End of Catholic Hispanism
Diego Martín Velázquez Caballero
Dr. Elio Masferrer Kan has established that Mario Bergoglio is renewing the Catholic Church and, as far as possible, contributes significantly to achieving the values of the Second Vatican Council as well as a hierarchical diversification corresponding to social progressivism. Bergoglio's strategy is a response to the exacerbated nationalism that can fracture the hegemony of Catholicism in the world. But it is also a necessary action in the face of the abuses of the ecclesial bureaucracy and spiritual imperialisms like the Spanish that hurt, and continue to hurt so much, millions of people. The consequences of the adverse measure against Opus Dei are so varied that a message of an exhortation to the Spanish colonies for integration with their communities, for the construction of a universal society, is even transparent. Bergoglio's recent visit to Canada has symbolic elements of his religious message to Opus Dei.
Opus Dei is forced to contemplate its gap in the face of social reality, above all, to understand how anti-Catholic the combination of religious traditionalism with the Spanish counter-reformist casticism is. The organization is encouraged to change due to its excessive traditionalism, economic attachment and classism. The message of the Catholic religious authority is addressed, above all, to the intransigent Spanish Catholic nationalism twinned with the pro-Nazi regime of Francisco Franco. Catholic Nazifascism is increasing all the time, even now the United States is proposed as the starting point of the IV Reich for the future Holy Roman Empire.
Catholic Hispanism has been fundamental for the socioeconomic structuring of Ibero-America, but its virtues are overshadowed by a series of elements that block modernization: classism, traditionalism, colonialism, racism and dispossession. Geopolitically, the degradation of Opus Dei implies that in the Ibero-American world there are possibilities to bring the religious institutions of Catholicism closer to the people. Bergoglio has coordinated a renewal of the baroque vision of Catholic colonialism: the mentality of the excellent and oligarchic minorities. The deposition of Opus Dei promotes various Latin American theologies: Liberation, Indigenous, Feminist, Migrant, Labor, Homosexual. Plural, as Ibero-America has always been.
The intransigent integral Catholicism has been lost during most of the 20th century, the imperialist and Nazi-philosophical vision that was imposed on the Spanish Republic and contributed to the conservatism of the totalitarian madness, is forced to denazify itself to get involved with society, "ALL" the society, from a human and less institutional perspective. The papacy of Francisco, Mario Bergoglio, has made correspondence in the Catholic community a priority. Religious authorities must be more neutral, democratic, fair, inclusive. Social work is undoubtedly complicated and arduous. It is probably the last chance to maintain the universality of Catholicism.
If organizations like Opus Dei do not understand the importance of the link with the masses and, above all, with unprotected groups, the demands for sovereignty will end up building National Churches that are capable of doing something for their faithful believers, especially for the groups of the precarious Camels and needles, as León Felipe pointed out, are more Catholic than the Theology of Prosperity. Catholicism is universal, not just Spanish, not just traditionalist. The successful advance of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in Latin America is proof that Opus Dei and its extensions do not rescue anything, well, only the smell of gold and incense.
There cannot be a universal Catholicism with visions as exclusive and racist as those of Opus Dei. Since the arrival of Pope Francis, his role has been attacked and questioned by Catholic traditionalism and he is identified as an enemy of the Church. The option for these religious groups has been schism. The formation of Guerrillas Blancas is not Catholic now, nor crusaders, nor crusaders, nor messianisms.
In Mexico, Opus Dei is distinguished by its attachment to the business economic elites and the Spanish Colony. One of its most representative characters is Miguel Alemán Velasco, as well as a host of politicians, businessmen, intellectuals and conservative groups - members of various far-right facades - whose common denominator is Iberian casticism and oligarchic conservative modernity.
I hope that the measure imposed by Pope Francis on Opus Dei and Spanish Catholic nationalism is understood. Despite the optimism that it implies, the invisible power of uncompromising integralism has been the enormous obstacle to the renewal of Catholicism since the Second Vatican Council. The resignation of Benedict XVI, which shook the Catholic Church to generate changes in the attitude of Catholic nationalists such as Opus Dei and various Secret Societies, was useless. The Catholic Church is on the verge of extinction due to aspects such as the philo-Nazism of intransigent integral Catholicism, not due to Bergoglio or due to different groups that are awaiting and guiding a natural and contemplative spirituality; but they do not have white skin nor do they have many economic resources.
In Latin America these measures contrary to Opus Dei, and implicitly towards the Secret and Reserved Societies of the Far Right, would imply a change of the oligarchies in the control of the socioeconomic structure that has generated so much poverty and underdevelopment. In the first place, the Catholic schools -public and private- where the social doctrine of the church has been a resounding failure, one only has to look at its results, the hegemony of Catholicism in education is responsible for aporophobia, classism, racism and poverty that distinguishes our countries. Second, the lay Catholic leadership that traps political systems in authoritarianism, chiefdom, opacity, and violence. Alois Hudal or Jesus Christ? For the sociology of religions and psychology, the Lucifer effect of alienation caused by blind obedience, which offers so much evidence on traditionalist Catholic pedagogy, remains.
The political turn in Chile and the degradation of Opus Dei are proof of the defeat experienced by intransigent integral Catholicism, but also of the necessary renewal and reunion towards the Second Vatican Council. Latin America needs to get out of the Middle Ages, millions of human beings must be assisted by Catholic corporations to resist the world crisis, the indolence of the powerful can no longer hide behind Catholic membership. The true political transition is just beginning in Chile. The change inflicted on Opus Dei can have invaluable changes in Peru, Argentina, Mexico and all of Latin America where history is common.
Pope Francis, like the renewed Jesuitism of the sixties of the last century, speaks to the hearts of Catholics with his proposals and actions, his measures are endorsed by religious authority but depend on the people, on the popular flock, on the true church. The international crisis of the Catholic Church is also significant and the degradation of Opus Dei implies the withdrawal of Spanish Catholic nationalism so that the new Catholicisms begin to renew the representation of a universal church.