Salazar
November 30, 2015
António de Oliveira Salazar
HENRIQUE N. writes:
I’m from Portugal and I live and work in London. I’ve been following The Thinking Housewife for a while now. I really appreciate it and it’s refreshing to see there are still lucid people in what, from my perspective, seems a thoroughly alienated country (not that we’re faring much better here however).
I wanted to write a few times before but I always felt there wasn’t much I could add to the discussions happening. I’ve decided to do it now.
I did not know Amintore Fanfani and I will try to read some of his works, but I would like to point you to something related that you and your readers might find interesting. As you might know, Portugal was governed for about 40 years (1926 – 1974) by what is normally called a dictatorship. In reality, there was indeed a military dictatorship between 1926 and 1933 during which the armed forces actually held power. In 1933 a new Constitution was proclaimed and the country returned to constitutional rule of law. This new state called itself “Estado Novo” which literally means “New State.” The architect of all this was, as you might know, Prof. António de Oliveira Salazar.
In practical terms, you can say that Prof. Salazar tried to implement the Church’s social doctrine as laid out by the encyclicals of H.H. Pope Leo XIII. He was largely successful even though nowadays he is demonised together with his work and branded as “fascist” even though he most definitely wasn’t one as anyone can see by reading anything he said or wrote.
I think it ties in very well with the post on Mr. Fanfani, for Salazar was also a critic of capitalism and thought it must serve a moral and socially useful purpose. Besides being a first-rate thinker himself, there is an additional interest in that Prof. Salazar was actually able to put this thought into practice during his tenure as prime minister of Portugal.
Most of what he wrote is in Portuguese and it’s hard to find even for us, because nobody wants to publish things like this anymore for reasons you very well know. However, I believe there were some works published in English that you might be able to find in libraries or used book shops over there or online.
Congratulations for your blog and I look forward to keep reading it.
— Comments —
Tim Ehlen writes:
As you probably know, the election of Salazar as president of Portugal in 1993 was part of the rolling series of miracles that occurred after the Bishops consecrated their country to Our Lady on May 13, 1931. Revival of priestly and religious vocations, the election of Salazar, the canonization of marriages, insulation from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and World War II.
You can read more about these events here.
Portugal was squarely in the hands of Masons, and wresting this Catholic country away from them, when the whole world was in their clutches, was indeed a miracle.
