In August 1978, after the death of Paul VI, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira published an article in Folha de São Paulo, entitled “Clarity”, about the atmosphere of the pre-Conclave.
Newsroom (06/05/2025 08:35, Gaudium Press) In August 1978, after the death of Paul VI, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira published an article in Folha de São Paulo , entitled “Clarity”, about the atmosphere of the Conclave that covered the entire world, to which was added a pre-election atmosphere in Brazil. This environment has notable similarities with what the entire world is experiencing today.
Here are some excerpts from these analyses, which can certainly shed some light on the current situation.
“[…] Comments and predictions are more about people than about programs. However:
“Given the flood of names of candidates for the papacy that are being presented to them, the people do not want to know so much about their (candidates) place of origin, their age and their ecclesiastical career, nor what their physiognomy looks like (a physiognomy that most often falls into one of the current variations: jovial-smiling, charitable-sad, disheveled-frenetic, the latter not yet in vogue for cardinals). What the people want to know boils down to this main question:
“Paul VI announced that the Church was being victim of a mysterious ‘process of self-demolition’ (address of 7-12-68) and that the ‘smoke of Satan’ had penetrated into it (address of 29-6-72). The late pontiff – before whose mortal remains I bow here with due veneration – thus departed for eternity with the self-demolition underway and the smoke of Satan expanding. What will his successor think about the self-demolition and the smoke? How will he conduct both?”
These questions, among others, occupied a prominent place in the minds of many believers, as Dr. Plinio observed, because “whoever sails in a boat amidst the worst smoke, and in the company of passengers who are dismantling the timbers, is immediately and mainly interested in knowing what is going to be done about the smoke and the boat’s wreckers.
“[…] There are countless Catholics who believe that the smoke and self-destruction are rightly identified with two major trends in the Church today. One of these trends is developing on the theological, philosophical and moral planes. It is progressivism.
“The other tendency develops on the three fold plane – diplomatic, social and economic. It is called, depending on the angle from which it is considered: rapprochement with the East, rapprochement with socialism, and rapprochement with communism.”
“If we consider that progressivism is, in turn, an approximation with the thousand aspects of what has been conventionally called the “modern mentality” (which is, to a certain extent, a fiction to which few men adhere entirely. Many only adhere with restrictions and in markedly variable proportions, and which not a few reject), we come to the conclusion that the future pope will have his pontificate essentially marked by the attitude he takes towards what we can qualify as a double approximation: a) the worldly-publicist-progressive; b) the social-communist.
“[…] What do the many cardinals whose names are being thrown around as ‘ papabili ’ think of these approaches? How does each of them see the currents towards which these movements of rapprochement invite them? Do they see them as hydras that must be immediately defeated with the fiery sword of the Spirit? As intelligent, ductile and perhaps a little foolish adversaries, with whom it is possible to conduct slow, comfortable and perhaps even cordial negotiations? As partners, in a coexistence or even collaboration that is perfectly acceptable, and in some ways even friendly?”
“These are, among a thousand, the questions that most passengers of the sacrosanct Barque of Peter would like to ask each ‘ papabile ’”. At the time when Dr. Plinio wrote this article these questions were valid then and certainly today as well.
“Several, it is quite clear, have their preference defined for a pope who takes entirely this or that attitude, in the face of the dual approach. I classify myself, as everyone knows, among those who would rejoice in the choice of a combative pope like Saint Gregory VII or Saint Pius X. Others clearly prefer a ‘proximityist’ pope, as was Pius VII in his time. And so on.”
“But what will the vast majority of the faithful want?”
Translated from GaudiumPress Protugese
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