The Answer is "NO."

The Pillar floats the question of whether the largest Eastern Catholic Church, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, will get its overdue Patriarch.

The answer, as JD Flynn certainly knows and all-but-concedes in his article, is "of course not." 

The reason is that the Russian Bureau for Orthodox Spirituality has been given a veto over such. It's the same reason the pontiff can't criticize the nation whose war of aggression is killing that very same flock of his.

Can't afford to make the bearded governmental functionary in the Danilov Monastery upset. 

By the way, the late, great Eastern Jesuit Robert Taft (yes, from that Taft family) had some pointed words to say to both East and West during his career. Usually, it was the latter that received more attention, especially in the endless liturgy wars. However, in this magisterial essay in 2000, while he directs fire at both, he lands a heavy blow on Orthodoxy for its complicity in religious persecution under Communism. A preview:

There is no way one can fairly judge the present tense ecumenical situation between Orthodox and Eastern Catholics in the former Communist East Bloc without an objective view of the martyrdom of the Greek Catholic Churches from the end of World War II until 1989. Attempts to attenuate or deny this history merit the same contempt now given to renewed attempts to deny the Holocaust. 

* * *

Only in the light of these simple facts can the oft-repeated and widely publicized present Russian Orthodox complaints about losing to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church almost all their Churches in the region of Galicia be placed in their proper context.

In the winter of 1944-45 the Soviet regime prohibited all contact of the Ukrainian Catholic hierarchy with its clergy and faithful, and initiated a campaign of forced meetings and propaganda in favor of union with the Russian Orthodox Church. Opponents were arrested and tortured, in April 1945 the entire Greek Catholic hierarchy was imprisoned, and the Soviet regime recognized the “Initiative Group” of three Catholic priests, formed to carry out the government plan, as the sole authority over the Church, instructing them to make lists of all clergy who refused to recognize their authority. Under police protection this group carried out a feverish campaign of propaganda and threats. The NKVD pressured the unwilling clergy to sign a petition for union with Orthodoxy. Those who refused were arrested. At the end of February, thirteen Catholic priests were received into Orthodoxy in Kiev and the two celibate members of the “Initiative Group” were secretly consecrated Orthodox bishops. Their leader, Havriyil Kostel’nyk, a married priest, was elevated to the rank of mitred archpriest, the highest dignity open to the married clergy.

On March 8-10, 1946, a “synod” of 216 terrorized priests and nineteen laypersons, orchestrated in Lviv under the leadership of this group, abolished the Union of Brest (1596). This purported to be a synod of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and to this day the Russian Orthodox Church has claimed it to be such and has steadfastly refused to repudiate either the synod or its own role in the charade. 

But as the Russian Orthodox Church authorities are well aware, the entire Ukrainian Catholic hierarchy was in prison, and the entire presidium of the synod had in fact already become Orthodox, though this was kept secret until the farce was a fait accompli. The action was followed by massive arrests, interrogations, abuse, trials, banishment and deportations, causing incalculable suffering and death.

Russian Orthodox authorities ever since have defended what was done as a canonically legitimate synod of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church that freely and legitimately abolished of the “forced” Union of Brest, and to this day they have refused to disclaim or condemn it. The Acts of the synod were published in Ukrainian in Lviv in 1946, and in 1982 the Moscow Patriarchate issued bowdlerized (i.e., deliberately doctored) versions in Russian and English for the 45th anniversary of the shameful charade.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was not destroyed but driven underground, to re-emerge maimed but still vigorously alive when finally granted freedom in 1989, at which time almost the entire Russian Orthodox Church in Western Ukraine, clergy, parishes, and faithful, re-entered the Catholic Church en masse.

Similar forced reunions with the Orthodox Church took place in 1947 in Transcarpathia, 1948 in Romania, and 1950 in Slovakia.

These are the unvarnished facts. This history is important for several reasons. First, it shows the demonstrable falsity of the accusation that the Catholic Church has “reinvented” or “resurrected” a dead and gone “Uniatism,” thereby stalling the Orthodox-Catholic ecumenical dialogue. A more nuanced view, one corresponding to the historical facts, leads one to recognize the following realities. Eastern Catholics were forced into the underground in the 1940’s by one of the bitterest and most violent persecutions in Christian history. 

Although this was done by Stalinist regimes there is abundant and irrefutable evidence that it had the active support and/or collaboration of at least some Orthodox hierarchs and authoritative exponents. Each case must be taken by itself, and justice demands avoiding generalization, but there can be no doubt that ambiguous figures like Patriarch Justinian Marina in Romania, and Archbishop Makarij Oksijuk in Lviv and Transcarpathia, were active participants in these historic violations of human rights. 

And one of the chief Romanian Orthodox ideologues of modern times, the Orthodox priest and noted theologian Rev. Dumitru Staniloae (d. 5 Oct. 1993), gave wholehearted vocal support for this massive violation of human rights, insisting that the “reunion [of Greek Catholics with the Orthodox Church which took place in 1948] was entirely free and spontaneous." This is not only a patent lie; it is also a denial of the bitter suffering of martyrs.

Read the whole thing--absolutely essential.

By the way, Fr. Taft thought the Ukrainian Church should just present Rome with a fait accompli regarding the patriarchate:

Frankly, my advice to the Ukrainians has always been to do the same thing. Just declare the patriarchate and get on with it. Do it, of course, only if you’ve got the bishops unanimously behind it …

Do they?
Yes, I think they do now. The danger is that if there are even two people who say no, then Rome’s going to say that the bishops are divided and we can’t recognize it. I told them, take two steps. First, publicly declare the patriarchate. Second, request Roman recognition, but even if it doesn’t come, refuse all mail that doesn’t come addressed to the patriarchate. Don’t just pretend, but really do it. The Secretary of State sends a letter addressed to the archbishop? We don’t have any archbishop, we’ve got a patriarch. Send it back unopened, “addressee unknown.”

Now, fairness compels me to suggest that the current refusal to forcefully condemn Russia may have this grim history of Orthodox-facilitated oppression in mind. If Moscow still thinks it was "robbed" of Catholic faithful, there's no telling what they might be willing to bless if/when the conquest of Ukraine is complete. After all, they did it once, within living memory, and never repented of it. 

But if that's the case, what kind of "dialogue partner" are you dealing with?

 

It will be double digits by spring.

Inflation hits highest mark since 1982. 

Energy prices will continue to spike, and with the fourth largest wheat producer on the planet under Russian occupation, that commodity will soar, too. With all the knock-on effects throughout the system.

The plan to address the former is to drain some more out of the strategic reserve, and blame oil producers for gouging. Because going hat in hand to OPEC back in November ended in our envoy being sent on his way.

The blinkered stupidity of our leadership is keeping pace with inflation. Putin sure loves having oil at $92+ to fund his blitzkrieg. Just imagine how different things would have been at $45 per barrel on that point alone.

So, more pain for the working and middle classes, with no end in sight. But Wall Street is set for a big rebound today, cheering spending increases by said classes. Have they ever thought people are trying to pre-empt inflation and "supply chain issues" by making purchases now so they won't have to pay a lot more later? Raises hand.

Well, no, they haven't. That would require them to place themselves in the shoes of the people they regard as human resources.

But the money traders are desperate for anything that looks like good news, so there you go.

A long, miserable year beckons. And no doubt with more unpleasant surprises.

NFTs: Art's hellishly-stupid derivatives market.

But Barnum would approve.

[Language warning.]

Ukraine.

 

I recently ordered a wood carving of Our Lady of Pokrov from a Ukrainian Catholic artist on Etsy. He and his employees reside in Lviv, near Poland. 

But the deluded tyrant who is attacking his homeland has made it clear that he will not settle for less than vassalization of the whole land. I told him to not worry about completing the item and use the money as he sees fit.

I pray for his safety and for all the victims of aggression in this war.

 

Stop polishing Putin's backside.

Apologetics for Vlad the Poisoner have become a staple for some on the right, and it needed to stop years ago. 

Now would be a belated, but still good, time to quit. And never stop quitting.  

You can be opposed to American military intervention in an aggressive war by a nuclear power and not take up the cause of the probable loony who has the nukes. 

But just as distressing was the speech Vladimir Putin gave to announce it to the world. Earlier today I wrote a piece that in one line offhandedly suggested that Putin was a rational actor. I repent of having written it. If that ranting, grandiose, aggrieved wreck of a speech was delivered sincerely, then Putin has addled himself with his own propaganda, is now unpredictable, and will likely drive his nation and others to a disaster. I grant that there may be insincerity in it as well. But reports of his meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron suggest that Macron was subjected to six hours of this same ranting and could never bring Putin down to what Europeans see as the brass tacks: the Minsk agreements, the withdrawal of Russian irregulars, and a series of next steps, including diplomatic talks on the long-term security arrangements of Europe.

His speech featured the Russian litany of post–Cold War grievances, namely the broken promise not to expand NATO. “They try to convince us over and over again that NATO is a peace-loving and purely defensive alliance, saying that there are no threats to Russia. Again they propose that we take them at their word. But we know the real value of such words,” he said. More disconcerting, he suggested that the expansion of NATO was meant to “serve as a forward springboard for the strike.”

Here's a background confirmation of Macron's concerns about Putin, which is significant given the French president's efforts to develop a good diplomatic relationship. 

There's a fair and reasonable argument to be made that NATO expansion was an antagonizing mistake. But that argument has to take into account the fact that Russia's neighbors have ample reasons, grounded in history and atrocity, to clamor to join. 

American apologists for foreign strongmen have never been lacking. As a child of the Cold War, whataboutism was born of that conflict, and left-wing defenses of the poor murderous Soviet Union were more abundant than the average Soviet harvest. It is disgusting to see the likes of Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens do the very same thing on behalf of a former KGB agent. 

It's beyond appalling watching American oligarchs and celebrities kow-tow to Xi. Seeing soi-disant patriotic conservatives doing the same for the tyrant in Moscow (who has clasped hands with Mao 2.0) is inexcusable.

The Blast-Furnace of Satan.

It is no surprise whatsoever to read that a couple of the pontiff's appointees to the "Pontifical Academy for Life" [sic] are proposing assisted suicide as an alternative to euthanasia in Italy. 

Splitting the difference with the dying West--and then splitting it again and again, ad infinitum--is one of those things that "starting processes" is about.

Launched by the Jesuit Pravda and then followed-up in Le Monde, it could have been nothing other than a trial balloon from the narcissists running the show. 

Fortunately, the secular folks on Italy's highest court said that a euthanasia referendum was not possible at all, making Jesuit casuistry on behalf of death moot. It should also not be a surprise at this point that Italian lawyers have more regard for human life than Jesuit Central.

Except, of course, that it isn't moot: Rome is largely occupied by the heterodox-to-heretical and the clubbable. And, given the blinkered Vatican I notion of papal supremacy, enshrined in dogma and canon law, there's precisely squat you can do about it. 

Paul VI talked about the smoke of Satan getting into the Church. Now it is starting to billow out from the inside. And the men who have spent generations building the furnace are working on proof-of-concept.

Pray for peace to prevail in Ukraine.

Embassies of impending aggressor nations burning documents is a classic sign that war is imminent.

 

Three cheers for Congresswoman Omar.

No, really: she wonders why power-apologist journalists are going after donors to the Freedom Convoy following a hack-n-doxx. 

Short answer: because that's what journalism is today--a corporate apologetics ministry for the oligarchy.  And oligarchs want people to know their lane and not disrupt the neoliberal machine. 

It's all class warfare these days--and crushing smallholders with the temerity to annoy leviathan is an absolute must. 

A reminder from Pixar:

And another from Orwell:

I laughed.

It helps with the wincing tic I have developed in checkout lanes.

Let's see what the Central Committee does in response.

The answer to the question posed in the link is almost certainly yes.

According to this report, the Church in Italy has steadfastly refused to provide an accounting of the rape of children by clerics. And the Vatican, as the head of the Church in Italy, has been part and parcel of this refusal.

Some of the rape victims are having none of it:

The Vatican has long resisted calls to investigate the church in Italy, according to Francesco Zanardi, a vocal survivor from the northern town of Savona, who runs the support group Rete L’Abuso or Abuse Network. He has launched a social media campaign called #ItalyChurchToo. He has likened the Vatican’s ability to silence accusations against Italian priests to the mafia’s use of the omerta or code of silence.

Zanardi sends out a daily newsletter publishing credible accusations of abuse and news when pedophile priests are brought to justice—which is rare in Italy, in part because of what Zanardi calls “interference” by the Catholic Church in the Italian judicial system. He says crucifixes hang in all Italian courtrooms not as a show of faith but “as a threat and reminder that the Church is more powerful than even God.”

On Friday, he will launch a database with the media group Left, that will list convicted Italian priests, criminal cases, and victims’ accounts of abuse. It will be the first such public account in the country, and he says they will start with more than 350 proven cases of abuse by priests, but that there are “hundreds and hundreds of victims” who are too afraid to come forward because of the church's influence in the country. “In the absence of action by the State and the Church, the time has come for a turning point,” he says. “We will be the 'Trojan horse’ in a system that sees institutions defenseless with respect to the problem of pedophile priests.”

The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 The mafia comparison is fair. And not just in Italy.

The Vatican has a chance to do the right thing here. But when it comes to predatory clerics, doing the right thing is never, ever the first option.

Stafford wins a ring.

 The erstwhile Lions quarterback led a comeback to defeat the Bengals, 23-20 in the Superb Owl.

It was a very Stafford performance, 3 TDs, 2 INTs, but he came through when it mattered most on the biggest possible stage. 

Good for him. He now has as many SB wins as Aaron Rodgers, which is baffling to contemplate. 

Now he can rest on his laurels so next year's pick from the Rams won't be a glorified second rounder.

My sympathies to the Bengals, who have now lost three Super Bowls on clutch 4th quarter drives by their opponents.