Posted on 10/25/2009 5:42:02 AM PDT by GonzoII
From acclaimed author to staunch apologist for the Church and the pope, including in "L'Osservatore Romano." His is one of the many stories of conversion from unbelief to the Christian faith, in Europe. Against progressive "tyranny"
by Sandro Magister
ROME, October 12, 2009 – For a few days now, Italian bookstores have been selling a collection of interviews with converts to the Catholic faith, some of whom are very prominent: from Jean-Claude Guillebaud of France to Janne Haaland Matlary of Norway, former deputy foreign minister of her country and an author of books that have been translated into various languages, one of which has a preface written by then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
The collection of interviews, published by Lindau, was written by Lorenzo Fazzini and is entitled: "Nuovi cristiani d'Europa. Dieci storie di conversione tra fede e ragione [New Christians of Europe. Ten stories of conversion, between faith and reason]".
But "L'Osservatore Romano," the newspaper of the Holy See, also has a famous convert among its main contributors.
He is the Spanish writer Juan Manuel de Prada, shown above photographed with the promotional cover of the 2003 novel that definitively sealed his success: "La vida invisible."
In his latest book, de Prada, 39, has collected the combative articles that he has written in defense of Catholicism, not only for the Spanish newspapers "ABC" and "XL Semanal," but also for "L'Osservatore Romano," where he has been a contributor since 2007. In just five months, five editions of the book have been issued in Spain. For one month, de Prada has also been one of the main voices of "Cope," the most important Spanish Catholic radio broadcaster.
Last October 2, "L'Osservatore Romano" translated and reprinted the preface to his book. In it, de Prada recalls how and when his "life changed direction."
It was the spring of 2005, and John Paul II had just died. De Prada found himself in Rome, and he "suddenly" wanted to adhere definitively to that "ancient liberty" which is the religious and cultural treasure of the Catholic Church: a liberty that is "the antidote to all the tyrannies of the world."
The book, in fact, is entitled: "La nueva tiranía. El sentido común frente al Mátrix progre."
The "progressive Matrix" is de Prada's name for the grand deception that he sees at work in the dominant culture in Europe: "The dictatorships of the past stifled personal freedom. The modern ones induce man to worship himself, and thus deny his own nature."
And again, he writes:
"The battle that is joined today tends to restore to men their authentic nature. If it succeeds – if the Matrix is dismantled – men will discover that they do not need to build towers in order to reach heaven, for the simple reason that heaven is already within them, even if the new tyranny seeks to strip it from them."
The following is a translation of de Prada's preface to "La nueva tiranía." The original text is included on the Spanish edition of this page of www.chiesa.
De Prada dedicated his book to his friend Giovanni Maria Vian, director of "the pope's newspaper."
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The progressive matrix of the new tyranny
by Juan Manuel de Prada
"How can one talk about a 'new tyranny' when never before have men enjoyed so much freedom and so many rights?" It's a question the reader unfamiliar with the subject might well ask. The classical tyrannies, in effect, were characterized by the fact that they stifled freedom and denied rights. Men were aware of this usurpation because, deprived of something that belonged to them by nature, they felt diminished.
The new tyranny of which we are speaking, instead, exalts man to the point of adoration, giving him the opportunity to turn his interests and desires into freedoms and rights, which however are no longer inherent in him by nature, but become the "gracious concessions" of a power that legally ratifies them. And so, turned into a child who contemplates his own whims as these are maximized and satisfied, the man of our time is more than ever the hostage of the assertions of power that guarantee him the enjoyment of all-encompassing liberty and constantly expanding rights. In the classical tyrannies, the subject at least still had the consolation of knowing that he was oppressed by a power that was violating his nature; but those who are subjected to this new tyranny have no consolation other than the protection of the same power that has lifted them up to the altar of adoration. And so without even realizing it man has become a tool in the hands of those who tend to him with painstaking care, as ants tend to aphids before feeding on them.
In exchange for these "gracious concessions," man accepts a hegemonic view of the world that is imposed on him and turns him into an object of social engineering. Let's call this hegemonic view the "progressive Matrix": a mirage, a grand illusion or trompe-l'oeil that is accepted with a gregarious spirit. Those who dare to question the trompe-l'oeil are immediately the target of anathemas, they are considered reprobates or blasphemers, enemies of the worship of man. The progressive Matrix used by the left has also been assimilated by the right, which has declined to join the battle where the confrontation with the adversary would be dynamic and exciting: on the level of principles. In its capitulation, the right limits itself to introducing insignificant variations on the working of the grand machine, but does not dare to use its gears. It's like plowing without oxen.
The progressive Matrix has thus become a sort of Messianic faith; it has instituted a new order, it has imposed unassailable cultural principles, it has established a new anthropology that, while promising ultimate liberation to man, holds nothing for him but future suicide. And standing against this new order is only the religious order, which restores to man his true nature and offers him a correct view of the world that undermines the foundations of the trompe-l'oeil on which the new tyranny is based, dispelling its falsehoods. A vision that power makes a great effort in combating, since the religious order is the only bulwark to be destroyed before its triumph is complete.
Rampant secularism accuses the Church of meddling in politics, citing for support the Gospel passage that is typically flourished by those who do not read the Gospel: "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." But what is it that belongs to Caesar? Temporal things, earthly realities; but, naturally, not the principles of the moral order that are born from human nature itself, not the ethical foundations of the temporal order. The new tyranny, which is so intent on expanding the "liberties" of its subjects, denies the Church the liberty of judging the morality of temporal actions, since it knows that this judgment would include a radical subversion of the trompe-l'oeil on which its very existence is based. Power longs for a pharisaic, corrupt Church that would decline to restore to humanity its true nature and would accept that "mystery of iniquity" which is the adoration of man; it hopes for a Church brought to its knees before Caesar, transformed into the "whore that fornicates with the kings of the earth" spoken of in Revelation.
Today in the West this great clash is being engaged, which the new tyranny disguises very effectively as an "ideological battle." But if this were truly an "ideological battle," power would not consider this a subversion; because ideology is precisely the fertile ground that favors its supremacy, in that it establishes a "demo-tussle," a "democratic" fight of all against all, capable of turning men into petulant children fighting for their "freedom" and "rights," just as the builders of Babel fought, in the midst of the confusion, to raise a tower that would reach heaven.
The battle that is joined today is not ideological, but anthropological, because it tends to restore to men their authentic nature, permitting them to emerge from the Babelic confusion fomented by ideology, until they reach the road leading to the original principles. If it succeeds – if the Matrix is dismantled – men will discover that they do not need to build towers in order to reach heaven, for the simple reason that heaven is already within them, even if the new tyranny seeks to strip it from them.
The articles collected in this volume are dispatches from this battle, issued from the platforms that the newspaper "ABC" and the magazine "XL Semanal" have given me for more than 13 years, and that "L'Osservatore Romano," "Capital," and "Padres y Colegios" have recently inaugurated. The curious reader will note that these "battle dispatches" combine diatribe and introspection, invective and elegy, reflection of a political nature and artistic digression; he will even find a selection of observations made during a spring in Rome that changed the direction of my life, because it was then – in the days following the death of John Paul II – that I definitively adhered to the "ancient liberty," the antidote to all the tyrannies of the world. In an age of uncertainty that leaves man adrift in a sea of troubles, Rome stood before me, suddenly, like a rock of salvation: I am not referring to religious salvation alone, but also cultural, because I consider the faith of Rome a bulwark that clarifies the terms of our spiritual genealogy and shelters us from the squalls into which the new tyranny would like to toss us. Rejecting this boundless possession means signing an act of social death; claiming it as one's own does not constitute an act of submission, but of proud and joyful freedom.
The eternal revolution of Christianity consists in revealing to us the meaning of life, restoring to us our nature; from this discovery is born a joy with no expiration date. When this joy is combined with a minimum of artistic sensibility, life becomes a feast for the intelligence. Chesterton wrote that joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian. I, who am a somewhat immodest Christian, have sought in these articles to make public, or at least provide a glimpse of, this gigantic secret that pervades and transcends me.
Madrid, March 2009
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The books:
Juan Manuel de Prada, "La nueva tiranía. El sentido común frente al Mátrix progre", Libros Libres, Madrid, 2009.
Lorenzo Fazzini, "Nuovi cristiani d'Europa. Dieci storie di conversione tra fede e ragione", Lindau, Torino, 2009.
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The newspaper of the Holy See to which Juan Manuel de Prada contributes:
> L'Osservatore Romano"
In this article in "L'Osservatore Romano" on June 26, 2008, he replied to the controversy over the vestments worn by Benedict XVI, concluding: "The Pope does not put on Prada, but Christ"
> Le vesti liturgiche secondo Ratzinger
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Janne Haaland Matlary, a convert interviewed in the book by Lorenzo Fazzini, was appointed last October 1 to be a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. As part of the appointment, the Vatican released the following profile of her:
"A professor of international politics in the department of political science at the University of Oslo and at Norway's national defense college, she was state secretary (deputy foreign minister) in Norway's department of foreign affairs from 1997 to 2000. She is an expert member of the commission of the Norwegian parliament charged with proposing changes to the Norwegian constitution for its two hundredth anniversary in 2014. She was also a member of Norway's national defense commission, and is and on the board of trustees of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights. She was also a Norwegian member of the high-level task force for Belarus. Her main areas of research concern European foreign and defense policy, and international security policy.
"She is a member of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and a consultant for the Pontifical Council for the Family. She also took part, as delegation head or member, in delegations of the Holy See to various international conferences. In 2007, she received the Saint Benedict Prize from the Benedictine community of Subiaco, awarded for her efforts on behalf of European culture and politics. Professor Haaland Matlary is married, has four children, and is a Dame of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta."
Some time ago, www.chiesa reproduced an analysis she made of global conflicts over abortion, euthanasia, and homosexuality:
> Papa resto del mondo. Analisi d'una grande partita (17.4.2001)
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English translation by Matthew Sherry, Ballwin, Missouri, U.S.A.
Ping.
Save for later reading. THanks for posting.
He’s a very good writer and also occasionally is on talk radio in Spain. The Spanish bishops conference has a radio station that used to be very good, but a few months ago they decided that it was “too political” and they were going to go for a softer line in hopes of currying favor with Zapatero, who hates the Church, so they dumped some of their more outspoken and interesting program people in favor of some very bland ones.
However, the interesting people (not all of whom are Catholic) moved to a new internet radio station, www.esRadio.com, where you can hear them. I heard an interview w Juan Manuel de Prada there not long ago.
You’re welcome.
Spain needs another Francisco Franco to save them (and the Catholic Church) from the Communists.
What de Prada says about the "progressive matrix" reminds me, oddly, of some of what Herbert Marcuse said about "repressive tolerance": the way an allegedly "free" society can nevertheless foster "the systematic moronization of children and adults alike by publicity and propaganda" (Marcuse's words)
This involves the trivialization of liberty to encompass only the freedom to buy junk, to emulate celebrities, and to schtup whomever you like, while in fact being reduced to a state of degrading dependency.
I'll have to read de Prada carefully. And go back and read Marcuse.
Thanks for pinging me to this.
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You’re welcome.
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