Christian Hope is Based on This Truth: Evil and Death Do Not Have Final Sway

John Paul II's 22-27 September trip to the two Asian nations, Kazakhstan and Armenia

Don't know the dates, if any yet, of his visit to Moscow.

And will never forget two days in prayer with the people of Ukraine ... a nation that suffered for generations after it too was purposefully and methodically decimated. Pastoral Visit in Ukraine (June 2001)

From a fellow pilgrim on that trip (and pastor), this homily excerpt of two week's ago:

With an overt and covert support of various lobbies and pressure groups, our national, social and cultural elite today have crossed over into the final frontier of bigotry ... what Catholic writer and philosopher Michael Novak calls "Christophobia." Faithful, believing Christians and Jews have become the new counter-culture: increasingly viewed as oddballs and aliens in a land that their forefathers' religious beliefs and moral values established and formed. And contrariwise, a monstrosity like the Decadence Festival is officially allowed to dominate our press and our streets as it disgraces our city.
Today, as I have personally seen both in 1992 and just two months ago, post-communist Russia and Eastern Europe have opened their doors wide to the religious faith and moral values that the atheist Soviet Union tried so hard for 70 years to exterminate, together with a good percentage of the population. Russian educators have met with American religious leaders and Christian educators. They are bringing teachers, materials and - above all - Bibles into their public schools and are restroring the spiritual and ethical base that they lost during the seven decades of official atheism.
On the other hand, which once gratefully acknowledged God and Biblical values, now rejects them. And Russia, which once rejected God and Biblical values, now acknowledges and welcomes them. Having been deprived of religious freedom and having experience severe persecution for most of the violent 20th Century, the Russian people are experiencing a spiritual and moral reawakening. They are becoming aware again of the central importance of religion in their lives and in the lives of any healthy society.
Now our country, on the other hand, having once been firmly established on a foundation of religious faith and moral values now rejects them .. Blithely unconcerned about what always happens when a society rejects or becomes indifferent to its God and to its religious faith.
Ukrainian wife and mother Nadja Undurt certainly knows what happens. In 1989, just before the collapse of the Soviet Union and its state atheism, she wrote a letter to a publication called The Soviet Ukraine in which she said this:

Today, as a consequence of an atheistic upbringing, we are knee-deep in alcoholics, drug addicts, other chemically dependent individuals, loafers, bums, criminals, savages, uncouths, dullards, cruel and frightful juveniles who commit crimes for the fun of it.
These are people who were brought up by non-believer parents and an atheistic society. Christians lived with religious faith for 2,000 years and provided us with a very rich heritage which we have succeeded in destroying. It would be a very good thing if, in restructuring the school curriculum, the education specialists included teaching of religion in our schools.

In Ukraine and Russia (a pilgrimage that confirmed my longtime love and certain affinity was not misplaced): rebuilt churches and monasteries, renewed tradition and intensely resilient souls.

And deep scars. Amid St. Petersburg's grandeur and beauty, a bare field whose solitary flame burns in pained vigilance over the dead, each of them, buried en masse there.

I could see allying with Russia (indeed I do pray for it) ... I simply still pray for her conversion, that's all. As I do ours. There is no other True option for combatting revolution from above.

Struwwelpeter write that the Russian people watch with tears in their eyes.

I hope and pray with regard to all visits of the West -- Powell's, possibly the G-7 and that of Pope John Paul II -- to the former Soviet Union ... the once Holy Mother Russia whose face is yet reflected in the eyes of so many of her sons and daughters.

Russia Calls for Emergency G8 Meeting
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by Inside the Vatican staff
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An attempt to discuss the world situation at the highest international level?
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MOSCOW, Russia, Sept. 12 - As the world waits for the American reaction to the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, Moscow today called for an emergency summit of leaders of the G7 leading industrialized nations and Russia, Agence France Presse reports (citing the Russian agency ITAR-TASS).
Russia's offer was made during a meeting between Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Alexander Vershbow, ITAR-TASS reported.
Vershbow told the news agency that Washington was still studying Moscow's suggestion. He added that a meeting between Ivanov and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell would go ahead as planned on September 19.

Russian Orthodox Leaders Send Telegrams of Condolence
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by Robert Moynihan
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Messages of condolence from Russia, which follow earlier statements by Russian President Putin on the need for a renewal of Christian faith in Russia, suggest the central importance of Pope John Paul II's upcoming trip to Kazakstan, the largely Muslim former Soviet republic between Russia and Afghanistan

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VATICAN CITY, September 12, 2001 -- Around the world, there has been an outpouring of shock and of prayers in the wake of the tragic death of thousands of lives in the New York City and Washington D.C. terrorist attacks of September 11. Among these expressions of grief and solidarity, we note below several from the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church (we reprint the telegrams here).

Following the telegrams, we also note surprising remarks made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in August. These remarks, though generally overlooked by the Western press, we think of extreme importance, and worth noting now despite the passage of nearly three weeks.

During a trip to the Solovki islands, once a famous Orthodox monastery, then a Soviet prison camp where many believers lost their lives, Putin made two significant statements:

that Russia needed to return to religious faith and

that Russia's religious faith, even if it is primarily Russian Orthodoxy, must not be exclusive or nationalistic, but expansive and open to Christians and other men and women of good will around the world.

On his trip, Putin was accompanied by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexi II. This, too, we think was significant. Observing these statements of Putin's, along with these telegrams of condolence, we judge that the upcoming Septer 22-27 trip of Pope John Paul II to Armenia and largely-Muslim Kazakstan in central Asia -- a trip which upt until now has been considered by many in the media as a mere "stepping stone" on the way toward an eventual dramatic papal trip to Russia, and therefore of somewhat marginal importance -- takes on an unexpectedly profound and possibly historic meaning.

Kazakstan is at the confluence of West and East, Christian (largely Orthodox) and Muslim culture. It is north of Iran and Iraq and on the edge of Afghanistan (where the ruling Muslin Taliban has harbored suspected terrorist Ossama Bin Ladin).

The Pope's visit to Kazakstan in a little more than 10 days, in light of the recent tragic events in America, then, may become one of the most important of his pontificate.

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TELEGRAMMES OF CONDOLENCE ON THE TERRORIST ATTACKS IN THE USA

HIS EXCELLENCY MR. GEORGE BUSH
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON DC
THE STATE DEPARTMENT

MR.PRESIDENT

I EXPRESS TO YOU AND THE WHOLE AMERICAN NATION MY DEEPEST SYMPATHY. MAY THE LORD WIPE THE TEARS OF YOUR COMPATRIOTS AND MAY HE HELP THE INJURED AND THOSE WHO LOST THEIR RELATIVES TO LIVE THROUGH THESE SUFFERINGS. MAY THE PERISHED DWELL WITH THE BLESSED. THE WHOLE RUSSIAN CHURCH AND I WILL PRAY FOR THE DEAD AND LIVING.

WITH DEEP SORROW I LEARNED ABOUT THE SHOCKING CRIMES, THAT RUINED LIVES AND HEALTH OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. THERE IS NO FORGIVENESS TO THOSE WHO ARE GUILTY OF IT. FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART I HOPE THAT SO TERRIBLE A SORROW WILL NEVER COME TO THE AMERICAN LAND AGAIN.

IN THIS TRAGIC HOUR WE ARE WITH YOU – WITH THE WHOLE OF AMERICA AND ITS PEOPLE. MAY GOD’S GRACE BE ON YOU.

--PATRIARCH ALEXY OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA

HIS BEATITUDE THEODOSIUS
ARCHBISHOP OF WASHINGTON
METROPOLITAN OF ALL AMERICA AND CANADA
ROUTE 25, OYSTER BAY COVE, P.O. BOX 675
SYOSSET, NY 11791 USA

YOUR BEATITUDE,

PLEASE, ACCEPT THE MOST SINCERE CONDOLENCE IN CONNECTON WITH THE TERRORIST ATTACKS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THE EVIL WILL HAS RESULTED IN DEATH AND SUFFERINGS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. WHAT HAS HAPPEND CAN NOT BE EITHER EXPLAINED OR JUSTIFIED. SHARING THE PAIN OF THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS OF THE UNITED STATES AND ALL AMERICAN PEOPLE, I AND THE ENTIRE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH ARE PRAYING FOR REST OF THE SOULS OF THE DEAD, FOR HEALTH OF THE INJURED, FOR HEALING THE PAIN OF THOSE WHO LOST THEIR RELATIVES, FOR DELIVERENCE FROM FEAR AND ANY CRIMINAL DESIGN.

MAY THE LORD BE WITH YOU AND YOUR FLOCK, WITH ALL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, GIVING IT PEACE AND SAFETY. WITH BROTHERLY LOVE IN CHRIST

--PATRIARCH ALEXY OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA

HIS EXCELLENCY
MR. COLIN POWELL
STATE SECRETARY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON DC
THE STATE DEPARTMENT

YOUR EXCELLENCY,

HAVING LEARNED ABOUT THE MONSTROUS CRIME RESULTING IN THE DEATH OF THOUSANDS PEOPLE, I EXPRESS DEEP SYMPATHY TO THE GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. NOW I PRAY THAT THIS TRAGEDY WILL NEVER BE REPEATED, THAT THE LORD MAY GIVE REST TO THE DEAD, HEAL THE INJURED, AND STRENGTHEN THE AMERICAN PEOPLE IN ORDER TO OVERCOME THE HARDEST CONSEQUENCES OF THE TRAGEDY.

THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH RESOLUTELY CONDEMNS THE TERRORIST ATTACKS. NOTHING AND NO ONE COULD EXCUSE A DELIBERATE AND PLANNED MURDER OF THE GREAT NUMBER OF PEACEFUL PEOPLE, PERISHED AS VICTIMS OF THE EVIL WILL. THE EVENTS HAPPENED IN AMERICA ARE NOT A TRAGEDY ONLY FOR YOUR COUNTRY, BUT FOR THE WHOLE OF HUMANITY AS TERRORISM IS A COMMON PROBLEM FOR ALL THE STATES AND PEOPLES.

THERE ARE NO LIMITS AND BORDERS FOR THIS EVIL. I HOPE THAT THE WHOLE WORLD WILL UNITE ITS EFFORTS FOR THE STRUGGLE AGAINST TERRORISM AND VIOLENCE, SO THAT EVERY NATION AND EVERY MAN COULD BE AN HEIR TO THE BLESSED PEACE. WITH EVERY RESPECT

--METROPOLITAN KIRILL OF SMOLENSK AND KALININGRAD
CHAIRMAN, DEPARTMENT FOR EXTERNAL CHURCH RELATIONS
MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE

HIS BEATITUDE THEODOSIUS
ARCHBISHOP OF WASHINGTON
METROPOLITAN OF ALL AMERICA AND CANADA
ROUTE 25, OYSTER BAY COVE, P.O. BOX 675
SYOSSET, NY 11791 USA

YOUR BELOVED BEATITUDE,

WITH THE DEEPEST SORROW I LEARNED THE TRAGIC NEWS OF THE TERRORIST ATTACKS IN AMERICA RESULTING IN MASS HUMAN LOSSES.

I SYMPATHIZE WITH YOUR CHURCH AND ALL AMERICAN PEOPLE. WITH TEARS I PRAY FOR THE DEAD AND INJURED, FOR ALL WHO ARE NOW LIVING TROUGH FEAR, PAIN AND DESPAIR.

PLEASE, CONVEY MY SINCERE SYMPATHY TO ALL THE CLERGY AND FAITHFUL OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA. MAY THE LORD JESUS SAVE THE AMERICAN ORTHODOX FLOCK AND ALL PEOPLE OF AMERICA IN PEACE.

WITH LOVE IN THE LORD
--METROPOLITAN KIRILL OF SMOLENSK AND KALININGRAD
CHAIRMAN, DEPARTMENT FOR THE EXTERNAL CHURCH RELATIONS
MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE

(From the Communication service of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Adress: 22, Danilovsky val, Danilov monastery DECR, 113191 Moscow, Russia;
Telephone: (7-095) 2302439 Fax: (7-095) 2302619
E-mail: commserv@mospat.dol.ru)

You know I was there in Ukraine. Forgive me if I'm still somewhat cynical about Russian leadership's interest in the unifying factor -- particularly internationally -- that is catholic Christianity.

Were it not for all the contrary actions (which do speak louder than words) where the Far and Middle East are concerned, I might give into hoping -- beyond hope -- that they understand the peril we're in and, even better than we perhaps,

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(The following report is drawn from the Russian news agency ENI -- 8/22/01)

Ten years after the coup attempt that triggered the end of Soviet communism, Russia's president has said that his country needs to seek its inspiration from its Christian roots.

"Without Christianity, without the Orthodox faith and culture which sprang from it, Russia would have hardly existed as a state," said President Vladimir Putin during a visit to the Solovetsky monastery, on the Solovki Islands, part of Russia's northern White Sea archipelago.

He was accompanied to the monastery by Patriarch Alexei II, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.

"Today, now that we are rediscovering ourselves, it is very important, useful and timely to return to these sources in our search for the moral foundations of our life," he told reporters on 20 August.

In what observers described a carefully-timed vacation, the president this August visited Orthodox churches and monasteries in northern Russia as his country marks the 10th anniversary of the attempted coup which was launched against the then Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, on 19 August 1991.

The coup attempt -- although unsuccessful -- started a chain of events that led to Gorbachev's downfall, the break-up of the Soviet Union, and the rise of Boris Yeltsin as president of an independent Russian Federation.

The wisdom of the coup is now the subject of heated debate in Moscow. Many of those directly involved -- including Gorbachev, democracy campaigners and those who plotted the coup -- made statements in mid-August about the events. But publicly, President Putin, former president Yeltsin, and Patriarch Alexi have not uttered a word.

Moscow commentators have criticized the failure of President Putin to make any direct comment about the anniversary. However, his visit to the Solovetsky is seen as highly significant.

The first Soviet labour camp was founded there in 1923 after the monastery was closed at the time of the Russian revolution. During Stalin's rule, many thousands of people, including many clergy, were shot or died at the camp. The monastery was re-opened in 1991.

Georgy Satarov, who heads the "INDEM" political think-tank, told ENI that President Putin's visit to the Solovki Islands was intended to send a "coded message.”

"The interpretation of the coup is still something that divides the Russian people, and Putin strongly dislikes publicizing his views on such divisive matters. He has given himself the task of unifying Russians, not dividing them," said Satarov, a former Yeltsin aide.

"It is not accidental that he went to the Solovki Islands, nor that he went with the Patriarch."

According to a prominent historian, Dmitri Furman, writing in the "Rodina" magazine: "Putin is gradually distancing himself from the revolutionary past while establishing [himself] as a 'normal', traditional Russian power." From this perspective, President Putin's Solovki visit served this purpose by simultaneously commemorating the victims of the Soviet regime while stressing the continuity of Russian history.

In his remarks at the monastery, President Putin also appeared to distance himself from the "exclusivist" interpretation of Orthodox Christianity often propagated by Russian nationalists.

"If God saved all nations, that means that all are equal before God," he said, referring to a famous statement by Metropolitan Hilarion, a famous 11th-century bishop of Kiev.

This "simple truth," President Putin continued, became the basis of Russian statehood "making it possible to build a strong and centralized multi-ethnic state" and a "unique Eurasian civilization."

"Besides glorifying the Russian people, besides cultivating the national dignity and national pride, our spiritual teachers... taught us to respect other nations," he said. He stressed that ancient Orthodox teaching was free of chauvinism or any ideology of nations chosen by God. "It would not hurt to remember this today," Putin said. "These are exactly the moral values which should form the backbone of domestic and foreign policy."

Vsevolod Chaplin, a senior Moscow Patriarchate official in charge of relations with political and government organisations, told ENI he welcomed the president's statement on the need to respect other nations, particularly at the present time when Russia itself is torn by ethnic tensions.

"These are very good words," Chaplin said. "Although the president cannot be considered a professional theologian, he correctly understands the essence of our teaching, which combines profound faith in our own tradition, understanding of its uniqueness and value, with openness to other people, other traditions and other nations."

Asked about the significance of the fact that President Putin visited Solovki at the time of the anniversary of the coup, Chaplin told ENI: "I am not a clairvoyant and cannot fathom what is going on in another person's soul. But the very fact that during these days he prayed and venerated the holy sites of our church and our country speaks for itself."

(--Andrei Zolotov for ENI, Aug. 22, 2001)

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(The following story draws on a July 16 Associated Press report)

While still waiting for the go-ahead to visit Moscow, Pope John Paul II this summer received an unexpected boost from Russian President Vladimir Putin as he continues to travel to regions of the former Soviet Union.

The Pope will travel Sept. 22-27 to the former Soviet republics of Kazakstan and Armenia.

The trip is part of John Paul's efforts for better relations with Orthodox Christians, as well as to pay tribute to a tiny Roman Catholic community deported to central Asia during the Stalinist years.

In an interview published July 15 in the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera," Putin praised John Paul and said his trips to eastern Europe --including Ukraine -- "have a positive element."

"I would be truly happy if relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Holy See developed positively, opening new horizons," Putin said.

Vatican officials said privately they were pleased by Putin's remarks, but have made no public comment, apparently to avoid a clash with Alexi.

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