✝️ Canonical Recognition and Historical Context
In a projection dated May 22, 2025, the Vatican approved the decree recognizing the "offering of life" (oblatio vitae) of Bishop Alejandro Labaka and Sister Inés Arango, declaring them Venerable Servants of God. This act represents the first formal step in the beatification process, utilizing the canonical path introduced by Pope Francis in 2017. This category applies to acts of voluntary sacrifice for love of neighbor, accepting certain death, without the need to prove the traditional requirement of "hatred of the faith" (odium fidei) required for martyrdom proper. However, one observes here a symptom of the crisis that has penetrated the sanctuary itself, where doctrinal clarity gives way to pastoral formulas that sometimes obscure the distinction between the defense of Revealed Truth and humanitarian altruism. Such a phenomenon fits into the context of the "smoke of Satan" that has entered the temple of God, generating uncertainty and the auto-demolition of the Church (Oliveira, 1998).
Labaka, a Spanish Capuchin bishop, and Arango, a Colombian Capuchin tertiary religious, were killed on July 21, 1987, by members of the Tagaeri tribe in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The declared intention of the missionaries was to protect these isolated indigenous communities from the pressure of oil companies. The pontifical recognition emphasizes missionary dedication and sacrifice as an "offering of life," paving the way for beatification upon proof of a miracle.
🧐 Moral and Documentary Controversy: The Diaries of Labaka and the IV Revolution
However, the cause for beatification faces serious objections based on the analysis of the bishop's personal writings. Allegations of imprudent conduct incompatible with the clerical state arose in subsequent public discussions, based on Labaka's diaries. These documents reveal not only a personal deviation but the manifestation of a deeper phenomenon: the nascent IV Revolution. If the III Revolution was communism, the IV is the tribalist and structuralist revolution, which aims at the extinction of individual reflection and immersion in the tribal collectivity, marked by the disappearance of sartorial traditions and the return to life in the jungle (Oliveira, 1998).
Although there is no direct evidence of consummated sodomitic acts, the autograph texts mention interactions that denote, at the very least, reckless imprudence and moral ambiguity. The bishop describes the act of sleeping naked next to indigenous adolescents and the normalization of curious touches to his genitals by the natives. Such behavior, celebrated as "blessed nudism," confirms the prediction that the collapse of Western customs would lead to the appearance of habits where, at most, a feather belt would be tolerated. It is the hypertrophy of the senses and the abolition of modesty as a preparatory stage for the implementation of a structuralist-tribalist society (Oliveira, 1998). Such practices are the factual manifestation of a revolutionary process that operates at three depths: in tendencies (a sentimental sympathy for primitivism), in ideas (the theological justification for the violation of morals), and finally, in facts (concrete acts against virtue). Pride and sensuality, the driving passions of the Revolution, find their synthesis here: egalitarian pride that refuses the superiority of Christian culture over paganism, and liberal sensuality that tears down the barriers of moral law (Oliveira, 1998).
🌍 Indigenist Theology: Roots of a New Missiology and Ecclesiastical Tribalism
The theoretical foundation for such practices is found in Indigenist Theology, a branch of Liberation Theology developed in Latin America. It is a concrete application of what can be called "ecclesiastical tribalism." In this conception, the hierarchical and canonical structure of the Church, instituted by Our Lord, is dissolved into an amorphous tissue, where authority gives way to tribal "prophetism" (Oliveira, 1998). The goal was no longer the plantatio Ecclesiae and the conversion of souls, but the insertion of the "pastoral agent" into indigenous cultures.
This theology justified practices such as nudism and excessive physical intimacy adopted by missionaries like Labaka, viewing them as acts of "divestment" of Western colonialism. For Indigenist Theology, the missionary's nakedness would be a sacrament of equality; for perennial Catholic theology, it is a scandal. The Revolution, in its metamorphoses, uses the myth of the "noble savage" to promote a cultural revolution that denies abstraction and doctrine, favoring a "civilization of the image" and the senses, typical of the tribal state (Oliveira, 1998).
In the Amazonian context, the "preferential option for the poor" was translated as political defense. For Labaka, total immersion was necessary: he described the nudism of the Huaorani as a "natural morality like in Paradise before sin." This utopian vision is characteristic of the revolutionary spirit, which denies original sin in order to deny the need for Redemption and Christian civilization, proposing instead an anarchic and egalitarian chimera (Oliveira, 1998).
⚖️ Critical Analysis in Light of Traditional and Perennial Magisterium
From the perspective of traditional Catholicism, the Indigenist justification constitutes a grave doctrinal deviation. Tradition points out fundamental errors:
Denial of Original Sin and Absolute Morality: Nudism and permissiveness, even if culturally justified, objectively violate the virtue of chastity. The Revolution aims to destroy the moral order, and it does so by denying the very notion of sin. By exalting primitivism as innocence, the reality of fallen nature and the need for grace are denied, promoting a Pelagian optimism that serves the interests of subversion (Oliveira, 1998).
Abandonment of the Mandate of Conversion: Indigenist theology abandons the divine mandate to teach all nations. By refusing to transmit Catholic culture and morals, the missionary becomes an agent of the Revolution, collaborating in the maintenance of the state of barbarism and paganism, which is diametrically opposed to Christian civilization, which is order par excellence (Oliveira, 1998).
Syncretism and Indifferentism: The idea of entering "spiritually naked" to discover God in animist religions flirts with religious indifferentism. This attitude reflects the metaphysical hatred of all inequality and superiority, an essential characteristic of revolutionary pride. By leveling Truth with error, the ground is prepared for pantheism and the dominion of the preternatural, where "all the gods of the gentiles are devils" (Ps 95:5), opening the doors to the sinister influence of darkness over souls (Oliveira, 1998).
In short, analyses indicate that Indigenist Theology has profoundly influenced pastoral practice in the Amazon. However, from a traditional point of view, the case of Bishop Alejandro Labaka should not be seen merely as an example of human courage, but as a warning about the penetration of the IV Revolution into Catholic circles. We are facing a process that aims to transform the Church and society into a tribal agglomeration, without defined dogmas and without objective morality. The counter-revolutionary must, therefore, denounce this metamorphosis and fight for the restoration of hierarchical and sacral Christendom, the only barrier against tribalist chaos (Oliveira, 1998).
📚 References
Labaka, Alejandro. Crônica dos Huaorani. [Edição póstuma], Vicariato Apostólico de Aguarico.
Oliveira, Plinio Corrêa de. Revolução e Contra-Revolução. 4. ed. São Paulo: Artpress, 1998.