THE IRON EAGLE
DAYS OF STRIFE
CRUZ E ESPADA
“Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
-Clive Staples Lewis
The Council of Salvador was very aptly named for it's city, Salvador was named after Christ the Savior, now the city was the center of the true Catholic Church in the entire world. While the Continent fell to the Apostate Anti-Pope Eugene, the true Pope, Stephen X would summon a grand Council of the Church like not seen in a century, in order to ensure the consolidation of the Church. Stephen was under a lot of pressure which did not do good for a man of his age who already went through so much, but there was a strength in him now like there was never before, he knew that the church was in it's most decisive moment, that determination pushed him beyond the limits of his body in an effort to go beyond, it fell on his shoulders to be the first Pope in the modern age who would not sit in Europe. The location was quite modest, the Archdiocese of Salvador did not have the capacity for the expected members of the Clergy who were to come. But the Government did not spare any effort in ensuring that the Pope would have what he needed, expanding the Church and it's surrounding area being cleared to prepare it to receive the representatives of the Church from all across the world, outside of Europe there was no Archdiocese which recognized Eugene as the Pope, even in Europe, in Ireland, the Church continued faithful to Stephen X, which was considered to have been usurped by the forces of Goebbels and the Linz Pakt, officially condemned by the Papacy.
But while this Council was being prepared, Sister Debora was doing her part in the streets of Salvador. Ever since the Pope's arrival, there was a renewed work to spread the word of God to the people of a city which was once considered filthy by the Catholic Action. Her work was to ensure that the city was consecrated to the Lord, alongside many of her sisters and her superiors. The recent elections brought in, as expected, a candidate of the Catholic Action to the government of Salvador, in the local assembly, the members of the Action grew threefold in three years, spreading across all other categories and corporations which sent representatives to the Assembly, who in turn elected the mayor. The meaning of her mission before was to simply spread the gospel and she did, but sometimes a more direct action had to be made against the influences of devilish icons.
It was hardly noticed before, but the people of Salvador and in many other places of Brazil from the Amazon to the South, prayed to the Saints for intercession at the same time as they prayed to figures of the devil, demons and idols such as Baal and Moloch, their insidious influence through "syncretism" is what allowed paganism to exist for so long. The Church was active now in crushing these false idols under the direction of the Catholic Action. The National Chief of Brazil, Salgado, helped their work with his Greenshirts, but many of them did not know the more "technical" aspects of the Faith which made it so it fell upon the Catholic Action to crack down on the satanic idols of the city which was now hosting the Vicar of God himself. Now she was in one of those missions after one of the civilians turned over the location of a Candomblé site in the city, kept underground like many others that were shut down in the past years.
Sister Debora would be the one leading the way, she was dressed fully in black with a red sash like many of the female members of the Action, she gained this position mainly because of her devotion, even if usually the ranks were led by men, there were many examples even in the bible itself of female leaders like her own namesake in the book of Judges. She read the entire Bible before she was ten, even if she did not understand most of it, she came to learn more in the future times. There was so much in God that was perfect and beautiful, how could people fall to such devilish influences and revel upon them? She could not recall a single time where she did go to Church and did not feel join in the mass, in the communion, in the sense of unity and the reverence to the Lord. She pitied them, they were misguided and under the influence of the Enemy, that is why she hated when hearing the occasional stories of Greenshirts who ended up killing those poor souls, it just meant a soul who would die without a chance to properly repent, that is why she always gave them a second chance, that is why she always looked up more towards the Action than the Integralists, those caught by the Action had a chance of redemption to pay for their crimes against God.
"There, over there!"
She pointed out to one of the brothers by her side as she saw the house nearby, the place looked poor and unkept, but the smell coming from the inside was undeniably from the candles those pagans used. There were six members of the action with her, one woman and five men, she pointed out to the house and the men were the ones to go in first in case there was any resistance, they knocked on the door, when there was no answer after five seconds, they broke down the wooden door with ease. They came inside and she followed, looking around with a disgust as if she could feel the presence of the demons in that place. It was over quickly, there was the sound of crashes, with men and women all attempting to run away only for the other members of the Action to catch them when they expectedly came out of the windows. She saw the center of that place, you could very well draw a pentagram on the floor if you want to make it any more obvious what kind of place this soil was consecrated to, a place of worship for false idols. The statues were quickly broken and destroyed, they would later need to come back and pray for this house, maybe call an exorcist if it was too serious.
"The fourth one escaped, but we got these three."
They brought three people who were standing before Sister Debora, they were blacks as it was in most cases, either black or mixed, but that was no excuse, half of the sisters in Salvador were black, race was not the problem, the past was. She learned long ago from the classes that this syncretism came from African Slaves who were never properly catechised, never properly taught that you can only serve the Lord or the Devil, you cannot serve both by pretending to worship Christ while praying to the statue of some demon from the Congolese forests. She looked at each of them and at first she felt hatred, it was natural, the priest said, it is natural and the Lord teaches us to abhor sin, but she had to separate the sin and the sinner, beyond the exterior of these idol worshippers, was a soul which was worth no less than her own, which had to be brought to the light. "You are the Light of the World", Matthew 5:14, that is what they must always remember.
"Understand, this is not a condemnation, be grateful that you will face justice for this blasphemy here where you can regret and turn your lives, instead of facing justice after death."
It was what she usually said, her voice was soft in a contrast to the men who were holding them in place. Sister Dulce was finally coming in the house with their witness, the one who had turned over the idol worship of this house. It was a young girl, could not be older than 10, her name was Maria Teresa, she was one of the children who came to the lessons of Catechesis every week. That is when it dawned on Debora, this was her family, two men, one older and one younger, and a woman who was apparently the mother, she had never really seen them in church and Maria never really spoke of her family, the reason was very clear now, she had shame, embarrassment.
"You did the right thing, Maria."
The poor child was in tears, Debora would go down on one knee and place a gentle hand on her shoulder while wiping her tears with the other, she was looking at her parents who looked down upon her with that look of betrayal and disappointment which could crush a child. But she would not have that look discourage Maria, she would gently hold her cheek and turn her eyes to look at her and her only.
"One day, they will thank you, there is a crown in Heaven that the Lord himself will place on your head, your good works will be remembered Maria, you are not alone."
She planted a kiss on the girl's forehead and then stood up, nodding for Dulce to take the girl back, she probably would join others in the Church who will be cared for until their parents were saved, kept away to ensure the sinful influence of their elders was not spread to the fragile mind of a child. Debora cared for many girls like Maria, they all were distraught to some level but, in time, they got used to it, there is no better place to be raised than in the House of God and when their parents returned, everything would be better. She could recall many parents who returned after repenting and became some of the most frequent visitors to the Church. One time, when Pope Stephen himself came to celebrate the mass in their neighborhood, all the front seats were reserved for these families of newly converted. It was a beautiful sight, to see a family together worshipping God where before there was division and the corruption of sin, that is always what gave her strength, in knowing she was doing the work of God.
Now the three would be taken away, escorted by the brothers of the Catholic Action to one of the Action's centers away from the city. She knew that sometimes it could be... harsh, to say the least, but the process was never meant to be pretty, it was meant to be functional, people had to have their pride broken before they came to realize they were sinners, the Holy Spirit would then guide them to repentance and conversion. The details were never given to her, she was told it was not her place to know, one of them did say it was about her sensitivity as a woman, but the priest did give a more understanding reason, that breaking someone's pride, especially in the large scale work that the Action had to conduct across the country, was a delicate process better left to the Sacred Inquisition. Perhaps not knowing the details was more of a burden than knowing them, the enormous incognita to her about the fate of people she helped take away was crushing, but no matter what the means were, she could see the results in the Church and rejoice in their work... at least when the sinners repented.
After the Thirty Years War, with the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, the general strength and perception of religion in much of the western world was in a steady decline. While the majority still believed in God, many saw the Catholic Church as a corrupted institution and, furthermore, the growth of political ideologies and Nationalism supplanted religiosity with nationality or ideology as the primary means by which people identified themselves. More recently after the First World War, the identification of people around racial hierarchies, which has been present throughout human history, also saw a surge in the European and African Continents, being seen as a point of pride by millions, especially in conflicts which gained racial aspects such as in the struggles between Neo-Colonial forces and African Separatists.
But religion gained a newly found vigor across the world after the Triumph of Nazism in Europe, once the heart of Christianity which now was under assault, first at a more subtle level in the 1930s, under the guise of war in the 1940s, targeting for sake of control in the 1950s and as part of an ideological struggle in the 1960s which was guided mainly by the efforts of the "World Capital" of Germania against Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Churches over the continent, ending up with a complete corruption of Christian values through the German Reich Church (for Protestants), the rise of Anti-Pope Eugene V and the invasion of the Vatican (for Catholics) and the gruesome policies of Generalplan Ost (for Orthodox Christians). As it has been the case in centuries, the persecution of Christianity, a religion with a strong concept of Martyrdom from it's inception and spent it's founding years under varying levels of persecution by the Roman Empire, only strengthened the devotion in many followers.
There was a sense that Christianity was under assault in the Christian world which generated reactions from the main branches of Christianity. To the East, the restoration of the Russian Empire was seen as a divine judgment by the Orthodox Church which cast down the Atheistic Soviet Union, this was further reinforced by the victory in the Ural War, the first victory of the Russian and Slavic peoples against Nazism since it's inception. In the United States, the Third Great Awakening, grown from a reaction against Nazism and the widely publicized persecution of Churches by the Reich in the mid 1950s would co-exist with the rise in social tensions, with the Civil Rights movement led by the Baptist Convention of Reverend King taking one side, while the American Right would also lead to the rise of President Gerald Smith in 1964 with an openly moralistic platform that was the greatest assault on the Separation of Church and State in American History.
As for Catholicism, the flight of Pope Stephen X to Latin America was only the last straw to be broken, the rise of the Catholic Reaction through the "Catholic Action" movements across Latin America, Africa and Europe started with the rise of the Integralist regime in Brazil in 1952. In the 10-year anniversary of the Regime's rise, the seat of the Catholic Church itself was assaulted and the Pope seen as legitimate by the majority of the world was now at the hands of Salgado and the Brazilian State. In Europe, the rhetoric against Joseph Goebbels against a Satanic agent and the blatant invasion of the Holy See weakened the legitimacy of Pope Eugene, the new man chosen by the Reich to ensure the Catholic Church would remain tamed under the grip of Germania like the rest of the Pakt. It also led to the distancing of many IRA members from the German Reich, with a division in the movement that ended up undermining the German efforts to weaken the Mountbatten regime through a sectarian struggle in Northern Ireland, furthermore it would also weaken the German grip near the Mediterranean as the Spanish and Portuguese regimes had to face the "Ultramontanos" during the following years.
In South and Central America, the arrival of the Pope was seen by many of the most devout Catholics, from the clergy to the masses, as a declaration of support for Integralism even if that was not Stephen's intention. Truthfully, the Pope's presence in the Southern Hemisphere did much to reinvigorate the opposition of the Catholic Church against the policies of secular governments since the 19th century in places such as Mexico and Argentina, while Brazil became the center of a Catholic Reaction which, aligned with Integralist values of anti-cosmopolitanism, sought to combat Liberalism, Progressivism, Secularism, Socialism, Nazism and Syncretism. Stephen at first did support a Catholic effort against Nazism and opposed Racial Discrimination as shown by his Ex Cathedra condemning Nazism following his arrival in Salvador, but he lost control of this reaction once the Integralists began to use it as a means to expand their own influence in the Catholic World by connecting the Latin peoples through the Pope, creating a formidable network of connections through the most powerful supranational organization in the world.
The Integralist movement grew much from the days of it's takeover to the 1960s, by combining in an alliance with the Monarchist Patrianovistas and the Catholic Action of Plinio Oliveira, as well as the politicization of the Armed Forces under General Olympio Mourão Filho, Salgado consolidated his rule over Brazil throughout the 1950s and, after the Guyana Crisis, the Regime established itself as an international force by seizing French Guiana and, with it, a considerable nuclear arsenal of roughly 50 devices which were not sabotaged in time by the French Forces caught up by the rebellion of the enslaved natives. The Integral State, with both the Guyana Crisis and the status as the new seat of the Holy See, was in a prime position to expand it's influence over the region from Argentina to Mexico itself, with the consequences of it leading to catastrophe in the latter and a murder in the former.
The Platine Pact was not as unified as one may believe on the outside, it was a regional alliance of self-interested powers which set aside their differences after over a century of disputes over the Paraguay, Parana and Uruguay rivers which formed the second largest river basin in South America besides the Amazon. Endeavors to build such an alliance began still under Monteiro's regime through bilateral agreements between Brazil and Paraguay, studying the concept of building a hydroelectric dam in the border between the two countries. Eventually it would grow with the Integralist interest in forming a regional block in South America in order to counter the influence of National Socialism and Fascism, both ideologies which many Latin American States looked upon favorably as was the case in places such as Paraguay. Naturally there was also a mutual interest between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay to gain a greater economic independence from the United States, either for ideological reasons as was the case with Salgado's regime, or for economical reasons as was the case of Peron's.
But the dynamic changed in the early 60s with the Guyana crisis, the growth of religious fundamentalism and the arrival of the Pope, now Salgado's vision amplified in an almost global level, to an extent borrowing the old Habsburg idea of a Universal Catholic Empire as a form of combat against Liberalism, Socialism, Progressivism, Fascism, Nazism and Atheism. Overtures were made in Caribbean States which began to breach into the close range of the American interests and even North America itself was not exempt. In Canada, the Province of Quebec under the government of the aging reactionary Maurice Duplessis began to openly adopt Integralist methods and customs, with accusations being made of the local government's growing reactionarism and upsurge in religious unrest infringing the rights of many locals. In the very United States, the threat of Integralist infiltration could not be discounted, even if it was greatly overblown, it would be one of the factors that led many to suspect Catholic politicians running into high offices, which contributed to Kennedy's loss in the primaries against Goldwater. The case would reach a peak of controversy in the United States under the Smith administration as the FBI arrested Father Charles Coughlin, a veteran firebrand preacher who openly began to call for support for the Integralist cause.
In South America, there was the risk of a schism between Peron and Salgado over the growing use of Catholic Fundamentalism by the Integralist regime, because while initially the Brazilians had used a certain Moralist policy, it was not the cornerstone of the Government policy as it was becoming now. Especially worrying was the hostility towards Uruguay, a Secular state for Latin American Standards, which boasted a relatively liberal government, one example being the approval of divorce with no specific cause still in the 1910s and homosexuality being legalized in 1934. Strategically, Uruguay also controlled the mouth of the Platine Basin and also served as a safe heaven for many American and British businesses, even Italian and German delegations were allowed in the country, which to the government in Rio represented a pervasive foreign influence added with secular cosmopolitan ideals. One other factor is that Uruguay was once the Brazilian province of Cisplatina, lost in 1828 due to a British intervention in a war between Brazil and the Argentine United Provinces, with many, especially monarchists, refusing to accept that loss in full. The country has been under constant influence of the Brazilian State during the 19th century, including the interference of the Empire during the Uruguayan Civil war to install the pro-Brazilian Colorado Party in power and the eventual Paraguayan War which consolidated that hold. But with the Integralist rise, the distance between both nations reached a level unacceptable to Salgado.
Peron had no interest in seeing Uruguay fall into the influence of Brazil or, worse, the annexation of the country as a Brazilian province. Despite his own reservations on it's neighbors close relationships with Western countries, Peron was a pragmatic leader, well aware that Buenos Aires, the capital, main port, and most populous city of his country, would be within range of Brazilian artillery if Uruguay was to fall, furthermore it would allow the "Green Giant" to choke the Argetine economy by blockading the Plate river mouth, a move which was done by them at least two times in history (1825-1828, 1851-1852). Furthermore, Peron's own progressive agenda in the domestic front came to clash against the new atitudes of his emboldened northern neighbor, who decided that the Colonel was becoming a liability to future goals.
The perfect excuse would be given when Peron attempted to make a push against the Church in 1962. After years of legal battle, a coalition of feminist, progressive and socialist groups within the Peronist Party would successfully pressure President Peron to approve a "No-Fault Divorce" Law in August that year, leading to an uproar of unrest by conservative and nationalist sectors in the Argentine society. In the previous years, the influence of the so-called nacionalistas had grown, right-wing sectors with a strong connection to the armed forces which emphasized Argentina's Catholic Identity, it was almost inevitable that such movement, which had a strong influence in both politics and the barracks, would drift towards Integralist ideals. The "Tacuarana" movement was one example, mostly made up by the youth which wore armbands using the cross of Malta and spoke openly in a rhetoric similar to Salgado, many claiming it was a sacred duty to fight against the secular government of Argentina.
Peron expected a level of blowback from the Divorce law, but not only was it part of his platform to approve it, but he also wanted to improve the international image of his country as a more progressive society compared to the growing reactionarism of their neighbor, however he badly miscalculated how overwhelming the opposition became. While the labor groups still were firmly by Peron's side, the Argentine right was marching down in protests and, in many cases, there were reports of public officials outright refusing to sign their approval to the divorces, which would be ground for dismissal. In other cases, members of the Tacuarana movement began to harass divorcees, mostly women, in the streets, leading to clashes with the police. But all of that was manageable to some extent until the 26th of September when Pope Stephen X excommunicated Peron from the Catholic Church upon hearing that the President also planned to officially declare Argentina as a Secular State through constitutional ammendment, although the way it was worded to Stephen by his intermediaries was questionable at best.
Peron's excommunication radicalized his opposition, and with the news still still fresh about the Pope's flight, the words of Stephen X held a greater sway over the common man than most Popes did in the modern age, he was seen as a persecuted Martyr leading the church through an almost apocalyptic time against the tyranny of Goebbels. Furthermore, after a decade of growing Integralist influence through Brazilian agents and links with the local nationalists, the Argentine right was emboldened to challenge the decades-long rule of Colonel Peron, a man who had come to power while the Second World War was still ongoing. The military, long a stronghold of reactionary sentiments, collaborated with the Catholic clergy, led mainly by the theoretician Father Julio Meinville, to rally the popular opposition as a cover for a coup. On the 1st of October of 1962, the Casa Rosada was bombed by the Argentine Air Force, the navy blockaded the city and the army would shut down the streets and march to capture the President. Peron would still attempt to escape to Uruguai, but what information the military kept from him was that he would not be safe there either. The Brazilian government, which was well aware of the plans made by the Argentine putschists, would launch "Operação 30-Horas", Operation 30 hours, the invasion of Uruguay.
Aware that the coup in Argentina would divide it's forces for a close window of time, Salgado ordered Marshal Mourão Filho, the Minister of War, to mobilize land, air and naval assets to march into Montevideo. In the days prior, he would also send a message to the neighboring States in regards to intervention: On the 7th of September, during the Independence Day celebrations, a nuclear device was detonated off the coast of Rio de Janeiro to the sight of Brazilian citizens and foreign representatives alike, although Salgado lied by claiming the weapon was of Brazilian manufacturing when it was actually one of the devices captured in the Guyana crisis. It was called "Grito do Ipiranga" (Cry of Ipiranga), in reference to the declaration of Independence when the Brazilian Emperor Pedro I shouted "Independence or Death" in 1822, the 140-year anniversary of Brazilian independence was named by Salgado as the country's true declaration of Independence.
There was little resistance the Uruguayan armed forces could count upon against the overwhelming power of it's neighbor, although a large portion of the army would dissolve into guerrilla action in the coming days, the operation had little in the level of death that other invasions did, in fact, many in Uruguay, mostly part of fringe right-wing sectors, would rally in favor of the intervention as a "Sacred Mission" to purify the country. The Uruguayan government, formed by a National Council rather than a single president, would capitulate to the Brazilian forces to avoid further bloodshed when the Brazilian army entered Montevideo, as a result, the population mostly would watch astonished as tanks rolled on the streets, unaware of the changes to come with the arrival of the Brazilian forces. Furthermore, Peron would be arrested by the Brazilian government and returned for trial to the new Argentine junta as a gesture of "goodwill", much to the relief of Buenos Aires, there were no annexations, however a new government would be installed in Uruguay under the leadership of Juan Maria Bordaberry, a known figure in the Integralist circles who openly spoke about the Divine Right being the basis of leadership.
The international reaction to both events of October 1-2nd of 1962 was one of condemnation, but not much else. In Europe, Goebbels hypocritically spoke out against Brazilian methods when he did the same months prior to the Italian Fascist Republic, in the United States, Hoffa condemned the invasion and applied sanctions of several Brazilian imports, in China the invasion was pointed out as an example of Imperialism, in Britain, Mountbatten claimed that such an alliance was a new "Pakt-in-the-making" and worried about the new Argentine government's designs over the Falklands islands as the new President Juan Carlos Onganía afirmed his nation's claim over the territory in his innaugural speech and declared the nationalization of foreign assets in the country. But there were no concrete attempts to save the Uruguayan Democracy, sending a strong message to nearby States such as Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Equador and Guyana.
Within months, Bordaberry's government cracked down hard against the country's relatively irreligious laws by abolishing the separation of Church and State, criminalizing divorce, adultery and homosexuality, restoring religious education in schools and closing down universities, the protests being cracked down by his newly formed "Catholic Action" militias, many of them being volunteers from the neighboring countries. Both Argentina and Uruguay would see a crackdown on Labor unions against Socialistic elements, although legally there was little challenge against already established rights. A wave of emigration would head out to nations such as the United States, Great Britain, Venezuela, Mexico and Chile. On the very next day after the invasion and after Brazilian troops began to leave the country, Uruguay became the 4th member of the Platine Pact, now consolidated under the single vision of the Integralists, although the Paraguayan administration still held many Fascist aspects of the Moringio regime.
In Argentina, the reaction was not as harsh in a legal sense, limiting itself to abolishing secular laws of the Peronist rule and the famous law 1420 from 1884 which instituted Compulsory Secular Education, instead obligating the religious education and abolishing the autonomy of universities of the country established in 1918. One example of the crackdown on the Universities would be in La Noche de los Bastones Largos (Night of the Long Batoons, a comparison to the Night of the Long Knives) where the Police and members of the Tacuarana movement invaded the Universidad de Buenos Aires and rounded up students, sorting them out based on their clothing, hairstyle, the use of tattoos and known sympathies for left-wing or progressive movements. Not only were several of the faculties of the institution destroyed, from sciences to the library, but at least four students were shot when attempting to stage a protest against the arrests. In many cases, men with long hair were forced to shave their heads, women in Miniskirts were arrested for prostitution, and a large bonfire was organized for the burning of books from known atheist authors or which defended ideas contrary to the new regime. A particularly vicious example of what happened that night was when one student with a tattoo on his hand was tortured by three members of the Tacuarana organization, two who held him in place while a third flayed his skin to remove the tattoo. Most of the teaching staff of the University would also be arrested, and it was hard for many to defend themselves as the Tacuaranas included several members of that same University's student body.
Between 1959 and 1966, the Brazilian government devoted an enormous amount of resources to the construction of a New Capital city, for historical, pragmatic and ideological reasons alike. It was an ancient dream since the days of the Empire to create a new Capital, far from the growing city of Rio de Janeiro, a city which would serve as a springboard to expand the settlement of the Brazilian west. Pragmatically speaking, the city also was a matter of National Security, with Rio being far too exposed to a possible naval assault, especially from Britain and now from the United States. Finally, there was the ideological concern of the Integralists, Salgado considered Rio de Janeiro as a city rotten by cosmopolitan corruption, heavily influenced by French and American culture even in an architectural fashion, the construction of a new city, untainted by that, would serve as the foundation of the Integral State.
Studies were made during the Monteiro Regime to build the city, with some preliminary plans calling it "Brasília" (City of Brazil), the project studied different locations from North to South, but in the end the Generalissimo died with his regime before the construction was Authorized. After years of consolidation and with worried about the costs, the Integralists finally put the plan into action with the announcement that, within the next decade decade, a new capital city would be built for Brazil. Initially, the name "Brasilia" was kept and the foundations of the city laid down, but the arrival of the Pope and the growth of the Catholic Action pivoted the project. What was initially meant to be a city built in the shape of the Greek letter "Sigma", symbol of the Integralist movement and meant to represent the sum of the National strength, changed into a city shaped like a Cross after a national petition with over a million signatures. The name of the city was also changed, from Brasilia to Santa Cruz do Brasil (Holy Cross of Brazil), with the construction of an enormous Basilica ordered in 1962 which ended up consuming 3 more years of resources.
There was no shortage of eager workers, both the Integralist movement and the Catholic Action held rallies in favor of the new city, with donations and labor force flocking from all across the country into the State of Minas Gerais. The location of the city was near a small village nicknamed as "Carneirinho", in the region of the "Mines Triangle", the westernmost point of the State of Minas Gerais, where the Paraná river is born from the junction of the river Grande and the Paranaiba river. The region was also close to where four different States met: São Paulo, the Industrial heart of the country, Minas Gerais, one of the most developed States with a crucial political significance, Mato Grosso, a large State which served as a buffer with the Bolivian and Paraguayan border, and Goias, the centermost state of the country. Santa Cruz do Brasil was also built at the junction of two rivers which formed one of the main rivers of the Platine basin, whose control was historically strategic for the nation.
The Basilica of the Holy Trinity (Basilica da Santíssima Trindade) took far longer to be finished than the rest of the city. While the plans for the church were already done by 1959 and the construction of it already was underway by 1962, the arrival of Pope Stephen meant that the planning and designs had to be changed, the original Cathedral, which was already an enormous endeavor measuring around 15 thousand square meters, was expanded to 25 thousand, not only for the increased capacity, but also as a form of rivalry with the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome which measured 23 thousand square meters. That expansion would make the Basilica be the largest Christian church in the world, but it would take until the end of the next decade before it was fully completed. But the initial project of the church would be finished in time for the innauguration of the city in 1967 and became the new seat of the Holy See represented by Pope Stephen X.
The saga for the Construction of the city was not made just by volunteers, but also by blood. The Catholic Action, operating under the Blasphemy Laws and emboldened by the Integralist government and the Pope alike, created the so-called "Sagrada Inquisição", the Holy Inquisition, an organization which was incorporated as an auxiliary department under the Ministry of Religious Affairs (created in 1956) and it's head Plinio Correa de Oliveira. The Inquisition was responsible for the enforcement of the Blasphemy Laws and the protection of the Religious Identity of the Nation, also creating a special prison system which was supposed to "redeem" criminals and dissents through religious education, hard labor and conversions. Such prisons were notorious for it's harsh treatment of religious and sexual minorities through harsh programs meant to convert members of such groups. The hard labor also included the work of the construction of Santa Cruz do Brasil, where accidents, many leading to fatalities, were buried and hidden by the Inquisition.
The Integralists would launch that on a larger scale, while the majority of the workers of the Catholic Action was responsible for the Cathedral, the city itself was built by a mix of eager volunteers, poor opportunists and criminals put through the Concentration Camp system which was not only continued from the Monteiro Junta, but better organized and expanded. It was a common belief that harsh labor and ideological correction was the key for the rehabilitation of criminals and dissents, the difference between the Integralist Camp system and the Inquisition's "Conversion Centers" was a relative better quality of life on the latter and a less overtly religious theme on the former. But both State and Church worked a similar system in the country which subjected from killers and political dissents, to homosexuals and even those caught by relatively minor offenses such as women who were considered to be dressed "with no modesty".
On the 4th of February of 1967, the city was inaugurated by Plinio Salgado in an enormous ceremony, with a speech to a gathering of 110 thousand workers, who were there willingly or not (the volunteers were placed in front both due to security concerns and for the propagandist images). Together with Salgado was Pope Stephen X, who blessed the city and consecrated it in an official ceremony where Salgado officially signed the "Treaty of Friendship of the Holy See and the Integral State of Brazil", officially granting the land of the Basilica to the Pope as a sovereign territory de Jure, while also assuring that the completion of the Cathedral will continue as a joint work between the Brazilian State and the Holy See. Pope Eugene V condemned the treaty, claiming Stephen as an antipope, which fell on deaf ears outside of Europe. Ironically, this was the first day of the Brazilian Carnaval that year, a forbidden celebration, with over a hundred arrests in Rio de Janeiro alone against an underground Samba school competition.
Depending on canon interpretation or whoever is asked on the street, there were two Catholic Councils in the 1960s, one in Rome and one in Salvador, both called by a Pope when the world was on the edge of precipice. In Rome, Pope Eugene, under the watchful gaze of Joseph Goebbels, attempted to project an illusive image of independence of the Church from their new overlord, which led many supporters of Stephen to nickname Eugene as the False Prophet, a figure of the book of Apocalypse responsible for spreading lies and exulting the antichrist. In Salvador, Pope Stephen, under the watchful gaze of Plinio Salgado and the Integralists, attempted to project an image of strength and renewal inside the Catholic Church, while also reaffirming doctrinary matters and attempting to provide guidance through these trying times.
The presence of different figures in these Councils (1963 in Rome and 1964 in Salvador), showed the allegiance of the differing dioceses to each Pope. With the exemption of South Africa and other colonial holdings by the Pakt, no figures outside of Europe (and even in Europe, the British Isles Cardinals refused to go to Rome), heed the call of Eugene. Meanwhile, only the Irish and British Cardinals went to Salvador out of the entire church in Europe. The Schism was very well defined in a reflection of the geopolitical schism in the world, the Pakt was set apart now even in the rankings of the Catholic Church.
The Council of the Vatican II was marked by the security of the scheme, a matter of collaboration between Farinacci and Goebbels. In the event itself, one marking event was when the Archbishop of Seville used his time to make a bold speech condemning the silence of the Church on the slaughter of innocents perpetrated by the Pakt's regimes, urging Pope Eugene to condemn the hatred of Nazism like Stephen did in his ex cathedra, denouncing the persecutions in Spain under the Falangist regime and, more boldly, claiming that Joseph Goebbels desired to control the Catholic Church and that he "sees no god but Hitler and his gospel of hatred". This bold proclamation in the council was the last the Archbishop made as he would later be stripped of his office by the Pope and excommunicated for supposed crimes against the Holy See and the dignity of the Church through the use of deceit and conspiracy. He would later be shot by a border guard in the port of Anzio when attempting to escape from Europe.
The rest of the Council went relatively smoothly and it ended with the affirmation of Papal Supremacy, condemning the followers of Pope Stephen, a condemnation of the Jewish people for the death of Jesus Christ, and reinforced the need of the Catholic Church to submit to the laws of State according to the book of Romans, which is ironical since it was written by the Jewish St. Paul and was a book not found in the Reich's Church, wrapped by the doctrine "Positive Christianity". The Council gave Goebbels the results he desired and represented, to him, the official submission of the European Catholic Church to his will, with Eugene revoking his excommunication and allowing Catholics to join the NSDAP.
In Salvador, the city faced the problem of housing all representatives in one place, which restricted the presence inside the Cathedral. But eventually Stephen would have his chance of giving his public testimony of the night of the incident before the entire Catholic World, making the opening speech and declaring the need of the Church to strengthen itself spiritually in a time of darkness in the world. The Catholic Action, with it's members wearing black shirts with red capes and using banners showcasing a golden lion or a holy cross would parade on the city during the days of the Council, the Greenshirts joined the parade showing themselves as the security forces of the Integral State, a very clear indication of the unity of State and Church in Brazil that contrasted with the Fascist symbolism of the Vatican Council, although others rather saw the similarities between them. At least nominally, both Popes were independent, but it was also implied that both councils were heavily influenced by the location.
The Council of Salvador ended with a similar proclamation of Papal Supremacy, condemning Pope Eugene V as an antipope alongside his followers being excommunicated from the Catholic Church for declaring an heretic doctrine in Vatican II, furthermore, the Archbishop of Seville was declared as a Martyr. In a matter of doctrine, Anti-semitism was condemned officially, several changes to the methods of eucharist and the use of vernacular languages being allowed alongside Latin, but a proposal to support religious freedom was shot down in the Council, especially when that was made clear by the Catholic Action which conducted a public ceremony burning white veils linked to the Umbanda religion during the night. Pope Stephen resisted to officially endorse the methods of the Catholic Action, privately claiming that it was "unchristian" to force conversions, but under pressure he did officially make a declaration of support, although with a careful language that cautioned for leniency. Another change some wished to include was to allow more freedom for Catholic parents to decide the size of families, but the pro-natalist policies of the Integralist government tipped the scales for such suggestion to be rejected. The American theologians would claim that the Council of Salvador served to legitimize the methods of the Integralist regime, that Stephen was as much of a prisoner of the Fundamentalists as Eugene was of Nazism and Fascism.
The decade of the 1960s was a period of growth in the country besides in geopolitical terms, the construction of the new capital was only a part of the National development plans, some still holdovers from the developmentalist military dictatorship, others were new plans as part of the "Plano de Desenvolvimento Orgânico" (Organic Development Plan) made by the new government, with a heavy emphasis on the Green revolution and development of new agrarian methods. While the Cities themselves were not ignored, the focus of the government was in the expansion of the country into the countryside and the construction of an "organic" settlement of the center and the west of the country.
For that purpose, the Integralists pushed for an aggressive expansion of the infrastructure network to back the growth of the countryside and the movement of people towards small cities, this movement named "Interiorização" was encouraged by the Integralist movement with a romantization of the rural lifestyle, untainted by the cosmopolitanism of major cities. It also served the purposes of the government to push for the Brazilian image of the country as an agricultural giant, pursuing self-reliance from foreign imports while also diversifying the agrarian base away from coffee, as was the case until the 1930s.
The number of municipalities between 1957 and 1967 grew in 60%, with the fiscal policies of the government, encouraging municipalism and the distribution of wealth that was previously concentrated in a few major industrial centers such as São Paulo. It was an attempt to reverse the trend of urbanization and guide it through an ideological goal, which helped foster small communities in the interior over the years. Although logistical necessities meant that the urbanization was never stopped, the initiative did much to contribute for the populational decentralization of the country. Economically speaking, the nation soared into the largest economy of Latin America, surpassing both Mexico (1958) and Argentina (1963), with a GDP of roughly 28 billion dollars in 1965, that growth impulsed both by the agricultural growth and by the commercial agreements made within the Platine pact that lowered several protectionist barriers following the fall of Peron.
Politically, the Municipalist trend, the lack of political parties and the creation of the corporatist system had changed the dynamics of local politics. It was commonplace for mayors to grow into essential dictators of the municipalities by controlling the budget and the distribution of local employment offices in return for political favors to councilmen who needed to pander to their voters through the purchase of votes or by distributing political offices. The creation of the corporativist system which saw the local assemblies, previously freely elected, replaced by councils made up of representatives of different categories which were elected by members of said categories, the leverage many mayors held over councilmen was lost. While it did not prevent a certain level of corruption from dealings between mayors and corporations, it did serve to reduce several corrupt malpractices from local governments over the years.
Did he do enough?
The night was one of solitude inside his chambers, inside this enormous building which was still yet to finish, Josef Frings, now Stephen X, had been feeling the fever growing these last days, the doctors left him to rest after he had his medicine taken. It was a very sudden illness, he was celebrating the Easter mass just weeks prior, but then he felt that weakness, as if all the exhaustion from a lifetime had fallen upon him in days. The doctors were optimistic, but Stephen knew, he just knew, his time had come, there are mysteries that earthly doctors, no matter their capacity and talent, cannot understand through equipment or heal through syrups and pills. He was laying back on the bed while, seated on a chair besides him with a notebook, was his secretary, Ratzinger. He did not escape with him that night, he was not in the Vatican at all, but the next day he woke up to see what happened and, as soon as he learned of what happened, fled from Europe to come serve him as a secretary again. It was good to have someone else he knew, there were too many new faces, too many lies that he only realized too far.
"This should be all for today, your holiness."
Ratzinger closed his notebook as he finished speaking the report, but the truth is that Stephen was tired, too tired to have paid much attention to these menial tasks of maintenance that he followed through for 6 years... 6 years? Why did it feel like it has been longer? Maybe because everything felt longer when you are breathing through your mouth with a heavy chest, staring up to the ceiling. Ratzinger saw that in Stephen and put a hand on his forehead, sensing the fever and then standing back on his feet.
"I will call Doctor Assis."
"No."
Stephen held back Ratzinger by holding him by the sleeve of his robe, looking to his assistant, he gave him a look of finality. He could feel that the fever was making his body numb, his movements heavier, his breathing harder, and no amount of medicine was helping. This was just how things were meant to end, God has a time for everyone and it is no use to try to change that. Ratzinger had a look of resignation, he still looked up to Stephen, the whole church did, to think they may soon have to go without him was hard, especially in a time with so much trouble. They could barely have any relief the day Goebbels died, news came that the Russians invaded Germany and the two nations were just callously throwing the most horrendous weapons ever made at one another, this world was becoming more cruel by the day.
"Pray with me, Joseph."
He did not ask anything for his final words, no last request, no words of defiance, no self-reflection, only a simple request for his friend to pray as he passed. Stephen closed his eyes and he thought of nothing of this world, only of God and the Heavenly gates above, of how he would present himself before his savior, it is to him that he would ask if he did enough. Stephen died in a peaceful manner, in his last moments the only warmth he felt, was the embrace of his Father.
And the next morning, black smoke would rise in the Basilica of the Holy Trinity.
"O Estado Integral vem de Cristo, age por Cristo e segue na direção de Cristo"
("The Integral State comes from Christ, acts for Christ and follows the way of Christ")
-Hélder Câmara
It was no surprise to the world when, on the 16th of April of 1967, a week after the demise of Pope Stephen X and his burial in the new Basilica, that a Brazilian would be chosen as the next Pope. The 59-year old Cardinal of Brazil, a former member of the AIB until it's dissolution and proponent of Integralism, Hélder Pessoa Câmara, was chosen as Pope by the Conclave in which the weight of Latin America was put in full. The Integralist State declared a week of mourning, with the Catholic Action participating in the funeral service of Pope Stephen X, a man who came to be beloved by the Brazilian people. But Hélder was received with open arms by millions who came to see his ascension in Santa Cruz do Brasil, where he took the name of Francisco (Francis), in homage to the Franciscan Order of Priests which he belonged to.
Pope Francis was congratulated by the Brazilian government and not recognized by Eugene and the Roman Church which considered him as yet another Antipope. In Europe, there was the unauthorized mourning of millions of faithful catholics when news came of Stephen's death, which also led to rallies in places such as Valencia and Taranto, violently repressed by the Falangists and Fascists alike. Hardly did Stephen know when he passed, but his death would be only the beginning of a movement in Europe which joined religious and political resistance against Fascism, the Estevanistas (Stephanists), a movement which spread in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Croatia and even France, which would soon create an existential threat to the German Order.
But in a closer location, further North in Mexico, the rise of Pope Francis would lead also to the beginning of a pivotal conflict in North America. The rise of the Integralist Pope, the upsurge of religious fundamentalism, the ambitious agenda of the Integralist government and the Platine Pact, as well as the ideological radicalization across the world since the Great Depression would lead to war as the Secular and Corrupt rule of the PRI was challenged in the Second Cristero War, which would soon escalate as the United States was drawn into the conflict, with disastrous consequences both to Mexico, the US and the World.
