News Update on Consecration of Russia

January, 1998 ... Augustine Smith, New York, NY

       We must at least admire the persistence of those who continue to maintain that Russia is "converting" because it was "consecrated" to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the Pope and the world's bishops in 1984. The "Russia is consecrated" crowd are not disturbed by such "details" as the failure of the 1984 ceremony at the Vatican to make any mention of Russia whatsoever, or the failure of the world’s bishops to participate in the ceremony, such as it was.

       On and on they go, proclaiming the splendor of Russia’s new clothes, when Russia is still a nakedly evil place — a place where more babies are killed in the womb than born, divorce is commonplace, mob wars rage in the streets, and sex education has been introduced in the public schools (ironically, there was no classroom sex education before Russia began "converting"). It is also a place where the parliament has passed a new law, condemned by the Vatican itself, which discriminates against the Catholic Church and in favor of Judaism and Buddhism and Russian Orthodoxy.

       There is a published report that one of the leaders of the "Russia is consecrated" crowd, a well known priest from South Dakota who promotes this fantasy on EWTN, planned to demonstrate the "conversion" of Russia by setting up a "Thanksgiving Chapel" in Moscow. We do not know if he was allowed to set up his chapel, but we do know that under Russia's new law governing "foreign religious organizations," every Catholic parish must register annually with the state as if it were a sect like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and that the registration can be revoked arbitrarily at any time. This is precisely why the Vatican condemned the new law as a grave setback for the Catholic Church in Russia. (Jews, Buddhists and Russian Orthodox need not register, because they are not members of "foreign religious organizations," according to the law.)

       If abortion on demand, divorce, mob killings, sex education and discrimination against the Catholic Church are signs of the "conversion" of Russia, then words have lost their meaning and we have stepped through Alice's looking glass into Wonderland.

       It seems that Wonderland is the place where the "Russia is consecrated crowd" prefers to reside. Meanwhile, back in the real world, it is manifest that Russia still awaits the definitive Consecration which will bring about its conversion to the one true religion and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

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