller the organization, the more fanatic it is; the more mediocre or opportunistic the militants that go on after the disappointments of early youth; and more blatant the mutual dependence between leaders and followers.

And then you have the sympathizers, contributing money and favors to pay for their remorse” (WV p. IX).

Given that the general concept, or rather general illusion, is that the communist current (of which the MR-8 is a more or less conflictive participant depending on how Moscow wants to move its marionettes) is very numerous and that TFP at any rate is less numerous than that current, the upshot is that life in the communist current would presumably be quite a bit more humane and airy. Just as life in the great pagan religions in the early times of Christianity would be much more humane and airy than that of the Christian faithful in the catacombs!

Incidentally, it is obvious to anyone who reads Mr. Pellegrini’s preface that he strongly favors the left. Suffice it to note that he claims that young communists “at a rally, wave the flag of the Future,” whereas TFP men “march down the street with the standard of the Past”... (WV p. IX).

The preface is written in a light and fluent, easy to read style. It is well suited to a relativist who writes with an air of nonchalant yet somewhat ironic neutrality about the great problems that enthrall the minds of men and have often divided them throughout history.

That is how he looks at two opposing camps he would rather call parallel cults: the communist movement in genere, or more specifically MR-8 on the one hand, and on the other hand, TFP. One would say that a whole current of public opinion is speaking through him, who sees himself as a “moderate” but is, in his own way, as radical or even more so than others; relativistic to the extreme and a radical and fanatic enemy of every radicalism and fanaticism. And one who obsessively sees radicalism and fanaticism, real and imagined, everywhere. Incidentally, in this preface the concept of radicalism is clearly marked by this metaphor: “As General Golbery do Couto e Silva, considered a man of the right, put it, the left and the right are like tips of the same horseshoe: seemingly opposed extremes, but which almost touch each other” (WV p. VIII).

The thesis of the preface is that differences between right and left are secondary; what matters is what they have in common. On this precise point is found the marrow of the relativists’ misunderstanding of the two “extremes.”

Moderates – let us call them centrists or relativists, it does not matter – do not really and deeply believe in the objectivity of human reason and as a consequence, in doctrines put together by systems and schools of thought. And they believe those who, on the contrary, affirm the objectivity of reason – let us call them absolutists

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from right or left – as sharing more common ground (in spite of the vast doctrinal distances separating them) than they do with relativists. This happens even though the latter can at times agree, now with the right, now with the left. In fact, they are light and superficial agreements that do not entail real antagonism toward the opposing position.

“Some wear ties, other jeans; but behavior in TFP or MR-8 has more similarities than differences,” Mr. Pellegrini claims (WV p. VIII).

2. Is any and every extreme necessarily exaggerated?

Although a bit on the margin of this exposition, it is not possible for us not to protest against the ease with which Mr. Pellegrini strives to stick on TFP the ambiguous and ill-sounding label of “extremist.”

If one takes an ideological “spectrum,” what precisely are its “extremes”?

There are many possible answers to this question.

A first conception is that extremes are nothing but the two most opposed and ideologically distanced positions on the spectrum.

In that case, supposing a parliament wholly made up of centrists – moderates by definition – the gamut closest to the right and the one closest to the left should ipso facto be called “extremists.” So, paradoxically, essentially moderate people known as such should be branded as “extremists.”

This shocking conclusion is nevertheless unavoidable; for every center is necessarily composed of ideological gamuts. And this ensemble of gamuts, which cannot but have an initial gamut and a terminal one, thus has two extreme gamuts.

In this sense there would be nothing pejorative about the meaning of “extremist.”

“There would be nothing pejorative”: note the conditional. In fact, in current language, “extremist” always has a pejorative meaning, except as a mere work hypothesis here.

In another conception, “extremist” would apply to something markedly exaggerated which gravely oversteps the bonds of common sense and even tends to be – or actually is – delirious, unwholesome and incompatible with all normal modes of social interaction.

Now then, in this sense TFP has often refused this unjust label. And how rightly so!

Consider its books and campaigns. What do they advocate? For example, respect of private property in the Brazilian countryside; rejection of divorce; vigilance against the tricks and snares of leftist infiltration in the Church etc.

Now, if these are “extreme” positions in the pejorative sense of the word, it is impossible not to ask whether the countless Brazilians who have supported its campaigns because they oppose divorce and/or Agrarian Reform and communist infiltration in the Church are not “extremists” as well.

Since indisputably the answer would be that these Brazilians are not extremists, one must also conclude that neither is TFP. Otherwise one would have to say that the same doctrine should be called “extremist” when sustained by TFP and “non-extremist” when professed individually by those who support the organization.

Only anti-TFP fanatics could advocate such a contradiction. Yet, they do exist.

Incidentally, it is well to note that this “extremist” epithet is evolving and another meaning is beginning to come through its superficial meaning.

“Extremist” would be anyone who deems it possible for a human mind to distinguish between truth and error, good and evil in all self-assurance and

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objectivity. An “extremist” would be, for example, a Catholic who affirms that only the Catholic Church is the one true Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ and that other churches, be they Protestant or Greek-schismatic, are not true churches of Jesus Christ. Likewise, a Protestant or schismatic who were to take the same position regarding his own church would be an “extremist.”

On the contrary, a moderate would be one who, facing not only opposing but antagonistic religious professions were to say he disagrees with all of them because truth and error, good and evil have a lot relative about them. And as a consequence the human mind must inch toward a distilled synthesis of these contrasts, which incidentally should not be antagonistic. True moderation would thus be an irenistic pan-Christianity capable of absorbing or progressively overcoming fights or clashes without antagonism.

A moderate, irenistic or ecumenical person – in short, a relativist – yearning to see the arrival of an era full of mixtures, amalgamations and confusions would have a full right of citizenship in this end of century and in the ages to come.

On the contrary, yellow stars like the ones the Nazis prepared for the Jews, whose wearing was obligatory, are already in store for opponents of such a regime – the extremists; either those stars or some other sign of rejection and scorn.

3. No ideal demanding dedication and sacrifice would be appropriate for truly adult persons Mr. Pellegrini emphasizes that adolescents are normally those with a greater aptitude of soul to be recruited: “both left and right recruit young men as the Church has done a lot and the State does and will do for as long as the draft is obligatory” (WV p. VIII).

Why? “Clearly,” he answers, “a mature citizen will not remain at the service of someone else’s ideas with the dedication that organizations require. And both to him who adores the Virgin and to him who adores Lenin, the ideas to follow, develop and spread are those of his leaders – duly turned into gods not on their own demand but for a mythical need in those who are led” (WV p. VIII).

Here the relativistic note clearly appears. Deep down, even military service is an affront to man’s maturity. If what Mr. Pellegrini says is taken to its ultimate consequences, men consent to go to war when they are young but would never agree if they were adults.

Indeed, except for the leaders – “really exceptional figures, resolute men of ideas and action, exemplary in theory and in practice” (perhaps trying to be kind toward the TFP founder, he designates him as one of those exceptional figures…next to Lenin!) – no elevated and transcendental ideal which demands dedication and sacrifice is appropriate to real adults.

4. Life’s supreme wisdom is found in total relativism, in which nothing attains its ultimate consequences Thus, both TFP and communism, the TFP founder and Lenin are, as it were, two tips of the same horseshoe which almost touch each other, whereas the arch of the horseshoe represents the wide, more encompassing, lucid and accommodating curve of relativists.

Centrism is the only perfect position that leads neither to exaggerations nor horrors. Centrism here really means relativism. For if total coherence – both on the right and the left – generates all kinds of aberrations, polemics, disputes and even bloodshed, the center – incoherent but sensitive to life’s evolutions – presents no inconvenience at all.

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Every man must be on alert, in his internal forum, against the dangerous mechanism of total logic that works on the basis of absolute truths (class prejudice, a Marxist would say). For this necessarily leads to the formation of alienating ideologies: “Extreme organizations are very interesting forms for us to learn how to observe and dismantle ideological traps installed in us” (WV p. IX).

Yes, for “after all, everyone who sees himself as being on the right or the left, or who accepts this approach, has a bit of TFP or MR-8 in him – even if only through a remote kinship” (WV p. IX).

Mr. Pellegrini’s thought is well enunciated in this phrase: “If consistency is not free to move ahead only to the next idea, a crust of principles and prejudices, parents of ideologies, begins to form” (WV p. X). In other words, human thought must not be subject to the empire of logic, which leads it in all safety to draw consequences and more consequences, resulting into an orderly body of principles, that is, an ideology.

On the contrary, being consistent for him means to be content with the superficial, skin-deep aspects of things and nothing else.

Thus, if an idea happens to be accepted, one must not necessarily draw all the logical consequences from it: one must question it and freely deny it the next day. “If our vision of life could not change as every new day is born, what the hell is a new day born for?” – asks the preface writer (WV p. X).

If one is not ready to deny tomorrow what one affirms today, the idea turns into an odious prejudice and can even lead to the formation of an ideology – oh supreme danger!

In the eyes of Mr. Pellegrini, this conduct appears to affirm complete freedom of thought. In fact, he denies it. In his conception, human thinking is like a little boat capable to go from one island to another island close by but not a safe means of transportation to cross the ocean of great intellectual cogitations by safely travelling from island to island, from certainty to certainty, until the last horizons of human thought.

Crossing that ocean would be tantamount to entering the “scheme” Mr. Pellegrini fears so much (WV p. IX). As if it did not constitute, for him, a rigid framework, an ample system – and even more so, something like a “religion” – relativism!

Now then, Mr. Pellegrini – who appears so attached to his freedom to contest ideological systems – does not appear to recognize with equal enthusiasm the freedom of those who want to adopt a given system.

Indeed, he says that “Pedriali’s suffering to write this book appears destined to alert young men and parents” (WV p. X). Of course, to alert young men not to enter the ‘horseshoe’ through one of its tips and above all never enter the tip on the “right.”

But to alert parents for what purpose?

He obviously wants them to use their power of coercion to prevent young men from leaving the relativist mindset and letting themselves be absorbed by one of the tips of the horseshoe. By thus resorting to parental authority in ideological matters, he dismisses the fact that even minors at a certain age acquire a capacity to observe and judge that deserves some respect. He obviously does not see his attitude as authoritarian, placing undue pressure or coercing individual freedom!

Such is the irremediable contradiction inherent to all relativist schools.

One perceives, deep down, that in Mr. Pellegrini’s thinking one must not attach importance to ideas but let facts merely flow by themselves. As far as he is concerned, philosophical systems are nothing but explanations and myths with which men attempt to justify to themselves the impulses at work in them of much richer,

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more intelligent and profound evolutionary forces than the poor ideas they come up with.

What is, from this perspective, a relativist? One can conclude that he would be a kind of prophet who captures and reveals these profound forces. As it were, he would feel them “in the air” or “in the wind” or in the innermost recess of himself and then should simply and unconcernedly let himself be moved by them.

We said prophet. Could we not say robot?

A relativist despises both communists and TFP members; he considers the former robots and the latter, slaves of ideological systems. Perhaps he does not realize that he turns himself into a robot and a slave of these universal evolutionary forces which he follows without at least trying to find a rational explanation for them, of which he feels absolutely convinced.

Deep down, a relativist holds reason in complete disregard and worships, as it were, a hidden divinity that he neither mentions nor provides the least inkling as to its existence.

5. “The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil” (Soph. 1:12): the lesson Mr. JAP’s “experience” taught him JAP?

Now then, from Mr. Pellegrini’s perspective, what precisely happened with Mr.

Before meeting TFP he was a young man with a tendency toward the marvelous and sought – though very diffusely and almost imperceptibly – a sublime ideal, a genuine and absolute truth to love and serve. The confined ambience in which he lived did not suffice him. When he meet TFP, it seemed to embody the presence and attraction of that ideal which he longed for since he was a young boy.

So he adheres to TFP – that is, he settles on one tip of the horseshoe – and decides to consecrate himself entirely to its activities, which appeared worthy of such sacrifice.

However, with the passing of time and under the action of various factors, his initial fervor cools down and he feels an ever stronger calling from the world who once bored him, and which he once left with relief as he joined TFP. So the ideal he had so longed for begins to lose luster in his eyes: “I was gradually losing faith in the ideal, the ideal which had illuminated my adolescence and disturbed the beginning of my youth” (WV p. 185).

So the doubts start. The triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary which Our Lady foresaw at Fatima, and the much awaited Reign of Mary, begin to appear like a mirage in the desert: “Until when should we wait for that reign, of whose possibilities I had never heard of, except in the closed ambiences of TFP? Could it not be a misunderstanding or the blind realization of a remote hypothesis? Were we not behaving as soldiers of the Bastiani Fortress – the personages Dino Buzzati created in The Tartar Steppe who spent their lives, physical and mental health, dreams and ambitions waiting for an attack from the redoubtable Tartars? The attack would not happen nor would anyone hear about Tartars, but as far as the garrison of the Bastiani Fortress was concerned, that was their only reason for living: waiting, waiting, waiting....” (WV p. 185).

“So, which route to take? That of the mirage? Or that of reality? 74 – he asks – Both seemed full of riddles, none seemed safe. I hesitated. And the longer I took to

What does he understand by “reality” here? Is it the opposite image, that is, the other tip of the horseshoe?

He does not even mention it here. The other alternative, toward which his eyes are increasingly attracted, is that of a life 74

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decide, the more I fed my anguish, an anguish that increased to the degree that the opposing forces acting in my interior, confused and chaotic, crossed one another. Now I felt attracted to one side, now driven to the other. And I did not find the equilibrium that could give me back serenity. Lack of definition persisted” (WV pp. 185-186).

Like anyone who lacks the courage to make an important decision, Mr. JAP found it better to simply let himself go with the flow of events as they happened and with the internal impulses that his feckless will did not want to overcome: “I decided to close my eyes and let myself be led by the stronger impulses. And, little by little the forces of the world overcame what I had always seen as divine forces...” (WV p.

186).

Thus, what Mr. JAP’s failed six-year “experience” in TFP taught him is that no ideal deserves any sacrifice at all. His initial error was to have opened himself to the ideal, to have aspired for the marvelous and for the absolute. For nothing is entirely marvelous, just as nothing is entirely hideous. He finally understood that the world is like that city described by the Prophet Sophonias, where good and evil, truth and error, the beautiful and the monstrous are mixed and everything coexists without clashing, even the most aberrant persons or things: for nothing is entirely good or entirely bad.

“And it shall come to pass at that time” says the Prophet, referring to Jerusalem, “that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and will visit upon the men ... that say in their hearts: The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil” (Soph.

1:12).

Mr. JAP’s great conquest outside TFP was an horizon where the sky is low and grim, with no breeze of faith or idealism blowing in the stagnant air. And all that rises from the earth’s marshes are the stench and miasmas of a poor mankind totally given over to skepticism, doubt and the unbridled satisfaction of its own passions.

Over this desolate picture one can imagine (and this is the first act of imagination contained in these three hundred pages) two angels holding two banners, each containing, as an explanation for such ruin, two teachings of the Divine Savior: “He that is not with me, is against me” (Mt. 12:30); and “Let your speech be yea, yea: no, no” (Mt. 5:37).

Mr. JAP does not see the two Gospel teachings in that picture (and hasn’t for quite a while now). And he feels accomplished.

It is in the negation of any valid contradiction between these two opposites that Mr. JAP finds the equilibrium he had earlier sought in vain on one tip of the horseshoe. He now found it in relativism, that is, the long part of the horseshoe. Being everybody and thinking like everybody, he is as balanced as everybody else.

Deep down, Warriors of the Virgin is a negation of the ideal and a glorification of mediocrity, self-indulgence, relaxation and the abstention of any repressive attitude toward sensuality. This becomes clear in Mr. JAP’s description of his last visit to a TFP seat in Londrina: "From the balcony, I was looking at the downtown buildings and the lights in their windows were sending out a strong and enveloping call. In those apartments, houses, streets, everything contrasted with the life I had led over the last few years. Relaxation, smile, spontaneity, freedom - how all that was different from what happened inside our seats, where every action was deliberate or derived from imposed habits! Outside, there was freedom; inside, unconditional submission to one

without ideals, tensions or ideological systems that distort and capture; the image of a good life or a rather spontaneous, accommodating, prosaic and permissive little life in this world that once had him bored.

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man - Plinio, the 'prophet of the Reign of Mary' - to whom we should adjust our will, thoughts and feelings” (WV p. 197). 75 Why should one think logically if there is neither truth nor error? Why repress our impulses if there is neither good nor evil?

The important thing is not to control one’s ideas but let them run loose aimlessly, without seeking to govern what happens inside oneself, and allowing oneself to be freely moved by the internal inflows which actually make us into a man like all others, thinking, feeling and living like everybody, ultimately participating in the great universal mentality. For the alternative is clear: either one is just a uomo qualunque – anybody – or one becomes imbalanced or robotized.

If Mr. JAP now thinks he is balanced it is because he is no longer excited over any high and noble ideal, nor is he horrified with filth. He is indifferent to everything.

Before meeting TFP he was a person with a selective mindset which TFP exacerbated; and he now thinks he has figured that supreme wisdom in life is to be a citizen of the one city lambasted by the Prophet Sophonias. The latter was a real, absolute, fanatic and uncomprehending bigot.

This is the book’s “message” and the conclusion to which he wants to lead the reader, particularly (it is to be supposed) if he is likewise extracted from TFP ranks.

6. Is the deeper philosophical substratum of Warriors of the Virgin found in Freud and Hegel?

What ideological system can be glimpsed at in the recesses of this “message”?

It is not difficult to figure out that it has a Freudian substratum and underneath the latter, a Hegelian substratum.

According to Freud, man’s personality is divided – as if topographically – into three regions: the ego, the id and the superego.

In short, the ego is the region where the conscious part of personality manifests itself, coming up from the subconscious regions and entering into contact with the exterior world. The id is the region of the unconscious where are found the instincts in revolt, always repressed, dominated and always wanting to affirm themselves and to expand. And the superego is a repressive agent formed by building into man’s personality the prohibitions imposed by parental authority and by civilized society. As a consequence, the superego enslaves the individual and prevents the free expansion of his instincts.

Thus, according to Freud, culture and civilization were manipulated by princes and priests (both terms understood in a broad sense; for example, an industrialist or banker today would be a prince of the capitalist order; an intellectual who imposes the admiration of others by his superiority, is a priest of the values he affirms and defends). In order to keep men under their yoke, these princes and priests put together religions, norms of behavior, principles of aesthetic etc. On a social scale, this ensemble of impositions corresponds in man’s soul to the superego, which clashes with the ego and with the id and which, in a terrible mechanism of censorship, prevents man’s repressed instincts from expanding.

The id has two fundamental instincts, eros and thanatos. Eros is the instinct of life and of love. And thanatos, which in Freud’s dualist conception is opposed to eros, is the instinct of aggression, destruction and death. And libido is the psychic energy

75 With caricatural distortion, the final words of the quoted text describe relations fashioned according to an obedience legitimately analogous to religious obedience. In this regard, see Servitudo ex caritate, by Atila Sinke Guimarães, Artpress, São Paulo, 1985, pp. 47-91.

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that drives the eros and makes man tend toward pleasure – not only sexual but above all sexual pleasure.

The most important thing man has is the id, because the unconscious is the true source of the personality. Both the ego and the superego are derived from id, where the most profound vital force resides.

The superego’s repression of the ego and the id is the cause of mental imbalances. And man can only free himself from this unhealthy repression if he gathers the courage decisively to confront the superego’s repressive mechanism, that is, to give himself over to complete permissiveness.

Deep down one sees here, applied to man’s inner self, the same Hegelian dialectics that Marx applied to society. Freudianism and Marxism are, in essence, only one system applied in different fields. And Hegel is the substratum common to both.

Marx sees society in an ongoing class struggle that never ends. Similarly, Freud sees in man’s personality a relentless fight between the id (where instincts reside) and the superego (which represents civilized society that represses those instincts), between a thesis and an antithesis. And in some way, the ego is the synthesis. But since the repressed instincts are in a continuous, never-ending fermentation, the synthesis is never definitive and a new thesis is formed which struggles with a new antithesis in search of a new synthesis. This is an aspect of the universal evolutionary and Hegelian process that continues.

Freud’s doctrine denies that man can attain knowledge of the truth through logic. A visceral relativist, Freud does not believe that an objective truth can exist.

For those who accept the existence of objective truth, admitting an idea necessarily brings logical consequences. Since it is normal for a vine to produce grapes and for a wheat field to produce wheat, logical premises likewise produce consequences more or less inevitably, since as a whole, man’s thought proceeds on the ways of logic.

Freudianism denies this principle. To Freud, logic is only a seeming concatenation of thought. Thought is not truly free but only a fruit of profound yearnings and tendencies which logic has nothing or almost nothing to do with. So logic is a mere ensemble of rationalizations without real substance.

Freudianism also denies man’s free will. Man thinks he is free but in fact his freedom is continually conditioned by his unconscious fighting against the superego’s repressive mechanism. Indeed, man is nothing but a mere plaything of these clashing forces and for this reason no one can be made responsible for his actions.

Freudianism sees the man that God created in His image and likeness, rational, free and endowed with an immortal soul, as a robot, a man without free will and incapable of owning even his own thoughts.

Being rational, man is able to understand the moral law; he is able to know what is good and what is evil. Possessing free will in its fullness, he can opt for good or for evil as he wishes. 76 And with his immortal soul, for all eternity he will either enjoy or suffer according to the good or evil he practiced in his earthly life.

It is necessary to distinguish between psychological freedom and moral freedom. The renowned Thomist, Fr. Victorino Rodríguez y Rodríguez thus clarifies the issue: “The freedom of one who does evil is morally false. He who sins works freely in the psychological order; but since he has no moral license to do so, he violates the moral order and incurs the ‘servitude of sin’ (Jn. 8:34). Saint Peter calls that liberty a ‘cloak of malice’ (1 Pt 2:16). To sin certainly is to exert psychological freedom but not moral freedom, much on the contrary, above all if one has in mind the fact that, in the order of grace, mortal sin destroys the principle of the moral life, leaving man absolutely powerless to do healthy works. Using liberty to do evil is to abdicate one’s dignity and degrade oneself” (Victorino Rodriguez, OP, Temas-Clave de Humanismo Cristiano, Speiro, Madrid, 1984, p. 121).

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7. Relativism: an intolerant and exclusivist “religion” that ferociously persecutes those who dare believe in truths Once this doctrine is expounded, the more veiled part in Mr. JAP’s indictment against TFP comes to the fore. TFP is not only an evil “cult” that “brainwashed” him.

TFP is a nefarious organization that works for the sublime and for a selective mindset; that works to keep alive in people’s minds the distinction – and opposition – between truth, good and beauty on the one hand and between error, evil, and ugliness on the other. As a consequence, it is an organization that invites people to the sublime and helps give them a selective, and in some situations, pugnacious state of mind -precisely the opposite of relativism.

This is where Warriors of the Virgin finally leads to. It is an attack on TFP, but one that contains, deep down, a whole philosophy of life, a whole “religion.”

A relativist, radically exclusivist and ferociously defamatory “religion” (remember, defamation is an authentic form of persecution) against all nonrelativists.

Furthermore, certain episodes of the anti-cult campaign alluded to in Chapter IV have shown just that. For, at the bottom of the undefined concept of what today is called a cult, is found this affirmation: a cult is any group that believes in absolute truths and thus seeks to oppose the spontaneous flow of things, to oppose universal evolution. Which, in fact – let it be said in passing --- does not match the reality of a large number of cults, including the largest and most scandalously prominent.

And how could this persecution fail to attack – at least in the medium run – the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, to which TFP members, volunteers and supporters are honored to belong? How will the Church not be exposed, sooner or later, to the pillory of relativists?

In order to gauge just how distant that irenistic-relativistic position is from Catholic doctrine and from Church teaching, see, for example, the excerpt below from the famous Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, by St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort. In it the great Marian apostle comments on the words of Genesis: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel” (Gen. 3:15).

“God has established only one enmity - but it is an irreconcilable one - which will last and even go on increasing to the end of time. That enmity is between Mary, his worthy Mother, and the devil, between the children and the servants of the Blessed Virgin and the children and followers of Lucifer. Thus the most fearful enemy that God has set up against the devil is Mary, his holy Mother....

“God has established not just one enmity but ‘enmities’, and not only between Mary and Satan but between her race and his race. That is, God has put enmities, antipathies and hatreds between the true children and servants of the Blessed Virgin and the children and slaves of the devil. They have no love and no sympathy for each other. The children of Belial, the slaves of Satan, the friends of the world, - for they are all one and the same - have always persecuted and will persecute more than ever in the future those who belong to the Blessed Virgin, just as Cain of old persecuted his brother Abel, and Esau his brother Jacob. These are the types of the wicked and of the just. But the humble Mary will always triumph over Satan, the proud one, and so great will be her victory that she will crush his head, the very seat of his pride. She will unmask his serpent's cunning and expose his wicked plots. She will scatter to the winds his devilish plans and to the end of time will keep her faithful servants safe from his cruel claws.

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“But Mary's power over the evil spirits will especially shine forth in the latter times, when Satan will lie in wait for her heel, that is, for her humble servants and her poor children whom she will rouse to fight against him. In the eyes of the world they will be little and poor and, like the heel, lowly in the eyes of all, down-trodden and crushed as is the heel by the other parts of the body. But in compensation for this they will be rich in God's graces, which will be abundantly bestowed on them by Mary.

They will be great and exalted before God in holiness. They will be superior to all creatures by their great zeal and so strongly will they be supported by divine assistance that, in union with Mary, they will crush the head of Satan with their heel, that is, their humility, and bring victory to Jesus Christ” (St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, http://www.ewtn.com/library/montfort/truedevo.htm ).

How could a relativist not see as intolerably sectarian this conception of the world as a continuous struggle between God and the devil, good and evil, the race of the Virgin against the race of the serpent?

How could he thus fail to condemn the traditional teaching of Holy Church?

Indeed, some authors calling themselves Catholics saw that position of the great Saint (and of many other Catholic thinkers who have also written in the same line) as smacking of the execrable heresy of the Manicheans. This is such a groundless imputation that on hearing it one can only think of Dante’s words: “Non ragioniamo di loro, ma guarda e passa” (Hell 3:51).

However, to suffer in union with Christ the Redeemer and Mary Most Holy the co-redemptrix is the sacred way of Christ’s disciples – which TFP also wants to tread – as the Divine Master himself warned: “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember my word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake: because they know not him who sent me.

“If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no other man hath done, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. But that the word may be fulfilled which is written in their law: They hated me without cause” (Jn 15:18-25).

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Freud’s Thinking in Mr. José Antônio Pedriali’s Book, Warriors of the Virgin Drs. Miguel Beccar Varela and Edwaldo Marques TFP Commission of Medical Studies INTRODUCTION In the book, Warriors of the Virgin – Secret Life in TFP (EMW Editores, São Paulo, 1985, 201 pp.), Mr. José Antônio Pedriali recounts his passage by this Society and the psychological reactions he experienced during his relationship with it.

As he prepared TFP’s refutation of that book, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira asked the entity’s Commission of Medical Studies to opine whether the background of Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s report was based on a Freudian doctrinal conception on how to interpret events.

To fulfill his request, two members of the said Commission made a comparison between Freud’s doctrine and the facts narrated in the book, Warriors of the Virgin – Secret Life in TFP, which resulted in the report we present below after hearing the Commission’s other members.

As the authors of this report investigated whether or not Mr. J. A. Pedriali distorted events in his report, they were faced with the following problem: a) First of all, as physicians, they could not suspend judgment regarding the objectivity or falsity of those claims. Indeed, in psychiatry it is indispensable for the doctor to verify the veracity of the data that make up the report by the individual under observation. This verification can be done through information provided by family members or by persons who live with the individual or through direct observation of the ambience in which he lives or has lived. b) On the other hand, however, as members of the institution under attack, the authors of this study could not simply declare that certain data are distorted or false without raising a suspicion of partiality. That means they had to abundantly prove their statements.

Now, in his refutation (Chap. I:2), Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira has already made an exhaustive analysis of the note of subjectivism that distorts the narration.

Thus, from the medical standpoint an analysis of Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s autobiographical testimony can be made without further need to demonstrate how much the author of Warriors of the Virgin – Secret Life in TFP distorts, falsifies and interprets in his own way the events he narrated.

His report is written in such a way that it can be interpreted in light of Freudian doctrines as a basket case showing the harmful effects of religion on the psychic maturation of individuals.

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Indeed, Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s narration contains the most important elements Freudianism sees as characteristic of neurotic religiosity.

Among them, we should emphasize: 1. Regressive neurotic conversion.

2. Neurosis-provoking sexual repression imposed in the name of religious principles.

3. Appearance of obsessive ideas.

4. Pathological anguish caused by a conflict between TFP-inculcated principles and the repressed sexual instinct.

5. Psychic determinism where instincts dominate reason and the will.

Mr. J. A. Pedriali attributes all his psychic problems to the influence he claims TFP exercised upon him. At the same time, he recognizes the doctrines he heard in TFP as being the same ones he learned during his upbringing in a Catholic family.

Thus, for example, because of his Catholic education and his earlier experience in other religious movements, he was surprised neither at what he was told in TFP about dedicating oneself to an ideal (WV p. 13) nor that the Catholic Church was presented to him as the only true Church (WV p. 12), nor with the fact that the Saints are seen as life models for all faithful (WV pp. 37-38). In his narration, Mr. J. A. Pedriali clearly places TFP as belonging to the traditionalist current in the Church (WV p. 31).

It is important to emphasize this because the Catholic image of TFP presented by Mr. J. A. Pedriali is similar to the image that Freud presents of Religion to attack it, as we will show in this report. And if he points TFP as the cause of what he deemed his own march to madness, in strict logic it follows that the Catholic Religion itself must be accused of driving people mad. This criticism is at the very core of Freud’s position on religion.

The accusation implicit in Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s report, that TFP is an initiatory religious cult that recruits adepts through allurement methods including the mythological “brainwashing” (cf. “‘Brainwashing’ – A Myth at the Service of a New ‘Therapeutic Inquisition,’” Catolicismo, no 409, January 1985), is consistent with Freud’s accusation against religion in general and the Catholic Religion in particular, fifty years before that expression was invented.

Thus, in this report we will try to show how the facts narrated by Mr. J. A. Pedriali perfectly fit a Freudian interpretation.

CHAPTER I – Regressive neurotic conversion 1. Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s Report Mr. J. A. Pedriali introduces himself as a normal (15-year old) adolescent whose adhesion to TFP had imbalanced aspects from the outset because of the entity’s overly repressive attitude regarding sexuality, as we will see in Chapter II. An idealist, dreamer and practicing Catholic, he found in TFP something he was seeking since he was ten: a broad and comprehensive vision of the world’s political, cultural and religious problems; and an active but genuine Catholic organization, neither lukewarm nor merely social, as were the religious groups he had encountered earlier (WV pp. 11 and 13). So he had no difficulty accepting TFP’s statement that “our lives should be devoted to our ideas, and our ideas should be subordinated to the teachings of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church” (WV p.

12). Brought up in a Catholic family, Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s first “impression” (everything

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in him is about “impressions” or “sensations”) was that the private and social lives of TFP members and volunteers were consistent with the religious doctrine professed by the organization (cf. WV p. 13).

But the most outstanding and decisive development in his process of adhering to TFP was not to re-encounter his ideals but rather a purely emotional episode that took place during a SEFAC (Specialized Week in Anticommunist Formation) at the closing lecture by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira.

During the SEFAC, conviviality with other young men who were seeking the same ideal and growing in enthusiasm for things that attracted him from childhood – music, symbols and ambiences would, as he put it, “throw me back into the most recondite part of my soul where I felt awakening the child,.... that had let himself be enveloped in the fantasy of fairy tales and who sought refuge in the dark corners of churches in the hope that – who knows? – angels would appear at any moment” (WV pp. 38-39).

Soon thereafter, making an obvious connection between one event and the other, he goes on to narrate a scene from his childhood in which he broke out crying as his aunt told him about Our Lord’s Passion: “That description of the Passion and the reaction I had learning about it accompanied me over the next few years. And at the end of the SEFAC I was attending Prof. Plinio’s lecture with interest, when my gaze crossed his… He was speaking about the crisis in the Church..... He recalled the Passion, citing a phrase from the Prophet Jeremias that can be applied to Christ in the last moment of his agony..... That phrase sounded like a gong convoking me, by adhering to TFP, to do reparation for the pains Christ suffered” (WV p. 39).

Mr. J. A. Pedriali presents this transcendental episode of his life as having been caused by the mere repetition of a childhood emotional experience. He sees the principles expounded by the lecturer, as well as the assent of his reason and the adhesion of his will to those principles as secondary and doubtful.

And he says it expressly. Although he reckons that his adhesion to TFP was a choice made with “conviction,” in the following paragraph he adds: “the doctrine, however, was the one thing that caught my attention the least” (WV p. 38).

2. Freud’s doctrine According to Freud, religion itself is an infantile neurosis of the individual and of humanity, an obsessive neurosis. And it arises from the frustration caused by the prohibition to kill one’s father and cohabitate with one’s mother. These two desires are the key elements of the Oedipus complex.

As Freud has it, this “complex,” which appears between 3 and 6 years of age, is neurotically repressed in the majority of cases because the boy feels obliged to renounce his incestuous desires in relation to his mother because of his father, whom he sees as a powerful rival that threatens him with castration. This is what Freud calls “castration complex.”

Freud expounds this theory in many of his works: - “Quando é ainda uma criança, um filho já começa a desenvolver afeition particular por sua mãe, a quem considera como pertencente a ele; começa a sentir o pai como um rival que disputa sua única posse.... A essas atitudes chamamos de ‘complexo de Édipo’, visto que a lenda de Édipo materializa, com apenas uma leve atenuation, os dois desejos extremos originários na situation do filho - matar o pai e

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tomar a mãe como esposa” (Conferências introdutórias sobre Psicanálise, vol. XV, p.

248) 77.

- “O perigo real que o menino teme, como conseqüência de estar apaixonado por sua mãe.... é a punition de ser castrado, de perder seu órgão genital.... O temor de castration é um dos motivos mais comuns e mais fortes para a repressão e, portanto, para a formation das neuroses” (Novas conferências introdutórias sobre Psicanálise, vol. XXII, pp. 109-110).

With his sexual instinct thus repressed, the child goes on to the next phase of his sexual evolution, called “latency period” (from 6 to 12 years old) during which the instinct, repressed in the subconscious, is “sublimated.” Sublimation is a psychic process whereby the instinctive sexual energy is deviated toward other objects such as culture and religion. Thus, the fear-love for his father and the incestuous love of his mother, repressed in his unconscious, are sublimated, transforming his parents’ figures into divinities. The boy switches his incestuous and homicidal desires to these figures, thus giving rise to religious beliefs. “É durante este período da latência total ou apenas parcial que se constróem as forças psíquicas que irão mais tarde impedir o curso do instinto sexual e, como barreiras, restringir seu fluxo - a repugnância, os sentimentos de vergonha e as exigências dos ideais estéticos e morais.....

“A atividade destes impulsos (sexuais infantis) não cessa mesmo durante este período de latência, embora sua energia seja desviada, no todo ou em grande parte, de seu uso sexual e dirigida para outras finalidades.... Poderosos componentes são adquiridos para toda espécie de realization cultural por este desvio das forças instintivas sexuais dos objetivos sexuais e sua orientation para objetivos novos processo que merece o nome de ‘sublimation’ “ (Três ensaios sobre a teoria da sexualidade, vol. VII, pp. 181-182).

“A criança humana não pode completar com sucesso seu desenvolvimento para o estágio civilizado sem passar por uma fase de neurose, às vezes mais distinta, outras, menos. Isso se dá porque muitas exigências instintuais... têm de ser domadas através de atos de repressão, por trás dos quais, via de regra, se acha o motivo da ansiedade. A maioria dessas neuroses infantis é superada espontaneamente no decurso do crescimento, sendo isso especialmente verdadeiro quanto às neuroses obsessivas da infância... Exatamente do mesmo modo, pode-se supor, a humanidade como um todo, em seu desenvolvimento através das eras, tombou em estados análogos às neuroses, e isso pelos mesmos motivos... Assim, a religião seria a neurose obsessiva universal da humanidade; tal como a neurose obsessiva das crianças, ela surgiu do complexo de Édipo, do relacionamento com o pai. A ser correta essa conceituation, o afastamento da religião está fadado a ocorrer com a fatal inevitabilidade de um processo de crescimento” (O futuro de uma ilusão, vol. XXI, p.57).

Thus, religion is born from a poorly resolved “Oedipus complex”: “Ao concluir então, esta investigation excepcionalmente condensada, gostaria de insistir em que o resultado dela mostra que os começos da religião, da moral, da sociedade e da arte convergem para o complexo de Édipo. Isso entra em completo acordo com a descoberta psicanalítica de que o mesmo complexo constitui o núcleo de todas as neuroses, pelo menos até onde vai nosso conhecimento atual” (Totem e tabu, vol. XIII, p. 185).

All these quotations from Freud’s works are taken from the Edição ‘Standard’ Brasileira das Obras Psicológicas Completas de Sigmund Freud, Imago Ed. Ltda., Rio de Janeiro, 1970-1977, 24 volumes.

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“A religião, a moralidade e um senso social - os principais elementos do lado superior do homem (estou no momento, colocando a ciência e a arte de lado) - foram originalmente uma só e mesma coisa. Segundo a hipótese que apresentei em Totem e tabu, foram filogeneticamente adquiridas a partir do complexo paterno: a religião e a repressão moral através do processo de dominar o próprio complexo de Édipo, e o sentimento social mediante a necessidade de superar a rivalidade que então permaneceu entre os membros da geração mais nova” (O Ego e o Id, vol. XIX, p. 52).

“Deus é um substituto paterno,.... um pai exalçado,.... a cópia de um pai tal como este é visto e experimentado na infância - pelos indivíduos em sua própria infância,e pela humanidade em sua pré-história, como pai da horda primitiva e primeva. Posteriormente na vida, o indivíduo vê seu pai como algo diferente e menor.

Porém a imagem ideativa que pertence à infância é preservada, e se funde com os traços da memória herdados do pai primevo para formar a idéia que o indivíduo tem de Deus” (Uma neurose demoníaca do século XVII, vol. XIX, p. 109).

This child neurosis is usually overcome in adolescence, when contact with the world’s reality denies all religious myths. And this is why, according to Freud, so many adolescents go through a “religious crisis” and become atheists.

As a consequence, every religious conversion that occurs during or after adolescence should be considered the installation of a neurosis.

The principal cause of this neurosis is a frustration of the sexual instinct (libido) by moral pressure from the ambiences in the real world. Then, the libido becomes introverted, turning its back to the real world and surrendering to a life of fantasy. For its part, the latter causes a “regression” to immature and childhood stages of the psyche (cf. Tipos de desencadeamento da neurose, vol. XII, pp. 292-293).

Giacomo Daquino, a Freudian psychoanalyst psychiatrist who professes to be a Catholic, 78 emphasizes the regressive nature of that which Freudism sees as a neurotic conversion, that is, a conversion to an infantile religiosity: “Neurotic conversion occurs, in most cases, in an unforeseen, at times even disturbing and dramatic fashion; it corresponds to an emotional experience lived with a strong charge of anxiety during intense and profound conflicts, which is exteriorized by a sudden enthusiasm for some new religious object or group.... and regression here plays a fundamental role” (G. Daquino, Psicanalisi e religiosità, S.E.I., Torino, 1981, p. 180).

CHAPTER II - Neurosis-provoking sexual repression imposed in the name of religious principles 1. Freud’s doctrine According to Freudian doctrine, religion is the principal instrument of civilization in its process of growing neurosis-causing repression of the sexual instinct.

Freud’s theory on sexual repression as a neurosis-causing factor is extremely radical, in spite of the frequent qualifications, ambiguities and contradictions found in his works.

It is not in the nature of this work to demonstrate how Freudianism directly clashes with Catholic doctrine and, therefore, how those who call themselves Catholic and follow Freud’s doctrine are actually far apart from the Faith. All that would require another study which incidentally would not be useless, given the confusion that arose in Catholic circles about this matter, in spite of the monstrous aberrations of the doctrine advocated by Freud and his disciples, of which the reader has, in this book, a small sampling.

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Herbert Marcuse, who declares himself an “orthodox” Freudian, says: [PLEASE OBTAIN ENGLISH EDITION] “A Psicologia Individual, de Freud, é em sua própria essência uma Psicologia Social. A repressão é um fenômeno histórico. A subjugation efetiva dos instintos, mediante controles repressivos, não é imposta pela natureza, mas pelo homem. O pai primordial, como arquétipo da domination, inicia a reation em cadeia de escravization, rebelião e domination reforçada, que caracteriza a história da civilization.....

“A notion de que uma civilization não-repressiva é impossível constitui um dos pilares fundamentais da teoria freudiana. Contudo, a sua teoria contém elementos que transgridem essa racionalization; desfazem a tradition predominante do pensamento ocidental e sugerem até o seu inverso. Sua obra caracteriza-se por uma obstinada insistência em expor o conteúdo repressivo dos valores e realizações supremos da cultura” (Eros e Civilização - Uma crítica filosófica ao pensamento de Freud, Zahar Editores, Rio de Janeiro, 1968, pp. 36-37).

Freud believes that at the present stage of humanity’s evolution there is an irremediable antagonism between civilization and instinctive life, and he deals with this topic in many of his works, including Moral sexual civilizada e doença nervosa moderna (1908) and O mal-estar na civilização (1930).

A few examples will give the reader a sufficient notion of Freud’s thinking in this regard.

In an article Sobre a tendência universal à depreciation na esfera do amor (1912), Freud considers “a perspectiva da impotência [sexual] psíquica como uma condition universal da civilization” (Contribuições à psicologia do amor - II, vol. XI, p.

167).

Two factors, according to Freud, are at the root of this sexual impotence of a psychic origin: One is the horror of incest: “Parece não só desagradável mas também paradoxal, que se deva.... afirmar que alguém, para ser realmente livre e feliz no amor, tem de sobrepujar seu respeito pelas mulheres e aceitar a idéia do incesto com sua mãe ou irmã” (idem, p. 169).

The other factor is repugnance toward fecal matter caused by repressing the sense of smell, when man, in his evolutionary process, according to Freudian doctrine, has changed from the position of a quadruped to that of a biped: “O excrementício está todo, muito íntima e inseparavelmente, ligado ao sexual; a position dos órgãos genitais - inter urinas et faeces - permanece sendo o fator decisivo e imutável..... Os instintos do amor são difíceis de educar. Sua education ora consegue de mais, ora de menos. O que a civilization pretende fazer deles parece inatingível, a não ser à custa de uma ponderável perda de prazer” (idem, p. 172).

In another work, Freud affirms: “Não existe reivindication mais pessoal que a da liberdade sexual, e em nenhum outro ponto a civilization exerceu supressão mais severa que na esfera da sexualidade” (Os chistes e sua relation com o inconsciente, vol. VIII, p. 131).

To Freud, repression of the sexual instinct is at the origin of religion and civilization. Repressed from infancy with the “Oedipus complex,” the sexual instinct is the energy from which Faith has “obtained its immense power that crushes ‘reason and science’ (Moisés e o monoteísmo, vol. XXIII, p. 146).

Religious ideas “são ilusões, realizações dos mais antigos, fortes e prementes desejos da humanidade. O segredo da sua força reside na força desses desejos” (O Futuro de uma ilusão, vol. XXI, p. 43).

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“As religiões puderam efetuar uma renúncia completa do prazer nesta vida, mediante a promessa de compensation numa existência futura” (Formulações sobre os dois princípios do funcionamento mental, vol. XII, p. 283).

“A renúncia progressiva aos instintos constitucionais.... parece ser uma das bases do desenvolvimento da civilization humana” (Atos obsessivos e práticas religiosas, vol. IX, p. 130).

Finally, he points out religion as a danger and the faifhful as ignorant and mentally ill.

“Tudo aquilo que, à semelhança das proibições da religião Counter o pensamento, se opõe a uma evolution nesse sentido [o futuro domínio da razão], é um perigo para o futuro da humanidade” (A questão de uma Weltanschauung, vol.

XXII, p. 208).

Persons who accept the absurdities communicated by religious doctrines are mentally ill.

“Quando outrora um homem se permitia aceitar sem crítica todos os absurdos que as doutrinas religiosas punham à sua frente, e até mesmo desprezar as Counterdições existentes entre elas, não precisamos ficar muito surpresos com a debilidade de seu intelecto” (O Futuro de uma ilusão, vol. XXI, p. 62).

To believe is not rational; it is proper for ignorants: “Quanto maior é o número de homens a quem os tesouros do conhecimento se tornam acessíveis, mais difundido é o afastamento da crença religiosa, a princípio somente de seus ornamentos obsoletos e objetáveis, mas, depois, também de seus postulados fundamentais” (idem, p. 52).

Now we will see how, according to Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s narration of the way in which chastity is practiced and encouraged in TFP, this Freudian vision of religion as a pathogenic force of repression can be applied to the entity.

2. Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s Narration Sexual repression is the second element in Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s narration which appears to have been emphasized and distorted to adjust to a “Freudian” image. He presents it a having been imposed by TFP in the name of religious principles and accepted by him against his inclinations and without understanding its profound reasons: “If it is necessary to refuse this, I will refuse it, knowing that this is God’s desire. Religion has taught me that this is wrong, and therefore it must be. I will be faithful to this precept, cost what may. Only thing is, between theory and practice, much time and effort would be spent…” (WV p. 20).

In other words, according to Mr. J. A. Pedriali, TFP teaches that chastity must be practiced because “this is God’s desire.” In the final analysis, that is true. Yet, he thereby insinuates that God’s Commandments are not explicable in light of reason and may even be absurd. We have already seen above what Freud thinks about this topic.

If he did not practice it, “I would have to break with TFP. And in doing so, wouldn’t I be sealing my destiny forever… choosing Darkness instead of Light?” (WV p. 43).

Thus Mr. J. A. Pedriali gradually describes the sexual repression he claims TFP imposed on him, alongside the process of losing his mental sanity to which the entity is said to have subjected him by means of impositions, threats and other repressive techniques (for example, as we will see, through vows, identification with the leader etc.).

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The arguments he claims TFP employs to demand sexual repression are ridiculous (cf. WV p. 43). He was able to practice chastity only thanks to “a very intense interior force” that made him “believe that by fighting and praying he would manage to do it” (WV p. 40). According to this version, it was not chastity freely practiced in obedience to the Commandments – an obedience supported on faith, reason, and common sense. And the “interior force” – according to the context in which it is often mentioned – was not supernatural grace that fortifies the intelligence and the will against disorderly instincts. Later on (Chap. III in fine) we will analyze that mysterious and irresistible force that appears in many key moments of Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s narration.

Mr. J. A. Pedriali casts himself as a “basket case” of TFP’s purportedly harmful effects. If the Society produced those psychic phenomena in him, then its doctrine and methods are false and noxious. In the Chapter under the title, God, I am going crazy! he asks: “Where does my illness come from?.... Would our way of thinking and acting not be responsible for these anomalies? And from my wariness a doubt arose: if the TFP way of thinking and acting causes the weakening of one’s nerves, leading to madness in some rebellious cases, the TFP way of acting and thinking cannot be correct...” (WV p. 169).

Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s book revolves around three key moments that refer to the ‘neurosis-causing sexual repression’ inside TFP. He setup these key moments as real “scenes:” 1st “Scene”: initial repression is accepted “with conviction;” 2nd “Scene”: a sexual-sentimental episode narrated in mid-book which appears useful for the reader to assess Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s psychic state during his stay in TFP, before his psychic imbalance began; 3rd “Scene”: a whole set of sexual episodes describing the final ‘liberation’ of his repressed instinct and coinciding with his break with TFP and the disappearance of the symptoms.

3. First “scene”: giving up girlfriend and masturbation – Consecration to the Blessed Mother a) Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s narration of the first “scene” In Mr. J.A. Pedriali’s report, the first step in the process of sexual repression corresponds to his first attitude inside TFP: “Thus, I returned resolved to entirely abstain myself from sexual pleasure” (WV p. 40). In concrete, he gives up masturbation and a girlfriend (“Suzan”), a school mate.

According to him, the reasons TFP proposed to justify that attitude were entirely absurd and ridiculous. He claims TFP teaches that modern women “are all sinners” (cf. WV p. 42). Eve was the one who induced Adam “to eat the forbidden fruit, the cause of their expulsion from paradise, the cause of the first and other sins, the cause, finally, of the present situation in which the world lives. As a consequence, all women have this tendency to evil, this diabolical power to lead man to sin, to eternal damnation. So many were the men condemned because of a woman, so many the battles lost for the influence of a woman, so many lives ruined because of the passion inspired by the woman...” (WV p. 43). Men, therefore, must avoid women and not even look at them... (cf. WV p. 43).

Thus, Mr. J. A. Pedriali was unable to keep his girlfriend “even knowing she was not the malignant monster the tefepistas presented to me in a general way” (WV p.

43).

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He goes on to refer to the consecration to Our Lady according to the spirit of St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort and makes an explicit connection between the “drama” he was living (having to give up his girlfriend) and the consecration he was about to make: “Narciso [the person in charge of the apostolate with neophytes] while watching my drama unfold in the following weeks, instructed two other TFP beginners and myself on how to consecrate ourselves to the Virgin by means of the slavery recommended by St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort” (WV p. 44).

On the day of the consecration, a simple ceremony would be held at the main seat of the TFP. While preparing for that act he was unable to pray, as his “subconsciousness worked automatically” (WV p. 46); and he was unable to think of anything but “Suzan” (his girlfriend) or to see anything but “Suzan”’s face smiling at him (cf. WV p. 49). That was the psychic state in which, according to his narration, he consecrated himself to Our Lady. b) Freudian meaning of this first “scene” In order to understand the meaning insinuated in the “scene,” it is well to recall that the “myths” of religion are delirious sublimations of the “Oedipus complex,” a disguised realization of incestuous impulses toward the mother and love-hate toward the father etc. In Totem and tabu and in Moses and Monotheism, Freud makes blasphemous insinuations about Catholic Marian devotion, where one realizes that he sees Our Lady as a vestige of ancient mythologies and incestuous maternal divinities (cf. Totem e tabu, vol. XIII, p. 181; Moisés e o monoteísmo, vol. XXIII, p. 108).

If one observes things from the Freudian standpoint, it is not possible to avoid thinking of a “compromise” arising between a repressed impulse and an ethicalreligious requirement expressed in Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s consecration to the Virgin. He thus gave the impulse some escape while at the same time obeying the Commandment to practice chastity, which religion imposed on him. In other words, for a Freudian, Our Lady would be a substitute for “Suzan.”

4. Second “scene”: sexual aggression at school and sentimental relationship with a colleague; pathological feeling of guilt a) Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s narration of the second “scene” The second great “scene” emphasized in Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s report is an episode which happened in school when a group of three girls approaches and sexually provokes him. This “scene” is later complemented with a merely friendly relationship with one of his class mates (“Marta”).

He introduces the “scene” by placing an antecedent. At a time he does not specify but which is understood to be after he joined TFP, he had abstained from “dating, having sexual relations or masturbating,” but that “cost [him] a great effort.”

“Susan’s physiognomy resembled something diffuse, involved in a thick fog. I would not even give any girl, whoever she might be, any furtive glance out of sexual attraction or even emotional involvement” (WV p. 89).

The school “scene” left Mr. J. A. Pedriali deeply disturbed over whether or not he had sinned. In spite of not having consented at all to the girls’ provocation, he felt troubled, unable to admit that he had driven away from God “against his will” (WV p.

92). This, which Catholic doctrine calls scruple, Freud calls a pathological feeling of guilt originating from the childish attitude that religion favors.

That episode was followed by the friendly relationship with his school mate, mentioned above. Mr. J. A. Pedriali deemed that relationship more dangerous than the aggression he had suffered, because it would more easily “be capable of neutralizing resistance and fatally lead me to the same point, sex and sin” (WV p. 93).

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Once again, the reasons he mentions are completely devoid of any doctrinal foundation: “Distance from women was the norm of conduct of the organization’s adepts, and I could not break it lest I should incur a great fault. ‘Traitor,’ ‘sabugo’ [‘barren corn cob’] – were epithets given militants who got involved with women, dated or married” (WV p. 94). Nonetheless, “Marta’s physiognomy, her smile and modesty constantly came to my mind, obliging me to intensify prayers and penances to disarm what seemed to me a diabolical trap” (WV p. 94).

Mr. J. A. Pedriali picks this moment of his narration, when his attraction for the girl was growing, to insert a new TFP “imposition” running counter to his ideas and intentions. His “spiritual director” had revealed to him a new step to be taken. He should consider himself a monk, in addition to a slave and warrior of the Virgin. Taken by surprise, he is then invited to “become gradually imbued with this with greater seriousness” (WV p. 95).

From then onward, the conflict taking place in his soul redoubles in intensity.

“The impossibility to give vent to what I felt toward Marta had created in me a focus of attrition that became latent in a growing proportion” (WV p. 96). “Weeks were going by. Anguish, which used to be only a symptom, was now increasing..... To the degree I delved into the doctrines and habits of the organization, I felt a very strong interior division: a part of me hesitated to proceed, the other part strove to overcome evil and to lead me entirely for the rest of the way I still had to cover” (WV p. 97).

“Marta” was an obstacle that had to be removed from my path immediately, by switching school. But “that alone would not suffice. A very strong force [sic] was needed to lift me up again morally. How would that force be, and how would it act on me? I could not conceive it on that occasion, but I hoped something would shake me internally, extirpating the doubts that gave me a hunch that defection – apostasy – was drawing near” (WV p. 99). Nothing here is serious, nothing is reasoned out. He places his hopes in obscure forces that would operate in his interior.

“Apostasy! This word gave me goose pumps every time I heard or thought of it.

It was fraught with somber meanings. Abandoning TFP, as presented to me, would mean certain eternal perdition; also hovering in the air was a threat that every apostate runs serious risks of being victimized by a great tragedy… or spending the rest of his days corroded with remorse” (WV p. 99).

On that occasion, several events – economic difficulties, the miracle with the statue of Our Lady of Fatima that shed tears in New Orleans and caused great sensation in TFP ambiences, a visit to Eremo de São Bento (one of the entity’s seats in São Paulo), among others, contributed to “smother” his doubts and vacillations and to produce a passing spiritual “uplifting” in him (WV pp. 106 ff.).

Thus, the problem of sexuality no longer returns almost until the end of the book. “Repression” had become effective but only in appearance, as it did not solve the “conflict.” Mr. J. A. Pedriali makes it clear that all these events that contributed to “smother” his problems ended up by aggravating his state of psychic disturbance. b) Freudian doctrine applicable to the second “scene” According to Freud, the instinctive Oedipal impulse is repressed and gradually fades on the conscience but remains active and fights back to find an escape route, thus creating an insoluble conflict between the ego and the unconscious. Any episode of the conscious life that recalls the content of that instinct (a sexual provocation, for example) revives it, and since it is left unsatisfied on account of repression, it is perceived in the form of an intense feeling of guilt.

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Always according to Freud, religious acts are compulsive actions 79 that function like “protective measures” against temptation. Religion – a set of principles and practices that govern relationships between man and God – is thus reduced to a mere relationship between the ego and the repressed sexual instinct.

On the other hand, that guilt feeling that now emerged in the consciousness comes from an “unconscious feeling of guilt.” The latter originates from “certain primitive mental events but is constantly renewed by repeated temptations resulting from every new provocation.” Furthermore, the guilt feeling causes anxiety facing the expectation of some misfortune connected to the interior perception of temptation by the idea of chastisement (cf. Atos obsessivos e práticas religiosas, vol. IX, pp. 126127).

In Saints, and generally in those who resist temptation – Freud says – the latter acquires a particularly high intensity as “como todos sabem [sic!], as tentações são simplesmente aumentadas pela frustration constante, ao passo que a sua satisfation ocasional as faz diminuir, ao menos por algum tempo” (O mal-estar na civilization, vol. XXI, p. 149).

According to Freud, civilization lives by provoking guilty feelings (cf. idem, p.

158). “Quando uma tendência instintiva experimenta a repressão, seus elementos libidinais são transformados em sintomas e seus componentes agressivos em sentimento de culpa” (idem, p. 163).

The first symptoms that were repressed and thus gave rise to civilization were those of incest, homicide and cannibalism; and today, prohibition of these instincts has been internalized (in the superego) to the point it no longer needs external coercion to sustain it. But there are other instinctive requirements forbidden by morals and by the superego, which people obey due to external pressure (cf. O futuro de uma ilusão, vol. XXI, pp. 21 ss.).

Like other “artificial” groups, the Church is forced to adopt coercive methods (fear of Hell, dogmas, laws etc.) to avoid apostasies and maintain internal coherence (cf. Psicologia de grupo e a análise do Ego, vol. XVIII, p. 119).

5. Third “scene”: bathing naked in a lake, returning to masturbation and going to a brothel. Final break with TFP a) Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s narration of the third “scene” Several years went by between the episode we just analyzed, called here the second “scene” until the third and final scene, with narrations occupying nearly 100 pages of the book. On these pages, the problem of sexuality does not appear in an explicit or meaningful way. Near the end, close to the “outcome,” that problem reappears in an ambiguous episode in which he bathes naked in a lonely lake. He felt a desire to enter the water “to surrender myself..... My body was numb, lazy.....

Taking timid steps, balancing myself on the gravel, I looked for the deeper spots in the lake, moving my arms to make waves. With water up to my neck, I dove, came back up, dove again. It had been more than four years since I last enjoyed that sensation of freedom and unconcern. Cold water involved my naked body; Nature, [was] indolent and protectress; my mind, momentarily given to petty, innocent things…. Letting myself be led by the multiple sensations that invaded me. Peace.

Mainly peace. I was so absorbed that I did not see time go by..... That was one of the

Coercive and irresistible actions that impel a person to carry out acts contrary to his desires or habits. The non-execution of a compulsory act – according to Freud – causes anxiety.

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most tranquil nights in the last few years. My body was relaxed, my mind unconcerned” (WV pp. 173-174).

This formulation establishes a connection between free contact with nature, nudity and a sensation of freedom. Being completely given over to sensations without any restraint was what brought him relaxation, unconcern, peace. No reasoning, no principles, no discipline: only sensation.

This sensation Mr. J. A. Pedriali describes contrasts with the intense “anguish” that had pestered him throughout those years.

This scene also brings out the intense desire which already dominated him, to break free from all repression. In Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s interpretation, it would be a return of the sexual instinct to consciousness.

Many events would later cause a crisis that separated him from TFP. But he still hesitated: “Lack of definition persisted. While I did not pick one of the roads I had before me, I decided to close my eyes and let myself be led by the stronger impulses.

“And, little by little, the forces of the world overcame what I had always seen as divine forces...” (WV p. 186).

“The metamorphosis, more internal than external, was accelerating, creating an unsustainable conflict. Still missing for the complete break was the daring to challenge sin. Mortal sin: that state I had tried to avoid in the last few years – and which I thought I had managed to – was roaming about me waiting for a slight vacillation to dominate me” (WV p. 186).

To him, sensual thoughts became “an obsession” and “I felt voluptuousness shaking my interior..... The dam I had built and fortified the previous years was beginning to crack, and through those cracks the sensuality I had fought hard to contain was gushing forth. And that sensuality, boiling over, furiously began to pressure the obstacle holding back its flow. An explosion was close at hand” (WV p.

187).

Someone could think that the dam metaphor expresses only a common spiritual crisis in a young man’s life; however, that metaphor and its whole context adjust much more obviously to the axis of Freudian doctrine.

Mr. J. A. Pedriali appears to exult at the emergence of what he presents as his return to normalcy, freeing him from what he sees as a factor that is driving him mad, that is, repression of his sexual instinct arbitrarily imposed by TFP. A certain night, “desire won,” so he commits a solitary sin (WV p. 188). And a little later he goes to a brothel (WV pp. 190 ff.).

“With the sexual act – he adds – my old universe of values, which was coming apart under the weight of new values, had definitively crumbled” (WV p. 193).

However, breaking completely with the Society took him more than a year.

Finally, one night, at the TFP seat in Londrina he observes a group of volunteers who, “dining in candlelight and speaking in low voice, publicly reprehended one another for not having identified themselves enough with Plinio Corrêa. On the turntable, a solitary voice sang Gregorian chant, filling the ambience with its sounds in a tone of supplication” (WV p. 196).

Outside, in the “apartments, houses, streets, everything contrasted with the life I had led the last few years. Relaxation, smile, spontaneity, freedom....

“Looking out, I felt like someone coming to after a long state of unconsciousness..... A painful return in which the true personality, on partially

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recovering lucidity, finds itself dominated by another and, weak and frail, must fight to recover its authenticity!” (WV p. 197). b) Freudian doctrine applicable to the third “scene” Therefore, Mr. J. A. Pedriali presents the abandonment of repression and a return to freedom and relaxation as a therapeutic solution to recover his normal personality.

We have seen in the beginning of this Chapter how this coincides with the thinking of Freud, who attaches primordial importance to sexual repression as the cause of neuroses, and particularly sexual repression of a religious origin.

Freud also writes about the matter in other passages, clearly pointing sexual continence as the cause of nervous illnesses: - “Entre os danos acima atribuídos a essa moral sexual civilizada.... refiro-me ao aumento, imputável a essa moral, da doença nervosa moderna” (Moral sexual “civilizada” e doença nervosa moderna, vol. IX, p. 188).

- “Todos os fatores que prejudicam a vida sexual, suprimem sua atividade ou distorcem seus fins devem também ser vistos como fatores patogênicos das psiconeuroses” (idem, p. 192).

According to his theory, most young people who practice chastity become neurotic: - “A tarefa de dominar um instinto tão poderoso quanto o instinto sexual, por outro meio que não a sua satisfation, é de tal monta que consome todas as forças do indivíduo. O domínio do instinto pela sublimation, defletindo as forças instintuais sexuais do seu objetivo sexual para fins culturais mais elevados, só pode ser efetuado por uma minoria, e mesmo assim de forma intermitente, sendo mais difícil no período ardente e vigoroso da juventude. Os demais tornam-se em grande maioria neuróticos ou sofrem alguma espécie de prejuízo” (idem, p. 198).

On the other hand – according to Freud – overcoming the prohibition that religious morals imposes on sexuality at times has a therapeutic character which frees up the instinctive forces that drive the process of maturation: “Podemos também falar de um retorno terapêutico da masturbation. Muitos dos senhores [Freud está se dirigindo a um grupo de psicanalistas] terão descoberto.... que representa um grande progresso se, durante o tratamento, o paciente se aventura a dedicar-se novamente à masturbation embora possa não ter intention de estacionar permanentemente neste ponto de parada infantil” (Contribuition a um debate sobre a masturbation, vol. XII, p.

319).

Na sua obra O mal-estar na civilization, Freud sustenta que o objetivo da vida é obter a felicidade, a qual consiste em experimentar o prazer e evitar a dor (cf. op. cit., vol. XXI, p. 94). E o método que mais se aproxima desta meta é o amor: “Uma das formas através da qual o amor se manifesta - o amor sexual - nos proporcionou nossa mais intensa experiência de uma transbordante sensation de prazer, fornecendo-nos assim um modelo para nossa busca de felicidade” (idem, p. 101).

But according to Freud, as we have seen, society exaggerates repression of instincts in the name of religion and morals.

Diz Freud em A moral sexual “civilizada” e doença nervosa moderna: “Nossa civilization repousa, falando de modo geral, sobre a supressão dos instintos..... Cada nova conquista foi sancionada pela religião, cada renúncia do indivíduo à satisfation instintual foi oferecida à divindade como um sacrifício e foi declarado ‘santo’ o proveito assim obtido pela comunidade” (op. cit., vol. IX, p. 192).

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E em O mal-estar na civilization esclarece ainda: “A civilization atual deixa claro que só permite os relacionamentos sexuais na base de um vínculo único e indissolúvel entre um só homem e uma só mulher, e que não é de seu agrado a sexualidade como fonte de prazer por si própria, só se achando preparada para tolerá-la porque, até o presente, para ela não existe substituto como meio de propagation da raça humana” (op. cit., vol. XXI, p. 125).

CHAPTER III - Appearance of obsessive ideas 1. Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s version According to Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s report, he repressed his sexuality as a result of a choice made “with conviction” (WV p. 38). His conviction resulted much more from impressions than from a logical and doctrinal persuasion. Furthermore, for reasons that we will point out in Chapter V, it is well to underline that he does not say that his choice was freely made.

Mr. J. A. Pedriali was ready to give that up in spite of feeling attracted to sensuality: ““If it is necessary to refuse this, I will refuse it, knowing that this is God’s desire. Religion has taught me that this is wrong, and therefore it must be. I will be faithful to this precept, cost what may” (WV p. 20).

From that decision onward he began – always according to his version – to be bombarded in TFP by new doctrines and demands of ever greater renunciations.

In the beginning, he had received socio-political teachings inspired from Catholic doctrine, which enabled him to realize “a great dream, meeting people who could make me penetrate the field of knowledge that so fascinated me” (WV p. 11).

“Culture, religion and politics merged into only one element, an element I had pursued so much since I was a child” (WV p. 14).

Later, the religious component became ever more insistently present, to the point of culminating in a strange mixture of doctrines and mysticism that a common reader, looking at the data Mr. J. A. Pedriali presents and the way he presents them, will interpret it as delirious (and a psychoanalyst would call a delirious paranoid systematization).

For example, Mr. J. A. Pedriali says that TFP demanded a physical preparation in addition to a spiritual one, “for otherwise, how to face in hand to hand combat, entire legions of evil spirits, armies of revolutionaries thirsty for revenge at seeing their work, patiently built over centuries, destroyed in one blow?” (WV p. 147).

In Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s vision, everything revolved around two elements: a) Expectation of the chastisements Our Lady announced at Fatima, which in TFP language are called the Bagarre; b) Ever growing identification of volunteers with the TFP founder.

Chapter 9 of Warriors of the Virgin is titled “God, I am going crazy!” (p. 157).

Indeed, to believe Mr. Pedriali’s version, waiting for the Bagarre and identifying with Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, under constant pressure from fear and a guilty feeling skillfully stimulated by the doctrines presented to him in well-gauged doses was causing him to have obsessive ideas 80 that led him to the brink of madness.

An obsessive idea is an insistent thought that cannot be cast aside and constantly torments the patient, though he knows it is unfounded.

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“‘The Bagarre is closer than ever’; ‘the terrible chastisements are drawing near’; ‘we urgently need to prepare ourselves’; ‘Dominus Plinius, the holy prophet’; .... ‘he who does not renounce himself and refuses to give himself over to Dominus Plinius will be consumed by eternal fire’;.... – these phrases and other loose reasoning came to my mind with disquieting insistence, giving chills, at first sporadic, then frequent” (WV pp. 112-113).

“The Bagarre was the axis around which our thoughts, actions and prayers should turn. One breathed the Bagarre, one drunk and ate the Bagarre, one slept the Bagarre! The level of dedication of a member of the group was gauged, in addition to his identification with Dominus Plinius, by his certainty and compenetration of the Bagarre. It was close, imminent… and it still wouldn’t come!” (WV p. 140).

Equally obsessive was the idea of “identifying oneself” with Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, the incarnation of the Counter-Revolution, “to whom every militant should open his mind and soul to absorb all his fluids” (WV p. 81).

“By allowing our souls to be penetrated by his.... we will in fact encounter our own created souls to adjust entirely to his soul..... It is enough for us to forget ourselves and grow in enthusiasm for him like Elyseus was ecstatic in the presence of Elias” (WV pp. 110-111). He is “the only light.... that should guide our steps and enlighten our reason” (WV p. 111). “To know in greater detail the life of Dominus Plinius is to imbibe oneself with it like the apostles, who after the action of the Holy Spirit let themselves imbibe and transform by the life, teachings and examples of Christ” (WV p. 112). “Obedience and poverty, naturally. But.... that is not sufficient. It is necessary for us to give ourselves entirely to TFP and especially to Dominus Plinius” (WV p. 127). “The more imbued with our mission, the closer we would be to our total conversion, when we would identify ourselves entirely with Dominus Plinius” (WV p. 160).

In a seemingly inexplicable fashion, Mr. Pedriali manifests surprise and displeasure at each new doctrine and request for more dedication, but at the same time accepts these teachings, which begin to govern his thoughts and actions even if against his will. We said “seemingly inexplicable” because, in fact, Freud’s theory of the superego 81 explains that reticent acceptance and obedience. According to Freudianism, certain moral impositions from the outside (parental authority or its deputy) are seen, at first, as such; but then little by little they are internalized and seen as the person’s own, part of his superego.

The new doctrines TFP gradually presented to him appeared solely intended to demand new renunciations from him and an ever more unconditional – and paradoxically irrational – adhesion to the entity.

In this sense, the consecration as a slave to Our Lady appears as a mean employed to seal the member’s dependence on the organization and its leader: “The true devotee of the Virgin necessarily must be a slave. And a slave is someone who has no rights, who has lost the freedom to choose his own destiny” – says Mr. J. A. Pedriali (WV p. 44).

In a few phrases (WV pp. 44-46) and insufficiently, Mr. J. A. Pedriali “explains” Marian devotion according to the method of St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort and concludes with a falsehood: “A slavery that presupposed forsaking my personal aspirations and even reneging my family” (WV p. 46).

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See the concept of superego below (Chap. V, 3).

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“From that commitment onward we no longer belonged to ourselves: we belonged to Her, the mistress of the Universe; we belonged to TFP, her intermediary; we belonged to Dominus Plinius, our leader” (WV p. 54).

Such statements appeared calculated to give the impression that TFP “alienates” persons from their legitimate interests and from their own personality.

A while later, a new step takes place: Mr. J. A. Pedriali is told he was not only a slave of the Virgin but also her slave to destroy the Revolution and establish her Reign (cf. WV pp. 59 ff.).

“At the same time that this ideal seemed near, it gave me the impression of being unattainable. To be faithful to it, I was sure I had to change radically and despise everything that drove me away from it. I was breaking with the world, I knew I already had made progress in that line, and now I was convinced that I was being exhorted to climb yet another step” (WV p. 60).

In spite of his doubts and restrictions, once again he reaffirms that he shared the ideas the TFP presented to him: “Those ideas, which I shared still without understanding them entirely....” (WV p. 61).

Marian devotion, Fatima and Bagarre, anti-Christian Revolution and Catholic counter-revolutionary ideal are almost always described with distortions; doctrines that appear not to play a relevant role in choosing the road to take; confrontation with a mysterious “force” that imposes thoughts and reactions and “in the face of which, my will had no way to react” (WV p. 48): all this is intertwined with a description of ever more intense emotional, anguished and conflictive reactions between a desire to refuse and the fear of apostasy. The whole ensemble is presented in such a way as to suggest that it is a delirious state fomented by the obsessive ideas of “Bagarre” and “identification with the leader.” Ideas increasingly recognized as absurd and utopian (cf. WV p. 98) but which fear prevents him from abandoning (cf. WV p. 99).

Not that any logical objection to TFP ever arose in his mind. It was the effect of a growing crisis: irritability, anguish, attention deficit, insomnia (cf. WV p. 99). “New doctrines were taught to me as my social life in TFP grew more intense; but now, instead of these doctrines helping clarify my doubts and incomprehensions they made those doubts and incomprehensions grow, at times vertiginously. I did not realize that – or more precisely, I was afraid to recognize it – and one year after my transfer to Curitiba, my initial fervor had been numbed..... My subconscious worked night and day to check mate the positions that my conscious did not dare to question” (WV p.

98).

2. Freud’s doctrine A. Religion’s psychopathological formula Freud, as we have seen, considers the practice of religion a universal obsessive neurosis, and its dogmas as paranoid deliriums. Diz ele em O futuro de uma ilusão: “Algumas [doutrinas religiosas] são tão improváveis, tão incompatíveis com tudo que laboriosamente descobrimos sobre a realidade do mundo, que podemos compará-las - se consideramos de forma apropriada as diferenças psicológicas - a delírios” (op. cit., vol. XXI, p. 44).

“Se, por um lado, a religião traz consigo restrições obsessivas, exatamente como, num indivíduo, faz a neurose obsessiva, por outro, ela abrange um sistema de ilusões plenas de desejo juntamente com um repúdio da realidade, tal como não enCountermos, em forma isolada, em parte alguma senão na amência” (N.E.: Amência de Meynert é um estado de confusão alucinatória aguda) (idem, p. 58).

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“Minhas contribuições à psicologia da religião, que começaram com a verification da notável similitude entre as ações obsessivas e o ritual ou as práticas religiosas.... Descrevi a neurose obsessiva como uma religião particular distorcida e a religião como uma espécie de neurose obsessiva universal” (Um estudo autobiográfico, vol. XX, p. 82).

According to Freud, obsessive religious neurosis rises from the repressed “Oedipus complex.” Homicidal and incestuous instincts remain active, creating a guilty feeling which is expressed in moral norms and rituals (cf. Totem e tabu, vol. XIII, pp.

184 ff).

Since the individual does not know the true cause of religious prohibition (the “Oedipus complex”) – as it remains repressed in the subconscious – no reasoning is capable of freeing himself from it. The unsatisfied instinct increases in intensity and seeks other escape routes (substitute objects and actions) that are also repressed (cf.

Totem e tabu, vol XIII, pp 46 ff).

B. “Identification with the leader,” a regressive psychic phenomenon In his work, Psicologia de grupo e a análise do Ego, Freud studies, in light of his theories on the sexual instinct, the psychic phenomena produced in the formation of groups.

He says that the first observation is that individuals begin to think, feel and act in an entirely different way when they come together in a “psychological group” (cf. op. cit., vol. XVIII, p. 95). “[No grupo] sua submissão [do indivíduo] à emotion torna-se extraordinariamente intensificada, enquanto que sua capacidade intelectual é acentuadamente reduzida” (idem, p. 113).

A força que mantém a coerência dos grupos é o instinto sexual - coarctado em seu fim: “As relações amorosas.... constituem.... a essência da mente grupal..... Um grupo é claramente mantido por um poder de alguma espécie; e a que poder seria essa façanha melhor atribuída do que a Eros, que mantém unido tudo o que existe no mundo?” (idem, p. 117).

The relationship with the leader is one of a libidinous childish nature, “identification” with the father, which is the most original and primitive type of emotional bond (cf. idem, pp. 134, 135, 136).

Esse estado de “enamoramento” com o líder e entre os membros de um grupo entre si é semelhante ao fenômeno da hipnose, diz Freud na referida obra: a mesma humilde sujeition, a mesma transigência, a mesma ausência de crítica tanto em relation ao hipnotizador quanto ao objeto do amor (cf. idem, pp. 144 a 146).

Assim, cada indivíduo do grupo se identifica com o líder. A conseqüência desta identification, que suplanta o ideal do ego nfantile (o pai), por um novo ideal que é o líder, está em que os egos de todos os indivíduos ligados ao líder por essa forma se identificam entre si, transformando-se em um só e mesmo Ego (cf. idem, p. 147).

Freud afirma que as características psicológicas que observa nos grupos “apresentam um quadro inequívoco de regressão da atividade mental a um estágio anterior, como não nos surpreendemos em descobri-la entre os selvagens e as crianças” (idem, p. 149).

It is well to clarify here the meaning of the mysterious “force” repeatedly mentioned by Mr. J. A. Pedriali. He describes this force as being “an indescribable, impalpable force in the air that impelled everyone to think the same way, to use the same arguments, to have the same reactions facing an everyday fact or some spectacular event. There was a force, disseminated in TFP ambiences, which

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influenced by osmosis those who frequented them..... There was something exceedingly strong around me, which my senses perceived but which my reason was unable to discern and my will could not react against. What is it that justified for a handful of young men to exchange their dreams of a comfortable and secure life for an austere behavior, an uncertain future, a present marked by society’s incomprehension and burdened with continuous self-denial?” (WV p. 48).

In light of earlier quotations, this force can be understood in an entirely Freudian sense. According to Freud, it is the sexual instinct which, repressed and curtailed in its end, would seek new objects within the group (the leader and the other companions) (cf. op. cit., vol. XVIII, pp. 117-118).

Freud indicates what happens in the Catholic Church and in the Army as examples of this action by the libido: “Numa Igreja (e podemos com proveito tomar a Igreja Católica como exemplo típico), bem como um exército.... prevalece a mesma ilusão de que há um cabeça - na Igreja Católica, Cristo.... que ama todos os indivíduos do grupo com um amor igual. Tudo depende dessa ilusão; se ela tivesse de ser abandonada, então tanto a Igreja quanto o exército se dissolveriam, até onde a força externa lhes permitisse fazê-lo..... [Cristo] coloca-se, para cada membro do grupo de crentes, na relation de um bondoso irmão mais velho; é seu pai substituto” (idem, p. 120).

In Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s description, an analogous Freudian explanation could be given to the mysterious force that seems to be subjacent to TFP and keep it cohesive, obtaining from its adepts, self-denial and an uncommon dedication to the chosen ideal.

CHAPTER IV - Pathological anguish caused by conflict between TFPinculcated principles and the repressed sexual instinct 1. Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s version “Anguish” and “fear” are two elements continually present in Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s narration. The insistence and emphasis on presenting these elements lead to the conclusion that these two aspects, that can episodically occur in any serious spiritual life, extrapolate the limits of normal psychology and the field of Freudian determinism, which claims that anguish and fear result from an insoluble conflict between a repressed sexual instinct and the demands of civilization, one of which is religion.

Throughout Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s book, the story of his anguish forms a consistent whole that can be schematized as follows: 1. His adhesion to TFP was a conscious choice between the world and the ideal, though made in a superficial way; or, seeing things in greater depth, it was a choice between his sensual appetites and the requirements of religion.

2. But Mr. J. A. Pedriali accuses TFP of presenting an unattainable ideal, thus automatically creating a factor of imbalance. Tension between his insufficient physical strength and the requirements of that ideal supposedly created a state of growing anguish to the degree that the requirements of the ideal increased, as did his “fear” of failure.

3. Thus was created a pathological state of anguish and fear that Mr. J. A. Pedriali finally overcomes when he manages to free his repressed sexuality. Ipso facto, the TFP ideal vanishes like darkness when the sun rises.

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A. A clear choice between the TFP ideal and a life of sensuality Since the beginning of his relationship with TFP, Mr. J. A. Pedriali saw the need to choose between the entity’s ideal and the “world,” which led him to the opposite direction (WV p. 38).

He appears to have set that choice in terms of a moral struggle, “a war against myself” (WV p. 38). He alleged he was worried with some “doubts” for example about the reality of the communist danger, the march of the world to chaos (cf. WV p. 19) and about chastity (cf. WV p. 20). But he says he decided to obey “God’s desire” and the teachings of religion and overcome his difficulties regarding the practice of purity (cf. WV p. 20).

However, in spite of his doubts, the choice to be made by Mr. J. A. Pedriali is clear; he perceives the opposition between impurity and religion. He sees it was a choice in a world in chaos where “people have forgotten the supreme goal to which they have been created, turning their backs on God, on the Church and on virtue and plunging body and soul into carnal and mundane pleasures” (WV p. 46).

B. Opting for an “unattainable” ideal creates an insoluble conflict Mr. J. A. Pedriali presents that option for TFP as if, once having made it, it placed him into a state of insoluble conflict between his sensuality and the adopted ideal (cf. WV pp. 96-99). The latter is presented as unattainable and at the same time full of demands and threats: “Never had the seriousness of the commitment I made been presented to me so clearly..... TFP appeared to me as something grand, shining in its symbols, proud of its ideal. But at the same time that I felt this ideal close, it gave me the impression of being unattainable. I was certain that in order to be faithful to it I would have to change radically, despise everything that drove me away from it. I was breaking with the world, I knew I had made progress along that route and now I was convinced that I was exhorted to climb yet one more degree” (WV p.

60).

“The chapel.... reflected its emptiness in my soul and fed my anguish even more. Anguish because the more I became enthused for the things I discovered or was taught in the organization, the more I feared being incapable of attaining the perfection that was required of me. At the same time, I felt fear: fear of the Secret Forces, fear of sin, fear of persons who did not share our ideal. Fear also of the chastisements foreseen for perverted humanity, fear of succumbing before the Bagarre, fear of losing myself during it. Fear of myself. Fear of everyone. Fear even of Dominus Plinius.... Why did I fear him? Because, however optimistic I might be about myself, I knew I was still light years away from acquiring perfection. The distance between what I was and what I had to be overwhelmed me, filled me with melancholy, at times tempted me to despair.

“Anguish grew as days went by, forming a whirlwind of mixed feelings.....

“In the morning.... however, the fight would start again, ferocious: no to the sin threatening me, no to the revolutionary world,.... no to my desires, no to my vices, no to any hesitation about my ideal” (WV pp. 161-162).

Here Mr. J. A. Pedriali makes it clear that the clash between the TFP ideal and his poorly controlled sensuality was at the root of his internal conflict.

C. Breaking the unstable balance in the conflict between instinct and repression He “feared that any attitude of incomprehension or even worse, rejection” toward the “recommendations” made to him by TFP to take a distance from and an

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attitude of rejection “toward his own family, people in general and any expression of modern life” would create around him a circle of isolation that would lead him to apostasy. For this reason, he asks: “Why this fear? Because, at the stage of initiation in which I found myself I no longer admitted the possibility of leaving the cause had chosen. The simple hypothesis of that happening made me anguished in relation to the future, for – I thought – what would become of me if I refused the mission that God had entrusted to me? Refusal of that mission would amount to a betrayal, in a certain degree equivalent to that of Judas in relation to Christ.

“For this reason, looking back was inconceivable. To me – and to the others in an identical situation – there was no alternative but to overcome any and all reluctance in assimilating the habits and principles imposed on me, and only turning to the future, awaiting and preparing myself for the great challenges I would have to face and the moments of glory in which I would participate as an active member” (WV pp. 76-77).

He becomes increasingly aware of the conflict: “Little by little, a confused sentiment began to arise, becoming clearer as the months went by” (WV p. 168). An attitude of doubt “whether TFP’s way of thinking and acting causes a weakening of one’s nerves” (WV p. 169) would cause him the obstacle to his sexuality to disappear: “As a result of that attitude [of doubt], I would no longer have the strength to hold by my natural penchants, my ambitions, my inclinations to sin, my old vices” (WV p.

169).

So he needed to increase the barriers against the instinct fighting to free itself.

Feeling threatened in the unstable equilibrium in which he lived, he made the vows of “obedience, seriousness, chastity, anti-worldliness and poverty”…“in a blind demonstration of faith in our ideals” (WV p. 170). But for him those vows, which as he was told in TFP should be “pairs of wings that make us soar on ever higher flights, worked as lead counterweights pulling me ever deeper toward the inscrutable abyss” (WV p. 170).

Finally, his naked bath in the lake, in contact with nature – an act of freedom, of abandoning the rules – provokes the beginning of the final break in the unstable equilibrium between the instinct and its repression. “And that sensuality, boiling over, furiously began to pressure the obstacle holding back its flow. An explosion was close at hand” (WV p. 187). There followed masturbation (WV p. 188) and finally, sexual intercourse in a brothel (WV pp. 190-193).

On the other pole of the conflict, everything was crumbling: “With the sexual act, my old universe of values which had been decomposing under the weight of new values, had definitively crumbled” (WV p. 193). His ideas had long been “stricken with death” (WV p. 195), and in the arguments he had with people who disagreed with TFP he would only employ “clichés which were buried, one by one, by the evidence that jumped up before my eyes” (WV p. 195). Mr. J. A. Pedriali had once again found “relaxation, smile, spontaneity, freedom” (WV p. 197).

2. Neurotic conflict and anguish according to Freud’s doctrine As we have seen in Chapter II, Freud sees repression of the sexual instinct as a predominant factor in the etiology of neuroses for most people.

“Conflict” (a notion Freud concocted to designate opposition between different tendencies) is a chock between the tendency fighting to unload and the force that demands its control or repression, with the consequent development of psychoneurotic symptoms. The patient is not conscious of this fight (cf. G. DAQUINO, Religiosità e psicoanalisi, SEI, Torino, 1981, p. 200).

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Freudian doctrine on anxiety 82 is extensively explained in Inibições, sintomas e ansiedade (vol. XX) e Novas conferências introdutórias sobre psicanálise (vol. XXII).

Anxiety is akin to fear. Just as fear is a reaction to a known danger, anxiety is a reaction to an unknown danger, coming from a person’s inside.

Freud also maintains that instinct repression is under the influence of neurotic anxiety.

In short, the process he describes is this: the ego perceives the emergence of an instinctive impulse that threatens to recreate a situation of danger still present in memory (threat of losing the mother’s love or of being “castrated” by the father or rejected by society). In neurotic anguish, this danger is represented by the severity of moral and religious norms internalized in the superego. If the ego is weak (by immaturity, for example) toward the instinct that rises in the unconscious, he is only capable of repressing rather than suppressing it in a rational way. For this end, it resorts to a technique that consists in reproducing the feelings of anguish experienced in the same situation in the past before the instinct is relieved. Then the dangerous instinct is automatically repressed on an unconscious level by the mechanism of the pleasure-displeasure principle (that seeks sensations that bring pleasure and avoid pain).

The energy thus repressed can: a) accumulate waiting for another opportunity to discharge; b) the instinctive impulse is destroyed and its energy switched to other ends (an “Oedipus complex” overcome in a healthy way, for example); c) the repressed sexual instinct regresses to an earlier stage of sexual evolution: “o exemplo mais claro dessa espécie é dado pela neurose obsessiva, na qual atuam conjuntamente a regressão e a repressão” (Novas conferências introdutórias sobre Psicanálise, vol XXII, p. 116). Freud chama a esta solution “a fuga para a doença” (Nota sobre um caso de neurose obsessiva, vol. X, p. 201).

Thus, the more severe and restricted the moral and religious requirements are, the greater the anxiety and instinctive repression. Hence Freud criticizes the growing demands of “civilized morals” which, he claims, increase society’s neurosis.

According to this conception, that is what happened with Mr. J. A. Pedriali.

CHAPTER V - Psychic determinism where instincts dominate reason and the will Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s descriptions of his attitudes toward the reality of the world in general and especially in TFP are marked by total psychic determinism. This aspect of the book, Warriors of the Virgin – Secret Life in TFP enables one to make new analogies between the premises implicit in his story and the “dynamics” of Freudian doctrine. Indeed, as we will see below, the latter sees psychic relations of individuals with the exterior world as essentially determined by instincts. According to Freudian premises, man is actually governed by instincts, which make him see reality and react to it as required.

Anxiety and anguish are generally equivalent terms employed by different authors to designate the same psychic phenomenon. It is in this sense that they are employed in this work.

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A reader somewhat unfamiliar with this aspect of Freudianism could feel surprised and confused facing the systematic incoherence of Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s attitudes toward the ideal he adopted.

Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s does not take into account the fact that he was free to accept or reject, on the basis of a critical reasoning, the doctrine the TFP presented to him.

Instead, his narration is continuously permeated with the idea – explicit or insinuated – that TFP curtailed his freedom through peer pressure or various kinds of threats.

These pressures allegedly aimed to force him to change his ways of thinking, feeling and living. He often even speaks of a mysterious “force” that compelled him to accept TFP’s “impositions” which his will was unable to overcome.

Given Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s almost complete abstraction of the role of the intelligence and will, his allegation that he suffered coercive pressures against his freedom can only be understood in light of Freudian psychic determinism, which sees the freedom of man’s instincts as the only true freedom. Then Mr. Pedriali’s allegation is entirely understood.

Before presenting the Freudian concept that conscious life is subject to instinctive life, it is well to point out some of Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s most expressive excerpts in this line.

1. Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s psychic determinism Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s report is entirely subjectivist from the description of his adhesion to TFP. His assertion, right from the outset, that doctrine was what called his attention the least, sends a first meaningful signal of what unfolds throughout the book. Indeed, his reactions can be deemed systematically a-rational.

On Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s part, doctrines never deserve a rational and logical judgment, nor do they move his will to an act of free adhesion; on the contrary, they only stir up emotions toward an ambiguous acceptance or refusal mixed with “fears,” “anguishes” and “reservations.”

All he describes in himself after his first contact with TFP is agitation, sensations, the impossibility of making a logical and reasonable critical judgment: “A world of mixed impressions agitated my mind and revolved my sensibility. It was impossible to make a critical judgment about what I had seen and to discern what was logical and reasonable among so much information and images transmitted to me” (WV p. 14).

Instead of leading him to an orderly exercise of his condition as a rational being, doctrines merely gave him impressions and revolved his sensibility.

Other than an “allurement technique” and the “bombardment of ideas” that allegedly limited his capacity to make a critical judgment, also insinuated here is a connection between doctrine and sensibility that supersedes reason and the will. This conception is unacceptable to any psychological system consistent with Catholic doctrine and also clashes with common sense.

In his first encounter with TFP, Mr. J. A. Pedriali only secondarily paid attention to the ensemble of doctrines that constitute its ideal. For him, the most important part was contact with people in whom he could “find resonance” for his dreams of wider horizons and for his aesthetic feelings (cf. WV p. 17). He kept this stance throughout his relationship with the entity.

In many parts of his book, Mr. J. A. Pedriali gives a summarized exposition of various aspects of TFP’s thought and action in defense of Christian civilization. Except for the already mentioned distortions and gaps, one sees that he understood to a certain extent the doctrines that were explained to him. Nevertheless, although he

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remained in TFP for many years, apparently he was unable to form a critical judgment of those doctrines and take a personal and free stand toward them.

His act of adhesion to TFP and his progress or perseverance in it were entirely independent from a logical and orderly knowledge of the truth, goodness or beauty of what he was being taught. Everything stemmed from the mysterious “force” that compelled him or from mere impressions of pleasure or rejection.

He said he felt “that something was changing inside and outside of me. I knew I was changing but my hands were tied to prevent the process of transformation from advancing and completing itself entirely. Little by little, I assimilated with less resistance the new ideas, which reflected on my behavior. I was vulnerable to those ideas and my recruiters knew very well how to exploit my weak points” (WV p. 17).

Here Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s psychic determinism is patent. He feels his hands are tied (read: his will is tied) to prevent his “recruiters” from inoculating new ideas in him, against which his interior resistance is powerless.

In the first TFP-sponsored SEFAC (Specialized Week in Anticommunist Formation) he attended, they explained to him what the communist danger consists of, the meaning and history of the entity, and the well-deserving acts of selflessness made in it to better serve Christian civilization, all of it based on Church doctrine. Yet none of that had any effect other than the fact that “remembrances of the seats and structure of the organization resounded in my brain, confused by the succession of images and ideas transmitted to me” (WV p. 38). As we have seen above, his act of adhesion stems from a highly emotional episode during SEFAC’s closing lecture in which Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira calls on everyone, through their adhesion to TFP, to make reparation for the pains Christ suffered in his Passion (cf. WV p. 39).

Further on he recalls, now in a more, now in a less distorted fashion, another block of TFP theses: the Revolution, Our Lady’s promises at Fatima, the Reign of Mary (cf. WV pp. 77-80). His sole conclusion: “TFP members now feel humiliated and marginalized” a fact “TFP sees as proof that it is treading the path of the truth” (WV p. 80). Mr. J. A. Pedriali casts aside the more ample doctrinal expositions he himself just mentioned and imagines that the proof that TFP has the truth is a feeling of humiliation and marginalization.

When he begins to feel the renewed prodding of sexuality (WV pp. 89 ff.), his “doubts” about the ideal increase and from “sublime” it begins to appear “utopian” (WV p. 98). He makes no appeal to reason or willpower to avoid breaking with TFP. He places all his hope in “a very strong force to morally lift me up again..... I hoped something would shake me internally, extirpating the doubts that gave me a hunch that defection – apostasy – was drawing near” (WV p. 99).

In his visit to Eremo de São Bento arises another clear example of his nonrational and passive psychic determinism: “I did not want to think, only let that image impregnate my brain and never fade. Thus I stayed in that contemplative position until little by little some thoughts began to organize. My brain was striving to discover some symbolism – if any – in those superposed images. Then, as in a flash, the clear conviction came to my mind that in its silence and isolation, that place housed all the asceticism preserved and accumulated by Catholic monasticism” (WV p.

120).

In the book’s context, this “conviction” born from a succession of images is tantamount to a negation of the role of abstractive intelligence.

At the TFP seat in Itaquera, Mr. Pedriali is given another set of theses: communist infiltration in the Church; secret forces; present juncture of international politics; Ostpolitik; flying saucers etc. but makes no critical comments at all. He only

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says that TFP had presented those theses in a context of brutality, arbitrariness, physical exhaustion and terror: “Itaquera served to shake anyone’s potential resistance toward the behavior seen as ideal” (WV p. 146).

Finally, “at the crossroads,” when he was about to leave the entity, he says: TFP “no longer attracted me..... When I felt tempted with discouragement, I had found forces that stimulated me to go on, pointing toward the end of the road: the Reign of Mary! .... But now I felt without strength and even worse, I gradually lost faith in the ideal” (WV p. 185). On the other hand, “returning to my origins appeared immersed in a thick fog” (WV p. 185). Facing that crossroads, he says, “I decided to close my eyes and let myself be led by the stronger impulses” (WV p. 186).

Clearly, only “impulses” orient his decisions and actions. His intelligence and will are entirely absent.

After the break, “it was hard to believe I was definitively abandoning the organization” (WV p. 195). Unconscious impulses governed his actions to such an extent that one single effort would suffice for him to become aware of those actions.

2. Freudian psychic determinism Freud does not believe life has a goal, as religion claims. It only has a subjective purpose: above all to experience strong feelings of pleasure and, secondarily, to avoid displeasure.

“O que decide o propósito da vida é simplesmente o programa do princípio do prazer. Esse princípio domina o funcionamento do aparelho psíquico desde o início.

Não pode haver dúvida sobre sua eficácia, ainda que o seu programa se encontre em desacordo com o mundo inteiro..... Não há possibilidade alguma de ele ser executado; todas as normas do universo são-lhe contrárias..... A intention de que o homem seja ‘feliz’ não se acha incluída no plano da ‘Criation’ ” (O mal-estar na civilization, vol.

XXI, pp. 94-95).

Free will, to Freud, is nothing but an illusion. He believes in complete psychical determinism.

“Muitas pessoas, como sabemos, contestam a suposition de um determinismo psíquico completo, recorrendo a um sentimento especial de conviction de que existe um livre arbítrio. Esse sentimento de conviction existe; e não cede nem diante da crença no determinismo. Como todo sentimento normal, deve ter algo que o justifique. Pelo que posso observar, porém, ele não se manifesta nas grandes e importantes decisões da vontade: nessas ocasiões temos antes um sentimento de compulsão psíquica e gostamos de poder recorrer a ele” (A psicopatologia da vida cotidiana, vol. VI, pp. 303-304).

Also in the Cinco lições de Psicanálise he affirms the existence of a “rigorous determinism in mental life, which knows no exception” (op. cit., vol. XI, p. 48).

According to Freud, the role of impersonal unconscious as the determining factor in human acts will be clearly underlined if one analyses the structure of human psyche, albeit in a very schematic way. This also makes it possible to understand the very core of the criteriology which Mr. J. A. Pedriali employs to interpret himself.

Freud divides the psyche in there different “zones” or “instances” – the id, the ego and the superego, with specific functions and characteristics.

The functions and characteristics of the id make it clear that it is impossible to sustain the idea that there exists in individuals a person as a psychological subject whose formal substance is an intelligent and free soul. Indeed, the id – unconscious – would be that which the psyche has of impersonal, the core of the vital force which are instincts and the place where the “primary” processes take place which truly

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determine man’s actions. These psychic processes are unconscious and illogical, atemporal and independent from reality (cf. Novas conferências introdutórias sobre Psicanálise, vol. XXII, pp. 94-95).

“O inconsciente é a verdadeira realidade psíquica: em sua natureza mais íntima, ele nos é tão desconhecido quanto a realidade do mundo exterior e é tão incompletamente apresentado pelos dados da consciência quanto o é o mundo externo pelas comunicações de nossos órgãos dos sentidos” (Interpretation de sonhos, vol. V, p. 651).

On the contrary, the ego is merely a façade of the id, the psychic zone in which the purely functional and accidental phenomenon of the conscience is produced. The ego is only a superficial phenomenon, an instrument of the impersonal id to which it is directly subjected through the tyranny of instinctive impulses.

“Examinaremos agora o indivíduo como um id inconsciente, sobre cuja superfície repousa o ego.... o ego modificada pela influência direta do mundo externo..... O ser chamado de razão e senso comum, em Counterste paixões” (O Ego e o Id, vol. XIX, pp. 37 a 39).

psíquico, desconhecido e é aquela parte do id que foi ego representa o que pode com o id, que contém as

The ego acts as a bridge between the reality of the exterior world and the blind and unconscious id.

Freud likens the ego to a weak horseman who must brake a powerful horse, the id: “Com freqüência um cavaleiro, se não deseja ver-se separado do cavalo, é obrigado a conduzi-lo onde este quer ir; da mesma maneira, o ego tem o hábito de transformar a vontade do id em action como se fosse sua própria vontade” (idem, p.

39).

Ao analisar as funções do ego consciente na vida psíquica, diz: “De outro ponto de vista [tratou até aqui do ego enquanto forte e maduro] vemos este mesmo ego como uma pobre criatura que deve serviço a três senhores e, conseqüentemente, é ameaçado por três perigos: o mundo exterior, a libido do id e a severidade do superego.... [o ego é um intermediário entre o id e o mundo exterior].... É [o ego] apenas só um auxiliar do id, é também um escravo submisso que corteja o amor de seu senhor [obedecendo, for example, a suas exigências, ou disfarçando essas exigências com racionalizações]” (O Ego e o Id, vol. XIX, pp. 72-73).

The superego is the third region or instance of the psyche, in which the idealization or sublimation of all those instinctive impulses repressed throughout the life of an individual and a species takes place. The superego is made up above all by the Oedipus complex, repressed and transformed by identification with the parents on moral rules, social ethics and religion (cf. idem, pp. 49-51).

Hence, morals are a fruit of a repressed or unconscious sexual instinct. To Freud, a natural law inscribed by God on man’s soul is nonexistent: “Podemos rejeitar - afirma - a existência de uma capacidade original, por assim dizer natural, de distinguir o bom do mau. O que é mau, freqüentemente não é de modo algum o que é prejudicial ou perigoso ao ego. Pelo contrário, pode ser algo desejável pelo ego e prazeroso para ele. Aqui portanto, está em action uma influência estranha, que decide o que deve ser chamado de bom ou mau” (O mal-estar na civilization, vol. XXI, p.

147).

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CONCLUSION The specific goal of this report is to answer the consultation by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira on whether there is a correlation between Freud’s doctrine and the way in which Mr. J. A. Pedriali expounds and interprets his journey in TFP. That correlation becomes clear throughout this report.

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Given the broad scope of Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s accusation, the problem of whether he really suffered some psychic disturbance becomes irrelevant. Indeed, his judgment of TFP as responsible for the nervous imbalance he experienced implies a judgment of Catholic doctrine and morals, as the premises subjacent to his narration are clearly hostile to religion in general and to the Catholic Religion in particular.

The ensemble of facts he presents has an internal coherence and forms an image of TFP and its doctrines and methods, as well as the influence the latter exert upon the persons who adhere to them. According to Mr. J. A. Pedriali, the effects of this influence are harmful to people’s psychic balance and cause suffering, a break with society, and a frustration of those person’s life goals.

The only way this image can assume the coherence Mr. J. A. Pedriali attributes to it is if Freud’s doctrines on human psychology and the role of religion as accepted as premises. Both the essential elements presented by Mr. J.A. Pedriali and the ensemble of events and his interpretations of the same are inconsistent and absurd if not seen in light of these doctrines.

Indeed, for someone who studied Freud, it is impossible to see Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s version unfold without perceiving, behind the facts he describes, a parallel between each of his statements or insinuations and the principles of psychoanalysis.

The backward and childish role of Religion, the essential role of sexuality in the conduct of human life, the neurotic effect of the practice of purity as the Catholic Church has always required it, the insoluble “conflict” between sexuality and Catholic morals, the strange silence regarding the role of reason, the will and grace, are points in Freud’s theory indisputably present in Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s narration.

Particularly the notions of “cult” and “brainwashing” that arise more or less explicitly in Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s text only make any sense if supported on a Freudian background.

They are absolutely untenable from the standpoint of serious, scientific and ideologically non-partisan psychology.

The so-called “cults,” accused of employing “brainwashing” as a means to obtain new adepts, have been the object of lively polemics in the United States over the last few years. Psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists and other human sciences professionals have been called to opine about them. In their overwhelming majority, they concluded that those concepts have no scientific substance. They are nothing but distortions of the centuries-old concepts of sect and religious proselytism being utilized for propaganda purposes.

However, seen with Freudian eyes, the concepts of “cult” and “brainwashing” acquire a new edge and turn directly against the Catholic Church, her doctrine, spirituality and apostolate. An analysis of these concepts from that standpoint would require, nevertheless, a special study.

All these more or less explicit theses regarding the various topics dealt with by Mr. J. A. Pedriali found in the book, Warriors of the Virgin – Secret Life in TFP form one sole theory that depends on one philosophy.

Regarding that philosophy, Prof. Rudolph Allers, a Catholic psychiatrist and philosopher who taught at the Catholic University of Washington and was a student of Freud’s doctrine for many years, stated: “Uma filosofia que nega o livre arbítrio; que ignora a espiritualidade da alma; que, com um oco materialismo e sem qualquer tentativa de prova, identifica os fenômenos mentais e corporais; que não conhece outro fim senão o prazer; que se entrega a um confuso e obstinado subjetivismo, e que se mostrou cega à verdadeira natureza da pessoa humana - não pode ter

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qualquer ponto comum com o pensamento cristão. É-lhe completamente oposta” (Freud - Estudo crítico da Psicanálise, Livraria Tavares Martins, Porto, 1970, p. 259).

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Contents

Warriors of the Virgin: The Reply of Authenticity – TFP without Secrets .................... 1 To the reader .................................................................................................... 1 Prologue – TFP's Patriotic and Effective Action against the Land Reform 'Hurricane' 4 1. The radical and egalitarian nature of the land reform movement rife in Brazilian Catholic circles .............................................................................................................. 4 2. Urban, industrial and corporate reforms to be carried out in connection with Agrarian Reform………………………………………………………………………………...6 3. Egalitarian reformism and communism ....................................................................... 6 4. How strong an impact will egalitarian reformers have?.....................................................7 A. Weakness of domestic communist parties ............................................... 7 B. Deep historical roots of Catholic leftism .................................................. 8 C. Leftist, macrocapitalist media launch forth against TFP ............................. 8 D. TFP’s moral profile is defined before the whole country............................. 9 5. TFP, a paladin against Agrarian Reform and of the anticommunist struggle in general, is target of a new publicity onslaught ............................................................................................................. 9 CHAPTER I – The somber journey of the author of Warriors of the Virgin before, during and after his stay in TFP............................................................................................................................12 1. JAP’s psychology as a young man before joining TFP....................................................13 2. A high degree of subjectivism and introspection ............................................................

3. Mr. JAP in TFP: parallel but contradictory processes – integration and crisis ...........................

4. Impossible conciliation .......................................................................................

5. A solution of an eminently psycho-collectivist nature .......................................................

6. The price of the solution …………………………………………………………17 Chapter II –Under the insinuating appearance of impartiality and good humor, a furious libel of vague and often implicit, but always well concatenated accusations ...........

1. The main points of Mr. JAP’s accusations against TFP ....................................................

A. Initiatory cult ....................................................................................

B. Recruiting teenagers through Machiavellian methods of “brainwashing” or “subconscious manipulation” ...............................................................................

C. Isolation from family and removal from natural ambiences .....................

14 15 17 18

19 19 20 20 20

D. Shock treatment, iron-clad discipline, paramilitary drills to break the young man’s personality and form a typical, “robotized” TFP member.................................................................20 E. The life of a TFP member or volunteer: under constant terror .................. 21 E. An assembly line of nervous wrecks and madmen..........................................................21 2. A conclusion contrary to evidence ........................................................................... 21 3. A useful but missed lesson – the type of Brazilian Mr. JAP does not know ................................ 22 Chapter III –Subtle sleights-of-hand to disguise an absence of proofs ................. 22 1. An accuser who is the sole witness and intends to be the only judge....................................... 22 2. A suspect witness, to boot..................................................................................... 25 3. A veneer of sincerity and impartiality to convince without proofs ......................................... 26 4. Mr. JAP’s peculiar display of impartiality ignores TFP’s public action almost completely and keeps mum about the profound roots of that action...................................................................................... 28 5. Another recourse: to make himself likable to the reader… ....................... 29 6. … even to the point of recognizing his own weaknesses... ................................................. 29 7. Though no one is obliged to prove his innocence, the TFP refutation does get all the way there ........ 30 CHAPTER IV – “Brainwashing” and “cult”: clichés carrying a great emotional charge but empty of any real content.....................................................................................31

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1. “Brainwashing”: an implicit, craftily insinuated accusation............................................... 31 2. The mysterious mental process to which TFP allegedly subjected Mr. JAP: a fairy tale? A “show”? .. 31 3. OESP appears to make explicit the accusation that Mr. JAP preferred merely to insinuate ............. 33 4. “Brainwashing,” a purportedly irresistible method to change people’s convictions and behavior ...... 33 5. Fundamental difference between “brainwashing” and conversion ........................................ 34 6. An expressive metaphor that has made it around the world ................................................ 35 7. The proliferation of “cults” relaunches the metaphor ...................................................... 36 8. Cults: a merely pathological case or a much more profound problem?...................37 9. “Brainwashing:” a myth that denies the existence of free will ............................................. 38 10. “Brainwashing,” a media slogan no high-level scientist takes seriously ................................ 39 11. The “brainwashing” theory, a threat to the legal system ................................................. 41 12. “Manipulation of the subconscious,” another concept empty of scientific meaning .................... 42 A. A concept intimately connected to that of “brainwashing” ....................... 42 B. Manipulation: a word that means everything and nothing ....................... 43 C. It is an error to see man as a merely passive receiver of influences in his ambience ......................................................................................................... 44 13. One more laborious attempt at a scientific explanation: the alleged TFP initiatory process is said to take place through manipulation by “social interaction” or “group interaction” ........................................ 45 CHAPTER V – Forced analogies between events in TFP and “classic” methods of “brainwashing”………………………………………………………………………………...48 1. Are the seats’ ambiences scientifically planned to act upon the subconscious of those who frequent them? ................................................................................................................................. 49 2. Are TFP members and volunteers obliged to take a distance from family and other ambiences outside the Society? ....................................................................................................................... 51 A. TFP’s high vocation: to combat revolutionary psychological warfare, the principal tactic of conquest employed by communist imperialism today .................... 54 B. TFP’s judgment on the modern family “in genere” .................................. 56 C. TFP and the families of its members and volunteers ............................... 58 D. “FMR”: a derogatory and insulting expression? ...................................... 58 E. TFP, a factor of division inside families? ................................................ 59 3. Are an iron-clad discipline and ‘shock treatment’ employed to extirpate from TFP members or volunteers all revolutionary remnants from their past life? ............................................................................ 60 4. Standardization in thought and action to break the tefepistas’ personality? .............................. 64 A. Whether TFP imposes uniform thinking................................................................ ......................... 65 B. Whether TFP imposes standardization in the way of dressing of its members and volunteers .................................................................................................. 67 C. Whether there is such thing as a TFP behavior properly speaking, whether it is imposed and breaks individual personalities ....................................................... 68 5. TFP, a factory of madmen?................................................................................... 72 CHAPTER VI - Terror in the formation of a TFP member or volunteer .................. 75 1. The action of the “Secret Forces”: a notion TFP did not fabricate ........................................ 76 2. The devil’s action in the world: another issue not invented by TFP ....................................... 79 3. The Fatima revelations, another reason for terror? ........................................................ 81 4. Recalling the pains of Hell is opportune at all times ........................................................ 85 Chapter VII - Chastity before marriage: an arbitrary imposition by TFP? ............. 88 1. Chastity according to one’s state: a precept of the Law of God ............................................ 88 2. Mr. JAP’s culpable division of soul – “He that loveth danger shall perish in it” ......................... 90 3. TFP recommends celibacy to its members and volunteers who freely desire it; but the Society never imposes it in any way whatsoever............................................................................................ 92 4. Mr. JAP’s doubts and disenchantments ...................................................................... 93 CHAPTER VIII - TFP an initiatory "cult" that "lures" adolescents by hiding its true nature and most profound goals? ............................................................................... 94 1. TFP recruiting: a Machiavellian process to “lure” adolescents? Mr. JAP describes TFP system to recruit new adherents as an “allurement” process (WV pp. 72-74) ............................................................... 94 A. Vocations for activities such as those of TFP, which require disinterested dedication and heroism on behalf of a great ideal, are more frequently found among youths and adolescents ...................................................................................... 94

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B. A conception of recruitment that completely ignores the informal habits of Brazilians ......................................................................................................... 95 C. Mr. JAP gratuitously discards the ideological aspects of the TFP argumentation, seeing in it nothing but a most shrewd psychological artifice ............ 96 D. The “common ground” tactic or “unperceived ideological transshipment”: other elements in TFP’s so-called “allurement method”? ......................................... 98 E. The candidate: a passive being “around” whom a combat is waged between Good and Evil, angels and demons, who will inexorably drag him to one side or the other. .............................................................................................................. 99 F. Personalized treatment for each candidate: the “theory of the three springs” ...................................................................................................................... 100 2. TFP, an initiatory society. Why? ............................................................................ 103 3. Does TFP hide its true nature and ultimate ends? It is a civic society of religious inspiration, in perfect order vis-à-vis civil and ecclesiastical laws ................................................................................ 104 4. TFP’s own pedagogy: a system adequate for the new generations ....................................... 109 CHAPTER IX - Answering some scattered accusations ...................................... 111 1. Reign of Mary, another notion TFP did not invent ......................................................... 112 2. Reign of Mary, a new Middle Ages? ........................................................................ 115 3. What TFP thinks of itself and the role it will play in the Reign of Mary .................................. 117 A. TFP as a providential and prophetic entity ............................................ 117 B. TFP’s role in the Reign of Mary ........................................................... 119 C. The TFP founder’s supposed immortality and his role in the latter times .. 120 4. TFP’s “secret monastery” ................................................................................... 121 5. The 1975 “mutiny” .......................................................................................... 122 6. Prayers, kindness and well-wishing: general norms of TFP behavior toward those who left ........... 123 7. The attack Mr. JAP fears .................................................................................... 124 CHAPTER X – Warriors of the Virgin: a Hegelian-Freudian book that beckons a future religious persecution ................................................................................................ 125 1. “The left and the right are like tips of a horseshoe: seemingly opposed extremes but which almost touch each other” .................................................................................................................. 125 2. Is any and every extreme necessarily exaggerated? ....................................................... 127 3. No ideal demanding dedication and sacrifice would be appropriate for truly adult persons ............ 128 4. Life’s supreme wisdom is found in total relativism, in which nothing attains its ultimate consequences ................................................................................................................................ 128 5. “The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil” (Soph. 1:12): the lesson Mr. JAP’s “experience” taught him ............................................................................................................................ 130 6. Is the deeper philosophical substratum of Warriors of the Virgin found in Freud and Hegel?.......... 132 7. Relativism: an intolerant and exclusivist “religion” that ferociously persecutes those who dare believe in truths ......................................................................................................................... 134 Freud's thinking in Mr. José Antonio Pedriali's book, Warriors of the Virgin ............. 136 Introduction................................................................................................ 136 CHAPTER I - A regressive neurotic conversion ................................................. 137 1. Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s Report .................................................................................. 137 2. Freud's doctrine .......................................................................................... 138 CHAPTER II - Neurosis-provoking sexual repression imposed in the name of religious principles................................................................................................... 140 1. Freud’s Doctrine ............................................................................................. 140 2. Mr. J. A. Pedriali's narration ......................................................................... 142 3. First “scene”: giving up girlfriend and masturbation – Consecration to the Blessed Mother .......... 143 a) Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s narration of the first “scene” .................................... 143 b) Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s narration of the first “scene” .................................... 144 4. Second “scene”: sexual aggression at school and sentimental relationship with a colleague; pathological feeling of guilt................................................................................................................ 144 a) Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s narration of the second “scene” ................................ 144 b) Freudian doctrine applicable to the second “scene” ............................... 145 5. Third “scene”: bathing naked in a lake, returning to masturbation and going to a brothel. Final break with TFP ..................................................................................................................... 146

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a) Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s narration of the third “scene” ................................... 146 b) Freudian doctrine applicable to the third “scene” .................................. 148 CHAPTER III - Appearance of obsessive ideas ................................................. 149 1. Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s version .................................................................................. 149 2. Freud's doctrine .......................................................................................... 151 A. Religion's psychopathological formula .................................................. 151 B. “Identification with the leader,” a regressive psychic phenomenon .......... 152 CHAPTER IV - Pathological anguish caused by conflict between TFP-inculcated principles and the repressed sexual instinct ................................................................ 153 1. Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s version .................................................................................. 153 A. A clear choice between the TFP ideal and a life of sensuality .................. 154 B. Opting for an “unattainable” ideal creates an insoluble conflict ............... 154 C. Breaking the unstable balance in the conflict between instinct and repression ...................................................................................................................... 154 2. Neurotic conflict and anguish according to Freud’s doctrine ............................................. 155 CHAPTER V - Psychic determinism where instincts dominate reason and the will . 156 1. Mr. J. A. Pedriali’s psychic determinism ................................................................... 157 2. Freudian psychic determinism .............................................................................. 159 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 161 Contents .................................................................................................... 164

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