in case you find the address intimidating, here is an excerpt…
“As you watch the horror unfolding in Ukraine, you are watching two immensely important, competing religious events unfold in real time. First, Russia’s invasion is laced with religious elements. In many ways, it’s a religious war, representing religion at its worst. Second, as we watch the Ukrainian and international church race to Ukraine’s aide, we’re seeing Christianity at its best.
“In one stark moment, we are seeing the extremes of what Christians can do, for evil and for good. Let’s start by describing the evil.
“There are times when you read an essay so illuminating and informative that you think about it for years. That happened to me in December 2014, several months after the Russian invasion of Crimea. The essay was by former National Security Agency analyst John Schindler, and it was called “Putin’s Orthodox Jihad.” An Orthodox Christian himself, Schindler provided an analysis of Putin’s Russia I’d seen nowhere else.
“The essay is long and complex, but at the risk of oversimplifying the argument, Schindler described an ideological “fusion” between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the FSB, Russia’s intelligence service. This fusion culminated “in the 2002 dedication of an Orthodox church at the Lubyanka, the FSB—and former KGB’s—notorious Moscow headquarters.”
“This ideological fusion, Schindler argued, was at the heart of Putin’s emerging ideology. In essence, Putin didn’t just seek Russian greatness out of a sense of secular national chauvinism, but out of religious mission, and that mission was rooted in the ROC.
“Moreover, the church provided the core of the Russian moral argument against the west. Again, here was Schindler:
ROC agitprop, which has Kremlin endorsement, depicts a West that is declining down to its death at the hands of decadence and sin, mired in confused unbelief, bored and failing to even reproduce itself. Patriarch Kirill, head of the church, recently explained that the “main threat” to Russia is “the loss of faith” in the Western style, while ROC spokesmen constantly denounce feminism and the LGBT movement as Satanic creations of the West that aim to destroy faith, family, and nation.
“Indeed, Russia even adopted a term called “spiritual security,” which “gives the ROC a mission in defending Russia from negative Western spiritual influences, in partnership with Moscow’s intelligence agencies.”
“Since Schindler’s piece—little-noticed at the time—the evidence of Putin’s religious motivations has grown overwhelming. As Giles Fraser argued in the British website Unherd, “Putin regards his spiritual destiny as the rebuilding of Christendom, based in Moscow.”
“But what does this have to do with Ukraine? It turns out that Kiev is of central importance in Russian Orthodoxy. It’s the birthplace of the ROC, the church’s “Jerusalem” according to the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill:
Ukraine is not on the periphery of our church. We call Kiev ‘the mother of all Russian cities.' For us Kiev is what Jerusalem is for many. Russian Orthodoxy began there, so under no circumstances can we abandon this historical and spiritual relationship. The whole unity of our Local Church is based on these spiritual ties.
Now, let’s add one final ingredient. In 2019 large numbers of Ukrainian parishes separated from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which was formerly under the ROC, to join a new Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In a February report describing the religious dimensions of the war, Schindler noted that “the schism rendered Moscow white-hot with rage. The ROC viewed this as a direct attack on its ‘canonical territory’ and on world Orthodoxy itself.”
“To make this as simple as possible, Putin has fused Russian identity with the ROC, sees his nation and his church as a bulwark against western decadence, and is now not just attempting to seize his church’s “Jerusalem” but potentially forcibly reuniting his church after a schism it rejects. There are nationalist, historical, and strategic reasons for Putin’s move against Ukraine, but the religious elements are real, and important.
“The religious dimension of this conflict is yet another reason why the Cold War analogies are incorrect. As I’ve said before, Putin isn’t trying to recreate the Soviet Union. The better analogy is to the deeply religious Russian Empire that existed before the Russian Civil War.
“This is the church at its worst, when it weds itself to state power and wields the sword to advance God’s kingdom on earth. We are watching the deep darkness of malevolent Christendom, a religious movement that will slaughter innocents to fight “decadence” and bomb hospitals to combat “sin.” When you see Putin’s armies advance, you can think, this is why our nation rejects established religion.
“But when great evil arises, great good answers. And in this case, the great good is also in the church. Yes, it’s represented by individual Christian Ukrainian soldiers laying down their lives in defense of their nation and their homes, but it’s also represented by a very different kind of institutional Christian response.
I’m also thinking of my colleague Harvest Prude’s moving story about the bonds between Christians in the United States and Christians in Ukraine:
“It’s personal for us in the Southern Baptist world,” Brent Leatherwood, acting president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told The Dispatch. “Most folks don’t realize it, but Ukraine has the second largest population of Baptists in Europe.” In churches across America, Leatherwood said, pastors are utilizing prayer guides and partnering with Send Relief and other organizations helping on the ground.
“I have friends who’ve spent time in Ukraine. Our churches are praying for Ukraine. They’re sending people and goods to Ukraine, flooding Eastern Europe with tangible support for a people who are suffering from terrible harm.
“In this circumstance, national borders and national identities matter far less than the Christian brotherhood with Ukrainian churches and the shared humanity of Ukrainian refugees.
“This is Christianity at its best. It’s not pacifistic. Its members are resisting tyranny with the force of arms. But its focus isn’t on conquest, but rather compassion. A religious war is being met with a religious response, and that religious response represents the true face of the faith that Putin purports to defend”
I hadn’t posted this earlier, as I’d thought someone else would mention it. It seems Orthodox Churches outside Russia are breaking their links with Moscow:
The links are used for tracking. Here you're linking to a story that was on your FB news feed; all that extra stuff at the end helps FB identify the context where you clicked.
If you want to make it visually cleaner, when writing a post on MOL you can highlight a word, then click the little chain-symbol at the top of the text input (fourth from the right, or sixth from the left). Eg, I'm going to write the word "example" below, highlight it, and click that icon and type "http://www.example.com":
The links are used for tracking. Here you're linking to a story that was on your FB news feed; all that extra stuff at the end helps FB identify the context where you clicked.
If you want to make it visually cleaner, when writing a post on MOL you can highlight a word, then click the little chain-symbol at the top of the text input (fourth from the right, or sixth from the left). Eg, I'm going to write the word "example" below, highlight it, and click that icon and type "http://www.example.com":
Thanks for the short cut tip! I had read the article this morning in The Tablet, without realizing its FB connection.
FYI, I had my birthday bash on Saturday — some 30 brave souls traveled down to Ocean County — despite snow, sleet, winds, rain — and it was grand. I believe friends and family, so glad to be reconnecting after two years, were really ready to party! So now, I am no longer an octogenarian!
Well, I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t have a FB account or I’m not in Ireland, but I couldn’t read more than a para (you have to sign up). I’ve seen that article elsewhere, though; perhaps via Arts & Letters Daily. Think I had the same issue there…
Mtierney, did you read about the flirty Swiss Guard?
“The spirituality implicit in Kavanagh’s poetry is remarkably close to that of Laudato si’. His instinctive ecological awareness promotes a love and respect for the earth that inspires the sense of responsibility we need to care for Creation and ensure its well-being. As a poet-farmer, he finds God present in a “dark sod” of earth. As ploughman, he prayerfully “turns the lea-green down” and “paints the meadow brown with his plough” while he watches the March trees “in suspense” as they await the call to life by “the Word, that in the beginning stirred”.
“Kavanagh revels in the coming of spring, thrilling in the return of life to the land. Returning from shopping with Elizabeth O’Toole on a spring day, he suggests they rest awhile on the grass: “You should stretch out on your back. That’s how you can really hear the wind calling the land to life.” Despite her protest that her housekeeping was not “getting done”, he insists: “Everything is getting done. Life is returning. Listen, you can hear the grass growing.”
“The poetry reflects this same notion that the earth is alive with God. “The spirit of God,” he writes, “broods over the harrowed fields,” coaxing the earth back to life in spring, while the “the rising sap” is the breath of the Spirit forecasting Christ’s coming “in the green leaves at Easter from the sealed and guarded tomb”. Kavanagh foresees a complete spiritual transformation of earth occurring in April, when “in the green meadows / The maiden of Spring is with child by the Holy Ghost”. For Kavanagh, the earth is virginal and fruitful; its “unworn” beauty a constant source of wonder, gratitude and sacramental insight.
“Kavanagh saw miracles of God’s artistry in the fields of Mucker and Shancoduff in South Monaghan. Each season brings its marvels: “The wafer-ice on the potholes” at Christmas, the dancing whitethorn hedges in April and, in summer, crowds of unloved dandelions basking in “a lazy veil of woven sun”.”
"Pope Francis has overhauled the Vatican's central bureaucracy for the first time in over 30 years, dramatically expanding the number of top leadership roles lay men and women can hold and reorganizing Vatican departments under the central priority of evangelization."
Pope Francis apologized on Friday for the Roman Catholic Church’s involvement in a system of Canadian boarding schools that abused Indigenous children for 100 years, an announcement that comes after the discovery last year of signs of unmarked graves with the remains of dozens of children.
“I feel shame and pain,” for the “deplorable” abuses, the pope said. “I ask forgiveness of God, and I join the Canadian bishops in apologizing.”
Francis also promised he would travel to Canada, where he would be better able to show “my closeness” as part of a process of healing and reconciliation.
Pope Francis apologized on Friday for the Roman Catholic Church’s involvement in a system of Canadian boarding schools that abused Indigenous children for 100 years, an announcement that comes after the discovery last year of signs of unmarked graves with the remains of dozens of children.
“I feel shame and pain,” for the “deplorable” abuses, the pope said. “I ask forgiveness of God, and I join the Canadian bishops in apologizing.”
Francis also promised he would travel to Canada, where he would be better able to show “my closeness” as part of a process of healing and reconciliation.
This is huge news. I mean, it is important to remember that this is just the first step in what will, undoubtedly, be a generational process of reconciliation but the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Yet again, I am left in awe of Pope Francis, his compassion and his profound humility. This wouldn't/couldn't of happened under the reign of John Paul, Pope Ratzinger, or any of the other spiritual oligarchs who found fault everywhere but in their own house.
Pope Francis on Ukraine: "Yet from the east of Europe, from the land of sunrise, the dark shadows of war have now spread. We had thought that invasions of other countries, savage street fighting and atomic threats were grim memories of a distant past. However, the icy winds of war, which bring only death, destruction and hatred in their wake, have swept down powerfully upon the lives of many people and affected us all. Once again, some potentate, sadly caught up in anachronistic claims of nationalist interests, is provoking and fomenting conflicts, whereas ordinary people sense the need to build a future that, will either shared, or not be at all. Now in the night of the war that is fallen upon humanity, please, let us not allow the dream of peace to fade!"
The odious thing is if I lived in Russia and posted the "The Pope is supporting the Ukraine" I could easily be sentenced for up to 15 years. Whereas, if I posted the first above statement I would be commended.
“Pope Francis is weighing up three possible visits to help bring the war in Ukraine to an end: the first to Kyiv, which would be fraught with complexity and security risks, the second to Poland to show solidarity with the 2.3 million refugees from Ukraine who have fled there, and the third to the Middle East to meet Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Holy See’s diplomats have been working non-stop behind the scenes, efforts which are reaching their limits, but Francis is determined to keep going. Christopher Lamb reports in his weekly View from Rome. Religious leaders from across the world, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury and the Minister General of the Franciscan Friars, have travelled to Ukraine “to demonstrate solidarity and friendship with those affected by the war”. By Patrick Hudson.
“ In a blog from Poland, James Rogerson describes how a Tesco superstore has been turned into a makeshift refugee reception centre. He is there volunteering for a church and community centre in Bristol, matching refugees with UK sponsors. They are expecting 500 new refugees in a few days.”
The fact that this film was made by Mel Gibson, unapologetic homophobe, antisemite, racist, and woman beater tends to detract from its "stunning" nature.
The fact that this film was made by Mel Gibson, unapologetic homophobe, antisemite, racist, and woman beater tends to detract from its "stunning" nature.
MT likes her men rude and brash…you know… the ones who can grab things with just a thumb and index finger. Probably still getting wet dreams about charlton Heston in El CID
Pope Francis presided over the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday at a new penitentiary complex in the port city of Civitavecchia, north of Rome, where we he washed the feet of 12 inmates.
MT likes her men rude and brash…you know… the ones who can grab things with just a thumb and index finger. Probably still getting wet dreams about charlton Heston in El CID
I dislike Gibson’s toxic Christianity as much as the next guy but this seems a little over the top.
Good for DC. Religious exemptions for the vax are a crock of sheet.