Translated from Diario Las Américas, Miami, Oct. 23, 2001 (original in Spanish).

Oct. 03, 2011: Destaque Internacional reproduces this article, as a tribute to Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in the 16th aniversary of his death.

By Gonzalo Guimaraens

Chaos, as it relates to the new and dangerous strategy of revolutionary movements which emerged from communism and other anti-Christian movements with a religious appearance, was the main focus and analysis, in the last years of his life, of the Catholic thinker and Brazilian man of action, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, whose 6th anniversary of his death was commemorated on the 3rd of October. Chaos, a subject which each time becomes more apparent, is a key to understanding the profound meaning of tragic acts such as those which occurred in the United States and acts which might follow, which are marking this beginning of the third millennium.

Corrêa de Oliveira distinguished himself by his impressive foresight as it related to the social, political and religious reality of Brazil and of the world, many of his ideas came to fruition during several decades evidencing an undeniably prophetic spirit. Since 1928, as a young Catholic leader, he fought by his use of his words and writings to defend the Church and Christian civilization. At the beginning of the 30's, he denounced the leftist movement which had began to infiltrate the Church and also nazi-fascism.

During the next few years he denounced communist political maneuvering whose goal was to transform Brazil into a gigantic communist Cuba, and taking with it the entire Latin America. Hundreds of books and articles of "brazilianists" and historians from various inclinations in diverse countries, specially in the United States, acknowledge the decisive roll Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, and the entities which were inspired by him, such as Society of Defense of Tradition, Family and Property , played in avoiding Latin America from falling into the leftist abyss.

The subject of chaos being used as a revolutionary instrument was always apparent in his observations. In his most well-known work, Revolution and Counter-Revolution (1959) Corrêa de Oliveira affirms that "superficially, our daily happenings appear to be a chaotic and inextricable mess, and in fact, by many points of view they are". Nevertheless, he continues, "it is possible to discern consequentials, profoundly coherent and vigorous, from the conjunction of so many delirious forces. In effect, "upon the thrust of those forces in delirium, the western countries are gradually pushed towards a state of things that is outlined equally in all things, and diametrically opposes Christian civilization". He concludes that the contemporary crisis "is like a queen to whom all of the forces of chaos serve as efficient and docile instruments."

In the mid-80's, in his analysis of the sociopolitical and religious international situation, Corrêa de Oliveira puts much emphasis on his warning that the events are happening each time in a more accelerated pace and that chaos appears to be spontaneous, but with a relentless internal coherence: the defined goal of destroying the remains of Christian civilization. A chaos which at the same time makes it difficult to foresee preventive actions and alerts, appears to make logic useless, weakens sound principles and anesthetizes public opinion.

As Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira pointed out in numerous conferences and in works such as "Four dirty and ugly fingers" (1983), after the communist crisis leftist intellectuals and even "liberation theologists" went on to see chaos as a new and efficient instrument of social revolution. The so-called chaos theories, with its applications on the social field, were set in motion. It is no coincidence that the chaos being initiated by diverse anti-Christian movements, with political and religious roots, undeniably act jointly in this globalized world.

In his research work "The fingers of chaos and the fingers of God" (1992), Prof. Corrêa de Oliveira perceives that the panorama that chaos opens could cause more than one reader to be overwhelmed; a chaos that even in the deepest part of its core does not cease to discern the deceitful glares of the devil himself, as he pointed out in his article "The mobile immobility of chaos" (1993). Because of it, the author thought it opportune in this respect to make note of something which he considers revealing of his notable spirit that marked his life:

"Then towards where to direct the hope of the reader? Towards God Himself, which will never abandon His holy and immortal Church. And which through Her he will, in distant or in recent days, which its coming His Mercy and Justice will determine, but remain mysterious to us, the splendid rebirth of the Christian civilization, the Kingdom of Christ through the Kingdom of Maria".