In 1964, the women of Brazil saved their country from Communism

In 1964, Easter was celebrated on March 29. During the Holy Week, miraculous events took place in Brazil, events that had a national and universal reach. The Communist revolution that had been planned for this South American country was stopped two days before its being triggered.

It is the women of Brazil who put a stop to the Communist revolution. It is they who led the counter revolution. And the women of Brazil chose the Queen of Heaven as their leader. She who, by Divine Decree, is to crush the head of Satan, the Liar, the Murderer.

It is Our Lady of Fatima who saved Brazil during the Holy Week of 1964, because Catholics in Brazil lived the Fatima Message and because the women of Brazil gathered in large processions following the statue of the Pilgrim Virgin through their cities’ streets while reciting the Rosary out loud and singing hymns.

In 1964, the Readers Digest Magazine published an article entitled, “The Country that Saved Itself”. One reads: “When the Federation of workers of Latin America — a Communist organization — announced that a huge meeting was to take place in Belo Horizonte, with two organizers from Russia as main speakers, the leaders of the Women’s League for Democracy sent this brief message: ‘When the airplane carrying these two people arrives, there will be hundreds of women lying on the landing runway. You have been warned.’ This threat was enough. The airplane did not land in Belo Horizonte and went on to Brazilia.

“That same year, Brazilian President Joao Goulart attempted to organize the selling-out of his country to Communism. Following the Cuban model, he had succeeded in infiltrating key government posts as well as the schools and universities in most of the country. But for most of the preceding year, Fr. Patrick Peyton, of the Holy Cross Congregation, had preached a Rosary crusade, crisscrossing the country in order to convince the faithful to turn to Our Lady. When the moment of danger came, the people remembered.

“In February, 1964, the same women organized a demonstration which was similarly successful. A congress on land reform was to be held in the city of Belo Horizonte, with Leonel Brizola, the Cuban and Communist ambassador, as main speaker. When Brizola arrived in the hall of the congress, he found it packed full, so full that he could not succeed in making himself heard, his voice being drowned out by the clanking of the Rosary beads of 3,000 women praying for the deliverance of their nation. On leaving, Brizola found the streets equally full, as far as the eye could see, with women praying. He departed the city with one of the most incendiary speeches of his career still in his pocket, undelivered.”

On March 13, 1964, the Communist leaders had brought to Rio de Janeiro 100,000 workers, by bus and train, at the expense of the State —at a cost exceeding $400,000 — to hear Goulart and Brizola decree the amendment of the Constitution, the abolition of Congress, and the confiscation of industries and farms. It was the 13th day of the month, the day chosen by the Virgin of Fatima for Her Apparitions in Portugal in 1917. Since then, the 13th day of every month is honoured by the devotees of Our Lady of Fatima.

So March 13, 1964, was the day chosen by President Goulart to officially announce the beginning of the Communist dictatorship in Brazil. However, March 13, 1964, was also the day chosen by the Virgin Mary to show Her miraculous power of intercession in favour of Her friends of the Rosary.

When the women of Brazil heard on television the terrifying news cast by the demons of Communism, they left their homes and went out on the streets and country roads, by the millions, reciting the Rosary, carrying anti-Communist banners, and distributing tons of leaflets with the help of their children.

On Thursday, March 19, the Feast of St. Joseph, head of the Holy Family, the “March of the Family towards freedom, with the help of God” took place in Sao Paulo. One million women marched solemnly, praying the Rosary and singing religious hymns. This took place during the first week of the Passion, on the Thursday before Palm Sunday.

During Holy Week

Brazil is a huge country, larger than the United States, home to some 77 million inhabitants, some three times the population of Canada and thirteen times that of Quebec (in 1965).

In the days that followed March 19, similar “Marches of the Family towards freedom, with God’s help” took place in almost every city in Brazil which mobilized millions upon millions of women.

Here is the text of the leaflet distributed by the women and their children throughout Brazil:

“This immense and marvelous land which God has given us is in extreme peril. We have allowed men with unlimited ambition, devoid of all Christian faith and scruples, to bring misery to our people, to destroy our economy, to perturb our social peace, to sow hatred and despair. They have infiltrated our nation, our administrations, our army, and even our Church, with servants of a totalitarianism which is foreign to us and which would destroy all that we hold dear...

“Holy Mother of God, protect us from the fate that threatens us, and spare us the sufferings inflicted on the martyred women of Cuba, Poland, Hungary, and the other nations reduced to slavery! ”

March 20th was the Feast Day of Our Lady of Compassion, the Friday before Palm Sunday.

The women of Brazil kept up their “Marches for the families”. March 22nd was Palm Sunday. As Christ did in Jerusalem, the women of Brazil were triumphantly taking possession of their country, while singing: “Hosannah to the Son of David!”

While at the same time, Luiz Carlos Prestes, head of the Brazilian Communist party, strutted around claiming: “We’ve already seized the power. We just need to take over the Government.” As for President Goulart, he publicly blamed the Catholics for opposing his reforms. He made the mistake of publicly making fun of their devotion to the Rosary, saying that it was an ineffective weapon to solve Brazil’s problems.

However, after March 13, the day Goulart had pronounced his devious decrees, General Castelo Branco had written a secret manifesto of reprobation which stated that: “When a president proposes to chase the Congress out and overthrow the Constitution, it is not only the right of the army, but also its duty to intervene to uphold the law.”

Through the channel of some rightist businessmen, this manifesto was secretly handed to high officers of the army who could be trusted. Then, 1,500 officers of the navy made a call to all the citizens of the nation, saying that the time had come for Brazil to defend itself. The army, the navy, the media joined forces with the women who were praying in a gigantic counter-revolution.

On March 23, Cardinal Camera of Rio de Janeiro, in a broadcast to the nation, warned the population against the imminent danger of a Communist take-over.

Three days later, on March 26, Holy Thursday, sections of the military marched against Goulart. Documents seized showed that the Communists had planned to take over the country by force exactly two days later, on March 28. The counter-revolution had preceded the revolution by only 48 hours!

A resurrection

The governors of the states and army generals sided with the counter-revolution, one after the other. Members of Congress deserted President Goulart who fled the country, followed by Brizola and the unions’ Communist leaders.

On Wednesday afternoon, April 1, three days after Easter Sunday, the counter-revolutionaries had won. They celebrated on the radio the failure of the Communists. Hanging from Rio’s windows, sheets and towels hailed the victory, and the streets of Brazil were filled with happy people who were dancing in an atmosphere of jubilation.

It was a true resurrection.

A procession had been planned for April 2, Easter Thursday by the women in Rio de Janeiro. Some overly apeasing individuals wished to dissuade the women from doing their “procession of families” under the pretext that it had become useless after the victory. But the women of Rio rushed to their phones to maintain their plan. They turned this procession into an “apotheosis” of thanksgiving to Our Lord. The entire population of Rio and the surrounding cities took to the streets.

The counter-revolution in Brazil was a miracle. The miracle of a war won without blood being shed, the miracle of a population that organizes resistance by itself, with limited means, without the help of the Financiers, the powers of money, or other nations. Contrary to common belief, the United States did not provide any assistance to Brazil’s counter-revolution. It was the miracle of businessmen and professionals who worked for the common good. The miracle of men of authority, governors, generals, members of Congress, who were willing to sacrifice prestige and wealth to save their country.

Who made the miracle in Brazil? The women, with their Rosaries. Who made the miracle? Our Lady of Fatima who, in 1917, had promised to save the world from Communist tyranny if Catholics prayed the Rosary and made penance.

In July 1964, Fr. Valerio Alberton, a Jesuit priest, traveled to Fatima, Portugal,” to thank the Most Holy Virgin for the most important grace that Brazil obtained from Her, with the victory of the armed forces over Communism that threatened to transform Brazil into another Cuba.“ And Father Alberton goes on:

“We have overcome, thanks to Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima and to Portugal... Thanks to Portugal, because Portugal is Fatima. And thanks to the message of Fatima lived in Brazil, we have freed ourselves in time from the hydra of Moscow.”

My friends, here, I wish us all to apply, sentence by sentence, the words that follow. You will see how our situation, here, today, resembles that of Brazil prior to its counter-revolution.

Father Alberton: “The situation in my country was very serious. Every aspect of human activity was undermined. The key positions were in the hands of notorious Communists, those in favor of Communism. The unions were mostly controlled by them. Continual strikes, many of which were of an openly political nature, provoked disturbances everywhere. The universities themselves were affected. I noticed myself the seriousness of the situation when I travelled from November 1963 to March 1964 to all the capital cities of Brazil, where I was in contact with the university milieux. In the middle of March, I finished my travels with this conclusion: it is a fact that the Church has lost the universities.

“The penetration in the Catholic faculties was very pervasive. Even in our colleges there were Communist cell groups. Catholic associations were not spared. It was really scary. Discouragement was beginning to take over minds. Many found the problem unsolvable. ..There remained only one hope: devotion to the Blessed Virgin.”

“Marian army ready for battle”

“Every week, the Cardinal Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, through the voice of the pastor of a local radio station, put Catholics on their guard, and asked them to pray and make penance, according to the spirit of the Message of Fatima, so that God, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, may have mercy on us.

“And these repeated calls were echoed in the hearts of the Brazilian Catholics, because the Message of Fatima had deeply penetrated their souls. The Message of Fatima has been welcomed with enthusiasm in Brazil; the whole nation has been impregnated with it. The visit of the pilgrim statue of the Virgin of Fatima in Brazil, for 18 months, in 1952 and 1953, constitutes one of the most extraordinary religious events of its history of over 500 years.

“These were 18 months of intense religious and Marian fervour. All the religious and civil authorities, all classes of society were present to pay homage to Our Lady... And this devotion to the Virgin Mary, especially the Rosary, was revived last year and this year by the moving campaign of Father Patrick Payton.

“Faced with this perilous situation, Catholic associations had put all their efforts in the service of the Blessed Virgin. Two hundred thousand men and lads, enrolled in the 2,000 Marian congregations, had formed a true pacifying army in the struggle for freedom.

“The evidence of a signal grace at work was so strong that all were convinced that the unfolding of events did not have a human explanation. The civil and military leaders of the counter-revolution were almost unanimous in attributing this victory to a special grace of the Most Blessed Virgin. Several declared that the Rosary had been the decisive weapon, like for example Branco, Brazil’s present president. The Rosary was recited everywhere, especially in the Marches of the Family with God toward freedom. All the Bishops of Brazil, in their common statement of June 3, confirm this expressly.”

The practical conclusion to be drawn from this true story is obvious: let us pray the Rosary daily, individually, in our families, and in public. Let us organize Rosary marches in the streets of our cities to stop the dictatorship of Communism and High Finance, and then our civil authorities will have the courage to stand up against the financial powers and defend the common good of the citizens! The recitation of the Rosary saved Brazil. It will save us too !