The Assault on Russian Catholics Continues

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        The more the Fatima revisionists insist that Russia has been "converting" since its "consecration" in 1984, the more reality mocks them. On July 3, 2002 CWNews.com reported that "Moscow’s Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz has indicated that he is determined to pursue ecumenical progress despite the continued ‘senseless’ attacks on the Catholic Church by officials of the Russian Orthodox hierarchy."

        Kondrusiewicz (speaking to the Italian bishops’ newspaper Avvenire) added "that Catholics in Russia ‘are accustomed to being attacked.’" This is a sign of Russia’s conversion over the past 18 years?

       CWN observes "The archbishop’s interview appeared on the same day that an Orthodox prelate loosed a new series of harsh criticisms against the Vatican and the Catholic Church. Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk - who is charged with ‘external relations’ for the Moscow Patriarchate - made public a letter that he had sent to Archbishop Kondrusiewicz and to Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. In that letter, Metropolitan Kirill denounced the Vatican’s decision to create four new Catholic dioceses in Russia without first gaining the approval of the Orthodox hierarchy."

       And, far more ominous, "The Russian prelate also hinted that if Catholic priests and religious engage in ‘proselytism’ on Russian soil, all Catholic missionaries might be expelled. Two Catholic clerics - Bishop Jerzy Mazur of Irkutsk and Father Stefano Caprio - have already been barred from entering Russia."

        CWN also notes the eloquent silence of the Practicing Christian, Vladimir Putin: "To date, Russian government officials have offered no response whatsoever to a May 8 letter from Pope John Paul II, inquiring as to the reasons why Bishop Mazur and Father Caprio have been expelled from the country. The Pope has asked Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to intervene personally in the cases, but again he has received no response. Archbishop Kondrusiewicz, remarked that the government’s failure to reply was ‘surprising’…"

        Surprising? Not to those with any knowledge of what Our Lady of Fatima requested 85 years ago. What is happening in Russia today is the inevitable consequence of failing to honor Heaven’s very simple request for the consecration of that nation to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.

       But instead of doing precisely what the Mother of God requested, the Vatican continues to waste time on useless "dialogue" with the implacable Russian Orthodox. CWN notes that Kondrusiewicz "revealed that he has sent a personal message to the Russian Patriarch Alexei II, asking for a meeting at which representatives of Catholic and Orthodox churches could ‘define together’, in black and white, what is, and what is not, ‘proselytism.’ ‘If we could at least reach a common understanding [on the definition of that term], the future might not be quite as complicated as the present.’"

       Can Archbishop Kondrusiewicz be that naïve? The Russian Orthodox have no intention of reaching any agreement on the "meaning" of "proselytism" that would in any way allow the Catholic Church to attract converts from among the Orthodox populations of the Russian Federation. Quite simply, the Orthodox want to ghettoize the Catholic Church in Russia, if not suppress it altogether.

       And through it all the Practicing Christian maintains his stony silence, even in the face of personal letters from the Pope himself. The conversion of Russia? Don’t make me laugh.