Hmmm. The whole long article just for one wishful thinking in the last phrase: Nothing new under the sun
As to why Our Lady chooses Russia? Well, probably, because Russia has been the source of the evil throughout at least last century....and it needs to be converted... Do not be misguided by the pictures of Russian priests and Putin et al. Russian Orthodox Church has been first annihilated by Stalin ( the real one) and then in place of the real one the new one - corrupted and from the depths of the KGB - was installed. The highest levels of the Russian Orthodox priests also hold the highest levels of KGB now FSB ranks. The majority of people are atheists as well ( as is Putin and his comrades) - the long atheist history of the USSR did not go without results. Nowadays they are using the Russian Orthodox Church for the same imperialist goal openly and it was used by Soviets as well - that is why a lot of Churches on the "liberated" territories ( western Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) were forbidden and persecuted - because in their place the Russian Orthodoxy as means of Russian imperialism was installed.
That article seems more like a paean to Russia today under Putin than it is an article about Fatima. First off, the Virgin Mary nowhere to my knowledge stated Russia would alone escape annihilation should it ever come to that. If anything one gets the feeling Russia was to be the annihilator and God's instrument of chastisement. Secondly, Russia v. West. Church attendance in the West is actually much higher than in modern Russia where statistics show only 2-3% of believers attend church regularly. The West, and especially North America, come nowhere near this abysmal Russian attendance figure. Look, we have real problems here in the West too, but to claim Russia more religiously active is actually quite untrue. In Russia, truth be told, the Russian Orthodox Church is a tool of the state under Putin. Instead of dealing with the rampant corruption and immorality of Russian society and specifically its secret service FSB leadership, the Russian Orthodox hierarchy praises Putin and blesses the KGB headquarters Lubyanka (which should have been torn down long ago) which has a plaque to former KGB head Yuri Andropov (persecutor of churches) inside it. Russian Orthodox belief includes belief in Russian imperialism among its leadership and many followers. Just ask the countries bordering Russia. And the current head of the Russian Orthodox Church prospered quite greatly from the Church being given the liquor and tobacco trade in Russia. Russian Orthodox bishops bless nuclear armaments and subs which are aimed at us. Priests who speak out against the hierarchy and wish the Church to concentrate on Jesus Christ and morality, not Russian foreign policy or support for an authoritarian regime, are silenced or excommunicated. We have to be honest: Putin called the dissolution of the Soviet Union the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century: he has brought back the old Stalinist hymn, he has strengthened the Secret Police, he physically destroys any political opposition to him, he has at times threatened his neighbors like Poland and Ukraine with nuclear strikes and commits economic blackmail against his neighbors. And the Russian Orthodox Church supports this KGB thug without question. Putin has as of late really brought Russian xenophobia to the fore against the West, and the West in his view includes the Catholic Church. Ask yourselves this question. If Russia were truly converted who would hold pride of place in the middle of Moscow. Well, to this day, it's the atheist and amoral founder of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, in his great Mausoleum in Red Square, which Putin refuses to remove. The Russian Orthodox Church has stained its Christian message, in my opinion, by agreeing, as it has before in history, to serve Caesar unfailingly, in this case Caesar Putin. Many have already said that by tying its fortunes to Putin, should the thuggish Putin go, the Russian Orthodox Church may go down with him. Putin sends young Russian girls like Anna Chapman to sleep around with men in the West for the Russian secret services, and then, after she gets caught and deported back to Russia, Putin sings some Soviet KGB songs with her (literally) and has the same Chapman become the Head of one youth wing of Putin's political party. Does the Russian Orthodox Church really think the spy Anna Chapman and her sexual escapades is a good role model for Russia's youth as their hero Putin does ? Is the Pope welcome in Russia? No. Does the Russian Orthodox Church hierarchy wish the greatest Catholic Church in the former Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Catholic, to be wiped out despite all its martyrs under communism ? Yes, unfortunately, to this very day. Is this what the Virgin Mary foresaw in the completion of Fatima ?
Thought you might find this interesting,.. http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/obama_and_putin.html
Great find Sunburst ! I actually have that site of Kim Zigfield's bookmarked. Edward Lucas ( editor at the English journal The Economist and a friend of the former Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv) has released two great books recently on Putin's new Cold War and the Russian Secret Services. I think they are essential reading for understanding Putin's Russia. This article from the Daily Telegraph is still apropos, even more so. Orthodox Church Unholy Alliance with Putin http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1579638/Orthodox-Church-unholy-alliance-with-Putin.html
Mike, I traveled for six weeks with my Spiritual Father, Bishop Roman Danylak to Rome and Ukraine in Dec-Jan-Feb 2012. While in Ukraine I saw in visions Russian concentration camps ready for the Ukrainian people. It was winter time in my vision. I saw Russian soldiers marching down the streets of Lviv. I saw crucifixes in the fields --hundreds of them waiting to crucify the priests. I saw the time when there would be a new heaven and a new earth. Even the air will be pure...I saw more flowers of magnificent colors than I've ever seen before in my life. There is hope. We must do as our Lady asks and PRAY MORE and SACRIFICE MORE for souls.
