Evil Empire or Russia Consecrated?

When I was in school in Philly for four years I turned into a very aggressive driver. You had to be to survive inner city driving. When I returned to rural Pennsylvania to practice my specialty I had to unlearn all those bad driving habits, habits that grew from a need for self preservation among some of the country's worst drivers.

I've been doing amateur Catholic apologetics on conservative political forums for almost one and a half decades. The type and tone of discourse there is far different than at a place like the MOG forum.

So I'm gradually unlearning some bad habits of debate formed in the toxic atmosphere of conservative political forums.

So if anything, you're just getting to know me, not the political/Catholic apologist persona trying to survive on a dog eat dog political forum.

Nothing miraculous in that.

 

LOL!

Fortunately the Good Lord doesn't need any armchair consultants when He is making the judgments proper to Him alone.

 

Hmm, methinks Bart was perhaps mistaken about the miracle...

With apologies to Padraig for quoting this earlier post but he has since apologised for his view at the time. But I would very seriously like to know if Brian has changed his view as copied below.

padraig said: ↑
Satan sits on the Throne of Peter.

What will his next move be.?

BrianK said:
Wow, padraig. Wow.
I don't disagree with you, but I've really been conflicted whether and how much to say about this publicly.

 

I love Pennsy

 

And by God's grace, we will all become, more and more, our true selves, the people He created us to be!

 

[quote"BrianK, post: 75180, member: 3878"]
I've been doing amateur Catholic apologetics on conservative political forums for almost one and a half decades. The type and tone of discourse there is far different than at a place like the MOG forum.

So I'm gradually unlearning some bad habits of debate formed in the toxic atmosphere of conservative political forums.

So if anything, you're just getting to know me, not the political/Catholic apologist persona trying to survive on a dog eat dog political forum.

Nothing miraculous in that.[/quote]
Every inhale and exhale is a miracle to me, but when anyone makes a serious attempt to change for 'the better', I stand in admiration.
I am so attached to my bad habits that I have to applaud someone shaking his shackles. Please say a prayer for me Brian, I listened to one of your podcasts and you did come across as very reasonable , especially when compared to some of the sword fights we've witnessed here!

 

Padraig and I have had an ongoing and very fruitful private discussion of these issues.

I think if you were wise you would let sleeping dogs lie.
If, as they say, is a mighty big word.

(Edit to ad: By the way, I just deleted that post. Pope Benedict XVI recently deleted the segment from his 1972 theological essay in which he conjectured that the divorced and remarried might able to be admitted to the Holy Eucharist, so I'm following the lead of our humble Pope Emeritus BXVI.)

 

Thanks Bart. Prayers up for you and yours.

 

I was speaking about the Russian Orthodox Church in particular not Orthodoxy in general.

Read about the history of the Russian Orthodox Church and how it was and is entangled and married to the State first under the Tsarist regimes; and now a tool of the State under Putin and then you will understand the context of my question.

Richard defended the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Ukraine. Then he condemned the role of the Catholic Church in the Ukraine.

He clearly does not understand anything of the history and role of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russian politics.

Our friend Charlie Johnston in one of his latest blog explains better than ever I could. Thankyou Charlie.

George Weigel is, perhaps, the most insightful public Catholic intellectual of this generation. He was author of the profound biography of Pope St. John Paul, “Witness to Hope.” He has a piece of great depth and insight in the current National Review. I urge you to pay particular attention to Page three of the article. Things are shaping themselves in ways, barely noted yet, for a great unification. The Russian Orthodox Church is discrediting itself for its penchant of acting as a tool for the Russian state. Westerners could scarcely conceive of a Christian Church behaving in the deceptive, temporal ways that officials, including Bishops, of the Russian Orthodox Church do. Some were active KGB Agents – and before that some were active Tsarist Agents. Now the brilliant Metropolitan Hilarion degrades himself as a cheap agent of fleeting state power. It is disgusting – and it is noticed by Russians. Equally important, the Ukranian Catholic Church, eastern in liturgy but obedient to the Pope, has covered itself in honor and nobility throughout the crisis. So much so that eastern Ukranians – and some Russians – have taken note of it, too. No person wants their Church to be an instrument of their oppression by the state. The Russian Orthodox Church has been all too willing – even eager – to play that role for several centuries. Even its allies have figured out you can only count on the Russian Orthodox Church if you are already in power. That bodes ill for the Russian Orthodox Church and very well for the Ukranian Catholic Church long-term.

 

You need to read up on the history of the Catholic Church in the Ukraine.

http://catholicism.org/glorious-ukrainian-martyrs-victims-of-communist-barbarity.html

 

Good article by George Weigel about the crisis in the Ukraine - fair, balanced and informed (linked below).

This article is adapted from remarks delivered at “Religion in the Ukrainian Public Square: An Analysis of the EuroMaidan and Its Aftermath,”a conference sponsored by the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies and held at the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, on November 15, 2014.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/392768/ukrainian-lessons-west-george-weigel

 

Yes, PeterB had given us this link earlier. George Weigel's views are always certainly worth reading but I find them unconvincing on the matter of Ukraine. However, Peter also gave us another Weigel piece which mainly consists of an interview with Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. I found the Archbishop very straightforward and fair in this interview. What a wonderful discussion it would be to have this Archbishop talking to Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion!

The item with the Archbishop Shevchuck interview is at: http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/politics-and-the-church/ukraine-rising.html

 

Wow! After reading that article I am losing respect for Mr. Weigel at an exponential rate.

Like I said in an earlier posting on this thread, I found his biography of Saint John Paul II to be well done, but I find his Neoconservative Foreign Policy views to be disturbing. This article from national review is neither fair, balanced nor informed. It reads like one of Obama's State Department briefings. Weigel continually refers to the Maidan as "providential" and a "revolution of dignity." This is offensive. I watched the Maidan transpire in realtime. I remember the sequence of events. I remember John McCain and Victoria Nuland's trip to Independence Square on the eve of the violence. I remember them shaking hands and smiling with Neo-Nazis like Oleg Tyagnybok. Weigel is being intellectually dishonest and blasphemous when he calls the violent Maidan coup "providential." Hogwash. This violent coup was planned well in advance, and not by God, but rather by Western warmongers and then executed by Neo-Nazi storm troopers on the ground in Kiev. I remember wathing in realtime as the Ukrainian Berkut Police officers were murdered with molotov cocktails and shot by Maidan snipers. If this had occurred in any city in America, said protesters would have been shot dead instantly. Yet Mr. Weigel calls this violence a "revolution with dignity"? Disgusting!! You see, Mr. Weigel is unable to look at these events objectively because he puts his loyatly to Nationalism and Neoconservatism ahead of his loyalty to the truth of the matter. Weigel enters the discussion already convinced that Russia is the bogeyman, and therefore ignores the reality of what is occuring in Ukraine. Weigel not once condemns the genocide and unjust war of agression being waged by Poroshenko with the full backing of the West. Shame on you Mr. Weigel!!!

Thankfully, Weigel has been chastised for his foreign policy by fellow Catholics on several occassions, most notably here:

Pope John Paul II calls War a Defeat for Humanity: Neoconservative Iraq Just War Theories Rejected http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=361

and here:

George Weigel's Anti-American Jeremiad http://www.antiwar.com/scheuer/?articleid=12186

 

I know the history of Ukraine. Which makes it all the more ironic and sickening to see the silence and complicity of so many Catholics in Ukraine to the unjust war of aggression and genocide against the Christians of the Donbass.

 

Very informative interview (in English) on current events in Ukraine, straight from the horse's mouth:

 

Russian insider says Putin openly planned invasion of Ukraine since 2003

2014/11/25 • News

A former Russian insider says he was there when Putin began openly planning the present invasion of Ukraine back in 2003.

At a conference in Brussels this week, Andrey Illarionov, a Russian economist and former economic advisor to Vladimir Putin informed that the invasion of Ukraine has been in official planning since at least 2003.

“Since 2003. I can say that certain questions relating to the future war with Ukraine were discussed in my presence. I didn’t think the talks would really lead to a real war,” he said.

 

The implication from this employee of a Washington Think Tank is that somehow Putin is responsible for the current war in Ukraine. That's nonsense! Putin didn't organize the violent coup against Yanukovych; the West did. Putin didn't launch a full-scale, indiscriminate War against the Donbass; Kiev is, with the full support and complicity of the West. Even during his war with the Chechen terrorists, Putin DID NOT cut off financial services to Chechnya, but Poroshenko just did that to the Donbass.

However, there is some truth in the article you cite, Brian. For instance, Putin is no dummy and clearly has seen NATO expand towards his border since Bush withdrew from the ABM Treaty. Putin knows that the West wants a war, and so he has prepared for all contingencies. The Yanukovych coup was a bridge too far, and Putin had no choice but to secure Crimea , something Putin explains above in the video I posted. It should be noted that Putin secured Crimea virtually without firing a shot in what will go down in the history books as one of the most brilliant and ethical use of special forces in history. Contrast Putin's methods with Poroshenko, who has launched an unjust war of aggression and attrition against the civilians of the Donbass. Where's the outrage in the West over that?

 

Moscow vs Kiev:

 

Fact versus Fiction. Good versus Evil

 

You obviously have a lot more invested in this than the rest of us.

Time will tell.

When Russia invades Ukraine and moves on to invade many more countries of Europe we'll see what song you're singing then...