Some thoughts on the post-conciliar period

I heard two very pithy remarks recently:

"The mass should be something that prevents us from being children of our age."

(said in reference especially to music, art, and architecture.)

"The progressivists have dumbed down our theology and catechesis, but when a simple lay man tries to make an analogy - such as one to hunting and waiting at Lent - they go crazy on the left. What gives?"

(said in reference to this article.)

On Valkyrie - the plot to kill Hitler

The movie was actually pretty good, and Cruise even looks like Claus von Stauffeneberg.

Col. Claus von Stauffeneberg, the hero of Valkyrie, though you would never know it from the movie, was a devout Catholic.

Valkyrie is an important movie which is being trashed by reviewers who don't care for Tom Cruise.

YOU should see it anyway.

Background:

Interview with Giovanni Sala, a historian of Civiltà Cattolica
Those “criminals” who wished to put an end to the war

The failed attempt on Hitler in 1944 was described by US newspapers as a criminal act carried out by traitors. Churchill also dismissed it as a power struggle between rival generals. Giovanni Sala, a historian of Civiltà Cattolica, explains how this was possible. Interview

by David Malacaria


The inspection by Hitler and Mussolini at the headquarters of the Fuhrer after the attempt of 20 July 1944

A gang of criminals makes an attempt on the life of the Führer. Fortunately uninjured, the German chief of State succeeds in thwarting the criminal coup d’état organized by the miserable gang of criminals who had attempted to assassinate him. The traitors to the country, promptly arrested, will be executed. Thus the news stories of the period recounted yet another attempt to eliminate Adolf Hitler, on the 20 July 1944. An attempt which was indeed intended to be a prelude to a coup d’état which would probably have ended the Second World War a year ahead of time. Up to here the story of one of the many tragic events that center on the ruthless Nazi leader. Which perhaps would not merit more attention than other tragic events which happened in those years. Were it not that it was not Nazi propaganda that dismissed the attempted coup d’état of 20 July in this manner, but authoritative American newspapers. This is one of the revelations contained in two articles, which appeared recently in Civiltà Cattolica, under the signature of Father Giovanni Sale, the authoritative Jesuit historian who has written for the review for years.

You explain that the attempt of 1944 was perhaps one of the most serious efforts to put an end to the Nazi dictatorship.

GIOVANNI SALE: Effectively that’s how it was. Not that there weren’t other attempts to eliminate the Führer who, indeed, survived about sixty attempts, among them the one, almost successful, of 1938, in a beer house in Munich. Attempts that were all nullified, not only by the precautions taken by the Führer (who changed appointments and schedules at the last minute), but also by a series of truly incredible fortuitous circumstances .... as if an evil spirit watched over him .... But, that apart, it is beyond doubt that the attempt made in 1944 had the marks of a real and proper coup d’état, planned with care and with the participation of a large number of people.

So this attempt reveals the existence of a resistance to the Nazi regime inside Germany?

SALE: To speak of resistance is perhaps excessive. In Germany single opponents of the regime certainly weren’t lacking, there were also some organized groups, one thinks of the young Catholics of the “White Rose” who paid dearly for their heroic leafleting at the university .... But these were phenomena of little importance for the regime. In the case at issue I believe that one can speak more of a true and real resistance, of a clear refusal of the ideas and doings of the regime. A refusal which was amalgamating essentially in two spheres, civil and military.

In your articles you allude on several occasions to attempts by exponents of this resistance to contact the allies ....

SALE: A sort of clandestine diplomacy was organized. One of the heads of the civil resistance, Karl Friedrich Goerdeler, established contact with the allies in March 1938. But he was received with coldness. In London, the first adviser to the Foreign Minister, Robert Vansittart, actually accused him of treason .... The same holds true for Lieutenant Colonel Ulrich von Schwerin, sent to London before the invasion of Poland to try to convince the English that the invasion would be thwarted if the English gave Hitler to understand that they were ready to defend the Slavic nation. “Only the danger of a war on two fronts can restrain Hitler”, was the message brought by the colonel. But his message, also on this occasion, was not taken into consideration. Years later, from 1942 on, it was emissaries of the cultural circle of Kreisau, also through men of the church, who tried to explain to the allies that there was an opposition that hated the Nazis and that the allies should immediately reject any too hasty identification between Nazism and the German people. But this distinction was not accepted by the allies. Then, when in January of 1943, the inter-allied Conference of Casablanca demanded the total and unconditional surrender not only of the dictator but also of the German nation, the distinction was not even in discussion anymore. This stance left the pockets of resistance without any recourse.

Was Pius XII aware of these attempts to contact the allies?

SALE: He was personally involved in at least one when, between 1939 and 1940, the lawyer Josif Muller, sent by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of counter espionage and the soul of the military resistance, requested him to intercede with the English ambassador accredited to the Vatican to have a message sent to London asking that peace terms be negotiated with a new German government after the overthrow of Hitler. The Pope consented to put the German opposition and the English government in contact. But this attempt also failed. The allies feared that there were traps involved, but they were also blinded by the imperial nationalism of the time which viewed these figures as traitors to their own country. And certainly that identification between Nazis and the German people, which was indeed disastrous, weighed on these events.

You were saying before about the civil opposition ....

SALE: This formed around the Kreisau circle, which one could also describe as a cultural circle to which leading figures from various backgrounds in German civil society belonged. The main core was formed of aristocrats, of Catholic trade unionists and exponents of the dissolved Zentrum, a party of Christian inspiration, by representatives of the Lutheran church and by intellectuals and trade unionists of the left. Priests and religious also belonged to it. But, apart from the effective members, different personalities, among them the Bishop of Berlin, Konrad von Preysing, as well as other prominent German Catholics, had contacts the circle.

What did they do?

SALE: Obviously they didn’t have much freedom of movement ....they met for private conferences, where the future of Germany was debated and planned, a future without Hitler, obviously .... The founder of this circle was Count Helmuth James von Moltke, a figure of high moral and spiritual standing. As other aristocratic adherents of the circle, he saw in the overthrow of the regime not only the sole possibility of salvation for Germany, the redemption of the nation from Nazi degradation, but also, at a personal level, a way of saving his soul. A possibility of seriously striking a blow at the heart of the regime was given by the converging of the Kreisau circle and the military opposition. The conspirators were joined by Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, who belonged to the select group of collaborators of the Führer. It was the first time that a plot had the advantage of such a close contact. The planning, done within the circle, speeded up when von Stauffenberg, for reasons connected with his work, learnedof an order which decreed “the ‘special treatment’ of Auschwitz for 40 or 42 thousand Hungarian Jews”.

Were the ecclesiastical hierarchies aware of this attempt at a coup d’état ?

SALE: From Moltke’s diaries we know that “authoritative bishops were close to the resistance”. We know that in January 1943 von Moltke, in Munich to meet Fathers Augustinus Rosch, Lothar Konig and Alfred Delp (Jesuits belonging to the Kreisau circle, the last of whom was killed after the failed attempt) and the lawyer Muller, the man who was the contact with the Vatican, spoke of the plan with Cardinal Michael Faulhaber who tacitly agreed. We don’t know whether von Preysing also knew about it, but it is very probable, given that they frequented each other a great deal.

How was the plan carried out?

SALE: On 20 July of 1944 von Stauffenberg succeeded in bringing a case containing two explosive charges into “the wolf’s den” in Rastenburg, where Hitler was to meet with his officers. But, once inside, perhaps because of a hitch, Stauffenberg only succeeded in priming one of the two charges. The case was then placed near Hitler, but next to a column which deadened the explosive force. In short, yet again, a series of fortunate circumstances preserved the life of Hitler who escaped unscathed from the attempt. At the same time operations to implement the coup d’état were set in motion. But Hitler’s orders preceded those of the conspirators, and his loyal followers soon succeeded in foiling it. The same night, the leaders of the conspiracy, meeting in the Oberkommando of the Wehrmacht in Berlin, were arrested. In the speech which Hitler made to the nation on the evening of the failed attempt, he explained that a small group of ambitious officers had tried to eliminate him, but that “providence” had prevented it.


Father Alfred Delp, one of the Jesuit fathers belonging to the Kreisau cultural circle and killed after the failed attempt on the Führer

Were they killed?

SALE: All the stages of the trial and of the sentencing to death were filmed, by the express will of Hitler who, among other things, wanted them killed “like pigs”. They were executed, suspended from butcher’s hooks, and the films were sent to the dictator who watched and re-watched them with his officials.

What was the international reaction?

SALE: In the outside world the interpretation which Hitler himself gave of the conspiracy was widely accepted. Recounting the events, the New York Times said that the attempt “made one think more of the atmosphere of a miserable criminal world” than what one would expect from “a normal body of officers of a civilized state”, and they were scandalized by the fact that for a year these officers had plotted “against the commander in chief of the armed forces”, resorting, among other things, to “a bomb, a weapon typical of the underworld”. Another important US newspaper, the Herald Tribune, commented: “In general it will not displease Americans that the bomb spared Hitler and that now he is personally freed of his generals. On the other hand Americans have nothing in common with aristocrats, and especially not with those who resort to stabbing”. Winston Churchill, in a message sent to the House of Commons on 2 August 1944, commented on the episode as “a struggle for power between the generals of the Third Reich”.

Did the allies at the time already know of the final solution against the Jews ....

SALE: Yes, for more than a year .... But here I think we are faced with another blunder dictated by exasperated nationalism and by miscalculation of the event ....

What was the extent of the repression following the attempt of 20 July?

SALE: The Gestapo soon discovered that it was not just a handful of conspirators. Thousands of people were arrested, many of whom were killed. Among these there were many Catholics. The Archbishop of Freiburg, Monsignor Konrad Grober, in a note sent in those days to the apostolic nuncio in Berlin, writes about fifty arrests in his city alone, specifying that there were “personalities known both to the Holy Father and to you” ....

Read the rest here.

horrible... the destruction in Gaza

Israeli Bomb Destroys Caritas Medical Clinic
Aid Group Launches $2M Appeal

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip, JAN. 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Caritas Internationalis is launching an emergency appeal for the suffering people of Gaza after a bomb on Friday destroyed one of the aid organization's medical clinics.

The clinic, in the Al Maghazi district of Central Gaza, was completely destroyed in a bombing that also flattened four homes. At least another 20 homes sustained heavy damage in the blast. Families had already fled the area, so Caritas reported no injuries.

The aid organization has five other medical clinics in Gaza. With their appeal, they are hoping to raise more than $2 million for a seven-month program.

Close to 900 Palestinians have died after two weeks of fighting, and U.N. officials say that 40% of the dead are women and children.

Meanwhile, the priest of Gaza's Catholic parish, Father Manuel Musallam, spoke of the "extreme fear" of the Gazans.

He told Caritas by telephone from Beit Hanoun in Gaza today, "There is extreme fear everywhere here. The bombs the Israelis are dropping are literally cutting through people and through homes. Night and day the sound of children crying is everywhere. The people here don't sleep. They have lost everything.

"70,000 people are living in schools and they are very cold. The ones who haven't gone to schools are living in their bathrooms or stairwells because they are afraid of being injured by shattering glass from bombs. There is no water here. We are almost out of diesel for our generator that we have allowed people to come and cook from. When the diesel runs out, we will have nothing. [...]

"There are dead bodies lying on the streets. The clinics are carrying out operations on the floor. Women have no place to give birth. One pregnant woman was shot on her way to a clinic to give birth. They tried to save the baby but he, too, was dead.

"Life and death for people in Gaza is the same."

Feast of St. Leo the Great

An article written by Father Z.

Attila the Hun, aka the Scourge of God, was ravaging the lands. In the 440’s the western part of the Empire was disintegrating. Burgundians had invaded Gaul but were driven off by the powerful general Aetius. In 439 Geiseric conquered Carthage in North Africa. In 441 he defeated a Roman force sent against him. The West was suffering from a critical shortage of military manpower and they were beset everywhere (sound familiar?). In 450 the Eastern Emperor Marcian cancelled the annual bribe to the Huns, which the Huns did not find amusing. It happened that the Emperor Valentinian III was trying marry off his sister, Justa Grata Honoria, to an elderly dignitary. She had other ideas. Honoria sent a ring to Attila, King of the Huns. Attila took this as an offer of marriage and demanded half the Western Empire as a dowry. He then invaded Gaul. In 451 near modern Châlons, the general Aetius defeated Attila who, instead of withdrawing back into Germany, moved into defenseless Italy in 452. Aetius was unable to stop him. The Huns sacked Milan, destroyed Aquileia, began to march on Rome. Nothing stood in Attila’s way.

In living memory Rome had been sacked in 410 by Alaric the Visigoth. You can still see coins from fused into the marble floor of the Basilica Aemilia in the Roman Forum. The Sack of Rome had a more profound impact on the Romans throughout the West than 9/11 had on the USA and its allies. In fact, the year 410 in part provided St. Augustine of Hippo with the inspiration to write The City of God, which changed the course of Western civilization. However, in the 450’s, Italy was nearly prostrate and no army could rescue Italy from Attila the Hun. The only figure of any prestige in Italy at the time was the Pope of Rome, Leo. Leo rode north from Rome with a small group of followers and met with Attila before he could reach City and pillage it. They had a private conversation, legend has it. We have no idea what Leo said to the Hunnish King, but immediately thereafter Attila turned his army around, left Italy.

In the Vatican Basilica of St. Peter, in the “Cappella della Colonna” we see the tomb and altar of St. Pope Leo the Great. Over the tomb is a marble relief by Alessandro Algardi (made in 1646-50) depicting the moment of the colloquium of the Saint and the Scourge. Attila is reeling backward from the sight of the menacing and heavily armed Sts. Peter and Paul swooping down from heaven behind Leo’s shoulder. A frowning Peter points authoritatively at Leo while the glowering Paul is aiming his finger in a classic “scram” signal. In 453 (the year Leo gave the sermon that influenced our prayer this week) Attila was heading back through Eastern Europe in preparation for another assault on the Byzantines. He set up camp so that he could get married, drank himself unconscious and promptly did everyone a favor by drowning in his own blood from a nosebleed. Attila’s empire fell apart almost at once and the Hunnish menace dissipated as swiftly as it had arisen. All this in 453 when Leo said: “Beloved, promptly expressing this profession of faith with your whole heart, spew out the impious comments of the heretics, so that your fasting and almsgiving may be polluted by the contagion of no errors. For then both the offering of sacrifice and the holy bestowing of mercy is clean.”

Remember: Lepanto

The Victory of Lepanto and the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

In the 15th century, the expanding Ottoman Empire continued to threaten all Christianity in the West. Pope Pius V finally succeeded in uniting the forces of Venice, Spain and the Holy See.

An important fleet was entrusted to Don John of Austria, and the Pope recommended that his commander-in-chief leave behind all soldiers of ill repute, promising victory if he did so. He ordered public prayers, and increased his own supplications to heaven.

The decisive battle took place on October 7, 1571, in the Gulf of Lepanto, off the Strait of Corinth. A good number of the enemy ships were taken over. The Turkish admiral Ali Pasha was decapitated. Fifteen thousand Christian prisoners were released. Less than a third of the Turkish fleet was able to set out again, dealing the Turkish power a blow from which it never recovered.

On the evening of the battle, Pope Pius V went to the window of his office and looking up at the sky, he cried out, "? our great task at present is to thank God for the victory which he has just given the Christian army." It was the 7th of October, a little before 5 PM, but the news of the victory did not reach Rome until 19 days later on October 26th, confirming the sovereign pontiff's revelation.

In memory of this triumph Pope Pius V instituted for the first Sunday of October the Feast of the Rosary, and added to the Litany of Loreto the supplication "Help of Christians." Among the Catholic faithful, the Lepanto victory contributed extensively to the rapid popularity of the devotion of the Rosary.

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto, the 1571 grand naval battle that saved Europe from Ottoman Turkish conquest. The victory -- one of the greatest ever in naval warfare -- was credited by Pope Pius V to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, who'd received countless rosaries in petition for the victory of Christian forces and the protection of Christian Europe from Islamic conquest. Today, then, is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary among Catholic Christians. Europe wouldn't be free of the Turkish threat for good until the Battle of Vienna in 1683.

If you have a glass to lift tonight, raise it in thanksgiving to God, the Virgin and the West's naval commanders, especially Don John of Austria.

Below is G.K. Chesterton's famous poem Lepanto.

Lepanto

White founts falling in the courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;
There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard,
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips,
For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.
They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,
They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross,
The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;
The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;
From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,
And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.

Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard,
Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred,
Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half-attainted stall,
The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall,
The last and lingering troubadour to whom the bird has sung,
That once went singing southward when all the world was young.
In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,
Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.
Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,
Don John of Austria is going to the war,
Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold
In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold,
Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums,
Then the tuckets, then the trumpets, then the cannon, and he comes.
Don John laughing in the brave beard curled,
Spurning of his stirrups like the thrones of all the world,
Holding his head up for a flag of all the free.
Love-light of Spain - hurrah!
Death-light of Africa!
Don John of Austria
Is riding to the sea.

Mahound is in his paradise above the evening star,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
He moves a mighty turban on the timeless houri's knees,
His turban that is woven of the sunset and the seas.
He shakes the peacock gardens as he rises from his ease,
And he strides among the tree-tops and is taller than the trees,
And his voice through all the garden is a thunder sent to bring
Black Azrael and Ariel and Ammon on the wing.
Giants and the Genii,
Multiplex of wing and eye,
Whose strong obedience broke the sky
When Solomon was king.

They rush in red and purple from the red clouds of the morn,
From temples where the yellow gods shut up their eyes in scorn;
They rise in green robes roaring from the green hells of the sea
Where fallen skies and evil hues and eyeless creatures be;
On them the sea-valves cluster and the grey sea-forests curl,
Splashed with a splendid sickness, the sickness of the pearl;
They swell in sapphire smoke out of the blue cracks of the ground, -
They gather and they wonder and give worship to Mahound.
And he saith, "Break up the mountains where the hermit-folk may hide,
And sift the red and silver sands lest bone of saint abide,
And chase the Giaours flying night and day, not giving rest,
For that which was our trouble comes again out of the west.
We have set the seal of Solomon on all things under sun,
Of knowledge and of sorrow and endurance of things done,
But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know
The voice that shook our palaces - four hundred years ago:
It is he that saith not 'Kismet'; it is he that knows not Fate;
It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey in the gate!
It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,
Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the earth."
For he heard drums groaning and he heard guns jar,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
Sudden and still - hurrah!
Bolt from Iberia!
Don John of Austria
Is gone by Alcalar.

St. Michael's on his Mountain in the sea-roads of the north
(Don John of Austria is girt and going forth.)
Where the grey seas glitter and the sharp tides shift
And the sea-folk labour and the red sails lift.
He shakes his lance of iron and he claps his wings of stone;
The noise is gone through Normandy; the noise is gone alone;
The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes
And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise,
And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room,
And Christian dreadeth Christ that bath a newer face of doom,
And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,
But Don John of Austria is riding to the sea.
Don John calling through the blast and the eclipse
Crying with the trumpet, with the trumpet of his lips,
Trumpet that sayeth ha!
Domino gloria!
Don John of Austria
Is shouting to the ships.

King Philip's in his closet with the Fleece about his neck
(Don John of Austria is armed upon the deck.)
The walls are hung with velvet that is black and soft as sin,
And little dwarfs creep out of it and little dwarfs creep in.
He holds a crystal phial that has colours like the moon,
He touches, and it tingles, and he trembles very soon,
And his face is as a fungus of a leprous white and grey
Like plants in the high houses that are shuttered from the day,
And death is in the phial and the end of noble work,
But Don John of Austria has fired upon the Turk.
Don John's hunting, and his hounds have bayed -
Booms away past Italy the rumour of his raid.
Gun upon gun, ha! ha!
Gun upon gun, hurrah!
Don John of Austria
Has loosed the cannonade.

The Pope was in his chapel before day or battle broke,
(Don John of Austria is hidden in the smoke.)
The hidden room in a man's house where God sits all the year,
The secret window whence the world looks small and very dear.
He sees as in a mirror on the monstrous twilight sea
The crescent of his cruel ships whose name is mystery;
They fling great shadows foe-wards, making Cross and Castle dark,
They veil the plumed lions on the galleys of St. Mark;
And above the ships are palaces of brown, black-bearded chiefs,
And below the ships are prisons, where with multitudinous griefs,
Christian captives sick and sunless, all a labouring race repines
Like a race in sunken cities, like a nation in the mines.
They are lost like slaves that swat, and in the skies of morning hung
The stairways of the tallest gods when tyranny was young.

They are countless, voiceless, hopeless as those fallen or fleeing on
Before the high Kings' horses in the granite of Babylon.
And many a one grows witless in his quiet room in hell
Where a yellow face looks inward through the lattice of his cell,
And he finds his God forgotten, and he seeks no more a sign -
(But Don John of Austria has burst the battle-line!)
Don John pounding from the slaughter-painted poop,
Purpling all the ocean like a bloody pirate's sloop,
Scarlet running over on the silvers and the golds,
Breaking of the hatches up and bursting of the holds,
Thronging of the thousands up that labour under sea
White for bliss and blind for sun and stunned for liberty.
Vivat Hispania!
Domino Gloria!
Don John of Austria
Has set his people free!

Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath
(Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.)
And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain,
Up which a lean and foolish knight forever rides in vain,
And he smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and settles back the blade. . .

(But Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.)


- G.K. Chesterton

Russian Orthodox response to Georgia invasion...

This is a start, but I must say, why hasn't any member of the clergy called to task the government of Russia (or at least some of its leaders)? It is also sad to see that this causes a potential rift between two 'national' churches that share the same faith.

Appeal by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia

Having learnt about the hostilities in Tshinvali and its outskirts, I call upon the warring parties to cease fire and return to the path of dialogue. Blood is being shed in South Ossetia and people are being killed and this makes my heart to grieve profoundly. Among those who have lifted their hand against each other are Orthodox Christians. What is more, those who have come into conflict are Orthodox nations who are called by the Lord to live in brotherhood and love. I am aware of the appeal to peace made by His Holiness Catholicos-Patriarch Iliya of All Georgia. I also make my ardent appeal to those who have gone blind with hatred: stop! Do not let more blood be shed, do not let today’s conflict be expanded many times over! Show common sense and virtue: sit at the negotiation table for talks with respect for the traditions, views and aspirations of both the Georgian and Ossetian peoples. The Russian Church is ready to unite efforts with the Georgian Church and help in achieving peace. May our God, Who ‘is not a God of disorder but of peace’ (1 Cor. 14:33), be our Helper in this endeavor.

+ ALEXY
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

===================================

Metropolitan Kirill: We must pray for peace in Caucasus, between Georgian and Ossetian peoples, who share the same faith

“Today our country is facing the danger of war and a new surge of slander that those who don’t like Russia’s historical choice are ready to raise,” Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad pointed out in his ministerial speech on conclusion of the service in the Assumption Cathedral of Smolensk. His words are cited by channel “Vesti”.

On the feast day of the Mother of God of Smolensk icon Metropolitan Kirill noted: “Today we have offered up a particularly ardent prayer to the Odigitria and henceforward we must daily pray that the ordeal we are undergoing now should come to a peaceful end as soon as possible and that peace be restored between the Georgians and the Ossetians, two peoples sharing the same faith”.

Having reminded about the feat of the peace-makers, who had perished, the metropolitan said: “We entreat God and Our Lady that the bloodshed stop as soon as possible and that peace and well-being should reign in our country, as well as in Ossetia, in Georgia, in the Caucasus and everywhere”.

Pontiff Offers Monetary Support to Georgia

Pretty interesting that the Orthodox in Georgia are relying on aid from Catholics... [Where are the Russian Orthodox???]

Bishop Says Orthodox Edified by Pope's Concern

By Chiara Santomiero

TBILISI, Georgia, AUG. 22, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI directed $120,000 to Caritas Georgia to help the humanitarian relief effort in the wake of the tiny nation's conflict with neighboring Russia.

The money and an accompanying note were sent to Bishop Giuseppe Pasotto, apostolic administrator of Caucaso. The Pope's message expressed his hope that the contribution would give weight to the appeals he made during the Angelus addresses of Aug. 10 and 17.

Bishop Pasotta said that the Holy Father's mention of Georgia twice during the Angelus addresses have impressed the citizens of the nation.

"In a country of primarily Orthodox religion, [the fact that] the head of the Catholic Church should be concerned in such a determined way about the ongoing conflict, and that he keeps the Georgian people in his heart and prays for them, has caused a great impression," the prelate affirmed.

He added that the situation of the refugees -- which he numbered between 80,000 and 90,000 -- is dire, but that it was "lovely" to see families reaching out to those who "arrived suddenly, and who didn't even have a mattress to lie on."

Even after the ceasefire, Bishop Pasotta continued, "there still is tension. [People] cannot understand why, despite the agreements, everything is blocked and no one can go wherever he wishes."

Russia withdrew what may have been the last of its troops just today, exactly two weeks after they had arrived on their neighbor's soil in retaliation for a Georgian attack in the separatist territory of South Ossetia.

Meanwhile, Caritas has been assisting the humanitarian relief effort since almost the very beginning of the conflict Aug 7.

"Both the Georgian government and the Orthodox patriarchate have requested aid from the Catholic Church and we are doing everything possible, with a great spirit of collaboration," Bishop Pasotta affirmed.

Christian leaders, and Jewish and Muslim communities, have joined in an appeal for more humanitarian relief.

"There have been beautiful moments of encounter," the bishop said. "In situations such as this, it is important to feel united beyond differences of faith."

Nevertheless, the prelate hoped that aid would be ongoing.

"Now there is no lack of international aid, but the precarious situation threatens to last a long time. It is already said that the schools won't open because they are all occupied by refugees," he added. "It will be necessary to rebuild the houses and to see that everyone receives aid and that no one in need is forgotten. After seven or eight months, will Georgia be remembered?"

Not a word from the Russian church on the unprovoked Georgia invasion...

But this just in: bomber to be named after St. Nicholas... "TIS OUTRAGE!"

I wonder if it will be called St. Nicholas of the holy, blown-up Georgians. Hmmmmmm. Shameless.

I know we Catholics have our faults, but as I read this from the Russian Orthodox official website, my skin crawls:
"27/07/2008, Patriarch Alexy: Unity of Russian Orthodoxy cannot impede full-fledged life of sovereign state"

That's why you need a universal bishop, aka: pope. No nation goes unchallenged in this modern, war-obsessed world.