4

Transnational, Conservative,
Catholic, and Anti-Communist:
Tradition, Family, and
Property (TFP)
Margaret Power

On June 5, 2009, a two-page ad titled “Battling for America’s Soul, How

Homosexual ‘Marriage’ Threatens Our Nation and Faith” appeared
in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Washington
Post. The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and
Property (TFP) sponsored the ads in response to (and in support of)
the Supreme Court of California’s ruling opposing gay marriage. Most
Americans who looked at these ads might well have asked themselves,
“What is TFP?”1 This chapter addresses that question and explores the
history, beliefs, activities, and transnational practices and influences
of TFP.
TFP began in began in Brazil in 1960, under the leadership of Plínio
Corrêa de Oliveira and other conservative Catholics to oppose reforms
taking place or threatening to occur in the Catholic Church, society,
and the economy, particularly in the realm of agrarian reform. From
Brazil, it spread to Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay—then to Colombia,
Venezuela, the United States, Canada, and France—along with numer-
ous other countries where it is still active today.2 According to TFP publi-
cations, by 1993, the organization had twenty-four “sister Societies . . . on
six continents, [and was] the largest network of anti-Communist orga-
nizations of Catholic inspiration in the world today.”3
TFP is a transnational right-wing organization that is simultane-
ously located in specific nations and extends beyond any individual

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M. Durham et al., New Perspectives on the Transnational Right
© Martin Durham and Margaret Power 2010
86 Margaret Power

country, to include the world as its base of operations. Group leaders

and members simultaneously recognize the varying realities of each
organization and believe that TFP’s goals and vision transcend the
nation and involve, at least potentially, all those who define them-
selves as Catholics. They recognize distinct realities, conflicts, chal-
lenges, and conditions: and, as a result, the legitimacy and need for
diverse national organizations to exist. This approach stems from its
members’ belief that Christians confront a common set of enemies;
from the 1960s to the 1990s, they identified Communism, secular-
ism, and antifamily policies as the primary offenders. Although they
still view Communism as a danger, they have increasingly focused on
secularism, liberalism, hedonism, and general social decay. Thus, TFP
members share the same purpose and goal whether they are in Brazil,
Chile, Argentina, the United States, Canada, France, or South Africa.
Much of the literature on Catholicism and Latin America empha-
sizes the rise and importance of Liberation Theology, one of the most
significant religious movements to emerge in the twentieth century.4
However, this focus obscures the fact that conservative forces such
as TFP developed and gained strength in the Catholic Church at the
same time, generally in opposition to the progressive changes intro-
duced by Vatican II and preached by liberation theologians.
The importance of TFP does not lie in numbers, since member-
ship in the organization has never been large.5 Rather, as is dis-
cussed below, it stems from the group’s ability to influence public
debate, leaders and members of the Catholic Church, conservative
forces, and political officials. TFP draws on its rigid interpretation
of Christianity to offer the faithful an all-encompassing ideological
justification for what are, in essence, very conservative politics. As an
organization that combines religiosity with activism, TFP has devel-
oped a very dedicated membership that is willing to take their mes-
sage to meetings, demonstrations, churches, and the streets, despite
the often-hostile reception they receive. This same zeal and belief in
the righteousness of its beliefs has also encouraged TFP to work with
a variety of national and transnational forces to achieve its end, rang-
ing from the New Right in the United States, to military dictatorships
in South America, to the World Anti Communist League. Finally, TFP
is a model right-wing transnational organization that simultaneously
locates itself in the national and successfully builds itself transnation-
ally. It also reverses the direction of the transnational flow of political
ideas and movement with which we are more familiar since its trajec-
tory went from South-South to South-North.