If Only Those Who Pay Little Attention to the Pope Would Stop Commenting On Him For Lent

A Michael Sean Winters blog post had some folks in my neighborhood exorcised the other day because we're pretty sure it's our parish he's complaining about here -- for the terrible crime of praying the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel after every Mass.

At another nearby parish, the pastor, one year older than myself, also has the congregation recite the prayer at the end of Mass.  This "fashion" is making a comeback with some of our younger priests, and I do not think it bodes well. I am all for a Marian hymn after Mass. But, bringing my namesake into strikes me as evidence of an agenda or, perhaps, an ideology. 

I don't understand the point of the post, which opens by invoking Pope Francis' alleged view that young people liking the Extraordinary Form mass is just a fad but turns into a rant against anyone praying to St. Michael. The connection being, EVERYONE prayed the St. Michael prayer in the old days, so ANYONE praying it now must be up to no good.

I'm not sure what difference it makes if the EF mass or St. Michael IS a fad. So what? It's a big church, people can have the devotions they wish -- that seems to be the Pope's point, no? He doesn't think the EF is going anywhere long-term and he may or may not be right, but he doesn't show any appetite for crushing it either. In any case, why would you stop anyone from praying -- and especially to your own namesake?

What would be the dangerous ideology Winters fears? Belief that the devil is real and should be opposed? 

My larger point, however, is that whatever the Pope thinks of the EF Mass, you cannot invoke him against the prayer to St. Michael, seeing as how last July he consecrated the entire Vatican to St. Michael.

Michael - which means "Who is like God" - is the champion of the primacy of God, of His transcendence and power. Michael struggles to restore divine justice and defends the People of God from his enemies, above all by the enemy par excellence, the devil. And St. Michael wins because in him, there is He God who acts. This sculpture reminds us then that evil is overcome, the accuser is unmasked, his head crushed, because salvation was accomplished once and for all in the blood of Christ. Though the devil always tries to disfigure the face of the Archangel and that of humanity, God is stronger, it is His victory and His salvation that is offered to all men. We are not alone on the journey or in the trials of life, we are accompanied and supported by the Angels of God, who offer, so to speak, their wings to help us overcome so many dangers, in order to fly high compared to those realities that can weigh down our lives or drag us down. In consecrating Vatican City State to St. Michael the Archangel, I ask him to defend us from the evil one and banish him.

So there.

They Lent Me This Picture

No post, really. Just checking out this story.

My Spy in Ukraine

I don't actually have a spy in Ukraine, but I do have a Ukrainian friend, and told her I'd love to know her take on events in the Crimea.

As "her take" and that of her contacts in Ukraine, she sent me these two links. This, written by a family friend: The Ukrainian Struggle: Freedom with Dignity Over Corruption & Power.

In perhaps what may turn out to be one of those epic twists of historical irony, Western talking heads will be shocked when Ukraine emerges unified with no real ethnic divisions between Russians and Ukrainians: they will have missed the boat in the same way Western analysts missed the collapse of the USSR. George Bush the elder perhaps best exemplified this myopia in his infamous Chicken Kiev speech before the Ukrainian SSR Parliament in 1991 when he labeled the aspirations of Ukrainians—themselves long-term victims of Russian nationalism—“blood-thirsty nationalism.”
Dignity is not something political scientists can easily quantify or characterize, so in most cases they are blind to the deeper sentiments driving events in Ukraine. Stephen Cohen displays his ignorance of local realities when he misrepresents Ukraine as “two countries”—playing into Putin’s aspiration to grab parts of it if cajoling Ukraine into the Eurasian Economic Union fails.

And this: A Divided Ukraine? from a Russian-speaking Ukrainian.

Many people in Crimea and eastern Ukraine don't want the protection of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But there are some who are afraid of forced Ukraineization because they have been fed propaganda by Russian TV channels for years. The purpose is to convince Ukrainians that we are divided, not one country, and that the safest course of action for Russian-speaking areas is to break away and join Russia.

These ideas have been cultivated since I was a child. I remember when I lived in Donetsk in the '90s, how scared we were that a candidate from western Ukraine would win an election and force us to speak Ukrainian. But when I moved out of the area of aggressive Russian information, I quickly realized I can speak Russian in Kiev or Lviv and no one will ever be upset with me!

Over our 22 years of Ukrainian independence, fears of language or ethnic persecution have never come true. But they were kept alive by Russian propaganda. We understand that Putin is trying to escalate tension and provoke civil war in Ukraine right now. He can't afford for a free Ukraine to succeed: His own people might get an idea that it's possible to overthrow a tyrant and build a prosperous country.

My friend tells me she burns every time she hears someone in the West say Crimea used to be part of Russia so it's no big deal. She wonders how many Westerners recall that Alaska was once part of Russia and are aware that Russian children are taught that America acquired Alaska illegally?

Make of it what you will. Meanwhile, WaPo reports that Crimea has set a referendum on joining Russia, a move President Obama has said would be "unconstitutional."

Ah, so he does know the Constitution!

Maybe Don't Worry So Much About Russia

Last week Paul Rahe brought me considerable calm regarding Russia & Crimea, pointing out that whatever Mad Vlad's aspirations are, he simply doesn't have the resources to pull off his plans, and is in fact depleting his own economy. America isn't Russia's enemy, Rahe argues -- we're not even rivals, since our only interest in Russia at this point is as a trading partner.  Russia does have an enemy, though:

Russia is suffering a demographic implosion. It will be difficult for it to hold what it has. It is, moreover, well nigh impossible to get Russians to move to Siberia. It is not a pleasant place in which to live. The majority of those who live there today are not Russian. Many of them are Chinese who have journeyed north in search of well-paid work; and China, which is just across the border from Siberia, is an economic juggernaut increasingly desperate for resources of the very sort that are found in abundance in Siberia.
Vladimir Putin should think hard about the precedent he is setting in the Crimea. The day may come when China does to Russia in Siberia what he is trying to do right now to the Ukraine in the Crimea. Putin's government piously states that its only concern is to protect the majority Russian population in the Crimea from the Tatars and the Ukrainians there. China, in time, will say the like about the Chinese in Siberia. And when that day comes, he will have alienated everyone of any significance who might otherwise have rallied to Russia's defense.

That rings true to me, as does this:

Our aim for the past seven decades has been to reorder the world in such a fashion as to make war counter-productive. The name of the game is commerce. The weapon we deploy is simple and powerful. Those who agree to leave their neighbors alone and to allow freedom of commerce can profit from a a world-wide economic system that will enrich everyone. Those who buck that system and opt for imperial ventures will be contained, weakened, and defeated.
This is a lesson that France and Germany have taken to heart. But Vladimir Putin is simply too dumb to notice.

Conclusion: this is not good for Ukraine and Crimea right now, but in the long run Putin's only hurting Russia. 

Deep breath, everyone calm down.

That was last week. This morning Rahe has a follow-up that's genuinely alarming. Maybe too much so, maybe it's just alarmist. But read not only the piece but the intelligent comments. The question is what China will learn from Russia's Crimea gambit --and Obama's manifest weakness. Rahe speculates that Taiwan might be in danger. His interlocutors think that's too much, but Japan's South Sea interests might be in real danger.  RTWT.

Scratch A Priest, Find A Soldier

(Photo credit needed. Help?)

Not pretending to fully understand the situation in Ukraine, but any blow to Putin's effort to rebuild the Soviet Union seems like a good thing, so the flight of Yanukov and release of Yulia Tymoshenko seems positive. (Though when Reuters describes the Ukraine turning from Russia and towards the EU, I'm less certain of that. One is a wicked entity determined to stamp out individual cultures and crush institutions and thoughts it disapproves of and the other is run by Vladimir Putin).

What's been impressive in the midst of these protests is the Orthodox priests standing in the breech between the crowds and the government forces. They remind me of my old Prof. Fritz Wilhelmsen's frequent remark: "When you scratch a priest, you should find a soldier." This guy looks like he's straight out of 300, only he's not animation-enhanced. Here's a gallery of such photos --priests with the wounded, priests with the protestors, priests with the cops. Moving.

Why Obama Won

Watch what Michelle says here in response to the second question (roughly minute 1 to 2). That connection with people who have boring jobs they aren't passionate about is why Obama won and why the GOP can't connect -- because, with the exception of Rick Santorum (who is too angry-seeming for national office) and Paul Ryan behind the scenes but not yet too much publicly, no one in the GOP has mastered the language of defending the little guy, even if its self-understanding is being for the little guy. (I thought I wrote a long post about this around the election, but can't find it. Maybe it was a mind-post. Oh, wait, here it is: what about the quiet americans?)

Caracas On Fire

I am not caught up enough on reading to have a handle on the situation in Venezuela, but here are links my spies in Caracas have been posting the past few days. Pray for them, would you? Two of my dearest friends are Venezuelan and through them, I have quite a few Venezuelan buddies, all of whom are involved at high levels in opposition to the Chavezistas and therefore in danger.

The last message I have checking in on people was from a couple of days ago, when one friend was not all that worried, and actually hopeful. He wrote:

Things are going wild down here, but I think it's normal.... Having this mess and nothing happening is really frustrating, so people are finally reacting. This may be the beginning of the end, which doesn't mean that we should expect results soon... Thanks for your prayers!

But that was before last night, when there's apparently been an even more frightening government crackdown, worse than what was already happening.

Here's a good round-up of events, coupled with a "shame on you" to international media for not covering the massive anti-government protests.

A good summary of what's going on, with video of government forces firing into peaceful, unarmed demonstrators. Amateur, made by a Venezuelan expat from footage friends in country sent her, but good. 

CATO institute podcast.

Venezuelan conductor decries atrocities.

If you read Spanish:  Venezuelan police admit "this is worse than we thought."

Also in Spanish, a rather incredible interview the Venezuelan ambassador to the Dominican Republic gave to to DR reporters. I'm told this is what all the Chavezistas are like: ignorant, boorish and macho. He reminded me of Bagdad Bob. He says no one could possibly be upset with the government when 85% of the country voted it in only 9 months ago. It's all stirred up by the United States, intent on a coup. When the reporter says the demonstrations are peaceful and primarily of students, he says students couldn't possibly be protesting because Venezuela gives more handouts to students than anyone else. And then he's just insufferably rude. The reporters finally lose their cool, insult him in return, and end the interview.
 

Strange Ways

Posting this only because as a 7th grader I was somewhat afraid of Gene Simmons. In the '70s, it was kind of faddish among evangelical Christians to fret a great deal about satanic influence in rock music -- lots of allegations about backward masking and such. It was rumored that KISS stood for Kids In Satan's Service, and it was easy to believe looking at their make-up and listening to their sound (and albums with titles like "Hotter Than Hell") that they might all be possessed.

I'm aware that in his old age Simmons has become something of a staid Libertarian spokesman, but I think he's unrepentant of his rock-star promiscuity, so a defense of the chaste Tebow and the way he seems conversant in "Jesus talk" comes as something of a surprise.

Kenneth Copeland Prays for the Pope

An extended prayer for the Pope and for Christian Unity at a Kenneth Copeland ministry meeting? Yep, it happened. The Holy Father sent a private message to a gathering of Kenneth Copeland ministries at the behest of his friend, Bishop Tony Palmer of the CEEC (about which I know nothing except: Anglican of some stripe). In a homey, spontaneous video shot by Palmer, the Pope spoke about Christian unity and asked for their prayers. I didn't watch the whole thing, just picked up at around minute 31 for the Pope's message and the prayer and response.



Transcript here. It's pretty decent, except I deny the Pope suggested any "spiritual hugs," as it's being translated. I would render it, "Let's embrace each other, spiritually, and allow the Lord to complete the work in us which He has begun...."

Exactly The Same Ones Ticked Off at the Treatment of Galileo

Is it me or is this report on American science knowledge unintentionally amusing? We're told 25% of Americans don't know the earth revolves around the sun -- and then that these same Americans join their countrymen in believing "the benefits of science outweigh any dangers."

Like they would know.