Dear Veronica,
You have a very one-sided picture of Salazar. He was a much more subtle personality: As reported once by a Vatican envoy, Fr. Mateo Crawley, sent by Pius XI, he was « a person with insatiable amibitions».
The French lady writer, Christine Garnier, who interviewed Salazar several times to the extent of her visits being interpreted by some as a secret romance, wrote once that she saw in him a «subtle and cruel sensibility».
He could be very intimate and delicate, but could be icy and distant the next moment. All in all, he was also a good «tiatrist» and knew when to make himself look very simple and humble as in the cited case of Fr. Chico's hat! Salazar had serious tiffs with the Vatican, particularly in the wake of the trends that resulted in Vatican II. Salazar resented the decision of Paul VI to participate in the Eucharistic Congress of Mumbai, as a violation of the Padroado Rights of Portugal, particularly in the wake of the appointment of new cardinal of Mumbai, bypassing the Portuguese claims that the Patriarch of Goa, D. José Costa Neves should have occupied that position! He exiled the Bishop of Porto for demanding workers' rights to be respected in Portugal and for demanding greater transparency in the presidential elections. Catholic Action had become his nightmare.
Dear Veronica, if you could take a wider and more critical perspective of issues, your contribution will have a much wider appeal and impact too.
Teotonio R. de Souza
Lisboa
teodesouza@gmail.com
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