Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira (December 13, 1908 – October 3, 1995) was a Brazilian intellectual and

traditionalist Catholic Traditionalist Catholicism is the set of beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, Christian liturgy, liturgical forms, Catholic devotions, devotions, and presentations of Catholic Church, Catholic teaching that existed in the Catholic Church befo ...

activist, best known for the foundation of

Tradition, Family and Property Tradition, Family, Property (TFP; pt, Tradição, Família, Propriedade) is an international movement of political/civic organizations of Traditionalist Catholic inspiration. The first TFP was founded by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in Brazil in ...

organization.

Biography

Early life

Corrêa de Oliveira was born in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

to Lucilia Corrêa de Oliveira, a devout Roman Catholic, and educated by

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

. In 1928 he joined the Marian Congregations of São Paulo and soon became a leader of that organization. In 1933 he helped organize the Catholic Electoral League, was elected to the nation's Constitutional Convention by the "Catholic bloc", and at 24 became the youngest congressman in Brazil's history. His view of the Church has been described as

ultramontanist Ultramontanism is a clerical political conception within the Catholic Church that places strong emphasis on the prerogatives and powers of the Pope. It contrasts with Gallicanism, the belief that popular civil authority—often represented by th ...

and his political ideology

anti-Communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

. Several of his articles in ''A Ordem'' from the early 1930s expressed views that Jews had amassed "vast wealth and, therefore, decisive influence on business affairs," and that Jews were among the founders of Communism. Corrêa de Oliveira wrote that the Jews, who unlike the Communists were not under surveillance by Brazilian security forces, were thus much more dangerous.

Activism

He assumed the chair of Modern and Contemporary History at the

Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo The Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo ( pt, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, PUC-SP), locally known as ''PUC'' or the ''Catholic University'' ('), is a private and non-profit Catholic university. It is one of the larg ...

. He was also the first president of the São Paulo Archdiocesan Board of

Catholic Action Catholic Action is the name of groups of lay Catholics who advocate for increased Catholic influence on society. They were especially active in the nineteenth century in historically Catholic countries under anti-clerical regimes such as Spain, Ita ...

. Corrêa de Oliveira became concerned with what he saw as progressivist deviations within Brazilian Catholic Action, associated with the ideas of the French Catholic philosopher,

Jacques Maritain Jacques Maritain (; 18 November 1882 – 28 April 1973) was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised Protestant, he was agnostic before converting to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive Thomas Aquinas fo ...

and attacked these changes in his 1943 book, ''In Defense of Catholic Action''. With the arrival of a new archbishop in São Paulo in 1944, Corrêa de Oliveira lost his position as diocesan head of Catholic Action and in 1947 his directorship of the Catholic weekly ''Legionário'', which he had supervised since 1935. In 1951 he founded the magazine ''O Catolicismo'', together with the conservative bishops

Antônio de Castro Mayer Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...

and

Geraldo de Proença Sigaud Geraldo de Proença Sigaud, S.V.D. (September 26, 1909 – September 5, 1999) was a Brazilian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Jacarezinho from 1947 to 1960, and as Archbishop of Diamantina from 1960 to 1980. Bio ...

. From 1968 to 1990 he wrote a column for the ''

Folha de S.Paulo ''Folha de S.Paulo'' (sometimes spelled ''Folha de São Paulo''), also known as simply ''Folha'' (, ''Sheet''), is a Brazilian daily newspaper founded in 1921 under the name ''Folha da Noite'' and published in São Paulo by the Folha da Manhã c ...

'', the city's largest daily newspaper. Corrêa de Oliveira's Catholic social activism found new targets with the advent of the

National Conference of Bishops of Brazil The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (Portuguese: Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil, CNBB) brings together the Catholic Bishops of Brazil, as the Code of Canon Law, "jointly exercise certain pastoral functions on behalf of the fait ...

(founded in 1952) and the

Latin American Episcopal Conference Based in Bogotá (Colombia), the Latin American Episcopal Council ( es, Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano; pt, Conselho Episcopal Latino-Americano), better known as CELAM, is a council of the Roman Catholic bishops of Latin America, created in 1 ...

(CELAM) (founded in 1955) supporting

liberation theology Liberation theology is a Christian theological approach emphasizing the liberation of the oppressed. In certain contexts, it engages socio-economic analyses, with "social concern for the poor and political liberation for oppressed peoples". In ...

, and also with the

Cuban revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in cou ...

of 1959. To put his ideas into action, he founded the Brazilian Society for the Defence of

(TFP) in 1960. Corrêa de Oliveira travelled to Rome for the opening session of

Vatican II The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and 1 ...

, describing it as "a point in history as sad as the Death of Our Lord" in which the Church was faced by the generalized, co-ordinated, and audacious action of its internal enemies. Oliveira was accompanied by members of the Brazilian TFP who brought twenty trunks of TFP literature. During the first session of the Council Oliveira provided a secretariat which served Brazilian bishops Antônio de Castro Mayer and Geraldo de Proença Sigaud and other bishops of the traditional faction, who ultimately formed the ''

Coetus Internationalis Patrum The ''Coetus Internationalis Patrum'' (Latin: International Group of Fathers) was the most important and influential interest group of the "conservative" or " traditionalist" minority at the Second Vatican Council. Organization and membership Durin ...

''. Corrêa de Oliveira's opposition to the direction of the Council continued, and in a 1976 addendum to his book, ''Revolution and Counter-Revolution'', he described Vatican II as "one of the greatest calamities, if not the greatest, in the history of the Church". His strong opposition led to him being described by liberal critics as a "revanchist" within the ultra-traditional faction. However Plinio and those bishops drifted apart, as not all of them demonstrated loyalty to the Pope, while Corrêa de Oliveira did. He served as president of the Brazilian TFP's national council until his death in 1995. His treatise, ''Revolution and Counter-Revolution'', inspired the founding of autonomous TFP groups in nearly 20 countries worldwide. An admirer of

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...

, he was the author of 15 books and over 2,500 essays and articles.

Works

In the original Portuguese

* ''Em Defesa da Ação Católica'', 1943 * ''Revolução e Contra-Revolução'', 1959 * ''Acordo com o regime comunista: Para a Igreja, esperança ou autodemolição?'', 1963 * ''Reforma Agraria: Questão de Consciência'', 1964 * ''Declaração do Morro Alto: Programa de política agrária conforme os princípios de "Reforma Agrária - Questão de Consciência", 1964'' * ''Baldeação ideológica inadvertida e Diálogo'', 1965 * ''IDOC e Grupos Proféticos: Em ascensão triunfal - A Heresia Modernista'', 1969 * ''A Igreja ante a escalada da ameaça comunista Apelo aos Bispos Silenciosos'', 1976 * ''Tribalismo indígena, ideal comuno-missionário para o Brasil no século XXI'', 1977 * ''Sou Católico: posso ser contra a reforma agrária?'', 1981 * ''Nobreza e elites tradicionais análogas nas Alocuções de Pio XII ao Patriciado e à Nobreza romana'', 1993

Translated into English

* ''Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History'', 1993 * ''Revolution and Counter-Revolution'', first published in 1974; 3rd ed. (the most recent) pub. 2014
2002 digital edition

References

External links

Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property
— Under the control of the

Heralds of the Gospel The Heralds of the Gospel ( pt, Arautos do Evangelho; la, Evangelii Praecones, abbreviated to EP) is a Roman Catholic International Association of Pontifical Right based in Brazil. Founded by Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, the organizatio ...

Instituto Plinio Corrêa de Oliveria (Portuguese)
— Under the control of the TFP “Fundadores”
Revolution and Counter-Revolution ONLINE - in English

(Blog in honour of his 100th birthday, in German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oliveira, Plinio Correa De Brazilian anti-communists 20th-century Brazilian historians Brazilian Roman Catholics Catholicism and far-right politics Conservatism in Brazil Counter-revolutionaries Brazilian traditionalist Catholics Far-right politics in Brazil Catholic philosophers Roman Catholic activists 1908 births 1995 deaths 20th-century Brazilian philosophers Anti-Masonry Antisemitism in Brazil Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo faculty Brazilian monarchists Patrianovists