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III. THE RUSSIAN MIRACLE
On 24 December, Muscovites who braved the cold were able to follow the televised broadcast of Vladimir Putin on screens installed in the street (photo AFP/Sergei Ilnitsky). For two and a half hours the president replied directly to some fifty questions chosen from among four hundred thousand that had been put to him by his fellow citizens. They plied him unceremoniously with questions about the delay in paying wages, the inadequate size of pensions, the fight against alcoholism, and all the ills suffered by his people. It must be said that Vladimir Putin is not afraid of the truth because he «defends the interests of the people as a whole, and not only those of a small group, like Yeltsin». Such is the judgement of Mikhail Gorbachev who unreservedly approves the young president. He is not the only one: «As a leader of the country for two and a half years, firstly as the Prime Minister of the ailing Boris Yeltsin and then as the President comfortably elected at the first stage of the presidential elections, his popularity ratings have never dipped below 70%, a figure which is the envy of many western heads of state.» (Ouest-France, 24 December 2001) Not to say all of them! and no one thinks to question this statistic! The cult of which he is the object is reminiscent of that which France unanimously awarded the old Marshal who had made the gift of his person to alleviate the blow to his country. His effigy is omnipresent. «For everything which King David did was approved by the people.» (2 S 3.36) In Russia, «religious services have replaced the Communist Party congresses», remarks the newspaper Izvestia with astonishment. This resurrection of Holy Russia, after seventy years of Communist slavery, is the work of Vladimir Putin, just as in the past the return of the Hebrew people from its exile in Babylon was the work of Cyrus the Mede. But ultimately the Blessed Virgin is the one directing everything with a sovereign Hand, in accordance with Her promises of 13 July 1917: «If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace.» These divine promises in favour of Russia do but recall her vocation to be «the guardian of Christianity», according to a expression dear to Vladimir Putin himself, proof that he has a thorough knowledge of the sacred history of his country. Perhaps, when he dined with him on 15 January, the Russian president reminded Jacques Chirac of the battle of Borodino (7 September 1812), when Prince Koutousov blocked the road to the armies of this “madman” Bonaparte. Then the Russians fought as good Christians for their faith and for their liberty against these devils of Frenchmen, godless revolutionaries become the scourge of all Europe. Today, the Russians are still in the vanguard of the Crusade – for that is exactly what it is! – against Islam! In the Caucasus, they have at last been recognised the right of restoring peace in Chechnya. In Afghanistan, they have returned to Kabul this time as benefactors. On 26 November 2001, twelve Ilyushin airliners touched down at Bagram, beating the whole world, including France, in bringing both humanitarian aid and the resources needed to set up an important diplomatic mission in Kabul.
Under the title “Phalange”, a Catholic nationalist movement has taken Franco as its patron, considered by the Russian phalangists to be a saint: «José Antonio Primo de Rivera was assassinated on 20 November, and Franco also died on 20 November. A surprising coincidence. For this reason we chose this date to create our organisation two years ago», declares the leader of this movement, Igor Grigorievich Lavrinienko, thirty-seven, a bachelor of law and a parliamentary aide since 1989. «We have no ambition to create a major party. We simply want to be the cornerstone of the Russian patriotic national movement», explains Lavrinienko. Their emblem is the two-headed eagle of the tsars, but this time bearing the Maltese cross around its neck and holding the arrows of the Spanish Phalange between its claws (El Mundo, Madrid). Since Putin, an ex-KGB agent, came to power on 7 May 2000, Russia has fared much the same as Portugal did after the coup d’état of Sidonio Pais, an ex-Freemason, on Saturday 8 December 1917. On the very next day, 9 December, this beneficent dictator recalled the bishops from exile. On the 22nd, he lifted the ban on worship in religious buildings all of which had been despoiled by the Republic. On 3 January 1918, the Executive Commission for the law separating Church and State was dissolved, pending a change in the legislation. For soldiers sent to the front in the Great War, the military chaplaincy was reorganised. Today, in Russia, the television shows priests blessing soldiers as they set off for Chechnya or the siege of the Ministry for Health, not to mention the site of the future airport of Cheremetievo. The Ministry for Education and the Orthodox Church have set up a coordinating council to fight drug-addiction. And the primary therapy? Since September 2000 theology has featured in the syllabus of higher studies in public establishments. Even the head of the “Communist Party”, Guennadi Ziouganov, has publicly registered his allegiance to Orthodoxy. In short, everyone understands that religion is a prerequisite for the country’s salvation. All that is lacking now is reunion with the Roman Catholic Church. But this is the most difficult thing of all! Our Lady of Fatima will only perform this great miracle on one condition: that the Pope «deigns» to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in union with all the bishops of the world. «Everything is in the hands of God», recently said General Gueorgui Poltavchentko, a former member of the KGB and the Head of State’s representative in central Russia. Let us add: and of the Mother of God, Theotokos, the Virgin of the Immaculate Heart.
«The event of the year is Russia», explains a manager of funds for «emergent countries»: theirs is the credit on which investors are most focused in 2002, for Russia has escaped the slowdown of the world economy. «The Russians have even allowed themselves the luxury of not taking up the proposal, recently made by the IMF in Moscow, to allocate them funds in case the price of oil should continue to drop.» (Les Échos, 13 December 2001). Not only has Russia taken no loans from the IMF over the last two years, but she has even succeeded in paying off her debts early. So the IMF experts departed from the Russian capital confident that the country is on the right road, thanks to the «large balance of payments surplus, to the budget surplus», and to the «relatively comfortable level of foreign-exchange reserves». The Russian growth rate – 5.5% this year – is among the most constant in the world and this is no flash in the pan. It is the result of the reforms undertaken over the last two years under the guidance of Vladimir Putin. The IMF declared itself «impressed by the speed of the structural reforms» this year, and expects that they will be maintained in the following year. 2002 will therefore be the year of Russia. Not only the from an economic and financial point of view. The Blessed Virgin promised that after the conversion of Russia, «there will be given to the world a certain time of peace». This mediation of peace is already at work. General Yuri Baluyevsky, Deputy Chief of General Staff, gave this warning to the United States: «Russia will never make any concessions on the question of the ABM and Start treaties. Problems of strategic stability cannot be resolved by a single handshake.» An allusion to Vladimir Putin’s visit to George Bush at his Texas ranch... General Gromov, the last Russian general to have served in Afghanistan, warns that the war is far from over, and that Russian soldiers «must not, under any pretext, set foot again in Afghanistan. We have lost fifteen thousand men there. We are sharing with the Americans our information on bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda networks, and we have given them authorisation to fly over, take off and land on our soil, but we will do no more!» These remarks, reported by Valeurs actuelles on 14 December 2001, are wisdom itself. During this time, the United States believes it has settled the fate of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Al-Qaeda group. But General Gromov is less sure: «I do not rule out the possibility that the majority of the Afghans, exhausted by more than twenty years of war, may unite around the personality of the former king Zaher Chah if he returns to the country. But I think that Massoud’s successors have an extraordinary military and political potential. It is only right that they should be taken into account.» That is why General Alexander Lebed, another Afghanistan veteran and currently governor of Siberia, thinks that one should expect «a long pitiless war, because the only thing the last few generations have known is fanaticism in the name of Allah and war.» (ibid.) At the present hour, the escalation of the American war against terrorism is leading straight to a new «Gulf War». On 11 December, George W Bush announced that the next priority would be to prevent “rogue states” from deploying nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. As of now one should therefore expect to see American operations in the Middle East and particularly in Iraq. At the same time, the Hamas brigades are promising «to transform life into an intolerable hell (for the Israelis)». Before this major risk of an escalation which no one will be able to control, only the Pope has the means of making Russia’s mediation prevail, by obtaining the striking miracle of her conversion through her consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But the thoughts of John Paul II appear to run counter to those of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
“THE EVENTS OF 11 SEPTEMBER HAVE NO CONNECTION WITH FATIMA”, was the caption in La Croix for Friday 21 December 2001. «“Everything has been published; there are no more secrets”, explained Sister Lucy, the last seer of Fatima, to Mgr Tarcisio Bertone. The Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had come to see her following rumours claiming that the events of 11 September were connected to the third “secret of Fatima”.» As Isaiah would say, «the ox knows its owner, and the ass its master’s crib», but Mgr Bertone knows and understands nothing (Is 1.3)! He went to ask Sister Lucy, on behalf of the Pope, if she had had revelations from Heaven about the attacks of 11 September! Obviously, she replied no... From this the Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as well as La Croix in its report, concludes that the events of 11 September have no connection with Fatima. None, absolutely no connection at all. «After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little higher up we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; it flashed and gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire…» This inaugural vision of the Third Secret has absolutely nothing to do with the fire of the twin towers, according to Mgr Bertone, nor with the AZF explosion in Toulouse, nor with the Israelo-Arabic war, nor with the war brewing below the roof of the world, between India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers! «Our missiles are trained... We do not want this war, but it has been forced on us and we know how to react», declared the Indian Prime Minister on 26 December. «We are capable of meeting any challenge», General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, answered him. If all this truly had nothing to do with Fatima, then we would be the most unfortunate of men, because in that case the sequel, which is so consoling, would be of no use to us: «... but they were extinguished on contact with the brilliant light that Our Lady radiated against them with Her right hand.»
L’Osservatore romano (Italian edition of 21 December) is more explicit about this trip of Mgr Bertone’s to Portugal. Blame is cast, among others, on «articles published in certain foreign journals» containing «apocalyptic interpretations of the message of Fatima». No doubt about it, we are read in Rome, and Mgr Bertone’s parlour with Sister Lucy is intended to shut us up. At the meeting, which lasted more than two hours, on Saturday 17 November, «Sister Lucy, who will be 95 on the 22nd (sic! Sister Lucy was born on the 28th) of next March, was in good health, lucid and vivacious. She first of all professed her love for and devotion to the Holy Father. She prays much for him and for the Church as a whole. «She is delighted with the distribution of her book “The Appeals of the Fatima Message”, for which she receives many letters of thanks. Going on to discuss the problem of the third part of the Secret of Fatima, she states that she has carefully read and meditated on the booklet published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and confirms everything that is written there.» Really? Really? Even the suspicion raised against the seer herself by Cardinal Ratzinger? «The concluding part of the Secret, he wrote, uses images which Sister Lucy may have seen in devotional books and which draw their inspiration from ancient (sic!) intuitions of faith.» Sister Lucy affirmed exactly the opposite in her book: «From the description of these two homes, she says on the subject of her family and that of her cousins Francisco and Jacinta, it clearly emerges that they were very far from being able to create, in the mind of their children, mystical ideas or thoughts of an elevated spirituality, as appear in the apparitions of Fatima. Thus, the work must be entirely attributed to God.» Whom are we to believe? Ratzinger, Bertone or Sister Lucy? To put the question is to answer it. Another question: Mgr Bertone asks Sister Lucy «what effect the vision of 13 July had had on her life before it was written down and presented to the Church». Answer: «I felt safe under the protection of Our Lady, who would watch carefully over the Church and the Pope.» Here the bells start to play an entirely new tune, one that is hardly in keeping with the severe warnings given by Our Lord Himself to His messenger in 1931: «Make known to My ministers that, given that they are following the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My request, they will also follow him into disaster.» That is why Sister Lucy wrote to Father Aparicio, her former confessor and at that time a missionary in Brazil: «Do they pray down there for the Holy Father? It is essential to pray constantly for His Holiness. Days of great affliction and torment still lie in wait for him.» So how are we to believe Mgr Bertone? He then claims that Sister Lucy «adds a new detail to her account of the famous prophetic vision: “During the vision, Our Lady, resplendent with glory, held a Heart in her right hand, and in her left, a Rosary.”» The Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith forgets what he had just written a few lines earlier: «To those who have voiced a doubt that some part of the “third secret” might not have been revealed, she replies: “Everything has been published; there are no more secrets.”» Just when may we start to believe Mgr Bertone? In fact, the Roman prelate here reveals his ignorance of the case of Fatima, an ignorance only equalled by his lack of appreciation and contempt for the case of the Abbé de Nantes. He treats as «a new detail» what Sister Lucy tells him about the revelation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary which actually took place on 13 June 1917, not on 13 July. «What is the significance of the heart in the hand of the Madonna?» the inquisitor goes on to ask. «It is a symbol of love that protects and saves. It is the Mother who sees her children suffering and suffers with them, even with those who do not love her.» There we have a quietist explanation far removed from the «reparatory devotion» requested by Our Lady. On 13 June 1917, Sister Lucy saw «a Heart surrounded by thorns which seemed to be embedded in it. We understood, she writes in her Fourth Memoir, that it was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of mankind, which was asking for reparation.» An interpretation which Our Lord and Our Lady would confirm at Pontevedra on 10 December 1925 and 15 February 1926, but which the princes of the Vatican ignore. The real truth is that Sister Lucy has been held prisoner for fifty years, forbidden to propagate the devotion of reparation, and ordered to say that the consecration of Russia has been carried out. Mgr Bertone’s visit to Coimbra is much the same thing as Bishop Cauchon’s to Rouen...
«Pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: “Penance, Penance, Penance!”» What does “Penance” mean? Fasting on the final day of Ramadan? Clearly not! But «to be converted», in other words, for the Jews to turn towards the One they have pierced, and for the pagans and the Moslems to turn away from their false religions and to attach themselves to Jesus Christ, the one true Saviour, for ever. Something which is impossible without the mediation of His divine Mother. In his message for Christmas, Pope John Paul II begins by proclaiming that Christ is «the Prince of peace», but he immediately nullifies this profession of faith by expressing a desire «that Christ may be the light and support of those who believe and work, sometimes in the face of opposition, for encounter, dialogue and co-operation between cultures and religions». If it is Christ who is «the Prince of peace», then it cannot be Mohammed or Buddha or anyone else! How could any «dialogue» be possible between Christ and Belial? How could there be any «co-operation» with the Jews who refuse to recognise in Jesus the «WONDER COUNSELLOR, MIGHTY GOD, ETERNAL FATHER, PRINCE OF PEACE» announced by their prophet Isaiah (9.5)? From His very birth their Messiah radiates such glory that, in the arms of His Mother who presents Him in the Temple, the elderly Simeon is easily able to recognise Him: «My eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared for all the nations to see, a light to enlighten the pagans and the glory of your people Israel.» (Lk 2.30-32) And yet, this saintly old man prophesied that this light would be a source of conflict, and firstly within each one of us: «See! this child is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected – and a sword will pierce your own soul too! – so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.» «A sign that is rejected», even in the soul of John Paul II. After having repeated: «“Christ is our peace!” Christ, “the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in the manger” (Lk 2.12), is indeed our peace», the Pope continues: «A defenceless newborn child in a humble cave restores dignity to every life which is born.» To every life which is born? Just like that? Without baptism? Before John Paul II, Popes used to exalt the dignity of the Christian, contrasting this with the unworthiness of one who was not baptised, and the whole Church would listen to the great lesson of Pope Saint Leo whose admirable homily we used to sing during Christmas Matins: AGNOSCE, O CHRISTIANE, DIGNITATEM TUAM, «Recognise, o Christian, your dignity and, now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the powers of darkness and brought into the light of the kingdom of God.» The religion of John Paul II is completely different: «May Christ guide in peace the steps of those who tirelessly devote themselves to the progress of science and technology!» whether Christian or not! «May these great gifts of God never be used against respect for human dignity and its promotion!» in every man who is born, whether Christian or not! «Such are the high-sounding words by which the sentiment of human pride is exalted», said Saint Pius X in his Letter on the Sillon. Truly we have here a religion quite different from that of Saint Leo, quite different from that of all the popes who preceded John Paul II, apart of course from John XXIII and Paul VI. And if, «troubled by the limitations of our infirmity», as Saint Leo said, we would still hesitate to resist the temptation of this new religion, under the pretext of obedience to the Pope, one alarming observation should resolve the doubt: in this message for Christmas, John Paul II does not invoke the Virgin Mary even once. One does not realise it at first, because, by definition, what is missing is not noticed! But we read in number 4: «Let us hasten like the shepherds to Bethlehem, says the Pope, let us pause in adoration in the cave, and gaze upon the newborn Redeemer!» Full stop. And the Blessed Virgin? and Saint Joseph? Saint Luke clearly states that the shepherds «came in all haste and found Mary, Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger» (Lk 2.16). In the mouth, the mind, the heart of the Sovereign Pontiff, there is no place for Mary and Joseph. And no more for Jesus, for it is not on Him that the attention of the Pope is fixed, it is not the Child Jesus whom he makes us contemplate: «In him, he continues, we can recognise the face of every little child who is born, of whatever race or nation: the little Palestinian and the little Israeli; the little American and the little Afghan; the child of the Hutu and the child of the Tutsi... Whoever the child is, to Christ each one is special…» The speech goes on in this manner, and concludes without a word, without a glance towards the Virgin Mary, although she is named once, curtly, with a total disregard for all Her titles. «Christ is our peace»! repeats the Pope in conclusion: «Brothers and Sisters, who are listening to me, open your hearts to this message of peace, open your hearts to Christ, the Son of the Virgin Mary, to the One who became our peace»! «Son of the Virgin Mary», at the moment when one would have expected «Son of God». But it is a matter of not offending the Moslems who are partners in dialogue... «Son of Mary» is the expression used in the Koran (cf. II, 87, 253; III, 45 and passim), an expression which deliberately strips Jesus of His divinity and His royalty, but affirms Mary’s virginity (III, 47). Thus, throughout this Christmas message, whose theme is the peace of the world, so gravely threatened, John Paul II does not once invoke the mediation of the Virgin Mary, even though we know that Our Lord has placed the peace of the world in Her hands. Again, on Christmas Eve, 24 December, one month before the interreligious prayer meeting at Assisi, the Pope, presenting his seasonal greetings to the Roman Curia, declared: «Here I reaffirm my deep conviction that the path of mutual understanding and, where possible, of common prayer represents the privileged way to agreement, solidarity and peace.» It would seem that the Holy Father «here reaffirms his conviction» with particular energy on account of the justified opposition aroused among his closest aides. Thus Mgr Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for the Unity of Christians, recalls in l’Osservatore romano for 5 January 2002 that «it is only in Jesus Christ that the truth is revealed in its plenitude.» That is why «Christians cannot pray alongside members of other religions».
It is a terrible misfortune to have a Pope who chooses to recommend the fast of Ramadan rather than the reparatory devotions requested by our Mother in Heaven. How heartbreaking this must be for the Immaculate, this forgetfulness, this contempt for Her desires and requests, by the Vicar of Her Son – «a sword will pierce your own soul»! – but for us, what a pressing reason to turn to Her, to Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus, recognised by the shepherds of Bethlehem... and seen again in the Sky above Fatima, on 13 October 1917, by the three small shepherds of Aljustrel. Let us at least pay heed to Them by reciting our rosary for the salvation of the world, which only They have the power to grant us provided we do not tire of praying to Them, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which They Themselves are offended, in order to «console our God», as the Angel of Portugal recommended. Our pilgrims to Lourdes and Fatima will follow this lesson in February.
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