Why We Fight, Why We Will Win

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Why We Fight, Why We Will Win

By James Bascom

http://www.tfp.org/student_action/activities/student_seminars/images/spring_break05.jpg
Each morning began with prayers in
common. Here the Apostles Creed is sung
in Gregorian Chant after the TFP standard
is raised.

Spring Break. The words conjure up images of hedonistic college students traveling to far-off, exotic places in search of selfish pleasure. For these students, the modern world is only to be embraced and enjoyed, never mind opposed. The idea of a cultural revolution that defies Christian morality, is far from their minds. After all, if it feels good, just do it, right?

Contrary to the myth, many students oppose the cultural revolution which they see destroying mankind. Abortion, same-sex “marriage,” euthanasia, and rampant immorality are evils that must be combated. What is the solution to the crisis of modern man?

That is exactly the question that the TFP Student Action Spring Break Weekend sought to answer. Held on March 11-12, university students from across the nation came to learn about this cultural revolution, its origins, goals, and methods, and its only authentic alternative, Christian civilization.

Held at the American TFP’s beautiful headquarters located in rural Pennsylvania, the retreat-like weekend was appropriately titled “Why We Fight, Why We Will Win.” The intention was to give the students formation and direction in opposing the crisis of modern man, as understood by Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira.

The days began, of course, with prayer. After rising and showers, the Apostles Creed was sung in Gregorian chant, followed by breakfast.

http://www.tfp.org/student_action/activities/student_seminars/images/spring_break03.jpg
In between talks were study circles, smaller
groups of students to discuss and debate
what was said.

Mr. Norman Fulkerson the first part of his talk, “The Age of Chivalry: What Went Wrong?” He made a point-by-point analysis of the Middle Ages and the founding of Christendom. Far from being the “Dark Ages,” the High Middle Ages, while not perfect, was nevertheless the only era in history when all facets of society were oriented toward giving glory to God. Medieval man took to heart the line from the Gospel, “Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

The second part of Mr. Fulkerson’s talk dealt with the decline of Christian civilization beginning with the Renaissance. The explosion of pride and sensuality led to a radical hatred for all forms of inequality and all moral law. Mr. Fulkerson traced this Revolution in society from the Protestant Revolution to the French Revolution, and finally to the Communist Revolution.
 
After laying this much needed groundwork, Mr. Mario Navarro da Costa and Mr. Luiz Solimeo gave a talk the manifestations of this Revolution as it affects the Catholic Church. There is no doubt that the Church has been attacked both from without and from within, to the point that Pope Paul VI declared that “the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.” However, in spite of the storms the afflict the Church, there is the promise of Our Divine Savior, when He made Saint Peter the first Pope, “Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock, I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against Her.”

http://www.tfp.org/student_action/activities/student_seminars/images/spring_break01.jpg
Mr. Mario Navarro da Costa and Mr. Luiz
Solimeo eagerly discussed the eventual
triumph of the Catholic Church over Her
enemies.

Student Action members got very practical, in their presentation on how the Revolution uses culture and fashion to shape the mentality of youth. They used the examples of films, architecture, and fashions to show that philosophical errors must find their support in the culture. The raw philosophy of existentialism, for example, would be impalpable if explained to the man on the street. However, its main tenets have been accepted by the common man after being bombarded with them by so many films.

On Sunday, the participants attended Mass at the Cathedral Chapel of St. Lawrence in nearby Harrisburg, Penn. After lunch, Mr. Michael Whitcraft gave a talk on Fatima, and why Our Lady’s message applies especially to the world today.

The conference ended with talks given by Mr. John Horvat and Mr. Luiz Fragelli. Mr. Horvat’s talk, Restoring Christian Civilization, explained that a new Christendom will not come about by passing laws or memorizing the catechism. The mentality of modern man must change. He must move away from the agitated, intemperate, revolutionary mentality of the modern world. He showed how in the final analysis, there are two winds of history: The winds of the passions of man, and the winds of the breath of grace of the Holy Spirit.

http://www.tfp.org/student_action/activities/student_seminars/images/spring_break02.jpg
The evolution of man since the Middle Ages.
Which one would you like to be?

Mr. Luiz Fragelli’s talk, The Crusade of the XXI Century was a convocation to action. Everyone, no matter his state in life, must do what he can to oppose this Revolution and not stop until the victory promised by Our Lady at Fatima.

The weekend ended with a closing banquet, skits, and a band presentation by the TFP Holy Choirs of Angels band.
 
JSmitty: Tell me you haven’t fallen in with THIS crowd!. They are ultra, ultra-right wingers that believe in what’s called the “preferential option for the nobility” (to oppose the Church’s “preferential option for the poor”). They are dissident to the core. I normally don’t post SSPX links at ALL, but check this out on good ole’ Marian (I’ve no idea how she’s related to John).

You be careful.

sspx.agenda.tripod.com/id52.html
 
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JKirkLVNV:
JSmitty: Tell me you haven’t fallen in with THIS crowd!. They are ultra, ultra-right wingers that believe in what’s called the “preferential option for the nobility” (to oppose the Church’s “preferential option for the poor”). They are dissident to the core. I normally don’t post SSPX links at ALL, but check this out on good ole’ Marian (I’ve no idea how she’s related to John).

You be careful.

sspx.agenda.tripod.com/id52.html
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I’ve read that before. It’s trash. The TFP has an entire book rebutting accusations like that. They are loyal to the Magisterium and have the support of such men as Frs. Trigilio and Apostoli as well as many cardinal and bishops, so until they cross the line, I’m going to keep supporting them. Also, according to them, they no longer have any connection whatsoever with Marian Horvat. Finally, that’s actually an anti-SSPX site.
 
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JSmitty2005:
I’ve read that before. It’s trash. They have an entire book rebutting accusations like that. They are loyal to the Magisterium and have the support of such men as Frs. Trigilio and Apostoli as well as many cardinal and bishops, so until they cross the line, I’m going to keep supporting them. Also, according to them, they no longer have any connection whatsoever with Marian Horvat.
Click to expand...
Which cardinals and bishops?
 
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JKirkLVNV:
Which cardinals and bishops?
Click to expand...
I don’t have my copy of their book “Revolution and Counter-Revolution,” but in it is a lot of appraisal from Church leadership as well as a disclaimer that anything contained within it is subject to the Magisterium’s judgment.
 
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JSmitty2005:
I don’t have my copy of their book “Revolution and Counter-Revolution,” but in it is a lot of appraisal from Church leadership as well as a disclaimer that anything contained within it is subject to the Magisterium’s judgment.
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Well, when you say the Church leadership “appraised” it, what conclusion did they come up with? Has the magisterium in her authority approved it? Also, lots of books could very EASILY say, post publication, “of course, all of this is subject to the Magisterium’s judgement” (you don’t even have to have the magisterium’s permission to write that! Even Fr. Richard Rhor and his dissenting ilk could have written “this is subject to the magisterium”). Do you mean that it has an imprimatur?
 
AND can you clarify: have they repudiated the notion that there are “natural” elites, ie., a “priviledged” nobility that should be re-established? This is entirely seperate from any matter of cult (I might actually be on the same page as them on some things, though I doubt they’re terribly fond of the Mass of Paul VI!).
 
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JKirkLVNV:
Do you mean that it has an imprimatur?
Click to expand...
I don’t think that it merits an imprimatur because of the very nature of it. Here’s the forward to the book though:

*Since its first publication in the Brazilian cultural journal Catolicismo in 1959, Revolution and Counter-Revolution has gone through a number of editions in Portuguese, English, French, Italian, and Spanish.

The present edition is the first digital edition to be published in the United States. It includes recent commentaries on Revolution and Counter-Revolution’s third part, which was added by the author in 1976.

Revolution and Counter-Revolution, the basic book and inspiration of the many autonomous Societies for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property and like organizations, contains principles of wisdom that can efficaciously stop the disintegration of civilization in the world today.

The author of this work is the world-famous Brazilian Catholic philosopher Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. Over the years he has written numerous works that have received noteworthy ecclesiastical approbation.

For example, in the late 40s, his Em Defesa da Acão Catolica, denouncing the danger presented by leftists encysted in the Catholic Action movement, prompted a letter of praise from Msgr. Montini, then substitute for the Vatican secretary of state, written on behalf of Pius XII.

In another work, The Church and the Communist State: The Impossible Coexistence (1963), the author proved that a Catholic could not view the establishment of a communist regime in his country as morally acceptable. The Vatican’s Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities called this work “a most faithful echo of all the Documents of the supreme Magisterium of the Church, including the luminous encyclicals Mater et Magistra of John XXIII and Ecclesiam Suam of Paul VI.”

In 1992, he wrote Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII contrasting two models of society. The first model is Christian, founded on the idea that God wills proportional and harmonic inequalities among the social classes, all of whose members are entitled to at least sufficient living conditions. The second model is based on the erroneous idea that all inequality is unjust. The book has been acclaimed in eloquent letters by Silvio Cardinal Oddi, Mario Luigi Cardinal Ciappi, Alfons M. Cardinal Stickler, theologian Fr. Raimondo Spiazzi, Thomist Fr. Victorino Rodriguez y Rodriguez, and canonist Fr. Anastasio Gutierrez.

Yet, the most significant of Professor Corrêa de Oliveira’s works is Revolution and Counter-Revolution. Its significance was quickly recognized. Eugene Cardinal Tisserant wrote: “The theme of this study is of the highest importance for the time in which we live… The analysis made by Professor Corrêa de Oliveira is clear, precise and accurate. . . . It will be of interest to a considerable number of our fellow citizens. I congratulate the author of this magnificent work.” Thomas Cardinal Tien, of China, stated: “Those of us who personally suffer from the effects of communism are well able to calculate the accuracy and urgent necessity of such a study.”

All the editions of Revolution and Counter-Revolution have concluded with these words:

“We have not the slightest doubt in our heart about any of the theses that constitute this work. Nevertheless, we subject them all unrestrictedly to the judgment of the Vicar of Christ and are disposed to renounce immediately any one of them if it depart even slightly from the teaching of the Holy Church, our Mother, the Ark of Salvation, and the Gate of Heaven.”

Over fifty years have passed since this statement was first published. In the meantime, Revolution and Counter-Revolution has been spread throughout the world without any of its theses being challenged as contrary to the Church’s Magisterium. This fact corroborates the earlier approbations and testifies to the integrity of this enduring work.

To this must be added another fact of enormous gravity. In the third part of the present work, the author states that the main battleground of the struggle between anti-order (the Revolution) and order (the Counter-Revolution) is no longer civil society but the Holy Church herself.

Such a terrible state of affairs is of first concern to Catholics. But it is also of concern to all men of good will, for without the influence of the Church, temporal society will never rise from the prostration to which it has been reduced by the same enemy: the Revolution.

People seeking the most effective way to combat this enemy will welcome a book that provides the principles needed for the pursuit of this struggle.*
 
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JKirkLVNV:
though I doubt they’re terribly fond of the Mass of Paul VI!
Click to expand...
They’re not, but who is?

I also found this in the book’s conclusion:

“We would not wish to end this work without a tribute of filial devotion and unrestricted obedience to the ‘sweet Christ on earth,’ the pillar and infallible foundation of the Truth, His Holiness Pope John XXIII.”

If you would like to read it in it’s entirety, you can find it for free here:

tfp.org/what_we_think/rcr.pdf
 
This may be helpful to you as well.

As mentioned in the Preface, the publication of Revolution and Counter-Revolution had an immediate and profound impact. Ecclesiastical personages like those already quoted, as well as theologians, professors, and conservative leaders from around the world, acclaimed the author’s analysis of and solution to the contemporary crisis. More than thirty years after its first edition, the essay’s repercussion continues to grow, especially among youth. These letters regarding Revolution and Counter-Revolution are herein transcribed exempli gratia. – Ed.

This is a copy of a letter sent to Prof. Plinio:

Lima, July 24, 1961

Distinguished Professor,

The reading of your book Revolution and Counter-Revolution made a magnificent impression on me because of the courage and mastery with which you analyze the process of the Revolution and shed abundant light on the true causes of the crumbling of moral values disorienting consciences today. and also because of the vigor with which you indicate the tactic and the methods to overcome it.

I especially appreciated the second part of your book, highlighting the efficacy of Catholic doctrine and the spiritual remedies the Church possesses to combat and vanquish the forces and errors of the Revolution.

I am certain that your book has rendered an important service to the Catholic cause and that it will help gather the forces of good in order to soon solve this great contemporary problem. This is, in my opinion, the way repeatedly indicated by the present Vicar of Christ, who, with so much conviction and solicitude, has insisted on a profound renewal of Christian and sacramental life as a sure remedy for the evils afflicting the world, evils that government leaders vainly seek to solve through the precarious efficacy of weapons. technology, and purely human progress. I wish, most dear Professor, a widespread diffusion of and a well-merited response to your book from Catholic leaders wishing to join the ranks of the counter-revolutionary movement.

Please accept the testimony of my sincere admiration for your work and the expression of my deepest esteem.

Romolo Carboni
Titular Archbishop of Sidon
Apostolic Nuncio

Note: Archbishop Romolo Carboni was born in Fano, Italy, in 19l1. Ordained in 1934, he was made a bishop in 1953. He was raised to the archepiscopate and appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Peru in 1959. He served as Nuncio to Italy from 1969 to 1936 and now lives in retirement in Fano.

tfp.org/what_we_think/rcr_book_online/rcr_letters.htm
 
Here’s another letter for your information.

Rome, February 10, 1993

Distinguished Professor,
(letter sent to TFP founder, Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira)

It was with extreme interest, pleasure, and personal benefit that I read the Spanish copy of Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira’s work dedicated to me with expressions of great affection and esteem, for which I am grateful.

Revolution and Counter-Revolutionis a masterly work whose teachings should be disseminated far and wide so as to penetrate the conscience, not only of all those who consider themselves truly Catholic, but I would say even more, of all other men of good will. In it, the latter would learn that salvation can be found only in Jesus Christ and His Church; the former would feel confirmed and fortified in their Faith and psychologically and spiritually forewarned and immunized against the cunning process that employs many of them as useful idiots or fellow travelers.

Its analysis of the revolutionary process is impressive and revealing on account of its realism and profound understanding of history, from the end of the Middle Ages in decadence, which paved the way for the paganizing Renaissance and the pseudo?Reformation, thence for the terrible French Revolution, and. soon after, atheistic Communism.

That historical analysis is not only external. The actions and reactions it deals with are also explained in light of the human psychology, both the individual psychology and the collective psychology of the masses. However, it is necessary to recognize that someone directs this profound and systematic de?Christianization. Man undoubtedly tends toward evil - pride and sensuality - but were not someone holding the reins of these disorderly tendencies and sagaciously coordinating them, they most probably would not have produced such a constant, skillful, and systematic action, which, tenaciously maintained, profits even from the ups and downs caused by the resistance and natural “reaction” of the opposing forces.

Revolution and Counter-Revolutionalso foresees, although using caution in its prognoses and by means of hypotheses, the next possible evolution of the revolutionary action and, in turn, that of the Counter-Revolution.

The book abounds in perspicacious sociological, political, psychological, and evolutive insights and observations, not few of which are worthy of an anthology. Many of them outline the intelligent “tactics” that favor the Revolution and those that may and should be used in a general counter-revolutionary “strategy.”

In sum, I would dare to affirm that this is a prophetic work in the best sense of the word. It should be taught in the Church’s centers of higher education so that at least the elite classes become fully aware of a crushing reality about which, I believe, they do not have a clear notion. This, among other things, would contribute to revealing and unmasking the useful idiots or fellow travelers, among whom are found many ecclesiastical figures, who act in a suicidal manner by playing the enemy’s game; this group of idiots, allies of the Revolution, would in good measure disappear…

The second part of the book well explains the Counter?Revolution’s nature and the courageous and “aggressive” tactics that counter?revolutionaries must implement while always avoiding excesses and improper and imprudent attitudes.

Before such realities, one doubts there is a true “strategy” in the Church as there is in the Revolution. One does find many “tactical” elements, actions, and institutions, but they seem to act in isolation, without a notion of the whole. The concept of a Counter-Revolution and the realization that a Counter-Revolution is acting could unify and provide a greater sense of collaboration within the Church.

I must congratulate the TFP movement for the stature and quality of its founder, Prof. Plinio. I foresee and desire with all my soul a vast development and a future full of counter?revolutionary successes for the TFP.

I conclude stating that the spirit with which this work is written greatly impresses me: It is a profoundly Christian spirit, one with a passionate love for the Church. This book is an authentic product of Christian wisdom. It is moving to find in a layman such a sincere devotion to the Mother of Jesus and ours - a clear sign of predestination. “Uncertain, like everyone, about tomorrow, we prayerfully raise our eyes to the lofty throne of Mary, Queen of the Universe… We beseech the Virgin, therefore, to accept this filial homage, a tribute of love and an expression of absolute confidence in her triumph” (pp. 165, 167).

Rome, September 8, 1993
Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady
Fr. Anastasio Gutierrez

Note: Fr. Anastasio Gutierrrez, C.M.F., is one of the Catholic Church’s most renowned canonists.

tfp.org/what_we_think/rcr_book_online/rcr_letters.htm
 
I do thank you, but this isn’t the magisterium of the Church, this is one priest and one one retired archbishop. Even some of the teachings of the saints are not are part of the magisterium (Saint Augustine’s theory that only 144, 000 people would enter the Kingdom of Heaven, for example. Now, Augustine is an undoubted saint, but that was never a part of the ordinary magisterium, much less anything even privately endorsed or inclined to by any Vicar of Christ, and today, it’s believed by only Jehovah’s Witnesses). Now, the absence of an imprimatur may not mean they’re wrong, but the fact that they believe or believed (they may have repudiated such a belief) in a “natural” and “priviledged nobility” seems (and that’s a qualifier, obviously) to run slightly parallel to the idea of a “natural” superiority" which isn’t far off from the ideas of Hitler (natural superior races). Maybe it’s just MY alarm bells. I cannot argue that the High Middle Ages were the most turned toward God of any of the historical ages (at least in the Christian era), but I’m not ready to set the Renaisance on the ash heap of history (it produced great Christian humanists like Thomas More, for one thing). Any rate, I’ll keep looking.
 
Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, the same cardinal who announced the election of Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter’s basilica is schedulde to bless the new house of studies of the TFP’s in Europe at the beginning of May.

Bishop Juan Rodolfo Laise also attends their students conferences every year in Gaming and elsewhere, offering the Holy Mass on a daily basis at these events.

tfp.org/what_we_do/index/bishop_laise_washington.htm
 
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