For a long time now, every means of de-Christianization, from the most powerful to the most subtle, has been conjured up in this Land of the Holy Cross in order to tear it from the Church’s bosom. However, while almost everything that in the human sense of the word can be called glory, power and wealth, was mobilized to commit this strange and dark crime of slowly killing the soul of an entire country, the Church was vigilant; and, after nearly forty years of disdainful agnosticism and insane struggle, a real springtime has blown over the country from the north to the south, and the religious renaissance has led to the structuring of an apostolate so vigorous and cohesive, so thirsty for orthodoxy of doctrine and purity of life that, today, we can already say that the movement of lay Catholics, cohesive and disciplined, militant and valiant, is in itself a victory of immense consequences and a pledge that Providence is arming us for even greater triumphs. […]
Such is the strength of the Catholic movement in Brazil today that no government could ignore it, clinging to the decrepit formulas of a formalist secularism. […]
Alliance between temporal and spiritual power
If we look further, we see the clear and sometimes indeterminate silhouettes of the skyscrapers that the São Paulo capital has built. A splendid frame for this picture, it tells us about the possibilities of our temporal greatness and gives us the guarantee that however much Brazil grows in the spiritual sense, it will have enough wealth for a proportional material growth. […]
Brazil’s religious renaissance is a victory of immense consequences and a pledge of even greater triumphs reserved for us by Providence
The magnificent scene that meets your eyes is far from unprecedented in the history of Christendom. It derives its value, not from being a sensational novelty, but, on the contrary, from the extraordinary continuity with which it has been repeated.
On the banks of both the Jordan and the Nile; in the shadow of both the classical columns of Athens and the splendours of the great metropolis of Carthage; in both the peak of medieval power and the stormy struggles against Josephine or Pombaline proto-totalitarianism, whenever assemblies like this have met, the Church has repeated to the temporal power, with impressive constancy and uniformity, the same message of peace and alliance. She reserves for herself only the spiritual realm, conscious of respecting the full sovereignty of the temporal power in all other areas, asking it only to adjust its activities to evangelical precepts, in other words, to the principles that constitute the foundation of Catholic Christian Civilization.
This message is a faithful echo of the divine precept: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (cf. Mt 22:21). […]
The interpreter of Catholic opinion must affirm that the subjection of Catholics to temporal power has most deeply established roots and that, personal considerations aside, their obedience to public authorities is based on the conviction that they are thus obeying the will of God himself, known through the light of natural reason and the splendours of Christian Revelation.
As Catholics, we are not and cannot be supporters of the doctrine of popular sovereignty, and for this very reason we refuse to see the august authority of temporal power founded on the always shifting sands of popularity. It is anchored in the firm rock of our Christian consciences, and it makes our submission and our desire to ardently collaborate with you, along the paths of Christian civilization and in achieving the greatness of the Land of the Holy Cross, an unshakeable foundation that the storms of adversity – from which no-one is immune – will never be able to destroy. […]
It would be easier to snatch the Southern Cross from our sky…
Gentlemen, today is the 7th of September – the date is expressive – and I am absolutely certain that an immense clamour will be raised on this glorious day, transcending the limits of the state and the country, to announce to the whole world that, as one man, Brazil is rising up […] against the pagan Nazi imperialism that is plotting its downfall and seems to have taken upon itself, just like its red duplicate in Moscow, the diabolical task of destroying the Church throughout the world.
Brazilian Catholics will always show invincible resistance to the enemies of that homeland to which we thrill, and of Christ, whom we adore. Insane and rash people! It would be easier to snatch the Southern Cross from our sky than to snatch the sovereignty and faith from a people faithful to Christ, who will always place their strongest yearning, and will always take as their highest claim to pride their adherence – faithfully obedient and enthusiastically vigorous – to the Chair of St. Peter.
The great calling of the Brazilian nation
However, this already overlong greeting would be incomplete if we did not add one last word. It is in keeping with the God-given nature of Brazilians that the sweetness of a family atmosphere permeate all the acts of our lives and perfumes even the most solemn ones, without disfiguring them. Despite the splendours of this evening, we are among family, and the atmosphere is conducive to freely confiding the hopes we harbour within ourselves.
It would be easier to snatch the Southern Cross from the sky than the sovereignty and faith from a people faithful to Christ!
The product of Latin culture, which has been valorized and transubstantiated by the supernatural influence of the Church, the Brazilian soul is the result of the transplantation of these eternal and definitive values to new climates and new contexts, which, precisely because they are definitive and eternal, can adjust to all contingent circumstances without losing their substantial identity with themselves.
The perfect formation of the Brazilian soul, therefore, involves two essential tasks: one that always conserves the foundations of our Christian and Western Civilization intact, and the other that adapts these foundations to the conditions peculiar to this hemisphere.
Our greatest leaders have carried out the first part of this enormous task with evident success and indomitable valour. After four hundred years of struggle and labour, this Brazil now flourishes and is a areason for hope for Western civilization and cause for rejoicing for the Holy Church of God. But this endeavour of conservation, which is still and will always be necessary, has so far been so observant that it has relegated the problem of adaptation to the background.
We were crushed by the disproportion between our material resources, which, from the heart of the earth, challenged our ability to produce, and our insufficiency of hands, of money and of energies to make the most of them. The Brazilian land was full of fabulously vast possibilities, of inexhaustibly fruitful riches, which could be seen and felt even before any technical and scientific demonstration.
And the same could be said of our history, which up to now has been woven of political events of a purely continental scope and which almost all took place at a time when America was not the world’s centre of gravity.
Well studied and stripped of the official versions of an anachronistic liberalism, we can clearly see, in the fidelity of Amador Bueno as in the crusading spirit of the heroes of the re-conquest of Pernambuco, in the iron mettle of this great hammer of the worst of heresies who was Dom Vital Maria Gonçalves de Oliveira, as in the maternal and gentle heart of Princess Isabel, the scintillating expressions of a great people who, even in the first steps of their history, were already showing signs of being a people that God created for great deeds.
“Gesta Dei per brasiliensis!”
This predestination is affirmed in the very outline of our panoramas. Perhaps it would not be too bold to say that God has placed the peoples of His choice in panoramas suitable for realizing the great destinies to which He calls them. And there is no one who, travelling throughout Brazil, does not experience the distinct impression that God has destined this country as the theatre of great deeds: its dramatic mountains and mysterious cliffs seem to invite man to the supreme feats of Christian heroism; its verdant plains seem to want to inspire the emergence of new artistic and literary schools, of new forms and types of beauty; and on the edge of its coastline, the seas seem to sing of the future glory of one of the greatest peoples on earth.
There was a time when world history could be called “Gesta Dei per francos”. The time will come to write the “Gesta Dei per brasiliensis”
When the poet sang that “our land has palm trees where the thrush is heard, and that the birds that sing here do not sing as they do there,” perhaps he hazily perceived that Providence deposited in Brazilian nature the promise of a future on a par with that of the greatest peoples on earth.
And today, as Brazil emerges from its adolescence into maturity, and the sceptre of Christian culture that totalitarianism wishes to destroy wavers in the hands of old Europe, it is clear to everyone that the Catholic countries of America are in reality the great granary of the Church and of civilization, the fertile ground where the plants that barbarism is devastating in the Old World can flourish with greater brilliance than ever. The whole of America is a constellation of brotherly peoples. In it, it goes without saying that Brazil’s physical dimensions are only a figure of the magnitude of its providential role.
There was a time when world history could be called Gesta Dei per francos. The day will come when the Gesta Dei per brasiliensis will be written.
Great in faith, rich in generosity
Brazil’s providential mission consists in growing within its own borders, in unfolding here the splendours of a genuinely Catholic, apostolic and Roman civilization, and in lovingly illuminating the whole world with the torch of this great light, which will truly be the lumen Christi that the Church radiates.
Our gentle and hospitable nature, the plurality of races that live here in fraternal harmony, the providential collaboration of the immigrants who have integrated so intimately into our national life, and above all the norms of the Holy Gospel, will never make our yearnings for greatness a pretext for narrow-minded Jacobinisms, stupid racisms or criminal imperialisms. If Brazil is ever to become great, it will be for the good of the whole world: “Let those who rule be among you as those who obey,” says the Redeemer (cf. Mt 20:25-27).
Brazil will be great not through conquest, but through faith; it will be rich not so much through money as through generosity. Indeed, should we be faithful to the Rome of the Popes, our city could be a new Jerusalem, of perfect beauty, honour, glory and delight for the whole world. […]
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” Harness, masters of temporal power, the riches of our land; structure all our civil institutions according to the maxims of the Church, which are the essence of Christian civilization. Help the Holy Church of God to the utmost, to mould the national soul in the life of grace, for the glory of Heaven. Make Brazil a prosperous, organized and thriving country, while the Church will make the Brazilian people one of the greatest peoples in history. In the harmony of this same work is the predestination of an intimate co-operation between two powers. God is never better served than if Caesar behaves like His son. And, gentlemen, in the name of the Catholics of Brazil, I assure you: Caesar is never as great as when he is God’s son.
The secret of our progress lies in this collaboration, and your part in it is truly magnificent.
“Blessed are these people…”
Work, gentlemen, work in this direction. You will have the enthusiastic cooperation of all our resources, all our hearts, all our fervour. And when one day God calls you to eternal life, you will have the supreme good fortune of contemplating an immensely great and profoundly Christian Brazil, over which the Christ of Corcovado, with His arms open, will be able to say that which is the supreme claim to glory of a Christian people.
Carry out the programme of government which consist of seeking first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and all things will be added unto you. In an immensely rich Brazil, you will see an immensely rich people flourish; you will see an immensely great people flourish, for it will be possible to say of them:
“Blessed are this sober and detached people, even in the splendour of their wealth, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are those who take their love for the Church to the point of suffering for her, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven!
“Blessed are this generous and welcoming people, who love peace more than riches, for they will possess the earth.
“Blessed are this people with a sensitive heart to the love and sorrows of the God-Man, and to the sorrows and love of their neighbour, for in this they will find their consolation.
“Blessed are this strong and manly people, intrepid and courageous, hungry and thirsty for heroic and integral virtues, because they will be satisfied in their appetite for holiness and for supernatural greatness.
“Blessed are this merciful people, for they will obtain mercy.
“Blessed are this people chaste and pure of heart; blessed is the inviolable purity of their Christian families, for they will see God.
“Blessed are this peaceful people, whose idealism is free of Jacobinism and racism, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are this people who carry their love for the Church to the point of fighting and suffering for her, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” ◊
Taken from: Greeting to Civil and Military Authorities.
In: Legionário. São Paulo. Year XVI. N. 525
(Sept. 7, 1942); p.2
