American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property
Encyclopedia
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Plinio Correa de Oliveira was a Brazilian intellectual, politician and Catholic activist....
.
Organization
The American TFP is staffed by approximately 75 full-time members and employees. It claims, with its affiliated America Needs FatimaAmerica Needs Fatima
America Needs Fatima is a campaign of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property . Its stated goal is to: "win the heart and soul of America for Mary by spreading Our Lady's Fátima message and promoting devotion to Her Immaculate Heart."-History:The effort was begun in...
campaign, to have more than 120,000 members nationwide. The organization's national headquarters are in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania
Spring Grove, Pennsylvania
Spring Grove is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,167 at the 2010 census.-History:The site of Spring Grove was laid out in 1747 on the banks of Codorus Creek, midway between York and Hanover, by a surveyor for the Penns. Its growth since that time falls...
, with regional offices in Chicago, McLean, Virginia, Lafayette, Louisiana, and Rossville, Kansas.
The organization solicits funds as a non-profit charity, not as a diocesan organization."
Ideology
The American TFP's worldview is based on Corrêa de Oliveira's 1959 study, Revolution and Counter-Revolution. According to the aims laid out in this book, TFP acts to oppose what Oliveira believed was an anti-Christian process that had undermined Christian civilization since the 14th century, the "Revolution" of the study's title. According to Oliveira, this "Revolution" has three phases which progressively undermine the Church and social order:- The Protestant "Pseudo-Reformation" and its rejection of religious authority and inequality, in particular the Pope.
- The "Enlightenment" and the French Revolution and its rejection of temporal authority, in particular the King and nobility.
- The Communist Revolution and its rejection of economic inequality; the final phases seek to eradicate the Church and Christian civilization while applying more radical egalitarianism and implementing neo-paganism.
The American TFP promotes what it sees as the values of Christianity, and opposes liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
and egalitarian
Egalitarianism
Egalitarianism is a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort among moral agents, whether persons or animals. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that equality contains the idea of equity of quality...
ideas, policies, and trends in both society as a whole and in the Catholic Church. In addition to supporting all official Catholic teaching, the group also argues for the need for authentic elites in society that raise, above all, the moral tone of general society, as witnessed by de Oliveira's Nobility & Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII. In this book, de Oliveira seeks to balance the notion of "preferential option for the poor" idea in some modern liberal Catholic social thinking, with support for the natural elite that exists in all societies, according to the teaching of Pius XII, that they may become the obligated class working for the good of society (Noblesse Oblige).
Ardently anti-Communist, in line with the Church's social doctrine, the group's Catholic identity caused it to voice its opposition to the policy of Vatican rapprochement with Communism.
Activities
The American TFP actively promotes its views through newspaper advertisements, direct mail, leafleting, public meetings, and 'caravans', groups of volunteers that spread TFP's message to the public at large. Its campaigns cover a wide range of issues, including the sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and 9/11, just war
Just War
Just war theory is a doctrine of military ethics of Roman philosophical and Catholic origin, studied by moral theologians, ethicists and international policy makers, which holds that a conflict ought to meet philosophical, religious or political criteria.-Origins:The concept of justification for...
, abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
, euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
, embryonic stem cell research, homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
and same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
. and homosexuals in the military
Sexual orientation and military service
The military forces of the world have differing approaches to the enlistment of homosexual and bisexual individuals. The armed forces of most developed countries have now removed policies excluding non-heterosexual individuals...
. The group also protests against films and plays that it views as blasphemous
Blasphemy
Blasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...
, including Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's 1985 film Hail Mary, Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Last Temptation of Christ is a novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1953. It was first published in English in 1960. It follows the life of Jesus Christ from his perspective...
, McNally
Terrence McNally
Terrence McNally is an American playwright who has received four Tony Awards, an Emmy, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Hull-Warriner Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been a member of the Council of the...
's 1998 play Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi (play)
Corpus Christi is a passion play by Terrence McNally dramatizing the story of Jesus and the Apostles. Written in 1997 and first staged in New York in 1998, it depicts Jesus and the Apostles as gay men living in modern-day Texas. It utilizes modern devices like television with anachronisms like...
, the 1999 movie Dogma
Dogma (film)
Dogma is a 1999 American adventure fantasy comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, who also stars in the film along with an ensemble cast that includes Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Alan Rickman, Bud Cort, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock, Jason Lee, George Carlin, Janeane Garofalo,...
, and Dan Brown
Dan Brown
Dan Brown is an American author of thriller fiction, best known for the 2003 bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code. Brown's novels, which are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour time period, feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes, and conspiracy theories...
's The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to...
. In October 1999, TFP local coordinators carried out 300 protests at movie theaters against Dogma, and have mobilized 17,000 volunteers to hand out over 5 million protest fliers. In 2006 it organized over 2000 protests across the United States against The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to...
.
The group has also been involved in other public and political actions, such as protesting the 2009 invitation to President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
to deliver the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
. The president of TFP, Raymond E. Drake, wrote a letter to the president of Notre Dame, Fr. John Jenkins, concerning this issue, expressing "great perplexity and grief...that a priest of Holy Mother Church and president of one of America’s most outstanding and emblematic Catholic universities would invite a manifestly pro-abortion president to give the commencement address and receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
TFP Student Action is the university campus outreach of the TFP. Its activities include distributing fliers and other literature on the streets of universities, sponsoring speakers on campuses, hosting student conferences, and organizing protests and petitions, especially against the provision of information about abortion and the acceptance of LGBT students at Catholic universities. Its most recent campaign is against the 96 Catholic colleges and universities that allow LGBT student groups. In April 2009, volunteers of TFP Student Action traveled to the major cities of New Hampshire and Maine to distribute literature against same-sex marriage.
The American TFP provides the staff to run Saint Louis de Montfort Academy, a boys' boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
in Herndon, Pennsylvania
Herndon, Pennsylvania
Herndon, formerly Trevorton Junction, is a borough in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Herndon was first founded by Robert A. Parrish in 1840. The town was later named for Naval commander William Lewis Herndon, who died in 1857 while trying to rescue passengers from his sinking...
, that provides students with a traditional Catholic education. It also operates Call to Chivalry summer camps for Catholic youth.
External links
- American TFP Official Site
- Revolution and Counter-Revolution (English; online links to both HTML and PDF formats)
- America Needs Fatima
- TFP Student Action
- St. Louis de Montfort Academy
- Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Site (Portuguese, with pages in English)
- Associação dos Fundadores (Portuguese)
- Revolução e Contra-Revolução ONLINE (Portuguese original expanded)