The Plot To Silence Our Lady (Part II)
by Father Paul Leonard
The Organization's Smear Campaign Gets Worse
The anti "Fatima Crusader" campaign has not stopped at mere
innuendoes. In a newsletter of that organization it is not enough for one of
their writers to write that "The Fatima Crusader is extremist", refusing to
elaborate further. (Perhaps he means that it is extremely objective, truthful
and faithful to the Magisterium.) He insists that in spite of its very Catholic
appearance, still "you cannot trust the publication". He fails to write why
exactly he makes this statement. (Perhaps he means that you can't trust The
Fatima Crusader to distort the truth in order to carry that organization's
"party line".) A priest, in another recent newsletter of that organization,
with the insignia of that organization attached, issued the overtly libellous
claim that, "The Fatima Crusader perpetuates and encourages rebellion and
mistrust of the hierarchy".
The Fatima Crusader Defends The Pope And The Faith
In reality, The Fatima Crusader promotes exactly the contrary:
it encourages resistance against all who rebel against the Pope, the Magisterium
or Canon Law, regardless of their ecclesiastical dignity. It is the universal
and perpetual teaching of the Church that when the clergy, or even bishops
rebel against the Pope, or the laws of God or the Church, it is not only the
right but also the duty of the faithful to oppose them. Saint Thomas Aquinas
explains that bishops are not to be obeyed in all things, since sometimes
the directives of bishops go against the law of God, and in such a case, "it
is necessary to obey God rather than men". A bishop's order can directly oppose
the Law, in which case, the subject is bound to obey the greater authority.
Furthermore, a subject is not obligated to obey his superior "if he is given
an order in a matter in which he is not subject". (Summa Theol. 2-2. 104.5)
Cardinal Gagnon Upholds Our Right To Resist Erring Bishops
Cardinal Gagnon, President of the Pontifical Council for the
Family, in the well-known 1983 interview in The Wanderer, spoke on the subject
of legitimate dissent and opposition to erring bishops. On this topic Gagnon
said, "much of the fight has to be fought by the lay people in the places,
the dioceses and parishes, where the particular distortions have taken hold",
and he encouraged groups and associations, "to fight and be ready to work
at the parish and diocesan level".
Vatican-Moscow Agreement Betrayal Upheld By That Organization
That organization has suggested that it is somehow wrong to
present reasoned discussions about Church matters which are subject to revision.
Church history and Theology both prove that in matters of administration,
the bishops and Cardinals and even the Pope can make errors. The Fatima Crusader
together with Pope John Paul II have found under further study that the Vatican-Moscow
Agreement is contrary to the salvation of souls and the good of the Church.
The Fatima Crusader has demonstrated this,1 but that organization's
editor has stated in a published letter to Hamish Fraser as well as in a letter
to Father Gruner that the Vatican-Moscow Agreement is good for the Church.
To quote that editor's letter to The Fatima Crusader "You can be sure that
Nikodim and Cardinal Tisserant were making an agreement which will ultimately
serve not militant atheism, but the promise of Our Lady of Fatima ... that
Russia will be converted." The editor of that publication, in his letter to
Hamish Fraser, editor of Approaches, apparently infers that the Vatican-Moscow
Agreement should be kept secret.
Blind Obedience Comes From The Devil
The apparent policy of the oft referred to organization of
blind obedience to some ecclesiastical dignitaries is not only contrary to
the teaching of the Church, but it is an essentially Communist principle.
The Second Vatican Council expressly prescribes "reasoned obedience" to the
legitimate ecclesiastical authority. That organization, like the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union, tolerates no dissent from the official "party line"
- no matter how reasonable that dissent, no matter how grave the abuse of
authority. The idea that you must never oppose the bishops who are in serious
error, or that you must never recognize any voice that is not "official" has
its parallel in the policy of Lenin: "All power to the Soviets" - recognize
no one else.
Affinity To Marxist Tenets
The organization's subtle and professional methods of spreading
disinformation and smears against their perceived opponents, and attempts
to silence any voice that deviates from their own "party line", bear a striking
resemblance to the practices of the Soviet Committee for State Security (K.G.B.).
I am not here suggesting that the referred to lay association has been infiltrated
and taken over by sinister forces of the Left (although suspicions to that
effect may be justified), but I am merely pointing out the conspicuous fact
that their policies and practices, far from showing any basis in Christian
principles, reflect an affinity to Marxist tenets, and a politicization that
has turned the organization into an efficient tool of the Ostpolitik that
was founded on the Vatican-Moscow Agreement.
Do not be surprised when you find them quoting the head of
the Soviet government to support their suggested proposition, repeated more
than once, that the conversion of Russia has already begun - thereby lessening
the urgency of the Fatima Message. (See their publication page 4, May/June
1986.) They thereby at the same time help to perpetuate the gross deceit of
the Moscow and the Communist "party line", by suggesting that it might be
about to cease its war against God and the Catholic Church. This is an obvious
falsehood.
Our Lady of Fatima warned us that "Russia would spread its
errors throughout the world". Would you have expected them to spread under
Our Lady of Fatima's name? It would be a masterstroke of the devil.
Communists Have Tried To Take Over Similar Groups
In the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church, to a great
extent, is but an instrument of the Secret Police. Oleg Penkovskiy, a Colonel
in the G.R.U. (Soviet Military Intelligence) confirmed this fact in his papers
as have many K.G.B. officers who defected to the West. Alexander Sakharov,
(not the dissident Andrei) a Soviet diplomat and agent of the K.G.B. who defected
to the U.S.A. revealed that Archbishop Kashnovetsky was himself an agent whose
task was to influence the clergy in Africa toward a pro-Soviet outlook and
to recruit agents for the K.G.B. Captain Sergei Myagkov, a K.G.B. intelligence
officer who defected to the U.S.A. produced secret documents which plainly
stated the K.G.B. objective to infiltrate anti-Communist and Church organizations
in order to neutralize them and transform them into instruments of Soviet
foreign policy.
The K.G.B., Nikodim And That Organization
In promoting and defending the Vatican-Moscow Agreement, the
organization has ordered its policies in a direction that brings it into conformity
with Soviet foreign policy. Already in 1971, that organization had dealings
with agents of the K.G.B. In that year, only one out of fifteen National delegates
to an International conference of their organization opposed the invitation
to the well-known Soviet agent Nikodim. That Nikodim was a Soviet agent is
beyond doubt. Major Peter Deriabin, who served the Kremlin Guard Directorate,
and later served as Rezident in charge of Soviet espionage activities in Vienna
testified, after his defection to the U.S.A., that "every priest is an agent
of the secret police. Even the second-ranking official in the Russian Orthodox
Church of Moscow is an agent." (Chronicle-Telegraph of Elyria, Ohio, July
20, 1961.) Nikodim served for one year as assistant to Metropolitan Nikolai,
who was the second-ranking churchman in the Soviet Union referred to above.
Nikolai was succeeded by Archbishop Nikodim at the end of his one year's service
as Assistant. He was at that time extremely young for that office, only 31
years old. He was placed in that position by Krushchev.
Although Nikolai denied, as the Associated Press reported on
June 6, 1956, that he "had ever collaborated with the Communists", Major Deriabin
testified before the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (May 5, 1959),
that under instructions from the K.G.B., he himself had collaborated with
their agent Nikolai, and that when a Soviet delegation to the Vienna Conference
for Peace was to arrive in Vienna, Colonel Kovalev referred to him a telegram
with the order "to take care of the delegation", and that "Metropolitan Nikolai
is an agent of State Security".
Apparently after Nikolai had been exposed he had to be replaced.
Nikodim was his replacement. Like Nikolai, Nikodim was assisted by Soviet
officials when his delegation attended conferences abroad. When the Russian
Orthodox Church was admitted into the World Council of Churches in New Delhi
(November 1961) Nikodim's delegation, according to the report of the Daily
Telegraph of London (November 22), was "accompanied by a Russian Government
courier who is responsible for their comfort and all their expenses".
Nikodim Lies About The Ukrainian Catholic Church
Nikodim was also an accomplished liar who trumpeted out Communist
propaganda as directed by his Soviet government mentors. At a press conference
in New Delhi, he repeated one lie right after another - all proven falsehoods
which reflected the official line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
In that conference Nikodim said: "Along with the other civil liberties guaranteed
by the Constitution of the U.S.S.R., the full freedom of religious worship
is enjoyed by all people in the U.S.S.R."
The Catholic Church in the Ukraine has been suffering a most
bloody persecution since 1946, when the so-called "Synod of Lviv" unilaterally
abolished the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and incorporated it into the Russian
Orthodox Church. "With no Catholic bishops present at that synod (they were
all imprisoned) and the majority of the faithful opposed, the unity of the
Ukrainian Catholic Church with Rome was never broken and the return of this
Church into the bosom of the 'Mother Church of Moscow' never took place."
(Alexis Ulysses Floridi S.J., Moscow and the Vatican, Ardis Publishers, 1986,
page 246.)
Nikodim Praised By Editor Of That Organization
In spite of all these facts, the managing editor of the oft
referred to publication writes, in a signed, published letter to Hamish Fraser,
"and Nikodim walked a very fine and difficult line with his Soviet masters.
They could never really know whether he was another Thomas More or not. But
he was."2 Overflowing with adulation, that editor goes on to express how
deeply he was impressed by the edifying appearance of the Soviet agent Nikodim
when the same Nikodim visited the organization's house.
In a report of Cardinal Slipyj (July 28, 1980, See The Fatima
Crusader, No. 8, "The Church Of The Martyrs"), the primate of the Ukrainian Catholic Church declared
that ten bishops, more that 1,400 priests, 800 sisters and tens of thousands
of the faithful, "sealed their loyalty to the Pope, the Apostolic See and
the Universal Church with the sacrifice of their lives". These things were
happening while Nikodim was Metropolitan.
The official position of the Partiarchate of Moscow and Nikodim's
Department of External Relations was and remains that no one's religious liberties
are violated anywhere in the Soviet Union, and that the bloody suppression
of the Ukrainian Catholic Church is strictly an internal affair of the Orthodox
Church of the U.S.S.R.3
Leftward Drift
The organization is currently promoting a Martin Sheen film,
"State of Emergency". Sheen, who narrated left-leaning documentaries about
Central America and radical leftist priest Daniel Berrigan, has not been converted
from his Communistic views. In September, 1985, Sheen assumed a leading role
in a "Teach-In" at California State University, Northridge (L.A.), in which
"he had nothing but praise for the (Communist) Sandinista leaders", who, according
to Sheen, are "humane, just and democratic". (Los Angeles Times, September
20, 1985.) It is the same Communist government which publicly insulted Pope
John Paul II when he visited Nicaragua. The bishops of Nicaragua are currently
protesting against the suppression of religious and civil rights by that Communist
government which Sheen calls "humane, just and democratic". The general reaction
of the organization's personnel to Sheen's film, according to their own publications,
was "enthusiastic". Presumably the men in the Kremlin are also enthusiastic
about the steady leftward drift of that seemingly innocuous lay association.
Footnotes:
1. See The Fatima Crusader issue No. 16, "The Fatima Crusader Comments on the Vatican-Moscow Agreement", "Pope John Paul II Denounces Communist Regimes for Persecuting Catholics", "The Present Day-Persecution of the Church by Communist Russia Seriously Threatens Your Eternal Salvation" (see
"The Fatima Crusader Comments on the Vatican-Moscow Agreement", "Pope John Paul II Denounces Communist Regimes for Persecuting Catholics", "The Present- Day Persecution of the Church by Communist Russia Seriously Threatens Your Eternal Salvation" respectively, of this book); No. 17, "The Catholic Church Betrayed", "Why the Vatican-Moscow Agreement Must be Repudiated",
"We Must Get Russia Properly Consecrated" (see "The Catholic Church Betrayed", "Why the Vatican-Moscow Agreement Must be Repudiated", "We Must Get Russia Properly Consecrated" respectively in this book); No. 18, "Today's Crisis Within The Church Is
Because Russia Is Spreading Her Errors"(see "Today's Crisis Within The Church Is
Because Russia Is Spreading Her Errors" in this book).
2. See Approaches, Issue No. 88 Supplement "Postscript To Rome-Moscow Agreement".
3. Russel P. Moroziuk, Politics of a Church Union, (Church Herald, Chicago)
1983, p. 112.
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