The Iron Curtain Reinstalled in Belarus

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        As the Putin regime tightens the screws on the Catholic Church in Russia, even more draconian measures have just been enacted in its immediate neighbor, Belarus. On October 31, 2002 CWN news relayed a Keston news service report that "President Aleksandr Lukashenko has signed new legislation restricting religions in Belarus. The new law, which now goes into effect in 10 days, is the most repressive in Europe."

       Yet another sign of the "conversion" of Russia extolled by the dupes of Fatima revisionism. As Keston notes: "The new law, which President Lukashenko signed after an unexpected delay, requires the registration of all religious organizations. It also calls for government approval of all religious literature, prohibits most religious meetings in private homes, and bans foreign citizens from acting as leaders of religious congregations."

        In short, the new law imposes total government control over all religious bodies, including the Catholic Church. The measure is positively Stalinistic in its suppression of the Church. Keston reported that "religious minorities in Belarus greeted the signing of the legislation with a mixture of resignation and defiance. With the exception of the Russian Orthodox hierarchy, which gave its full support to the legislation, religious leaders in Belarus were united in their opposition to the new law." Here, as in Russia, the corrupt Russian Orthodox hierarchy is spearheading government repression of the Catholic Church.

        And what of the Catholic responses to this development? According to Keston "Catholic leaders were reluctant to speak out against the new law" and a Byzantine-rite Catholic priest told Keston: "We will have to accept the new law and work under it. We have no other choice."

        In other words, the Vatican will offer no resistance to the repression in Belarus. There will be no public protest by Vatican officials, nor any Vatican-led campaign to generate international pressure against the regime in Belarus. This quiesence in the face of Stalinist oppression is quite in keeping with the Vatican's post-conciliar (and "post-Fatima") policy of Ostpolitik, pursued unswervingly by the current Vatican Secretary of State, "Pope" Sodano I. According to the dictates of Ostpolitik, the Vatican will do nothing in response to this development but engage in useless "dialogue" with communist dictator Lukashenko.

        What this means, of course, is that when the Iron Curtain descends completely on Russia proper once again - ending yet another false opening to the West - the Vatican will likewise offer no resistance. And this, Pope Sodano I would have us believe, is all part of the great "miracle" that was supposed to have occurred following the non-consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1984.

        As the Catholic Church undergoes increasing persecution throughout the "former Soviet Union" we have only the current Vatican apparatus, led by Pope Sodano I, to thank. For it is they, and they alone, who have impeded fulfillment of the Virgin's simple request. Their folly is beyond human calculation, and yet they continue to insist that Fatima "belongs to the past" and that no one may ask any longer for the consecration of Russia. It is a terrible thing to impede the wishes of the Mother of God Herself - terrible for the Church, terrible for the world at large, and terrible for those responsible.