Chaldean Patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako presides over the dedication ceremony of the altar of the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Mosul, Iraq. April 5, 2024. / Credit: Fadi Dinkha/ACI Mena
CNA Newsroom, Apr 18, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
When the altar of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chaldean Catholic Church was consecrated earlier this month in Mosul, Iraq, a former parishioner now living in the United States said she was moved to tears.
“My eyes were filled with tears as I watched my church and my school return to the beautiful picture engraved in my memory,” said Georgena Habbaba, who used to attend the parish and study at the parish school with her brothers. Her own children studied there, too, before the family had to flee Mosul amid worsening violence in 2007. (Note: Habbaba also writes for ACI Mena, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner.)
“I remembered the wonderful days I spent studying at this school and praying in this church. Very close to my family’s house,” she told CNA.
Georgena Habbaba pictured circa 1985 in the front kneeling, third from the left, with her school scout team at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chaldean Catholic School in Mosul, Iraq. Habbaba, who now lives in the United States, said her memories of her childhood days at the school and parish are “wonderful.” Credit: Photo courtesy of Georgena Habbaba
Habbaba remembers how all the statues, as well as the altar and everything in the church, were destroyed by ISIS. “I especially missed the statue of Our Lady of Perpetual Help above the altar,” she said.
On April 5, Chaldean patriarch Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako presided at a Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help and consecrated the altar, expressing his happiness at its reconstruction. He said it “gives hope for a safe and better future for the people of this city.”
“It is a distinguished achievement that may encourage Christians to return to their dear city and contribute to building confidence, promoting harmonious coexistence, and preserving the fabric of Mosul,” he added.
In his comments, Sako also recalled when the foundation stone for the church was laid in 1944 and the construction of the school was finished in 1946.
“It is a great spiritual and cultural joy that we celebrate today the restoration of the opening of this great religious and educational edifice,” he told ACI Mena, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner. The school has also been completely reconstructed.
Habbaba recalled that when the school first opened, it was directed by Chaldean nuns. “The school and the church owe a lot to the nuns,” she said.
A photo of a Chaldean Catholic nun with school children circa 1985. Credit: Photo courtesy of Georgena Habbaba
Habbaba also recalled that the school was a mixture of Christians and Muslims without discrimination, ”although the numbers of Christians decreased beginning in 2003 until the school in its last days before the occupation of ISIS in 2014 was almost free of Christian students.”
Before 2003, Christians in Iraq numbered nearly 2 million. Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, had nearly half a million Christians. Today, Iraqi Christians number fewer than 200,000, though a lack of official statistics makes it difficult to know for sure. Christians are returning to Mosul but so far in small numbers.
Georgena Habbaba on her wedding day in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul, Iraq, on Oct. 14, 1998. Habbaba, who now lives in the United States, said her eyes filled with tears when she recently saw photos of her home parish and school rebuilt and consecrated. Credit: Photo courtesy of Georgena Habbaba
The most prominent pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was Father Faraj Rahho, who became the archbishop of Mosul and was kidnapped and martyred by terrorists in 2008. Sako, the current patriarch, also spent 15 years as pastor of the parish.
Also present at the special Mass on April 5 was Bishop Najib Mikhail, the pastor of the Chaldean Diocese of Mosul, who thanked the French donors, the SOS organization, and all those responsible for accomplishing the restoration work. The church was rebuilt according to its original architecture and building materials, despite difficult circumstances.
Earlier this year, ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language partner, reported on another Catholic church in Mosul that was recently restored. The Dominican Church of Our Lady of the Hour was completely restored after destruction by Islamic State terrorists 10 years ago.
ACI Mena, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, contributed to this story.
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Bishops process into St. Peter’s Basilica for the closing Mass of the first assembly of the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 29, 2023. / Vatican Media
Rome Newsroom, Jul 9, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The guiding document for the final part of the Synod on Synodality, published Tuesday, focuses on how to implement certain of the synod’s aims, while laying aside some of the more controversial topics from last year’s gathering, like women’s admission to the diaconate.
“Without tangible changes, the vision of a synodal Church will not be credible,” the Instrumentum Laboris, or “working tool,” says.
The six sections of the roughly 30-page document will be the subject of prayer, conversation, and discernment by participants in the second session of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to be held throughout the month of October in Rome.
Instead of focusing on questions and “convergences,” as in last year’s Instrumentum Laboris, “it is now necessary that … a consensus can be reached,” said a FAQ page from synod organizers, also released July 9, answering a question about why the structure was different from last year’s Instrumentum Laboris.
The guiding document for the first session of the Synod on Synodality in 2023 covered such hot-button topics as women deacons, priestly celibacy, and LGBTQ outreach.
By contrast, this year’s text mostly avoids these subjects, while offering concrete proposals for instituting a listening and accompaniment ministry, greater lay involvement in parish economics and finances, and more powerful parish councils.
“It is difficult to imagine a more effective way to promote a synodal Church than the participation of all in decision-making and taking processes,” it states.
The working tool also refers to the 10 study groups formed late last year to tackle different themes deemed “matters of great relevance” by the Synod’s first session in October 2023. These groups will continue to meet through June 2025 but will provide an update on their progress at the second session in October.
The possibility of the admission of women to the diaconate will not be a topic during the upcoming assembly, the Instrumentum Laboris said.
The new document was presented at a July 9 press conference by Cardinals Mario Grech and Jean-Claude Hollerich, together with the special secretaries of the synodal assembly: Jesuit Father Giacomo Costa and Father Riccardo Battocchio.
“The Synod is already changing our way of being and living the Church regardless of the October assembly,” Hollerich said, pointing to testimonies shared in the most recent reports sent by bishops’ conferences.
The Oct. 2-27 gathering of the Synod on Synodality will mark the end of the discernment phase of the Church’s synodal process, which Pope Francis opened in 2021.
Participants in the fall meeting, including Catholic bishops, priests, religious, and laypeople from around the world, will use the Instrumentum Laboris as a guide for their “conversations in the Spirit,” the method of discussion introduced at the 2023 assembly. They will also prepare and vote on the Synod on Synodality’s advisory final document, which will then be given to the pope, who decides the Church’s next steps and if he wishes to adopt the text as a papal document or to write his own.
The third phase of the synod — after “the consultation of the people of God” and “the discernment of the pastors” — will be “implementation,” according to organizers.
Prominent topics
The 2024 Instrumentum Laboris also addresses the need for transparency to restore the Church’s credibility in the face of sexual abuse of adults and minors and financial scandals.
“If the synodal Church wants to be welcoming,” the document reads, “then accountability and transparency must be at the core of its action at all levels, not only at the level of authority.”
It recommends effective lay involvement in pastoral and economic planning, the publication of annual financial statements certified by external auditors, annual summaries of safeguarding initiatives, the promotion of women to positions of authority, and periodic performance evaluations on those exercising a ministry or holding a position in the Church.
“These are points of great importance and urgency for the credibility of the synodal process and its implementation,” the document says.
The greater participation of women in all levels of the Church, a reform of the education of priests, and greater formation for all Catholics are also included in the text.
Bishops’ conferences, it says, noticed an untapped potential for women’s participation in many areas of Church life. “They also call for further exploration of ministerial and pastoral modalities that better express the charisms and gifts the Spirit pours out on women in response to the pastoral needs of our time,” the document states.
Formation in listening is identified as “an essential initial requirement” for Catholics, as well as how to engage in the practice of “conversation in the Spirit,” which was employed in the first session of the Synod on Synodality.
Pope Francis and delegates at the Synod on Synodality at the conclusion of the assembly on Oct. 28, 2023. Credit: Vatican Media
The document says the need for formation has been one of the most universal and strong themes throughout the synodal process. Interreligious dialogue also is identified as an important aspect of the synodal journey.
On the topic of the liturgy, the Instrumentum Laboris says there was “a call for adequately trained lay men and women to contribute to preaching the Word of God, including during the celebration of the Eucharist.”
“It is necessary that the pastoral proposals and liturgical practices preserve and make ever more evident the link between the journey of Christian initiation and the synodal and missionary life of the Church,” the document says. “The appropriate pastoral and liturgical arrangements must be developed in the plurality of situations and cultures in which the local Churches are immersed …”
How it was drafted
Dubbed the “Instrumentum Laboris 2,” the document released Tuesday has been in preparation since early June when approximately 20 experts in theology, ecclesiology, and canon law held a closed-door meeting to analyze around 200 synod reports from bishops’ conferences and religious communities responding to what the Instrumentum Laboris called “the guiding question” of the next stage of the Synod on Synodality: “How to be a synodal Church in mission?”
After the 10-day gathering, “an initial version” of the text was drafted based on those reports and sent to around 70 people — priests, religious, and laypeople — “from all over the world, of various ecclesial sensitivities and from different theological ‘schools,’” for consultation, according to the synod website.
The XVI Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod, together with consultants of the synod secretariat, finalized the document.
According to the working tool, soliciting new reports and feedback after the consultation phase ended is “consistent with the circularity characterizing the whole synodal process.”
“In preparation for the Second Session, and during its work, we continue to address this question: how can the identity of the synodal People of God in mission take concrete form in the relationships, paths and places where the everyday life of the Church takes place?” it says.
The document says “other questions that emerged during the journey are the subject of work that continues in other ways, at the level of the local Churches as well as in the ten Study Groups.”
Expectations for final session
According to the guiding document, the second session of the Synod on Synodality can “expect a further deepening of the shared understanding of synodality, a better focus on the practices of a synodal Church, and the proposal of some changes in canon law (there may be yet more significant and profound developments as the basic proposal is further assimilated and lived.)”
“Nonetheless,” it continues, “we cannot expect the answer to every question. In addition, other proposals will emerge along the way, on the path of conversion and reform that the Second Session will invite the whole Church to undertake.”
The Instrumentum Laboris says, “Synodality is not an end in itself … If the Second Session is to focus on certain aspects of synodal life, it does so with a view to greater effectiveness in mission.”
In its brief conclusion, the text states: “The questions that the Instrumentum Laboris asks are: how to be a synodal Church in mission; how to engage in deep listening and dialogue; how to be co-responsible in the light of the dynamism of our personal and communal baptismal vocation; how to transform structures and processes so that all may participate and share the charisms that the Spirit pours out on each for the common good; how to exercise power and authority as service. Each of these questions is a service to the Church and, through its action, to the possibility of healing the deepest wounds of our time.”
Camilo Daza airport in the city of Cúcuta, Venezuela. / EEIM
Cucuta, Colombia, Dec 15, 2021 / 15:34 pm (CNA).
Bishop Víctor Manuel Ochoa Cadavid of the Military Ordinariate of Colombia expressed his sorrow and solidarity following the Dec. 14 t… […]
CNA Staff, Jul 30, 2020 / 04:11 pm (CNA).- The government of Syria plans to build a replica of Hagia Sophia, with support from Russia, as a protest against Turkey’s decision to turn the famous former Byzantine cathedral back into a mosque.
Bishop Nicola Baalbaki, the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Hama, has approved the construction of a new church built as a replica of Hagia Sophia in the city of Suqaylabiyah, which has a heavily Greek Orthodox population, according to Lebanon’s Al-Modon media.
The idea for the new church originated with Nabeul Al-Abdullah, a leader of the National Defense Forces militia, which supports the Syrian government. Abdullah has donated land on which the replica will be built, according to Greek City Times. He also secured approval for the project, as well as support from Russian officials, who are now helping plan the construction of the church.
Russia has supported the Syrian government against Turkish-backed rebels in the western part of the country during the nation’s ongoing civil war.
Located in modern-day Istanbul, Hagia Sophia was built in 537 as the cathedral of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. After the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453, the basilica was converted into a mosque. Under the Ottomans, architects added minarets and buttresses to preserve the building, but the mosaics showing Christian imagery were whitewashed and covered.
In 1934, under a secularist Turkish government, the mosque was turned into a museum. Some mosaics were uncovered, including depictions of Christ, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, Justinian I, and Zoe Porhyrogenita. It was declared a World Heritage Site under UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in 1985.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed a decree July 10 converting it into a mosque following a ruling by the Council of State, Turkey’s highest administrative court, earlier that day which declared unlawful an 80-year old government decree converting the building from a mosque into a museum.
Religious leaders around the world, including Pope Francis, decried the move, with the pope saying it caused him “great sadness.”
As a mosque, the Christian mosaics in Hagia Sophia will have to be covered during prayers, as will as the seraph figures located in the dome.
Catholic bishops across the United States joined their Greek Orthodox counterparts in observing a “Day of Mourning” on July 24.
Christianity thrived in Iraq prior to the two US led wars against Saddam Hussein the first, the 1990 Gulf War, the 2nd the Invasion of Iraq under order of G W Bush, a war waged on allegation of Iraq’s possession of nuclear weapons, weapons that UN inspector general International Atomic Energy Agency Hans Blix Sweden insisted were not present, and were never found.
Iraq Deputy PM Tariq Aziz, a Catholic, had appealed to Pope John Paul II to exert his influence to prevent an invasion by the US against a weakened virtually helpless Iraq. John Paul was against both Iraq wars, particularly the 2nd. Destruction of Iraq and Hussein’s secular Bath Party opened the door for the creation of ISIS, initially former radicalized Iraq military. The war also ended the balance of power that kept Iran contained, and opened the way for Iran to assume nuclear capability, finances to promote Islamic terrorism.
War is not a Christ inspired policy. Nor is the war in Ukraine, a war that has had instigation and preparation for war with Russia by outside interests seeking to permanently weaken Russia. Pope Francis may not be right on many issues, however on the war in Ukraine, he had sense enough to see that Russia was provoked. Now, in a reverse scenario, the Catholic Church in Ukraine, and in Russia are under greater threat from the Russian Orthodox, which under Patriarch Kirill is a Putin ally. At this stage a negotiated compromise is the real solution, not the irrational proposal by some US military leadership and Europeans for a total defeat of the world’s greatest nuclear and delivery system power Russia.
“…a war that has had instigation and preparation for war with Russia by outside interests seeking to permanently weaken Russia”. This conclusion is doubtful in several respects. It is rather Putin’s own unique policies that have consistently manifested intentions to undermine sovereignty in Russia’s neighboring states of the Baltics, Georgia, etc. Out of the same policies and intentions emerged the ultimate Ukrainian invasion. In addition, it goes without saying, that anyone who understands the nature of Western political institutions, governmental systems and societal dynamics cannot fail to envisage the unlikelihood (sic. nonsensical idea) of say NATO seeking preemptively to “provoke” a war with Russia. It is of course, far more convenient for Putin and his Western supporters to disbelieve or belittle the significance of the fact that NATO is, and has always been, primarily a defensive rather than an offensive organization. This aspect alone betrays Putin’s exaggerated concerns about NATO (“outside interests”) as nothing more than pure fantasies empowering him to cement his own authoritarian inclinations.
NATO sought and continues to seek military alliance encirclement of Russia from Georgia to Ukraine, former Soviets that border Russia. It’s similar to the Soviet Union’s placement of nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba. The Soviet’s removal of those missiles was due to a behind the scenes agreement for removal of previously placed US nuclear missiles in Turkey, which borders Russia.
Fr Morello, at the time of the Cuban missile crisis the Us had no hardened ICBM silos and the few systems available required lengthy setup and fueling times. Bombers were not armed and on continuous strip alert as was later the case. IRBM’s fired from Cuba would explode on target long before any counter action could even began. The Soviet situation was not comparable in any way. The vast expanse of the communist block ,which included China then, allowed their strategic forces to be stationed far beyond the range of what we had in Western Europe. The secret deployment to Cuba made their plans and intentions all too obvious. In any case how does one manage to encircle such a behemoth? Cuba was the start of an encirclement of the US which continues to this day.
[…It’s similar to the Soviet Union’s placement of nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba]
I think it’s time for someone to tell Putin the following: that we are in the 2000s, and not in the 1960s; that he is by no means faced with the role Nikita Khrushchev of the Cuban Missile Crisis needed to play; that the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Empire both ended with the onset of the 1990s; that – among other things, instead of acting paranoid and constantly dispatching killers at home and abroad to liquidate his perceived enemies and actively waging aggression in Russia’s backyard and elsewhere, he should rather be investing his country’s vast resources in investigating into, and addressing the rampant issues of unhappiness and extremely low life expectancy among his citizens.
“Russia was provoked”?? Really, thanks for my laugh of the day.
In recent years Putin suspended the adoption of Russian orphans by citizens of others countries. EVERY major Russia city has an orphanage. Literally tens of thousands of children grow up in an institution, and then are thrown on their own at age 16 with no support. The predictable result: The girls turn to prostitution and the boys to theft, just to survive. Predictably, many end up jailed. Once, the daughter of a Russian military person living here in the US, told me that the Russian orphan boys often ended up in the military. They were considered especially desirable for that work since , as she told me, there would be no family to make a fuss about them if they were killed. I wonder of those orphans who could have used a good home provoked Putin too? Or did he just need more bodies for cannon fodder?
This is personal for me because the son my husband and I adopted more than 20 years ago was one such Russian orphan. My heart breaks for the orphans who never had the same chance at a normal family thanks to Putin.
Its hard for me to imagine that so many Americans still have blinders on about Russia. No one wants war. Sometimes it is forced upon you. Peace at any price is not really peace. Its just capitulation.
Russian orphan management policy aside, Russia was indeed provoked to attack Ukraine. Putin has been very clear that he did not want to be surrounded by NATO countries. Ukraine even agreed to never join NATO. The West consistently ignored that concern and unabashedly NATO-ized Ukraine. It is correct that NATO is an organization for defense purposes. I know that fact firsthand as I served in Bosnia as a NATO peacekeeper. But was Putin provoked? Absolutely. Ask the question what would the US do if Russia and China massed on our southern border? Would the US perceive a threat? Of course it would. So too with Putin and Ukraine. With the exception of the Donbas region, Putin does not want Ukraine. He wants to neutralize a threat on his border.
The Germans wanted “lebensraum”( living space), and they had no problem killing the Poles to get it. Likewise the Russians always wanted an outlet to the sea. Hence the Russian theft of Crimea. That theft of territory was NOT provoked, and pretending many of the people living there were of Russian extraction does not provide grounds to seize territory belonging to another nation. As a sovereign nation, Ukraine is entitled to join NATO if it wants to. Otherwise it simply becomes a client state of Russia, jumping when Russia says so. The CURRENT war is simply step 2 in the Russian attempt to regain all its old territories. Its entirely possible you may not want to live next door to another nation. But as Jagger said ” You can’t always get what you want”. Taking what you want, or trying to push the natives of that area out of your way, often results in war.NATO is a defensive organization. That is bogus to suggest that the Russians were provoked.
OK, what about threats to our southern border ? Encirclement? Marxist governments now control Venezuela, Nicaragua(Rabibly anticatholic), and of course Cuba. Drug lords run Columbia, Much of Mexico, and now Haiti. All these countries contribute heavily (or beginning to ) to our so called “migration”. Oh yes, there are Chinese which travel in groups consisting entirely of military age males who wear the same clothes and carry the same backpacks. Last year the feds found that China had set up branches of its secret police in American cities to keep an eye on our ethnic Chinese. To complete the encirclement, back before the war on Ukraine Russia declared that it claimed the entire Arctic Ocean as its exclusive territory. Far more than enough Russian military bases are now concentrated near Alaska for us to hope to defend it during a larger war. Their bombers probe Alaskan airspace frequently.
LJ, so you made a East European adoption also! Our son is from Bulgaria; he turns 31 in July. His orphanage was in Varna which has the remarkable distinction of being the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth. There were older settlements but they no longer exist. Bulgarians don’t hate Russians but they don’t want to be ruled by Russians, least of all retread Stalinists. When Putin wanted to fly in troops to the Balkans during the troubles with Serbia Bulgaria and Romania made their position clear by denying him use of their airspace. Anyway LJ, it is good to encounter folks who have similar experiences. The principal of the elementary school my son attended had adopted two little Russian boys in better times. We Loved to go to the annual adoption agency picnic to meet and share experiences with other families. God bless you LJ.
Hello JJR. Bravo to you for your adoption as well! Traveling to Russia was one of the big and scary adventures of our lives. My husband and I grew up at the height of the cold war, doing “shelter under you desk drills” in grammar school. My operative feeling about Russians is that they cannot be trusted.Prior to our adoption, Chernoble had happened, and the American embassy in Moscow, through which we would have to process out, had been rocket mortar attacked a few weeks before we left the US to get our son. It was an unnerving process and we went not knowing how many weeks we would be stuck there to get all the papers and approvals signed.Aeroflot had been crashing on a regular basis at that time too. Barely 30, we made certain our wills were written before we left, so in the event of our deaths, our eldest son at home would be properly cared for. Upon meeting our Russian son for the first time,at 6 months old, a Russian doctor told us he would experience developmental delays and would likely have significant trouble learning to walk. It was, they said, our decision now to proceed with the adoption or refuse him. We said yes. He came home with us malnourished and with no vaccinations.
Over time we too went to the adoption agency gatherings and an adoptive parent support group. We still maintain touch with the two couples who traveled with us to the same orphanage to adopt.
Our son is 28 now. Has hit a few bumps in the road while growing up, but no more than any American child. He is musically gifted, graduated a competitive high school with honors and won several college scholarships. He is employed as a paramedic for a major hospital system, and has saved several lives. What a terrible waste if he had languished in an orphanage. Further, he would be of prime military age right now. I have few doubts that had he remained in Russia, he would have been conscripted into the Russian army, where doubtless his life would be at grave risk even as I write this, fighting a war in Ukraine.
My husband and I always consider our sons to be a great gift.We feel lucky they came into our lives.
Sorry, typo. We were almost 40 when adopting our second son. 30 when we did the first. I wish this site had a function which would allow the writer a chance to self correct.
Christianity thrived in Iraq prior to the two US led wars against Saddam Hussein the first, the 1990 Gulf War, the 2nd the Invasion of Iraq under order of G W Bush, a war waged on allegation of Iraq’s possession of nuclear weapons, weapons that UN inspector general International Atomic Energy Agency Hans Blix Sweden insisted were not present, and were never found.
Iraq Deputy PM Tariq Aziz, a Catholic, had appealed to Pope John Paul II to exert his influence to prevent an invasion by the US against a weakened virtually helpless Iraq. John Paul was against both Iraq wars, particularly the 2nd. Destruction of Iraq and Hussein’s secular Bath Party opened the door for the creation of ISIS, initially former radicalized Iraq military. The war also ended the balance of power that kept Iran contained, and opened the way for Iran to assume nuclear capability, finances to promote Islamic terrorism.
War is not a Christ inspired policy. Nor is the war in Ukraine, a war that has had instigation and preparation for war with Russia by outside interests seeking to permanently weaken Russia. Pope Francis may not be right on many issues, however on the war in Ukraine, he had sense enough to see that Russia was provoked. Now, in a reverse scenario, the Catholic Church in Ukraine, and in Russia are under greater threat from the Russian Orthodox, which under Patriarch Kirill is a Putin ally. At this stage a negotiated compromise is the real solution, not the irrational proposal by some US military leadership and Europeans for a total defeat of the world’s greatest nuclear and delivery system power Russia.
“…a war that has had instigation and preparation for war with Russia by outside interests seeking to permanently weaken Russia”. This conclusion is doubtful in several respects. It is rather Putin’s own unique policies that have consistently manifested intentions to undermine sovereignty in Russia’s neighboring states of the Baltics, Georgia, etc. Out of the same policies and intentions emerged the ultimate Ukrainian invasion. In addition, it goes without saying, that anyone who understands the nature of Western political institutions, governmental systems and societal dynamics cannot fail to envisage the unlikelihood (sic. nonsensical idea) of say NATO seeking preemptively to “provoke” a war with Russia. It is of course, far more convenient for Putin and his Western supporters to disbelieve or belittle the significance of the fact that NATO is, and has always been, primarily a defensive rather than an offensive organization. This aspect alone betrays Putin’s exaggerated concerns about NATO (“outside interests”) as nothing more than pure fantasies empowering him to cement his own authoritarian inclinations.
NATO sought and continues to seek military alliance encirclement of Russia from Georgia to Ukraine, former Soviets that border Russia. It’s similar to the Soviet Union’s placement of nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba. The Soviet’s removal of those missiles was due to a behind the scenes agreement for removal of previously placed US nuclear missiles in Turkey, which borders Russia.
Fr Morello, at the time of the Cuban missile crisis the Us had no hardened ICBM silos and the few systems available required lengthy setup and fueling times. Bombers were not armed and on continuous strip alert as was later the case. IRBM’s fired from Cuba would explode on target long before any counter action could even began. The Soviet situation was not comparable in any way. The vast expanse of the communist block ,which included China then, allowed their strategic forces to be stationed far beyond the range of what we had in Western Europe. The secret deployment to Cuba made their plans and intentions all too obvious. In any case how does one manage to encircle such a behemoth? Cuba was the start of an encirclement of the US which continues to this day.
[…It’s similar to the Soviet Union’s placement of nuclear ballistic missiles in Cuba]
I think it’s time for someone to tell Putin the following: that we are in the 2000s, and not in the 1960s; that he is by no means faced with the role Nikita Khrushchev of the Cuban Missile Crisis needed to play; that the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Empire both ended with the onset of the 1990s; that – among other things, instead of acting paranoid and constantly dispatching killers at home and abroad to liquidate his perceived enemies and actively waging aggression in Russia’s backyard and elsewhere, he should rather be investing his country’s vast resources in investigating into, and addressing the rampant issues of unhappiness and extremely low life expectancy among his citizens.
Fr. Morello, if you remember who Tariq Aziz was, you should be ashamed that he was a Catholic.
Father, you made an excellent observation. Thank you!
“Russia was provoked”?? Really, thanks for my laugh of the day.
In recent years Putin suspended the adoption of Russian orphans by citizens of others countries. EVERY major Russia city has an orphanage. Literally tens of thousands of children grow up in an institution, and then are thrown on their own at age 16 with no support. The predictable result: The girls turn to prostitution and the boys to theft, just to survive. Predictably, many end up jailed. Once, the daughter of a Russian military person living here in the US, told me that the Russian orphan boys often ended up in the military. They were considered especially desirable for that work since , as she told me, there would be no family to make a fuss about them if they were killed. I wonder of those orphans who could have used a good home provoked Putin too? Or did he just need more bodies for cannon fodder?
This is personal for me because the son my husband and I adopted more than 20 years ago was one such Russian orphan. My heart breaks for the orphans who never had the same chance at a normal family thanks to Putin.
Its hard for me to imagine that so many Americans still have blinders on about Russia. No one wants war. Sometimes it is forced upon you. Peace at any price is not really peace. Its just capitulation.
Russian orphan management policy aside, Russia was indeed provoked to attack Ukraine. Putin has been very clear that he did not want to be surrounded by NATO countries. Ukraine even agreed to never join NATO. The West consistently ignored that concern and unabashedly NATO-ized Ukraine. It is correct that NATO is an organization for defense purposes. I know that fact firsthand as I served in Bosnia as a NATO peacekeeper. But was Putin provoked? Absolutely. Ask the question what would the US do if Russia and China massed on our southern border? Would the US perceive a threat? Of course it would. So too with Putin and Ukraine. With the exception of the Donbas region, Putin does not want Ukraine. He wants to neutralize a threat on his border.
The Germans wanted “lebensraum”( living space), and they had no problem killing the Poles to get it. Likewise the Russians always wanted an outlet to the sea. Hence the Russian theft of Crimea. That theft of territory was NOT provoked, and pretending many of the people living there were of Russian extraction does not provide grounds to seize territory belonging to another nation. As a sovereign nation, Ukraine is entitled to join NATO if it wants to. Otherwise it simply becomes a client state of Russia, jumping when Russia says so. The CURRENT war is simply step 2 in the Russian attempt to regain all its old territories. Its entirely possible you may not want to live next door to another nation. But as Jagger said ” You can’t always get what you want”. Taking what you want, or trying to push the natives of that area out of your way, often results in war.NATO is a defensive organization. That is bogus to suggest that the Russians were provoked.
OK, what about threats to our southern border ? Encirclement? Marxist governments now control Venezuela, Nicaragua(Rabibly anticatholic), and of course Cuba. Drug lords run Columbia, Much of Mexico, and now Haiti. All these countries contribute heavily (or beginning to ) to our so called “migration”. Oh yes, there are Chinese which travel in groups consisting entirely of military age males who wear the same clothes and carry the same backpacks. Last year the feds found that China had set up branches of its secret police in American cities to keep an eye on our ethnic Chinese. To complete the encirclement, back before the war on Ukraine Russia declared that it claimed the entire Arctic Ocean as its exclusive territory. Far more than enough Russian military bases are now concentrated near Alaska for us to hope to defend it during a larger war. Their bombers probe Alaskan airspace frequently.
LJ, so you made a East European adoption also! Our son is from Bulgaria; he turns 31 in July. His orphanage was in Varna which has the remarkable distinction of being the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth. There were older settlements but they no longer exist. Bulgarians don’t hate Russians but they don’t want to be ruled by Russians, least of all retread Stalinists. When Putin wanted to fly in troops to the Balkans during the troubles with Serbia Bulgaria and Romania made their position clear by denying him use of their airspace. Anyway LJ, it is good to encounter folks who have similar experiences. The principal of the elementary school my son attended had adopted two little Russian boys in better times. We Loved to go to the annual adoption agency picnic to meet and share experiences with other families. God bless you LJ.
Hello JJR. Bravo to you for your adoption as well! Traveling to Russia was one of the big and scary adventures of our lives. My husband and I grew up at the height of the cold war, doing “shelter under you desk drills” in grammar school. My operative feeling about Russians is that they cannot be trusted.Prior to our adoption, Chernoble had happened, and the American embassy in Moscow, through which we would have to process out, had been rocket mortar attacked a few weeks before we left the US to get our son. It was an unnerving process and we went not knowing how many weeks we would be stuck there to get all the papers and approvals signed.Aeroflot had been crashing on a regular basis at that time too. Barely 30, we made certain our wills were written before we left, so in the event of our deaths, our eldest son at home would be properly cared for. Upon meeting our Russian son for the first time,at 6 months old, a Russian doctor told us he would experience developmental delays and would likely have significant trouble learning to walk. It was, they said, our decision now to proceed with the adoption or refuse him. We said yes. He came home with us malnourished and with no vaccinations.
Over time we too went to the adoption agency gatherings and an adoptive parent support group. We still maintain touch with the two couples who traveled with us to the same orphanage to adopt.
Our son is 28 now. Has hit a few bumps in the road while growing up, but no more than any American child. He is musically gifted, graduated a competitive high school with honors and won several college scholarships. He is employed as a paramedic for a major hospital system, and has saved several lives. What a terrible waste if he had languished in an orphanage. Further, he would be of prime military age right now. I have few doubts that had he remained in Russia, he would have been conscripted into the Russian army, where doubtless his life would be at grave risk even as I write this, fighting a war in Ukraine.
My husband and I always consider our sons to be a great gift.We feel lucky they came into our lives.
Sorry, typo. We were almost 40 when adopting our second son. 30 when we did the first. I wish this site had a function which would allow the writer a chance to self correct.