divine intervention does not precede any merit of ours. Paul was heading to Damascus precisely to persecute the early church when he saw the Uncreated Light of God.
This demonstrates to me that democracy is only the illusion that people have power to change society positively by voting. When in reality it is God acting through the illusion effecting positive change. Which further attests to the power of God acting through us when we follow the gospels truthfully.
Where are you getting the notion that Putin is a dictator? Nobody disputes that elections in Russia are above board. It could be argued that they're more transparent than the US fiasco. In the last election, some NATO countries were asking Russians to boycott the vote in protest. They even organised a terrorist attack in Moscow prior to the election to scare the citizens. The response was Russians lining up to vote in their millions. Putin won by an overwhelming majority. That was ordinary Russians' answer to NATO. It certainly doesn't make hi a dictator. Most of the "Putin is a thug" accusations are coming from thr CIA and MI6 (Zelensky's persomal security). Neither of those agencies can afford to point the finger at anyone. There are very strong suspicions that one of them had a hand in the assassination of their own President. I'm sure that Putin is far from holy. I'm just not convinced that he's worse than his accusers. As facts are revealed, he's looking a whole lot better than any of them. At least he tried to make peace. Zelensky passed a law making it treason for anyone to negotiate a peace deal. And don't get me started on Britain's BoJo who was despatched to make Zelensky back out of the deal they had agreed. One clown to another committing hundreds of thousands to die in a bloody, needless war. I know you referred to the Greek Catholics, and I included them in my response to you along with the Orthodox. As far as I'm concerned, Pope John Paul was the Pope Our Lady chose to finally consecrate Russia. And Pope John Paul was very concerned with healing the Great Schism. He actually included the Russian Orthodox in the second document I included in my response to Luan. The Orthodox are always dividing and sub-dividing. That's a major fault in having national churches. The Russians matter because they have more members than any of the other Orthodox churches. Constantinople takes precedence over the rest of them but the Turks have imposed some kind of rule that the Patriarch must have been born in Turkey and there are declining numbers of Greek Orthodox in Turkey. (I don't see NATO calling for their member State to fix that). A powerful, converted Russia could be very important to all of us in the future. Maybe that's the reason Satan wants it fragmented. Putin inherited the laws on Cstholicism. Russian suspicions of Cstholicism being a threat date back centuries, with offences from both sides. They pre-date the murderous Stalin and Communism. Pope John Paul covered that, too, and spoke about the need for us to move beyond those offences. In the interests of clarity. he didn't mention Communist oppression of the Church. Pope Francis's meetings with Patriarch Kirill were steps towards the healng, but it's all scuppered now. Please God, the war will end soon and they can get back to healing the Schism. Catholics hurling insults at thr Patriarch won't help the healing. There's a website with the Catholic Bible that I find very reliable. I recall reading years ago about the owner of the website (I think he may be a Deacon) having met Patriarch Kirill and remarking how impressed he was by the Patriarch. I don't know whereabouts on the website that was posted but I looked recently and wasn't able to find it. Perhaps it was deleted. We really should be more careful what we say priests and Bishops who have valid Holy Orders, even the schismatics. We haven't walked in their shoes. As an aside, I actually attended Holy Mass in Moscow in Soviet times. I don't recall the year but I think it was in Breznev's time. Getting there was an achievement in itself. I didn't like Moscow. It struck me as a dour place with a oppressive sir about it. I was glad to get out of it. There's no comparison between the Moscow then and the Moscow I'm seeing now on YouTube videos. Then again, I didm't care for Paris either.
He is fully aware that there are millions of Catholics who are in resistance to the moral degradation of the West. In fact, there was a significant reaction from the Catholic minority in the country to the Fiducia Supplicans document. There is always a context of justification to defend Putin; he has already declared the " abortionist commandment" that the decision is the woman's, but in this case there is a specific context. His opponents die in suspicious circumstances, but he must be the anointed untouchable; the Ukrainian Church is persecuted, but they were the ones who sought it; the Catholic apostolate is prohibited in Russia, but this comes from the specific cultural context of the Orthodox Churches. So it is difficult not to see ideological indoctrination in what should be a criticism of the West that is deserving of the punishment of a Russian invasion.
Our Lady made two special requests at Fatima that would bring peace to the world: Devotion to the Holy Rosary and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, although diplomatic means can help, the power of the Queen of Heaven is far beyond Our human capabilities. And these devotions are targets of a Babylonian captivity in Russia that prevents their spread.
I will not argue with you, I respect your opinion, but please do not be offended if, in this matter, I respect much more the opinion of Catholics who suffer daily the horrors of Putinist democracy.
Putin is not responsible for nearly as many deaths as Joe Biden. Even if Putin is evil, he is the lesser of the two. And, if Whatever is correct in saying that the Catholic Church in the Ukraine publicly supported the absolutely illegitimate Nuland/Obama revolution, then they also rowed in with the lords of perversion and will receive a lot less sympathy from me. What business had the Americans in the Ukraine? No legitimate one I can think of, but some of them seem to have their greedy paws upon much of the Ukraine's wealth and their greatest ambition seems to be to export sodomy, paedophilia and trans insanity to a Russian nation that, unlike the Ukrainians and their perverted president, wants to have nothing to do with it. I think there's a big war coming on the grounds that our Irish deputy prime minister is trying to accelerate changes in our laws so that Irish soldiers can go fight the Russians.
Because you're Catholic and because you suffer does not necessarily guarantee you're right. Did the Ukrainian Catholic Church publicly support the Maidan Revolution?
There are 4 sins which cry out to God justice and both the West and Russia are fully immersed in them. However Russia doesn't seem to worship two of them and present them as virtues, whereas the west does. It really does seem that Ukraine is a victim of geography and propaganda, because the West and Russia were going to meet eventually.
I often wonder if the war in the Holy Land is reflecting what is happening in Ukraine. Ukranians being genocided in a war between East and West. Palestinians being genocided in a war between East and West.
I was wondering there now when Jesus was alive and in the evening was gathered round the campfire with the Apostles and Disciples how much they might have discussed affairs within and without the Roman Empire. I suppose from time to time people would have brought such matters up, but perhaps Jesus was have deflected these, because as He said, 'The Kingdom of God is within'. He was more interested in this than anything else going on round about. Hence later when asked if we should pay taxes to Caesar He deflected the question by suggesting we should give what's due. So also later St Paul said we should simply be obedient to those in authority. We are only passing through.
This is the incredible thing, the God-Man showed the Apostles the Way. We still have that Way before us, and nothing is as Powerful. The Apostles got a dose of the Holy Spirit and changed EVERYTHING! St. Francis mirrored it 1200 years later, even while Crusades were happening, so we know it is still possible. Our Lady has told us in several apparitions the cup is overflowing, so I kind of expect everything that is happening now, consequences of sin and all. But still, we have the Good News. I wake up every day and think, WOW! we have so much at our disposal we just have to allow ourselves to follow it.
I was listening to this Protestant Minister a while ago and I thought he made a lot of sense. A lot of what is going on we don't even see.
It seems to me that, at the time, He wanted to highlight the fact that he was a spiritual liberating messiah, against sin and not a political messiah against Roman oppression. In this context, the issue of slavery also comes into play, which many atheists use to accuse evangelists of being silent on this, in my opinion.
In a discussion about whether or not the Putinist regime is friendly to the Catholic Church in Russia and Ukraine, Joe Biden's sins are barely relevant... Joe Biden is a pro-abortion apostate, if he was ever Catholic. But what do you really want after all. Do you want Trump to poison his opponent Joe Biden in a good Putinist democratic style to fight the gay agenda? Can't you objectively observe the evil of Putinism without having to compare it with all Western evils? Since when is AIDS a good thing because it's better than having cancer?
This guy nails it on a lot of stuff. I would also argue that the secularism experiment he refers to comes from having a faith world view in the newtonian paradigm. It is my belief that a lot of the sin we have accumulated comes downstream from this. The Gospels shed light on Truth we no longer believe and ignore. But even in early times many thought it was impossible to live the Gospels, and that only Jesus could do it. When saints went full out on the Gospel Truth suddenly the impossible would happen. Those saints didn't break with authorities, but also didn't count on them to do everything. They took personal responsibility for their relationship with God. Often after having lived a heart breaking life.
