The following article is the foreword of the Portuguese edition of John Horvat’s book, Return to Order. The author is His Imperial Highness, Crown Prince Bertrand of Orleans-Braganza. The outspoken Prince introduces the book to the Brazilian public with observations that will also prove helpful to other readers.
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I am pleased to present the best-seller Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society—Where We’ve Been, How We Got Here, and Where We Need to Go to the Brazilian public and all those who will read this Portuguese edition.
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I have long missed a book capable of synthesizing the need for a genuine social restoration not based on revolutionary utopias but on historical experience illuminated and grounded by metaphysical and religious aspects. It is not the imagination of a false order that is so rife in our day but returning to an order that once existed and can inspire us.
One of this book’s highlights is its solid grounding in Catholic social doctrine. With exhaustive research, the author shows how the Church has surprising solutions to modern problems. Like other Western nations, Brazil was born under the influence of these values, gradually cast aside, if not fought outright, over time. As a result, today, we see a disintegration of our society and, at the same time, a growing desire for order.
Without a clear reference point, this desire for order could lead people to repeat past mistakes and increase the frustration felt by a sizable portion of public opinion.
On the other hand, the book emphasizes, at least for most Brazilians, that the solution to the current crisis requires something much more profound than political campaign promises or economic programs.
That was evident in the crowds that have filled the streets of Brazilian cities since 2013. Among other desires, they expressed their longing for a country that was true to itself. Their phrase “We want our Brazil back” echoed through our vast territory.
However, these voices also felt insecure because they didn’t know where to seek inspiration. We often know what we don’t want but don’t have a clear idea of what we need and want.
This book responds to that need and sets a clear goal. That is why I am so delighted to recommend it.
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This timely work describes the kind of society that Brazilians long for today. In terms of the Gospel’s prodigal son, it helps us better understand how we can return to our Father’s house.
American author John Horvat presents a panorama valid for the United States, Brazil, and the world. A veteran member of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), he was closely acquainted with Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, with whom he worked on this treatise on Catholic economics and culture.
By introducing the notion of “frenetic intemperance,” he describes the revolutionary ferment undermining and destroying a healthy society and economy.
The author presents the economy not as an end or cause in itself. He argues that the economic situation reflects a much deeper human problem rooted in a society, which is not an aggregation of atoms but a group of human beings able to choose between right and wrong and thus define the future.
He describes organic solutions found in the institutions of the family, the community, and the Church as balanced and oriented toward the common good. The author has discovered many pearls in the hidden treasures of the Church that help us glorify God in our everyday lives and rebuild society according to sound principles.
Many people wonder what the solution is for today’s world. This book, which is now being presented to readers in Brazil, provides that solution. It sets out the perennial principles of Christian civilization that make a return to order possible.
This work presents the solution that everyone is waiting for and is so direly needed. The cry, “I want my Brazil back,” expresses nostalgia but also the desire for a future consistent with the past that marked our country’s birth.
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John Horvat’s book is a worldwide best-seller with 385,000 copies. It has been published in five languages and undoubtedly deserves a major Portuguese edition to be disseminated by all those aiming for the good of Brazil and, above all, of Christian civilization.
Faced with the chaos in which we live, we must turn our eyes to the principles and values that were t the origin of Brazil’s birth.
Ours is not a narrow-minded nationalism that overlooks other people’s positive points but a patriotism that places us within a constellation of nations born under the sign of the Cross of Christ and Christianity, whose restoration is more necessary than ever.
At the extraordinary National Eucharistic Congress of 1942, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, commenting on Brazil’s vocation, said:
Today, as Brazil emerges from adolescence into maturity, and the hands of old Europe hold the scepter of Christian culture that totalitarianism seeks to destroy, it is clear to everyone that the Catholic countries of the Americas are the great granary of the Church and civilization, the fertile ground where the greenery that barbarism is devastating in the old world can flourish with more outstanding brilliance than ever before. America is a constellation of brotherly peoples, and Brazil’s material dimensions beckon the magnitude of its providential role.
Brazil’s providential mission consists of growing within its own borders, developing the splendors of a genuinely Roman Catholic and Apostolic civilization here, and lovingly illuminating the whole world with the torch of this great light of the ‘lumen Christi’ the Church radiates. Our gentle and hospitable nature, the plurality of races living here in fraternal harmony, the providential help of immigrants who so perfectly integrated into the nation’s life, and the Holy Gospel’s dictates will never turn our yearnings for greatness into a pretext for narrow-minded Jacobinism, stupid racism, or criminal imperialism. If Brazil ever becomes great, it will be for the good of the whole world.
This book will help its readers understand what we need to do to bring our Brazil back. It presents real solutions to the many crises we are going through and prevents us from losing our bearings.
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It is a vital message, especially at this time when we face the false alternative between a West corrupted by the Cultural Revolution and anti-Western military aggression falsely presented as defending Christian values.
Confident in the intercession of Our Lady Aparecida, Patroness of Brazil, I invite everyone to read this book, hoping to awaken a desire to return to the Father’s home and Mary Most Holy. The uncertain future reminds us of this solution, which is as urgent as it is necessary: a return to order.