The reader who has perused this special edition of Heralds of the Gospel magazine, a posthumous tribute to Msgr. João, has most likely done so out of a more or less conscious desire to gain a complete picture of him. Nevertheless, upon arriving at this article, one might experience the contradictory impression of not having achieved this goal.
After all, faced with his multifaceted personality, the question arises: who exactly was Msgr. João?
Slave of Mary, father, founder, knight, apostle, educator, priest… Msgr. João had all these attributes, it is true. But none of them fully explains him. Moreover, even when added all together, one gets the impression that they do not exhaust the richness of his figure, nor do they provide us with a finished synthesis of it.
Some element is missing, a key to interpretation in order to grasp the unum of his personality.
St. Joseph Cafasso, who had spent much time with the great founder of the Salesians, rightly remarked about him: “Don Bosco is an enigma…”1 He was implying that no one had fully grasped the moral physiognomy of this priest, given the many nuances he presented and the great deal he hid behind a highly approachable character.
To paraphrase the Italian saint, we could well say: “Msgr. João is an enigma…” How to unravel it? Guided by the tenets of Catholic doctrine, especially the Theology of History, we can at least venture an attempt that, as a conclusion to these pages, might give us a more complete picture of him.
The primordial light
Among the many explicitations that come to us from Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira is something that he called the primordial light. Let us see how our founder briefly described it in one of his main works, the one he wrote on his spiritual father and teacher:
“As he explained, following St. Thomas Aquinas,2 God, being infinite, is so rich in substance that He could not adequately mirror Himself in a single creature, even if it were favoured with the most precious gifts.
“Thus, in considering from all eternity the multitude of Angels and men He would create in order to share in His happiness, He also determined the various aspects of himself that each of these intelligent beings would be called to adore and represent in a particular way, on earth and in Heaven.
“These are the primordial lights, true specific vocations, which, as a whole and in a limited way, reflect the marvels that exist in Him to an infinite degree. They are called lights because they are peculiar modalities of the divine light, and primordial because they ought to be the main object of attention for those who receive them. […]
“Accordingly, for one person, the primordial light will be fortitude in one of its nuances, while for another it may be kindness of manner, and for a third, a certain form of recollection and contemplation.”3
Endowed with an acute charisma for discerning spirits, Dr. Plinio easily perceived the specific calling of each person who approached him, in such a way that it became customary among his disciples to ask him about their own primordial light in conversations of spiritual direction.
“It is harmony”
As we have seen, in his youth Msgr. João experienced an abundance of supernatural consolations in his contact with the one who had become his guide along the way. Thus, on one occasion when he was talking to his spiritual father, he asked what his primordial light was, and received a concise but profound answer: “It is harmony.”
Being still very young, the broader meaning of this statement was not clear to Msgr. João at the time, leading him to think that it was a reference to his well-known penchant for music. However, time would demonstrate the enormous scope of this particular calling of his, as well as – and above all – the degree of perspicacity that Dr. Plinio’s apparently simple analysis contained.
How, then, did Msgr. João reflect the divine perfection of harmony throughout his life? It certainly was not only by means of his apostolate through music… Those who were close to him were surprised to contemplate his ability to reconcile the most diverse realities, with a view to realizing the ideals to which he had dedicated himself.
To mention one of thousands of examples, it was not uncommon for Msgr. João to gather around him a large audience of both sexes, with an age range that extended from early adolescence to the sixth or seventh decade of life. With total ease, he discoursed on lofty theological concepts, presenting them with such appeal that the very youngest portion of the audience could follow along with interest, while the older ones could also take advantage of it for their own instruction and spiritual progress!
This brings to mind the occasion on which an illustrious visitor, a prominent figure in the academic world of the Church, stood absent-mindedly rubbing his face in astonishment at seeing how Msgr. João held the attention of such a diverse audience, dealing with subjects – in fact, in an original manner – that he himself was only able to transmit to his postgraduate students with a great deal of effort…
Beyond mere human relationships
However, if Msgr. João’s primordial light shone in his relationship with his neighbour, harmonizing thousands of people from the most varied cultural and social backgrounds, it is also true that it transcended the mere realm of human creatures.
Msgr. João in May of 2014
Reading an article written by Dr. Plinio, our founder came across a definition of harmony that greatly helped him to understand his calling: “Harmony exists when the relationship between two beings conforms to the nature and purpose of each. Harmony is the working of things in relation to one another, according to order.”4
The concept of harmony was therefore an extremely profound one. First of all, it concerns the whole of creation, from the tiniest mineral to the highest of Angels, to Mary Most Holy and to Jesus Christ Man himself. Furthermore, it encompassed the idea of the purpose of these beings: they must relate to each other according to the order willed by God, so as to produce true harmony. In other words, the divine perfection that Msgr. João was called to represent reaches its apogee only when Providence’s plans for the universe are fully accomplished.
This goal was present at every moment of our founder’s life, which, according to his words, was characterized by the desire to “establish, out of love for God – never out of love for oneself – an orderly relationship between different beings, all the greater the higher they are, […] realizing the wonder of the great harmony that should exist in Terrestrial Paradise between all men.”5
And if it seems a filial exaggeration to extend this desire to the order of the whole of creation, to dispel such an impression it is enough to consider Msgr. João’s commitment to ordering everything according to divine designs. And when we say everything, we include such minutiae as a culinary delicacy, an ornamental grating, a livestock grange or the decoration of a room.
Aspiration for universal harmony
Such a bold aspiration did not come about by chance; it had a sublime genesis.
With prophetic acuity, Dr. Plinio penetrated the mysteries of the Holy Trinity and there discerned the as-yet-unrealized fullness of the plan of creation. His insight was so complete that it encompassed not only the present, but the whole of history. Considering the trajectory of God’s work since its beginnings, he was dismayed to observe how frequently the devil had managed to thwart the designs of Providence, winning illusory triumphs in the great war of the ages.
Having made this explicit, Dr. Plinio decided to take as the stirring ideal of his life the restoration of this venerable legacy, which comprised everything that throughout the ages had been part of that original plan, apparently thwarted by Satan’s wiles and human infidelity. To this end, he gathered followers and set out on a re-conquest that he came to designate as the call to raise the standards that had fallen by the waysides over the course of history. Let us consider some of his commentaries in this regard.
“My mission, our mission, which is one, became clear to me in a very simple way: I found along my path a series of standards cast to the ground, beaten, trampled underfoot, which symbolized the various causes that had been defended in the past and which no one any longer defended.”6
Out of indignation at this outrage against God, came the desire to “gather with love all the counter-revolutionary things that the world rejects, to welcome them with transports of love. […] We must treasure all these things. […] To embrace all the standards cast to the ground and, out of love for Our Lady, to restore them and fill them with light. […] Everything, absolutely everything. Everything that is being denied, everything that is being trampled underfoot, has an altar in our souls.”7 He concluded: “How is this a victory? In the fact that all the ideals that have been betrayed or abandoned, all the duties that have not been fulfilled, all the causes that have not been defended, that seemed dead or dying, have returned to the battlefield.”8
Gifted with a special understanding and love for this very high mission, Msgr. João soon understood that his calling was to translate the wonders that dwelt in Dr. Plinio’s soul into concrete realities, taking his wishes to their consummation. In this way, many of the “standards” whose abandonment constituted a challenge from the devil to God throughout history, were raised up and avenged by the achievements of our founder, through an exemplary fidelity to extraordinary graces and to the person of his master.
Ceremony in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, Caieiras (SP)
From this perspective, the odyssey outlined in the pages of this issue can be explained. The buildings, the new lifestyle, the pontifical approval of three institutions, the thousand forms of apostolate, the unassailable doctrine, the absolute moral integrity and the countless services rendered to the Holy Church: everything was born out of this desire to establish the order and harmony desired by God, fulfilling His plan for creation.
A lofty goal, to be sure, but one that was not entirely completed. In fact, taken as a whole, this mission far surpasses anything Msgr. João managed to achieve in his lifetime. How, then, can we understand it as something plausible? Is it a genuine hope or a mere delusion?
It is in God that men fulfil their missions
Although decisive, because they define their eternal destiny, all the specific missions that a man can fulfil on earth are, in God’s eyes, lesser duties. When a person fulfils them properly – by serving, praising and honouring the Lord – they save their soul and, upon reaching Heaven, they then know their true mission. This is fulfilled before the Holy Trinity, in the beatific vision.
Such a statement may come as a surprise, but a few examples may make it more comprehensible. St. James the Greater, despite having exercised a not-very-successful and extremely brief apostolate, received a remarkable post-mortem mission as “head of a crusade and protector of a nation,”9 with incalculable fruits for the Holy Church and Christian civilization. And what about St. Therese of the Child Jesus and so many other saints who, according to a human vision, did nothing more than assent to a call that they would never be able to fulfil in life?
Now, how can this principle be applied to Msgr. João without the hindsight of time? How can we predict the post-mortem fulfilment of his mission? The answer to this question – as to all the others we might ask about the person of our founder – is in Our Lady’s hands.
Msgr. João and the Reign of Mary
The first-born of creation and a crystal-clear mirror of divine perfections, Mary Most Holy fulfils God’s original plan for His work in all its details.10 Together with Our Lord Jesus Christ, She is the archetype not only of humanity but also of the Holy Church. It follows from these presuppositions that history constitutes the process by which the visible face of the Mystical Bride of Christ comes to fully resemble her sublime model, the Virgin Mother, “in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph 5:27).
As part of this process, Providence made it possible that, through supernatural lights, both Dr. Plinio and Msgr. João foresaw the future reign of Our Lady, idealized it in their hearts and, in the seed that their deeds represented, somehow initiated it while still in the midst of the Revolution’s empire.
In fact, when, due to the growing decadence generated by this five-centuries-old process in an advanced state of success, humanity seemed to be heading towards its nightfall, Msgr. João was called by God to be like an isthmus through which all the wonders of the past that seemed dead would find a renewed continuity. Once seemingly defeated, today causing astonishment to the coryphaei of false progress, they proudly rise up in a work that for years has defied the typhoons of the world, convinced that by doing so it will become the most fruitful seed of the great future glimpsed not only by its founder, but by so many other great prophets throughout history.
Msgr. João in January of 2022
We could well say that, in His unfathomable designs, God has subjected the future to the unblemished correspondence of a man. Having fulfilled his mission on earth, and in some way prolonging it in all those who follow Him with unpretentiousness, despite their shortcomings, Msgr. João has made the decisive contribution towards the effective realization of the divine plan for creation, which is none other than the Reign of Mary, in answer to the plea formulated by the Redeemer in the perfect prayer: “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”
From this conviction, which these brief words have only managed to outline, springs a filial hymn of gratitude to the one who, on the 1st day of November, 2024, began his post-mission in eternity. ◊
Notes
1 AUFFRAY, Augustine. Un grand éducateur: Saint Jean Bosco. 6.ed. Lyon-Paris: Emmanuel Vitte, 1947, p.485.
2 Cf. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. Summa Theologiæ. I, q.47, a.1.
3 CLÁ DIAS, EP, João Scognamiglio. O dom de sabedoria na mente, vida e obra de [The Gift of Wisdom in the Thought, Life and Work of] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. Città del Vaticano-São Paulo: LEV; Lumen Sapientiæ, 2016, v.IV, p.52-53.
4 CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. A cruzada do século XX. In: Catolicismo. Campos dos Goytacazes. Ano I. N.1 (jan., 1951); p.1.
5 CLÁ DIAS, EP, João Scognamiglio. Conference. São Paulo, 19/2/1998.
6 CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. Conversation. Amparo, 16/12/1985.
7 CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. Talk. São Paulo, 25/8/1977.
8 CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. Conversation. São Paulo, 5/8/1986.
9 GUÉRANGER, OSB, Prosper. El Año Litúrgico. El Tiempo después de Pentecostés. Primera Parte. Burgos: Aldecoa, 1955, t.IV, p.648.
10 Cf. CLÁ DIAS, EP, João Scognamiglio. Mary Most Holy: The Paradise of God Revealed to Men. São Paulo: Heralds of the Gospel, 2022, v.II, p.36-39.
