The Door is Closing

by Christopher A. Ferrara

       While the dupes of Fatima revisionism hail the "miracle" in Russia, even the secular media are reporting the truth that the "miracle" is turning out to be just another false opening to the West, a la Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev and Gorbachev.

        On November 1, 2002, for example, UPI ran a story entitled "Russia, Turning Inward, Refuses Visas To Foreign Religious Workers And Volunteers." The story recounts how the Putin regime is using its control over entry visas to expel "undesirable" foreigners from the country, including Catholic priests and Bishop Mazur of Siberia. As the story notes: "Five Catholic priests have had their visas revoked this year, with no warning. In September, five U.S. Protestants were refused permission to return to the central Russian city of Kostroma, where they ran a church and training courses for orphans. The government also turned down visa extensions for 30 U.S. Peace Corps volunteers midway through their two-year tour - leaving just half the current crop at their posts in Russia."

        UPI concludes that "the refusals are one measure of the Russian government’s attempts, after a decade of openness to the West, to turn the nation inward by keeping foreigners out." UPI also quotes one Jeffrey Wollman, a 53-year-old "humanitarian worker" from Dallas, Texas, who worked in Russia to provide living skills and computer training for orphans. Wollman states simply: "Now it looks like the door is shutting."

        UPI further notes that "Visa authorities appear sometimes to be working hand-in-hand with Russian Orthodox prelates who fear the spread of Catholicism and evangelical churches in regions where Orthodox influence was wiped out during 70 years of Communism." UPI confirms what this column has noted more than once: that in this undertaking the Orthodox are being aided by the former KGB, which is now called the Federal Security Service or FSB. According to UPI, "In meetings with Orthodox prelates, the Federal Security Service or FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, has pronounced its mission to protect Russia's ‘spiritual security.’" Spiritual security! In a nation where almost no one goes to Church and there are two abortions for every live birth.

        UPI refers to "The new ascendancy of the FSB [under] President Vladimir Putin," which is playing a key role in the expulsion of Catholic clergy. As UPI states: "The only explanation Catholic leaders ever got for the decision to kick out Bishop Jerzy Mazur was that the ruling came from ‘competent organs’ - the code word for the FSB - in connection with a law prohibiting the entry of people considered a threat to state security."

        This, then, is what those who now control implementation of the Message of Fatima would have us believe constitutes the "conversion" of Russia. Meanwhile, a rapidly fading Pope, who can barely talk and is unable to walk or even feed himself properly, continues to rely on the "advisors" whose counsel is directly responsible for the current state of Russia and the persecution of the Catholic Church in "that poor nation." We continue to witness one of the greatest follies in human history.