“Fruits of Ostpolitik”
Update

Orthodox Journalist: Ostpolitik Precludes Russia's Conversion

by Christopher A. Ferrara

      The Fatima revisionists tell us that Russia was consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25, 1984. That means we are in Day 6,137 of the conversion of Russia. Anyone seen a conversion yet?

      Well, according to Russian Orthodox journalist Anatoli Andreevich Krasilov, the first Soviet journalist accredited in the Vatican and a press advisor to Boris Yeltsin, the Ostpolitik or "Eastern policy" pursued by the conciliar popes (John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II) has eliminated any possibility of Russia's conversion to the Catholic faith. As reported by Zenit on July 11, 2001, Krasilov told the Italian journal Avvenire that there is no danger of Catholic proselytism of the Russian Orthodox because "since [the time of] John XXIII until our days, the Vatican's 'Eastern policy' pursues two fundamental ends: to foster religious liberty, not only for Catholics, but for all believers in general; and to consolidate interreligious peace."

      Now, the Mother of God did not come to Fatima to proclaim "religious liberty" for "all believers in general." Nor did She come to "consolidate interreligious peace." She came because, as She told the Fatima seers, "you have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart." In short, the Virgin came to establish-remember?-the Catholic Faith throughout the world, beginning in Russia, so that sinners would be saved from-remember?-hell.

      Another of Krasilov's remarks illustrate precisely why the Mother of God requested Russia's conversion. Krasilov candidly admitted that only Russian and Ukrainian Catholics were able to resist communist persecution, even to the point of martyrdom. Unlike the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church would not become Stalin's puppet: "Catholics, including Greek-Catholics are, on the contrary, the religious group that has exercised the most active resistance to the intent of the Soviet regime to establish total control over them . . ." Krasilov noted the report of Stalin's minister, Molotov, that formation of a group of Catholic collaborators with Stalin was "impossible at present, because no prelate of the Catholic Church in the Soviet Union is prepared to implement such a plan." The plan was abandoned, the Catholic Church in the Ukraine was liquidated and its properties turned over to the compliant Orthodox Church-which we are now told must not be "proselytized" by Catholics. As the Pope himself declared on arrival in the Ukraine for his recent visit: "I have not come here with the intention of proselytizing." With all due respect, Holy Father, why not? Why not call your lost sheep back to the Bark of Peter? The answer appears to be that the Holy Father continues to adhere, just as Paul VI adhered, to the policy of Ostpolitik forged by the Vatican Secretary of State.

      Krasilov is quite right. The Vatican's Ostpolitik is indeed designed to leave the practitioners of other religions right where they are. Under Ostpolitik there will never be any conversion of Russia. Under Ostpolitik, there will never be any consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart.

      So, as day 6,137 of the "conversion of Russia" comes to a close, the Fatima revisionists tell us that Russia has been converting since 1984. Converting to what? They haven't a clue.