The TFP amid the Storm

This whole sequence of truly dramatic facts could not fail to deeply astonish‑or, save for confidence in the Blessed Virgin Mary, even "excruciatingly distress‑the members of the TFPs. For this reason, right from the gray and somber "dawn" of this crisis as early as 1943, a handful of Catholics who would later give rise to the Brazilian TFP sounded the alarm in a work that received a letter of praise written on behalf of Pope Pius XII by the Substitute Secretary of State G. B. Montini, later Pope Paul VI (Plinio Correa de Oliveira, Em Defesa da Acâo Catolico foreword by Benedetto Cardinal Aloisi Masella, then Apostolic Nuncio to Brazil). A storm of counterattacks broke out immediately and numerous Catholic circles closed themselves to our action in consequence. These circles were hotbeds for future communists who participated in the upheavals of 1963‑64 Ecumenical in relation to everything and everyone, especially the left, the Catholics of the left were already showing themselves to be inquisitorial toward us!          

Thus began the most painful period of our fight. Previously, this fight had been undertaken against the Red wolf, our very fidelity to the Church now compelled us to wage the fight against sheep of the same flock, and‑oh sorrow of sorrows!‑even against one or another shepherd of the blessed flock of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

This protracted struggle, steeped in the tears, sweat and blood of disappointment, is narrated by the TFP in two books, one of them quite recent (Um Homem, uma Obra, uma Gesta, 1989; and Tradition, Family, Property: Half a Century of Epic Anticommunism, 1980).

Suffice it to say that, with the support of the then existing TFPs, the document "The Vatican Policy of Detente Toward the Communist Governments‑For the TFP: To Withdraw? Or to Resist?" was published in Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. Those TFPs all declared themselves to be in a state of respectful resistance to the Vatican's Ostpolitik. The spirit behind this resistance‑and which inspires the TFPs and TFP Bureaus now in twenty‑two countries‑is summarized in this passage from that declaration: "In this filial act we say to the Pastor of Pastors: Our soul is yours, our life is yours. Order us to do whatever you wish. Only do not order us to stay idle in face of the assailing Red wolf. To this our conscience is opposed."