Eleison Comments

RESURRECTION of RUSSIA

RESURRECTION of RUSSIA on March 30, 2024

Are signs of hope around us all extinct? 

No! Signs of God in Russia are quite distinct!

The following page, shortened and adapted from a recent article of Alexander Dugin, a leading thinker in Putin’s Russia, shows how Russia’s battle must now move to the battlefield of hearts and minds, away from the Communist and liberal land of the dead. It will. Our Lady is at work on the Russian people – 

When Communism collapsed in Russia at the end of the 1980’s, it was liberalism that took over as the ruling ideology. Since 1991, virtually all major principles established in education, the humanities, and culture have been laid down on a strictly liberal basis. Liberalism arrived in Russia as the dominance of pro-Western liberal minorities, the ‘reformers.’ This liberal elite, comprising oligarchs, a network of American influence agents, and corrupt late-Soviet senior officials, rules by totalitarian methods. They act in the name of progress and globalisation, and they believe that capitalism is the pinnacle of human development. Today, this includes gender politics and ecology. Only the ‘enlightened/awakened’ (woke) liberal minority knows what is ‘right.’ Progressive minorities must rule. The rest of the population must be kept strictly under control. 

Putin’s rise to power in the early 2000’s changed the situation by introducing the principle of sovereignty with a diversity of sovereignly independent nations, which is altogether denied by liberal dogma. Liberalism calls for sovereign national states to be abolished and integrated into a supranational world government structure. Therefore, with Putin’s arrival, the clash was inevitable, and the most radical liberal minorities opposed him. 

However, many liberals decided to adapt to Putin by outwardly conforming, while inwardly continuing to follow a liberal course as if nothing had changed. So Putin may have signed Decree 809 on traditional values (directly opposed to liberal ideology), he may have added provisions about the normal family to the Constitution, he may have mentioned God as the immutable foundation of Russian history, and banned LGBT movements as extremist. Notwithstanding, the liberal domination in Russia remains. It has penetrated so deeply into our society that it continues to reproduce itself in new generations of managers, officials, scientists, and educators, despite Putin’s sovereign course. 

Therefore, while Putin is our main hope of freedom from liberal domination, the guarantor of victory in the Special Military Operation in Ukraine, and the saviour of true Russia, nevertheless most of Putin’s presently seeming friends are not really on his side. The liberal totalitarian sect is not thinking of surrendering its positions. They are ready to fight for them to the end. They fear neither patriotic forces in politics, nor the people, nor God (they either do not believe in Him or believe in their own, a fallen one). Only Putin restrains them, with whom they dare not collide head-on. 

Therefore Russia needs to focus on victory in the Ukraine. Putin sees this soberly and clearly: no victory in Ukraine, no Russia. But defeating the West outside Russia while preserving the liberals’ totalitarian omnipotence inside Russia is simply impossible. As long as liberalism prevails in hearts and minds, even victory in Ukraine will be more apparent than real. Russia cannot be established as a civilisation whilst permeated with liberalism in its most toxic forms. That is why it is time now to open another front – in the realm of ideology, world-view, and public consciousness. The totalitarian domination of liberals in Russia – primarily in the realms of knowledge, science, education and culture – must come to an end. 

Kyrie eleison 

LATIN and GREEK

LATIN and GREEK on March 23, 2024

Good education is not far to seek – 

That which is tried and tested? – Latin and Greek.

The value of the pre-Christian classics in Catholic education is a disputed question. For instance one famous anti-liberal Catholic of the 19th century, Monsignor Gaume, argued that the classic authors in Latin and Greek are too impure to be usable in Catholic schools, but that would seem to be an exaggeration. For purposes of education at the natural level there is too much real value in the Latin and Greek classics for them to be absolutely spurned. The Greek and Latin classics are the products of intelligent and serious men who have thought a good deal about life and who present, by the gift of God, much truth concerning life and human nature. True, the impurities are scattered all around but they are not the centrepiece, rather a sideshow. An outstanding example would be the Aeneid of Virgil which maintains such a high moral level, that it was consulted widely at the height of the Middle Ages for its lofty vision of life. 

In brief, the Christian society is supernaturally superior to the society of the ancient classics, but that old classic society is far superior naturally to degenerate modern society. From the standpoint of education, it is especially easy to argue for the all-round superiority of Latin and Greek, as opposed to an education in modern languages or the modern sciences. A good education will provide both discipline for the youngsters’ hearts and minds, and culture for their souls, and history for their lives. Latin and Greek alone provide all three, Latin providing the practice of the basics, and Greek their theory. 

DISCIPLINE: Latin is an extremely logical language, requiring much thought to disentangle: subject, verb, object, and so on. There is discipline also in learning Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Computing and Technology, etc., but everything there is material, determined, inhuman, precisely and proudly abstracting from anything spiritual, free or human. And what the youngsters can no longer longer learn in school, or from their grandparents or even parents, they have to pick up in the gutter, from Hollywood or the Internet or their smartphone, etc. Lucky if they have just one sports coach who is human! In the spiritual wasteland of a “scientific” education, how much influence for good such a mere coach can have. 

CULTURE: When it comes to educating and forming the hearts and souls of the youngsters (hearts and souls they do have, with imperious needs), then the “sciences” enumerated above are simply non-starters, while the modern languages are a second best, because all modernity since the “Reformation” and its culture are more or less stained with apostasy, with war on God. Of course Latin and Greek culture are not free of original sin, but they are uniquely free of the Reformation and all its consequences, presenting a simpler and purer vision of the basics of human nature and life. A great help for youngsters to know. 

HISTORY: Latin and Greek culture are embedded in the history of all Western civilisation as it is now too late for the culture of any other language to be. Latin and Greek were two of the three languages nailed to the Cross of Our Lord. Greek was the language of the New Testament. Rome was soon the centre of the Church. “History is the master of life” is a wise old proverb, and to learn Latin and Greek is necessarily to learn some Greek and Roman history. In 1984 George Orwell wrote, “Who controls the past, controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.” So whoever controls our schools today, controls our future. These people are presently hard at work, discounting Latin and Greek, making history start with World War II, which is much more easily manipulated than ancient history. What does that tell us about modern education? It is no good. It is shaping sheep for the Antichrist. 

Kyrie eleison 

PUTIN and FATIMA

PUTIN and FATIMA on March 16, 2024

Hey, Russia is far from perfect!” Yes, indeed.

But little by little Russia is being freed.

Ever since February 6 when President Vladimir of Russia granted a historic interview to the well-known American journalist, Tucker Carlson, commentators all over the world have been commenting on the contents of the two-hour interview. Those contents appeared, very much shortened, in these “Comments” last week (#869, March 9), where they presented mainly the Russian view of the build-up from 2014 onwards to the outbreak of hostilities between the Ukraine and Russia in February of 2022. Since then we have often heard a figure of over half a million Ukrainian soldiers being killed by the high-grade weapons and fighting skills of the Russians. That is a whole generation of widows and orphans. What were all these fathers and husbands doing when they laid down their lives? 

Sane men will not normally lay down their lives for a trifle. That is why so many wars are religious wars, although in modern times they may not appear so. Thus the two World Wars, 1914–1918 and 1939–1945, represented the remains of Christendom attempting to resist the triumph of the godless substitute for Christendom, which is Communism. Very soon after the triumph of Lenin’s Communist Revolution in St Petersburg and Moscow in Russia in 1917, Lenin had founded the Komintern in Russia to serve as the central quasi-missionary agency of Communism, working in conjunction with a number of the world’s leading banks, to spread Communism throughout the world. 

In fact we are in the presence of four messianisms: the first is that of the Chosen Race, the Jews who were specially chosen out and gifted to prepare mankind and to provide the human cradle within mankind to enable the one and only true Messiah to perform the Redemption through His Cross and His Church down to the end of the world; the second messianism is the one true messianism, that of the Catholic Church, which is the entire fulfilment of the Old Testament by the sending of human souls to Heaven over a little more than 2,000 years; the third messianism is that of the Talmudic Jews, followers of their post-christian Scripture which is no longer the Old Testament as we know it, having God Himself for its author, but the “Talmud,” their own man-made substitute for the Old Testament, because on every page of the Old Testament is mentioned in various ways Our Lord Jesus Christ to come, and for the race which crucified Him He is not to be mentioned, let alone adored as God; and lastly the fourth messianism is Communism which is a mighty offshoot of Talmudism, as being a powerful and active movement to help destroy the last remains of decadent Christendom, the main competing messianism which must be gotten out of the way of Talmudism. 

Thus messianisms can be seen as the mainsprings of human history, so to speak: a messianic people; the true Messiah; the once messianic people turning all their gifts out of hurt pride against the true Messiah; and as a result all kinds of pseudo-messianic movements down 20 centuries, all of them fighting to hinder the salvation of souls, as St Paul well understood, even so soon after the crucifixion and resurrection of Our Lord Himself (I Thess. II, 16). 

As for the Russians they are certainly a religious people, as their aptitude for the anti-christian pseudo- religion of Communism showed. But at Fatima Our Lady foretold that Russia would play an essential role in the healing of the nations’ godlessness today, and sure enough, Rome may not be built in a day, as the proverb says, but after 72 years of terrible sufferings under Communism(1917–1989), Russia has learned its lesson and is returning to Christ. Read Solzhenitsyn. God has not lost His grip. He has made the Ukrainians pay a heavy price for having chosen to trust the Talmudists, who are in complete control of the Americans, but it was their own choice. If anyone needs the help of God, let them just prefer His will. 

Kyrie eleison

PUTIN SPEAKS

PUTIN SPEAKS on March 9, 2024

An honest man has little or nothing to hide. 

But who can talk like this on the Western side?

On February 6 last a famous and decent American journalist interviewed President Putin of Russia, heavily and steadily blackened in the vile media of the West, bravely giving Putin a chance to present his case to a Western audience. The selection below is less than 5% of the interview’s original length – 

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, we were promised that NATO would not expand eastwards. There have now been five waves of expansion. In 2014, there was a coup d’état in Ukraine supported by the US. Ukraine launched a war in Donbass with the use of aircraft and artillery against civilians. They created a threat to the Crimea which we had to take under our protection. Then the current Ukrainian leadership declared that it would not implement the Minsk Agreements, signed after 2014, where a plan for the peaceful settlement of Donbass was set forth. More recently, former leaders of Germany and France said openly that they indeed co-signed the Minsk Agreements, but never took them seriously. For us not to have reacted would have been culpable negligence. It was the Ukrainians who started the war in 2014. Our goal now is to bring it to an end. 

We did not refuse to talk. We negotiated with Ukraine in Istanbul in 2022 and Davyd Arakhamia, who led Ukraine’s delegation, even put his preliminary signature on a peace treaty. The war would end if Ukraine dropped any aspiration to join NATO. Arakhamia publicly stated that Boris Johnson, then Prime Minister of Britain, came to Kiev and dissuaded Ukraine from doing this. Johnson said that it was better to fight Russia and not sign any agreement. As for NATO, they are trying to intimidate their own populations with an imaginary Russian threat. Thinking people understand perfectly well that this is a fake. We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. These are horror stories to extort additional money from US and European taxpayers. It goes against common sense to get involved in some kind of global war that will bring all mankind to the brink of destruction. 

Did NATO/CIA blow up the Nord Stream pipeline in 2022? Yes. Whoever did it must have had not only a sufficient motive for destroying the pipeline, but also the necessary capabilities. There may be many people interested in ending Nord Stream, but not all of them can go to the bottom of the Baltic Sea to carry out such an explosion. So why not make propaganda out of this crime of the West? In the war of propaganda, it is very difficult to defeat the USA, because they control the world’s media. 

The dollar is the cornerstone of US power. However, even the United States’ allies are now downsizing their dollar reserves. Until 2022, US dollars accounted for approximately 50% of Russian transactions with third countries, while currently it is down to 13%. This is because the USA decided to restrict our transactions. I think this was complete foolishness from the point of view of the interests of the USA, damaging the US economy. Why did the United States do this? Self-conceit. They thought it would lead to a full collapse of Russia, but nothing collapsed. 

A very significant date in the history of Russia was 988. This was the Baptism of Russia by Prince Vladimir and the adoption of Orthodoxy, or Eastern Christianity. The Russian state incorporated both Novgorod (northern Russia) and Kiev (southern Russia). There was a single territory, one and the same language and the same Faith. What is happening now is, to a certain extent, something of a civil war. The West thinks that the Russian people have been split by hostilities forever. No. Russians will be re-united. Relations will be re-built. It will take time, but they will heal. 

Could Tucker Carlson now go to the real policy-makers of the West and obtain an equally open account of their drive to subjugate the entire world? One may doubt it. To start with, who are those real makers of Western policy, and not just their public puppets? 

Kyrie eleison.

HONOURING APOSTATES

HONOURING APOSTATES on March 2, 2024

The Newsociety does not compromise? 

To venerate apostates is not wise!

If these “Comments” sometimes shock good souls by how they can present either the Newchurch (since 1965) or the Newsociety of St Pius X (since 2012) in a good light, let them know that it is for pastoral reasons, because many Catholics are hanging on to their Catholic Faith through either the Newchurch or the Newsociety by their fingernails, and without the Newchurch or the Newsociety they could easily let go. In many such cases surely the proverb applies, “Better half a loaf than no bread.” On the other hand for doctrinal reasons this way of keeping the Faith has its serious dangers because both Newchurch and Newsociety have made compromises in doctrine which are dangerous for keeping the Catholic Faith. Here is that valuable lesson, from the following article written by a Benedictine monk of the Monastery of Santa Cruz, near Rio de Janeiro. “Arsenius” (his pen-name) has our warm thanks. 

Ever since the heresy of humanism (man before God) was made officially “Catholic” by the Council Fathers of Vatican II (1962–1965), the Popes and their advisers have done nothing but continue on their way leading straight to the abyss, falling typically faster and faster as their fall proceeds. Such a picture in no way inspires within us any hope for the least glimmer of a wish on the part of any of these officials to look after Catholic Tradition (meaning quite simply the true Church) in any way whatsoever. However, there are those who not only entertained some such hope but even felt a strange certainty that things were getting better for Tradition in Rome. By “Tradition” here they can only have meant the Newsociety with its desire to enter into a blameworthy “unity in diversity” with Rome. Hence the split, puzzling for many, between the Newsociety of St Pius X and the so-called “Resistance.” 

The turning-point for the Society of St Pius X was the year 2012, when the Resolution of the previous General Chapter of 2006, that there would be no practical agreement with Rome as long as the Catholic Truth had not yet triumphed, was replaced by the Newsociety’s official desire for a practical agreement, even if the Pope and his advisers had not yet come back to the Catholic Truth. Bishop Williamson was excluded from the General Chapter that made this change, and then from the Newsociety altogether. 

The years that followed showed more and more clear signs of Rome and the Newsociety growing closer together. One by one, Rome gave official approval to the marriages, priestly ordinations and confessions dispensed by the Newsociety. Was this the famous phrase being put into practice, namely “Rome gives everything and asks for nothing in return”? In which case the phrase was a reality and not just an illusion? One might well reply that it was just a way of acting to ensure that from now on the Newsociety would be acting more and more only with modernist Rome’s approval, basing its activity no longer on the general and grave emergency within the Church, because with Tradition now being “officialised,” the emergency was supposedly over. Meanwhile Rome would be waiting for the day when it could “pull the rug” from under the Newsociety’s feet, driving it into the blind alley into which it had driven itself. 

But may the recent announcement that the Newsociety is going to consecrate one or more bishops without Rome’s permission not be a sign that the old Society prior to 2012 is coming back? Alas, that seems virtually impossible. A return to the fighting spirit of Archbishop Lefebvre against the enemies of the Church in Rome seems to us a heritage of his in large part now lost within the Newsociety. The future looks dark to us, although God is still at work in numerous souls, thanks to the apostolate of members of the Newsociety. But that does not stop us from recognising that the Newsociety should be correcting a number of its post-Lefebvre guiding principles. In any case, the more scandals stain the pontificate of Francis, and the more the illusions of a reconciliation with Rome should be fading out. May Our Lady make us understand and love deeply the Church of all time, not to be identified with its caricature fabricated at Vatican II, and put into practice in the pontificates following. 

Kyrie eleison

EMERGENCY ADVICE – II

EMERGENCY ADVICE – II on February 24, 2024

The greater the horror of World War Three,

The greater God’s glory – for eyes that see!

No reader of these “Comments” has sent in theoretical questions comparable to the series of practical questions on today’s unprecedented Church crisis sent in last week (see EC 866 of February 17), but it is worth inventing such a series, and offering answers to the theoretical questions, in case just a handful of readers can get a better handle on the confusion let loose by Vatican II, as slippery as it is dangerous.

1 Then what is at the heart of that confusion? Is it what they call “modernism”? What is modernism?

Answer: modernism is the great error of modern times, by which even educated churchmen can come to believe that the Church of the past need no longer lift mankind to spiritual heights which mankind is no longer capable of reaching. Rather, mankind is so different in modern times that in order to reach it in its materialism, the Church must up-date its doctrine, morals, liturgy, everything. If men can no longer rise to the spiritual level of the Church, the Church must come down to the material level of men. Or so they say.

2 But is it not the function of the Church to reach out to men, wherever they are to be found?

Yes, but not on whatever conditions! All firemen want to put out fires, but not any liquid will do. What fireman ever used gasoline instead of water? Water and gasoline each have their unchanging nature, which is independent of the will of men. Water puts out fire (surprise, surprise!), while gasoline makes it blaze (well, whaddaya know?). In a similar way, Gregorian chant and Rock music each have their unchanging and opposed natures, with opposed and unchanging effects. Chant will draw souls to Church, Rock to the dance-hall, but Rock will not draw to Church. Some modernists mean well, but they are foolish if they think music functions differently today from how it functioned yesterday. To be drawn at any rate to God, souls need a music which is calm, not agitating.

3 But all modern life is agitating, compared with life yesterday. So how will any soul today reach God?

You said it! After 6000 years of world history one would think that men had learned by now what things have what natures, effects and consequences, but no. Our own times are, as it were, based on the principle that man can will for natures to have what effects he likes. Everything has become so denatured and so destabilised that life turns into one continual agitation, and the youngsters cannot stand any music that is too calm. But that does not mean that natures have so changed that Rock will bring them back to Church. It will not. It is not in its nature to do so. It was designed by the Devil to create ever more agitation.

4 But if that is true, how will any modern youngster – or modern soul – ever get to Heaven?

Good question! In modern times many a Saint has asked himself that question, but he has never despaired of the answer because he has known that the grace of God is always there for the asking. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” is a human way of saying it. “To whoever does what lies in him, God does not refuse His grace” is a more divine way that the Church has of saying it. In any case, when a soul, through no major fault of its own, finds itself in a situation where the odds against its salvation are to all appearances overwhelming, God can always intervene – for example in Genesis 19, the case of Lot.

5 But if God is all-powerful, why does he not eliminate all evil from the Creation which He controls?

Because His purpose in creating was to give the greatest bliss possible to souls freely accepting. Now a bliss in no way deserved by the recipient cannot possibly be as blissful as a bliss at least partly deserved by the soul itself despite all the evil by which it was surrounded in its brief life in this “valley of tears.” It would follow that the more generous God wishes to be with His gift of bliss, the more evil He will allow, but only up to the point where the evil risks swamping the good being freely chosen. That point once came to the whole world in the time of Noah. It is coming again today. God will intervene again soon. If we have the Catholic faith, let us do our part by praying His Mother’s Rosary for the salvation of souls.

Kyrie eleison