Mi ca El !?

10. " . . . both [opposing] parties have realized some basic changes in
their convictions." This affirmation is unintelligible. Does it mean that
Communism, ceasing to be Communism, is beginning to accept the eternal
Catholic truth? Or, on the contrary, that the Church is beginning to lose its fear
of Communism, is studying it, and is finding it to be today's concrete fulfillment
(as Bishop Sergio Mendez Arceo 2 would say) of Christ's redemption? "The
church," says the Nuncio, "has realized that the revolution is irreversible."
Really , Monsignor? May the Church believe that the gates of Hell have
prevailed lupon Jesus Christ's work, against His Holy Church? May it accept that
truth has been irreversibly defeated by error, justice by monstrous injustice, and
love by hate? No, it cannot, for up until a few years ago, did we not firmly
believe, in spite of the apparent successes of Communism in Cuba, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Russia, and China, that this situation would not last
indefinitely, that things would have to change in Cuba, that what you call
institutionalization of bloody, atheistic Marxism will end, and that the way of
thinking and talking like His Excellency will be over, as has happened with so
many storms that have menaced Peter's bark?


This dialogue that the Nuncio carries on with the atheistic, irreligious,
and criminal government of Cuba may not and does not mean the beginning of a
state of confidence in this government on the part of any Cuban who really
loves his country or of any individual who loves freedom. Confidence in
destruction ? Confidence in slavery? Confidence in the imponderable tragedy of
his fatherland? To think like this, Mister Nuncio, you have to be an Italian
Christian Democrat leader, not a Latin American Catholic!


The Church may not get criminally involved in Communist work, as
this would be equivalent to complicity with the satanic work of the Antichrist.
The Church can endure the relentless torment that its cruel enemies inflict on
the aching flesh of Christ's mystical body, but the Church, Mister Nuncio, will
never work with this tyranny or endorse it!


In Cuba , it is said that this bishop whose style is all but new, this
diplomat in charge of a subtle task, is a personal friend of Fidel Castro. Like all
diplomats, he neither affirms it nor denies it. What I believe can be affirmed,
without exaggeration or lie, is that this most extraordinary Nuncio has become
one of the most valuable and efficacious props of the Communist regime that is
oppressing Cuba. I think that His Excellency's overture to Communism is
without parallel or precedent, and that this subtle Vatican diplomat has baptized
atheistic Marxism.


To be continued...


2 Bishop Sergio Mendez Arceo, the "Red Bishop" of Cuernavaca, when visiting Cuba,
declared himself to be a Marxist and a Communist.

11. Logical and consistent in these thoughts and actions, the Nuncio
affirms that, having lived in Cuba long enough to see all the stages of the
Communist revolution, he now sees it entering "its adult age." Since his
personal status and modus vivendi are safe, it is natural that he estimates the
Communist revolution to be mature, even though people are starving and the
number who voluntarily leave their fatherland in search of peace and freedom
is growing. "The people," he says, "have experienced radical changes in their
material condition ... " That is true, Mr. Nuncio, very true, but it was a change
from abundance to famine and most dreadful need, from the island's typical joy
to inexpressible and sad desolation. Hasn't anyone told His Excellency about
the patient, silent lines of people waiting for bits of rationed, stale bread? Or
about the secret, continuous and heart-breaking tears being shed in so many
homes that have been destroyed by the mature, successful revolution? Mr.
Nuncio, I know you have everything, and that the army jeeps are at your
disposal any time you need them, but not all Cubans, including bishops and
priests, are papal nuncios or friends of Fidel Castro.


12. "[The people] now have a standard of living which they did not have
previously," says the Pope's representative. Moreover, according to Monsignor
Zacchi, "Redistribution of wealth and social justice now prevail, in contrast to
the past."

It is pitiful that he speaks like this for, taking into account his training
and his episcopal position, he ought to be an authentic witness for objective
truth. Everyone knows of the precarious situation of Cuba, including
individuals, families, and the country itself. Wealth has not been distributed, for
nobody owns anything in Cuba. Everyone lives at the expense of the
government, which is the sole proprietor, and at the expense of those who rule
the country and contemptibly violate everybody's rights. Maybe the Nuncio
himself, who now proclaims the success of the Communist revolution, will be
eliminated as soon as his "services" are no longer needed by the Communist
rulers. He will then be treated as harshly as those who refused to bow to the
yoke of the powerful ones. If the present condition of the
Cubans is the so-called social justice that progressivists proclaim, then we
abhor it and we will fight it as long as we live.


13. Another unheard-of affirmation by the Nuncio is that Catholics must
integrate the revolution and that they must join unions, cooperate in voluntary
works, join the militias, join sport and cultural clubs, and be active in student
movements and professional entities. In other words, the Nuncio affirms that all
Cuban Catholics must set aside religious prejudice, personal resentment,
independent criteria, and their wishes of freedom, if such feelings are
incompatible with the full success of the revolution, in order to actively belong
to the revolution. Since there is only one party in Cuba and since its cadres
perform important concrete functions designed to carry out social change, it
follows that all Catholics must become members and activists of the Communist
party. What about the excommunication decree of Pius XII, Mr. Nuncio? I'm sorry, I almost forgot that such doctrines have been overruled by the prevailing
progressivism. The Pope's representative sees no obstacle to a Catholic
becoming a Marxist, for the practical purpose of his own safe conduct and
privileges as a pillar of the revolution.


To be continued...

14. Unfortunately, the Nuncio surprises us again with his post-Conciliar
view that the contradiction between dialectic materialism and Christian beliefs
cannot hinder peaceful coexistence, dialogue, or even cooperation of Catholics
with Communism, since these differences are merely theoretical, not practical.
Naturally, a Catholic will have internal reservations. In other words, this
Vatican diplomat does not deem it necessary that there be a perfect concurrence
between thinking and behavior, faith and works, theory and practice.
Dissimulation, feigning, and hypocrisy would be admissible and praiseworthy
in these circumstances.


A Catholic thinker once said: "We have to live the way we believe, or
we will end up believing the way we live." That is true , for when our works are
not consistent with our beliefs and convictions, the latter end up vanishing.
There can be no better way to peacefully establish atheistic Communism,
irreligiosity, and moral depravity, than by authorizing and spreading a
separation between religion and life. The Nuncio to Cuba is a most valuable
collaborator of Castro's militant Communism, and an apologist as well. For
him, Fidel's atheism and Communism are no obstacles because ethically, he is
still a Christian. His crimes, sacrilegious profanations, sexual immorality, and
vandalism in Latin America are no obstacles either, for this Cuban dictator
continues to be an ethical Christian. Mr. Nuncio, what do you consider to be
Christian ethics?


The way the Papal Nuncio thinks shows us how flexible today's
ecclesiastics are in changing their minds and doctrine in order to accommodate
and adapt to changing circumstances. The dynamics of Vatican II have
apparently penetrated even the deepest layers of the clergymen's consciousness,
for today our prelates defend what the Popes energetically and conclusively
condemned yesterday, as though such condemnations had lost value and
strength.


What did the previous Popes say about Communism? That "Marx's evolutionary materialism is intrinsically perverse" (Divini Redemptoris 9, 58); that "this doctrine is contrary to natural law" (Qui plur. 8); that "it is socialism's heir" (Quadragesimo Anno 43); that "its nature is impious and unjust" (Quad. Anno 43; Rerum Novarum 3); that "it is a monster of civil society" (Diuturnum 25); that "it fights everything that is divine" (Div. Redemp. 22); that "it intends to establish a godless society" (Div. Redemp. 12); that "it rejects all hierarchies and authority" (Div. Redemp. 10); and that "it deprives man of his freedom" (Div. Redemp. 10).


I know quite well that progressivists have, as they are used to saying,
"surpassed" these prejudices or opinions of previous Popes, whose value, if
any, was merely circumstantial and belonging to past times. But, right from the
beginning, I expose progressivism as being Communism's most efficacious past
and present ally, and I also affirm that these pretexts are just a disguise our
enemies designed to fool naive Catholics in search of orientation in the middle
of today's confusion.


Communist tactics have changed, but Communism's nature remains
the same. Today, like yesterday, it remains the chief enemy of individuals,
families, countries, and God's Church.


Shameful, humiliating, and most sad is the spectacle of the Papal Nuncio to
Cuba. He transgresses his episcopal, sacerdotal, diplomatic, and even his
human duties in order to justify Castro's Communist regime; he looks down on
the tragedy of a humanly hopeless country; and his absurd opinions infect all of
Latin America. But of what importance is our people's misfortune , when
compared with this young Nuncio's "diplomatic career?"


To be continued...

WITH THE OPPRESSED OR WITH THE OPPRESSORS?


The following editorial in United Front demonstrates the tremendous
pressure exerted by Communists and progressivists in order to take advantage
of the Eucharistic Congress and get things done their own way:

The International Eucharistic Congress is a crowd-gathering religious
event, promoted by the Catholic Church , whose central figure is the Pope.

To begin with, a predominantly religious people have the right to manifest
their faith. But such faith may not be exploited in such a way that it narcoticizes
the masses, for it would be a circus trick to keep the masses oppressed, neutral,
and resigned to a false social order, where an oligarchic minority exploits an
immense majority.

With the exception of very small sectors, people do not have social
consciousness yet. They are fatalists, conformists, and fetishists.

Fatalists, because they think that the false social order is unmodifiable,
since those who enjoy it have everything -money, power, command, and
weapons.

Conformists, because misery, which has been basically determined by the
cleverness of a few, prevents their rebelling against the same misery.

Fetishists, because they see the rulers, oligarchs, and members of the
exploiting class as fetishes or demigods who are deserving of their homage and
submission.

If the Congress continues to keep the people thinking along these lines, it
can be considered as treasonous to their cause and best interests. Moreover, if
the Congress does not promote the spirit of change and if it does not act as a spur
to stimulate their rebellion against injustice, it may be concluded that the
exploiters turned this Congress into an opiate for the people.

Christian love does not consist of exploiters continuing their exploitation, but
of the exploited rebelling against those who exploit mankind.

It is absurd to talk about a "love bond" (such was the theme of the
Congress) while the system and powerful groups produce misery, beggars,
forsaken children, prostitutes, violence, illiteracy , and starvation. The Catholic
Church faces a dilemma: either it joins with the oppressed majority, or it remains
bonded to an oligarchic structure by a tie of love. It is either the real Church of
Christ or the false institutional church.

The big press, which is the servant of the exploiters, talks about bishops
who do not lodge among the poor living in the slums, but at the homes of the
oligarchs and the rich, in residential areas where luxury and sumptuousness
prevail. Judging by this aspect alone. this is certainly not the Church of the poor.

This same Church , which is the most powerful spiritual force in Latin
America, will accomplish nothing with empty definitions and theoretical calls for
justice. Either it condemns present structures by means of facts, or it remains
allied to these structures. As a matter of fact, the hungry and the poor can no
longer be deceived by Eucharistic congresses where farce and lies prevail and
where Christ is used as a pretext of control and as a device to conceal the
Church's nefarious intimate connection with oppressors and plutocrats. What
matters most is not to please the ruling class, but to remove oppression from the
poor; this, of course, is very displeasing to the dominant class.

The Pope is the central figure of the Congress. He comes to the Latin
American continent, which belongs to the Third World. He comes to attend the
Congress, yet he will not attend the LAMEC reunion (Latin American Episcopal
Conference). He will spend forty-eight hours in Bogota.

Two comments arise immediately: one, our America deserves better
treatment, and two, many people wish to see the Pope working together with the
hierarchy at Medellin, and analyzing this continent's problems in depth for the
first time.

The briefness of his visit gives the impression of a travel tour, of something
which he is doing for the sake of duty and protocol.

Paul VI knows America's revolutionary situation quite well. He knows
that some nations already have guerilla movements in existence or in the process
of formation. These movements have been created by circumstances and not by
mere personal whim. If he were to condemn the revolution explicitly, he would
ignore things like the following:

A. The dominant classes have imposed violence upon the oppressed.

B. When such is the case, violence becomes the right of the oppressed.

C. We are being dominated by imperialism , which is essentially brutal and
warlike, as was shown in Vietnam and Santo Domingo. The issue before the
people is that they either resign themselves to be crushed or that they plunge
themselves into rebellion with the sole aim of assuming power. Neither blessings
nor damnations will be able to stop them.

German Guzman Campos

In Colombia, as in Europe, Communism pressured the Pope to endorse
violence, guerilla warfare, and bloody changes of structures. They did not want
words; they wanted deeds and they wanted total war against the rich and the
imperialists. A Eucharistic congress which did not constitute a trumpet call to
start the war would be a nefarious opiate to narcoticize the people.


Mr. German Guzman Campos did know that the planned International
Eucharistic Congress was not designed to keep people fatalist, conformist, and
fetishist, as he had said. He also knew that this religious event was not
treasonous to the interests of the poor and that the progressivist currents
violently invading a segment of the Latin American ecclesiastics, especially
young individuals and the Jesuits, had already oriented the program and spirit
of the coming Congress toward endorsing immediate and audacious change of
social, economic , and political structures.


He was also well aware that such change did not exclude the religious
field , but, nevertheless, he and his party wanted to press the Pope to have the
Congress justify guerilla warfare and to act as a spur to stimulate rebellion of the
Latin Americans against injustice. In other words, United Front, the
Communist Party , and its progressivist allies wanted the Congress to start a
continental Communist revolution and to implicitly accept guerilla warfare and
the Castroite projects for Latin America.


For these false Christs, social inequality is an intolerable oppression
which gives basis to the almost divine right of the "have-nots" to use violence
against the "haves," and oppressed against their oppressors. This is the essence
of Marxism: violence, brutality, deprivation, destruction, and death, its final goal
being to establish a most brutal tyranny upon the human race and to strip it of
all its rights.


To be continued...

REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVISTS DISCLOSE THEIR PROJECTS


On the 158th anniversary of the proclamation of independence, delegates
of various regional revolutionary organizations which represent the workers'
movement, as well as peasants, students, professionals, writers, revolutionary
priests, and religious, participated in a historical meeting which was devoted to
making an objective examination of the cause of the Colombian revolution and
to selecting a way of tactically and strategically uniting the historical forces of
national liberation. They all identify themselves with the thinking, work, and
exemplary life of Camilo Torres Restrepo, and they feel obliged to jointly fulfill
the mandate arising from his sacrifice and from the heroic parable described by
"Che" Guevara, who is the heart and spirit of all the people who fight
imperialism.


Aware as they are of the scope of the concrete tasks the Colombians confront in
the present situation, they have decided to set up working teams as a first step
toward constituting a National Liberation Front. These teams will
take care of the fundamental struggle, while an auxiliary rearguard, acting in
the mass sector, will ensure the participation of our people in the violent battle
against colonial and neo-colonial imperialism.


Conscious of the long-standing struggle for liberation in our country, they
have decided to cooperate in the planning of the giant effort of mobilizing and
organizing the popular classes for the takeover of power. This will include
persistent efforts to develop national consciousness, education, scientific
research, and participation in the life and struggle of the people , as well as
ideological struggle against deviations and trends that harbor reformist
illusions.


As a result of today's need to turn from words to deeds, from thinking to
work, from ideas into material force, and from the weapon of criticism into
"armed criticism," they have pledged to join all efforts, be they small, humble,
or anonymous, so that the nascent struggle of liberation may become the
struggle of all Colombians.


The statement of motives and immediate concrete tasks to be undertaken
is recorded in the following Deed of Pledge:

We, the revolutionaries of Colombia, conscious of our responsibility
before the people and the revolution, and whereas:

1. Our country. having achieved independence from Spanish colonialism
one and a half centuries ago through the efforts of the masses and the armies of
liberation, remains, nevertheless, backward and dependent because it has been
subdued by American imperialism whose rapacious exploitation plunders our
wealth , deforms our culture, and dominates our public power.

2. The dominant classes consist of an oligarchic, inept, and voracious
minority which is an ally and agent of imperialism. This minority is being
nourished by a false social order which breeds misery, violence, unemployment,
malnutrition, alcoholism, prostitution, vice, and lack of opportunities to acquire
health, culture , and shelter.

3. This false oligarchic social order is a barrier for the flourishing of our
nation's material and spiritual wealth and for the realization of our historical
destiny.

4. It is only through deep and radical change of social, economic, and
political structures and the revolutionary takeover of power by the popular
classes that Colombia will be able to overcome its present 20-year-old crisis.

5. This repressive, apparently powerful apparatus that protects and
supports the oligarchic-imperialistic system , has declared a preventive war, led
and financed by the Yankee military machine, in order to stop the inexorable
course of history toward liberation of the masses; this force is not invincible,
however, and will become impotent when it faces the unified and conscious
resistance of our country in arms.

6. The Colombian revolution is not the concern of a single group, political
party , or social class but of all the people, that is to say, all social classes and
groups who are being victimized by an oppressive system based on semi-feudal
theories of agricultural production and false neo-colonial capitalistic
development.

7. The revolution will result from the joint efforts of all those sectors that
believe in the power of the people, really want national liberation , and effectively
work to bring about a human, socialist, and authentically Christian society by
means of Marxist-Leninist principles.

8. Taking into account imperialism's global and continental strategy, our
revolutionary struggle must not become isolated from the rest of Latin America,
or from those people in Asia , Africa, and Europe who are striving to liberate
mankind from alienating and adulterated structures, the most degenerate and
corrupt of which is American imperialism.

9. Although we recognize the necessity to use all available open and legal
means of fighting while it is possible, it does become evident that imperialism
and the prevailing oligarchy are blocking our peaceful struggle more and more
each day, thereby granting the people the right to fight reactionary violence with
an armed revolutionary force.

10. The most important problem that must be resolved by the Colombian
revolution does not lie in the might of the prevailing classes, but in the disunity
and dispersion of the forces called to overthrow them. Consequently, the basic
task is to promote unity between the revolutionary sectors and the vanguards on
the basis of fighting reformism, revisionism, and opportunism, thereby paving
the way for unification of strategic goals and tactical actions.

On the basis of these declarations, we believe it to be our duty to build
revolutionary working teams to realize the following concrete tactical actions:

I. To promote the thinking and actions of genuine revolutionaries toward
unity of aims.

2. To strengthen and develop the solidarity of the masses with the
vanguards which strive for national liberation in Colombia, Latin America,
North America , Asia , and Africa.

3. To support and defend the politically persecuted, to render assistance
to their families, and to grant safety to those who perform revolutionary tasks.

4. To mobilize the people and to transform their consciousness through
education and enlightenment so that they accept the necessity of change, and to
convince them of the possibility of such change through the application of higher
forms of political struggle.

5. To promote scientific research of the social and economic structures by
going to the people and participating in their lives to take care of short- and
long-term solutions, and to prevent deceptive actions on the part of the so-called civic -
military action, peace corps, etc.

6. To coordinate the work of the existing revolutionary groups and to
organize the marginal sectors.

7. To make efforts to ensure efficacious revolutionary actions and to help
develop a true revolutionary vanguard.

8. To spread the thoughts, words and deeds of Camilo and Che, so that
they may become examples of revolutionary behavior.

9. To develop working teams to put the above postulates into practice at
the local, regional and national levels.

Bogota, 20 July 1968

Some leading points of this revolutionary program , which coincided with
the LAMEC program, were circulated profusely not only in Bogota but all over
Colombia. It is continental in scope and is designed to promote bold changes of
socio-economic and political structures in all Latin American countries. What
the LAMEC document conceals or disguises is disclosed here. The LAMEC
document talks about the imperious necessity of a bold change of structures
without specifying which ones need to be changed or which ones are to take
their place. The document of the National Liberation Front, however, does
explain which structures have to change and which ones will replace what they
call colonial and neo-colonial forms of imperialistic domination. It is only
through deep and radical changes of social, economic, and political structures
that Latin America will be able to cope with its present total crisis and problem
of underdevelopment.


These new structures are socialism and its offspring, Communism, which
represent the revolutionary takeover of power by the masses. It is necessary to
eliminate the ruling oligarchy; it is urgent to effect a fair distribution of wealth
in order to establish social equality, after having suppressed all privileges. That
is why this revolution is not the concern of a single group, political party, or
social class, but of the people as a whole, that is to say, the combination of all
social groups and classes who are victims of oppression. This is the new gospel
of love and Christian fraternity. That is why the struggle is worldwide; it is not
Colombian or Mexican, but of all Latin America, Asia, Africa , and Europe;
and the common enemy is American imperialism. The problem is international.
All the sectors that have faith in the power of the people, without distinction as
to race , country, or religion, and all those people who really want national
liberation and effectively work to bring it about, must participate in this joint
effort to improve this world by means of Marxist-Leninist principles which,
stripped of their atheism, basically express the Christian message .


In order to convert this redeeming program into reality, the Camilo
Torres Restrepo Latin American Foundation has just been established in
Bogota , in the house where Father Torres and his mother used to live.

This foundation will be the Camilist scientific and cultural (?) center, and
will function at national and international levels. Its principal function will be
to organize and intellectually develop all activities based on the work of the
"immortal priest-guerilla leader," whose life as a social scientist and whose
activity as a real revolutionary are examples for millions of Christians who now
follow his teaching throughout the world.

Union and student leaders, peasants, writers, and priests are among the
founders of this entity designed to fill a vacuum in the present revolution of the
Latin American people, oppressed by famine, illiteracy, disease, and all other
evils provoked by the international exploiting class, which will be progressively
unmasked as the revolutionary science advances.


To be continued...

Camilo Analyzed


Camilo's words: "What is the essential task for the masses in order to
assume power? First, one of the main conditions is to work toward the
development of a common consciousness among the masses." (Lecture at the
Bavarian Union, July, 1965).

Camilo's guidelines are very clear: the masses must assume power. The
first required condition is that they have a common consciousness, that is to say
that they be of one class and they have a strong consciousness of class.

I. What is power? What does " taking power" mean? Why is it that it must
be the masses who are to take power? Why must they take power?

2. Camilo says that the masses must have a common consciousness. What
is the meaning of "common consciousness?" In regard to which objectives must
the masses have a common consciousness? Are the masses convinced that they
must take power? Since there is no clear consciousness, why is that so? What
prevents the masses from having a common consciousness? What means could
be employed to develop it among them? What is the meaning of the words
consciousness and consciencizing?

3. What is the way by which the masses are to take power? The following
data must be taken into account: (a) The oligarchy shields itself with force to
maintain its power. (b) The oligarchy and the working class are antagonistic to
each other. (c) The oligarchy has set up a class dictatorship which it disguises
with "legality" and defends with weapons. (d) The bourgeois oligarchic farce
must be replaced with a socialist democracy. (e) American imperialism
supports the bourgeois oligarchic democracies with money and military aid.
Whenever it finds it convenient, it places a "gorilla" into power. (f) The subject
can be stated in this way: either national liberation or a dictatorship of the
privileged, either a military control by the people or by the Yankee Pentagon.
Any other statement would be reactionary and reformist. (g) The bourgeoisie
will resort to violence to prevent the coming to power of the people. The
following option will then arise: either a pro-imperialistic, dictatorial,
bourgeois regime or a violently-achieved revolutionary government of the
masses.


To be continued...

Each Time More . .. More . .. and More Political Prisoners!


Camilo also had these things to say:

The foundation of the National Liberation Front starts a new wave of
persecution and violence against the more honest citizens of our country. This
new stage includes sophisticated techniques taught by Americans in short
courses held in Colombia and abroad, as well as permanent advice given by
United States Secret Service technicians in espionage and infiltration.

Large expenditures are incurred by the public treasury to support the
judicial and repressive apparatus which personifies persecution, prison , torture,
and death. Thanks to these, the government police keep the jails of Bogota,
Bucaramanga, Armenia, Ibague, Papayan, and Chaparral, as well as the penal
colonies of Acacias, Araracuara, and Gorgona full of political prisoners, many
of whom have been sentenced to more than 30 years of confinement, while others
have not yet been interrogated,

The government's continuous arbitrary acts openly show its anti-democratic nature,
which defies the principles of the human rights declaration
and of the National Constitution,

The depravity of the Colombian penal system is a secret to no one;
political prisoners, and many times their relatives, are known to be submitted to
moral and physical torture.

The political prisoners are not an exception to the revolutionary patriotic
struggle. All acts of freedom give rise to arrogance and cruelty on the part of the
individuals in power, who are striving to stop the progress and liberation of the
people.

The political prisoners, by reason of their participation in the
revolutionary process, become symbols of resistance and human courage, as well
as living exponents of a struggle that neither humiliation nor jail and death are
able to stop.

That is why we, who are still free, who are candidates for arrest or court-martial,
are obliged to make public the great significance of the political
prisoners, To defend and aid them and their families constitute tasks that belong
to all the people, as well as being moral and material obligations of all real
revolutionaries.

Moreover, the defense of the political prisoners is another way of
unmasking a dictatorship that brags about being democratic, of accentuating its
dissolution, and of encouraging more fighters among the people to take over
power for the masses.

In order that our arrested comrades find positive reward for their sacrifice,
it is essential that they enjoy as much esteem and encouragement as they deserve ;
continuing our fight against the oligarchy and American imperialism is the best
way of giving thanks to those who, in the regime's dungeons, are paying for their
love of country and the popular cause.

These documents which , as I have already mentioned, were widely
circulated in Bogota during the days of the Eucharistic Congress, give us an
idea of the ideology, determination, and the radical program of Communist
subversion, which is now being spread all over Latin America. The same
vocabulary, ideology, and tactics have been used in Mexico and other Latin
American countries. To bring about a bold and urgent change of structures it is
necessary that the masses take power. To take power they must launch the
revolution, and this revolution must be violent, for the oligarchy (as they call
the present ruling class and legitimate authorities who represent and defend law
and order) resorts to force to remain in power. This "class dictatorship,"
therefore , must be fought with arms. Only by means of weapons will the assault
of power be possible. And what next? A new authority, law, and dictatorship
which will uphold the new structures. Without force, Communism would not be
able to remain in power, as the sad cases of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and
Cuba demonstrate.


There is a false premise in all these arguments. Not all legitimate
governments are dictatorships. It is not true that the repression legitimate
authorities use to fight subversion is abusive. Legitimate authority and
subversive movements are necessarily antagonistic. As long as legitimate
authorities are in command, under law and conscience, the subversive forces
have to use violence to overthrow and destroy them; but once brutality and
violence have succeeded, once they have climbed to power, they establish their
own law, which is no law at all, for it is neither rational nor is it designed to
favor public interests, but to uphold their inconsistent power by means of force
and abuse, such power being exerted for the exclusive benefit of those who
incarnate the new structures.


Communism is violent in its conquests and in the preservation of its
conquests. The option, therefore, is the following: either an orderly government
that energetically curbs violent subversion, or a Communist dictatorship that
enslaves all of us through a most terrifying violence. Either we use antibiotics to
fight disease , or the disease dominates and kills us.


To be continued...

This struggle is unavoidable and necessary, and the governments, acting
under the law, must repress license and anarchy which, pretending to be
emancipating, provoke Communist subversion. The authorities must also
suppress the personal freedom of those who, by means of violent and criminal
acts, endeavor to take power and proclaim the Communist dictatorship of the
proletariat. These are the so-called "political prisoners," individuals who have
committed real crimes which could in no way be promoted by the principles of
human rights. As the President of the Mexican Republic , Dr. Gustavo Diaz
Ordaz , judiciously said in his report, "Political prisoners and imprisoned
politicians are different animals." It is no crime to endorse such and such
political ideas, or to be a militant of such and such political party, provided that
the party's program or activities are not subversive or criminal; no one goes to
jail because of this. But to commit criminal offenses and to violate the rights
and legitimate interests of individuals or society , even under the banner of the
redemption of the poor, are not political but criminal activities which the
authorities must curb and punish in order to protect the society that they rule.


In fact, the democratic spirit has made the governments of many countries
tolerate the legal functioning of Communist parties and maintain diplomatic
relations with openly Communist governments. They disregard the fact that
such generosity sooner or later results in serious riots, gory fighting, and bloody
conflicts that jeopardize social peace. Communism intrinsically means
violence, subversion, and anarchy. It is unable to succeed or to remain in power
through legal means.


I admit, of course, that such prisoners become symbols of resistance and
living exponents of subversion for the Communist cause. Their mystique is
fiery and contagious, and party members consider the most violent, destructive,
and criminal acts as heroic actions and brave sacrifices. That is why the
political prisoners or, better yet, the imprisoned politicians who have been
found guilty under the law, are considered heroes, victims, and martyrs by the
accomplices of subversion.


The end does not justify the means. Even if the goals of Communist
subversion were good, we could not accept or applaud the torturous and
criminal means they use to achieve such goals. Were they reasonable men,
subversives would have to understand that the legitimate authorities need
drastic means in order to curb subversion. For Communists, the triumph of
their cause is not only good, but eminently so; for legitimate authority, the
defense of law and society is not only good, but an inescapable duty.


In all civilized countries, the defense of prisoners in court is not only
legitimate but necessary, provided that the evidence is not altered and the legal
norms granting peace and social welfare are not violated. To Communists, all
legitimate governments are tyrannies and unbearable dictatorships which is
why they justify all means aimed at destroying the safety of the government and
propagating violence and other crimes that they resort to in order to succeed.


To be continued...

The Papal Visit and Revolutionary Activism

THE APOSTOLIC ADMINISTRATOR OF BOGOTA.,
HIS EXCELLENCY MONSIGNOR ANIBAL MUNOZ DUQUE,
WELCOMES THE FOREIGN PILGRIMS.


I could not help noticing that His Eminence Cardinal Luis Concha,
Archbishop of Bogota, was assigned to an inferior rank. This is a curious but
unfortunately commonplace phenomenon in the post-Conciliar Church,
namely , that archbishops, bishops, and even cardinals who resist the
aggiornamenlo or who do not adapt themselves to the new ideology and
practices are eliminated or at least, as was the case in Bogota, are paralyzed
through the appointment of coadjutors or apostolic administrators who assume
command and relegate to second rank the person and position of the prelates
who frown upon the new Church's giddy evolution. The case in Bogota is
widely known.


The newspapers amply informed us about the rebellion of some priests
who longed for most radical changes and who had to confront His Eminence
Luis Cardinal Concha, whose ideas and attitudes were considered too old -
fashioned and conservative. The appointment of Msgr. Munoz Duque as
Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Bogota solved the problem. The
Cardinal kept his title but the administration of the archdiocese was put into the
hands of the Apostolic Administrator. The welcome speech was not delivered
by Cardinal Concha, but by the Apostolic Administrator. Its text reads as
follows:

You are arriving in Bogota on the days that the world Christian
community is being summoned to celebrate the 39th International Eucharistic
Congress. This event draws an immense crowd of Catholics who are intimately
united with Pope Paul VI to celebrate the Eucharist, which is a bond of love, and
to strongly consolidate the faith of all the Church in the triple sanctifying virtue
of the Eucharist, the Memorial of the Redeeming Passion , the sacramental
presence of Christ, and the promise of His final coming. May you receive our
cordial welcome in the Christian embrace of peace, that expression of love
which the Spirit circulates among the brethren, and in the friendly hospitality of
this city of Bogota, a sign of how sincerely we Colombians love you.


This welcome speech undoubtedly has a distinct post-Conciliar taste.
"Crowd," "bond of love ," "Christian embrace of peace," "love which the Spirit
circulates among the brethren," are all commonplace post-Conciliar and
progressivist terms. It also calls to our attention that the Apostolic
Administrator does not mention the Eucharistic Sacrifice. This is integral
humanism , which seems to place man before God.


To be continued...