Tradition, Family, Property (TFP; ) is an international movement of political and civic organizations of traditionalist Catholic inspiration.American TFP Frequently Asked Questions #9

The first TFP was founded by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in Brazil in 1960, inspired by his 1959 book Revolution and Counter-Revolution, which became the TFPs' foundational text, later supplemented by his 1993 Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII. He remained president of the Brazilian TFP's national council until his death in 1995.American TFP, 7 April 2008, The Founder

After his death, there was a legal battle upon the title and ownership of the Brazilian TFP, which was ultimately won by João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, in 2004, while he had created previously the Heralds of the Gospel (2001).

Those who opposed this action have remained active in the Association of the Founders of TFP and created the Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Institute (), which claims the legacy of the original TFP. They have taken the legal dispute to the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court. In other countries across the world several organizations have continued to use the name and acronym of TFP, or have adopted other names.

Religion, ideology and structure The movement has been described as a "Catholic right-wing entity". Its worldview has been characterized as an "extreme moralism, against divorce, against Communism, and against change." The TFP movement shares some similarities with twentieth-century fascism, particularly Mussolini's corporate state, but it is more accurately seen as a return to the ideals of eighteenth-century Europe, before the French Revolution. During that period, the Catholic Church endorsed the concept of aristocratic privilege as a divine right. Many Latin American members of the TFP come from wealthy, property-owning backgrounds and have historically provided intellectual and financial support of military coups in the region that were backed by the CIA.

Raúl Matta, in L'Ordinaire Latino-Américaine, pointed out that the group's presentation of Catholic tradition is selective, drawing on speeches and encyclicals from the most conservative popes, including the 1864 Syllabus of Errors. The Italian philosopher Rocco Buttiglione noted that members of the TFP movement were among the signatories of the "Filial Correction" of Pope Francis in 2017. In 2019 Francis named retired Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida as pontifical commissioner of the Heralds of the Gospel and its religious branches for consecrated men and women.

Löwy's study of the interaction of religion and politics in Latin America used the international TFP to exemplify the most conservative of four tendencies within Latin American Catholicism: the one which "defend[s] ultra-reactionary and sometimes semi-fascist ideas." A recent study pointed out that "TFP draws on a rigid interpretation of Christianity to offer the faithful an all-encompassing ideological justification for what are, in essence, very conservative politics." It has been noted that similar religious movements "are benign compared to Tradition, Family and Property (TFP)" which is also "opposed by the Catholic leadership because of its beliefs and recruiting procedures."

Former members and relatives testify that the organization recruits fourteen to sixteen year old boys and subjects them to a brainwashing process, including self-mortification, that is aimed at separating the youth from his family by replacing reverence for his parents with veneration of Plinio and his mother. Some analysts see it as a fringe group within the Latin American Catholic Church, facing denouncements in Venezuela, Brazil, and Chile.

Institutionally, TFPs have been described as having a "chameleon-like identity". When dealing with the Church, they describe themselves as a civic association of the laity, and therefore independent of ecclesiastical control; when dealing with civil society, they stress that they are a voluntary association inspired by religious ideals, and therefore not subject to certain civil regulations such as labor laws.

The TFP participates in medieval rituals and traditions. Members wear scarlet capes and black berets, and they carry medieval banners featuring a lion rampant. Oliveira noted that "the lion elevates the soul to a higher plane; it speaks of battle, evokes a sense of nobility and beauty in the struggle, and conveys a message of valor to all who contemplate it." Young recruits engage in athletic training that includes the use of spears and crossbows, as well as practicing judo and karate. Additionally, members wear cilices, an instrument of self-flagellation.

International expansion and cooperation

TFP is both a national organization and a transnational movement which shares fundamental beliefs, goals, publications, and even funding.2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2015. Approximately $1,400,000 was transferred to the Associação dos Fundadores de TFP between 2005 and 2013. Shortly after its foundation in Brazil in 1960, the TFP began a program of international expansion, beginning with a "Latin American Congress of Catholicism" in Serra Negra, Brazil, attended by about 350 Brazilians and about 20 representatives from other countries in Hispanic America. TFP sees this meeting as the beginning of its expansion, with the foundation of TFP offices, national TFPs, and affiliated organizations in 29 countries throughout the world, including Argentina (1967), Chile (1967), Uruguay (1967), Paraguay (1967), Peru (1970), Spain (1971), Bolivia (1973), Colombia (1971), Ecuador (1973), Portugal (1974), the United States (1974), Venezuela (1971), Canada (1975), Italy (1976), France (1977), United Kingdom (1980), Germany (1982), South Africa (1983), Australia (1988), India (1992), Poland (1995), Austria (1999), Ireland (2004), Belgium, Costa Rica, Lithuania, the Philippines, and New Zealand. This expansion produced what is claimed to be "the world's largest anticommunist and antisocialist network of Catholic inspiration."

Although these TFPs described themselves as "autonomous anticommunist organizations inspired by the traditional teachings of the Popes", they cooperated effectively to advance their social and political agenda. A striking example occurred in 1981 when thirteen TFPs (and related organizations) published a six-page critique by Oliveira of François Mitterrand's Socialist government program to implement what was called "self-managing socialism". They were refused space for the essay by six French daily papers but they did publish it in 44 other major newspapers worldwide. The cost of placing each six-page advertisement in The Washington Post or the Toronto-based The Globe and Mail was about $100,000.

Argentina The Sociedad Argentina de Defensa de la Tradición, Familia y Propiedad was established in 1967, drawing on a group of conservative Catholics who had previously founded the magazine Cruzada, which opposed liberal Catholicism and socialism. In the late 1960s, the TFP gained the apparent support of the Argentine military regime when they called for a purge of progressive clergy from the Catholic Church. The publications of the Argentinian TFP have been described as embodying a discourse of violence legitimating the authorities' suppression of civil rights. In 1973, the Buenos Aires Provincial Police investigated military training activities conducted by the TFP. Around 1976 or 1977 a certain Father Vicente was forced to flee to Uruguay with the assistance of the Jesuit Provincial, Jorge Bergoglio (later Pope Francis), after having been threatened by the TFP for preaching against the murder of three Pallottine priests and two seminarians.

Brazil The Sociedade Brasileira de Defesa da Tradição, Família e Propriedade was founded in 1960 and flourished during conservative opposition to the land reform proposed in Brazil by the government of João Goulart. Goulart's land reform program was criticized by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, the economist Luis Mendonça de Freitas, and reactionary bishops Antonio de Castro Mayer and Geraldo de Proença Sigaud in their 1961 book, Agrarian Reform—A Question of Conscience, which treated private property as a moral absolute.Reforma Agrária Questão de Consciência (In Portuguese) The Brazilian TFP's campaign against what it termed "socialist and confiscatory land reform"A Reforma Agrária socialista e confiscatória – a propriedade privada e a livre iniciativa, no tufão agro-reformista (In Portuguese) provided the incentives leading to the military coup of 1964 as well as later repressive legislation. In 1968 the Brazilian TFP gathered two million signatures in a continent-wide petition campaign against Communist infiltration of the Catholic Church, which placed it in clear opposition to the mainstream Brazilian hierarchy. TFP also urged the military government to arrest Hélder Câmara, Archbishop of Olinda e Recife, for his support of land reform. In 1969, Câmara linked the TFP indirectly to the murder in Recife of his aide, Father Antônio Henrique Pereira Neto.

These actions, as well as TFP's opposition to liberation theology, led to a string of criticism beginning in 1970 from a number of bishops, including the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil, which saw the TFP as destroying ecclesiastical unity. Notably, at their 23rd general assembly in 1985 the Brazilian Bishops criticized TFP for its "lack of communion … with the Church in Brazil, its hierarchy, and the Holy Father" and for its "esoteric character, the religious fanaticism, and the cult given to the personality of its leader and his mother." The Brazilian TFP replied the next day that "justice forbids TFP from accepting as valid vague and generic accusations like those in the NCBB text. Specific facts and proofs must be presented." The American TFP attributed the bishops' critique to "the tragic influence of Marxist liberation theology among Brazilian bishops".

The Brazilian TFP split into two factions after the death of its founder in 1995 and a dispute over the rights to the society's name and assets has been progressing through the Brazilian courts. As of 2013 the final decision was waiting on action of the Supreme Court. After an unfavorable court decision in 2004 the remaining, politically active faction formed the Association of Founders of TFP to continue the original expression of their social ideals and to contest the court case. Since this split, the Association of Founders has received substantial financial support from the American TFP. Subsequently, the Association of Founders of TFP formed a new organization, the Instituto Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, which carried out much the same program as the original TFP. The Institute's web page provides links to many national TFPs on its list of affiliated organizations and it, along with its periodical Catolicismo, are the two Brazilian organizations listed as an "Inspired and Related Group" on the US TFP's web page. The official website of the original Brazilian Society for Defense of Tradition, Family and Property still remains active and promotes their magazine, named Dr. Plinio, despite the restrictions imposed on them.

Chile