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| The Russian Pope |
What if the next Pope were Russian? Would the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary be made possible by the Mother of God in Fatima 100 years ago as an essential step on the road to world peace?
A utopian novel
In his novel The Fate of the Russian Pope published last year , the author, Mauro Mazza, assumes the optimistic acceptance of a conclave in 2018. In this concave, the author, the archbishop of Saint Petersburg is elected to the pope completely unexpectedly, and is assigned the name Methodius.
To avoid a misunderstanding, this is not the bishop of the diocese of Saint Petersburg in the USA, which is clearly geographically assignable in its Latin name Sancti Petri in Florida. This is actually the city founded by Tsar Peter the Great in Swedish Ingria in the Bay of Kronstadt, where the Neva River flows into the Gulf of Finland. This Saint Petersburg was the capital of Russia from 1710-1918 and today is the second largest city in the country, with five million inhabitants.
The novel is, of course, fiction, for an archbishopric of St. Petersburg of the Catholic Church does not exist and has never existed. Since 2013 there is a Russian Orthodox Archdiocese of this name. The city itself has been the see of a Russian Orthodox Bishop since 1742.
The author
The author's name is no pseudonym. Mauro Mazza, born in 1955, is one of Italy's best-known journalists. After the passing university entrance examination in the "hot" seventies, he made his first journalistic forays with the daily newspaper Secolo d'Italia, the party newspaper of the then Neo-Fascist party MSI. He remained connected to the party, which in the early nineties, after the collapse of the Communist Eastern bloc, went through a transformation to the bourgeois-conservative party.
The way to the professional journalist opened him the early change to the news agency AdnKronos. In 1990 he became a news editor for the RAI Public Service, 1998 Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the RAI 1 newsreader, 2002 editor-in-chief of the RAI 2 editorial. In 2008, Mazza finally became director of RAI 1. With the return of a Leftist government, he was pushed off to be the director of RAI Sport. In the same year he published his first novel. Since 2015 he has been a member of RAI Vatican's editorship, which is the subject of his latest novel.
The conclave
118 Cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel after the death of the Pope to elect a successor. But days pass by, days pass, and black smoke is rising. After three weeks of stagnation, the quarreling Cardinals agreed on a quite unusual decision. They do not elect a cardinal to the pope, but Nikolai Sofanov, the Archbishop of Saint Petersburg.
The decision is most striking: a Pope from Orthodox Russia and a friend of Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
The acting characters in the novel are, in part, the real (Patriarch Cyril, Putin, Gorbachev, Hans Küng), partly inventions of the author.
The Pope, who isn't liked
In contrast to his predecessor, the new pope does not like the powerful and freemasonry. He is displeasing to them even more because he speaks specifically of the defense of faith rather than of ecology and, above all, of that sentimentality which, "through hugs and skits, between Buona Domenica ( Beautiful Sunday) and "Buon Pranzo" (To your health) is the difference between the pope and the faithful. "Pope Wojtyla" always managed to preserve his charism, which demanded all respect and admiration: cardinals, bishops, priests and laity." (p. 40).
With his daily sermons, Pope Methodius combats modernism, the laicistic and Protestant aberrations and the dictatorship of relativism:
"The pope daily demolishes many of the so-called inviolable assumptions of prevailing thought. He makes it easy. He finds greater and greater approval among the people, but he also attracts an ever-widening dislike" (145).
The freemasons unchain the media against him. A federal daily newspaper, which is close to certain progressive circles in the Vatican, accuses him of concentrating power in his hands and talking too much of faith:
"He is trying to revive the sacredness of past times. In his sermons he contradicts secular (laicistic) values and the rights obtained. And as if that were not enough, he stressed traditional reservations about democracy. Very soon his course of action will turn out to be destabilizing."(147).
The fight against globalization, the gender dictatorship, the surrender against Islamism and the compulsion to ecologism "as a new religion, in which man is no longer the head of the pyramid of creation, but a living person of the planet with the same rights of other 'animals' (108).
World Government and World Religions
Determined to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and restore the unity of the East and Western Churches, Methodius meets with Putin, who complains to the Pope:
"The British are doing what the Americans order. The Germans and the Italians are irresolute and fickle "(134).
The Americans, however, more or less slavishly follow the decisions of the "fraternity," a Masonic organization whose sole purpose is clearly defined:
"The world government, the united world currency (called Bancor), and the world unity religion that unites and overcomes all religions" (120).
"Even some bishops, whether from superficiality or conviction, can imagine that catholicity will in the future mix and equate with other religions or their absurd parodies" (108).
Optimistic start, gloomy continuation
The novel begins with an optimistic perspective, then quickly and ever deeper into the sober reality. Thus he unfolds concrete scenarios, which draw a gloomy picture. The secret "fraternity" engages in numerous actions to discredit the new pope.
"It is not just a fascinating story, but a no less exciting 'game', that will enable readers to figure out who is behind the fictionalized names the author has chosen for his novel. This is also the only fun the novel offers, because the rest is the tragic image of a world in which the obscure 'brotherhood' dictates the rules," says Corrispondenza Romana .
It would be desirable if a publisher brought out a translation for the readership of the English-speaking people. As an expression of our time, Mazza's work is not only a timely document, but also provides some illuminating insights, dressed in the genre of the utopian novel.
Mauro Mazza, Il destino del Papa Russo (Fate of the Russian Pope), Fazi, Rome 2016, 256 pages.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Corrispondenza Romana / Wikicommons
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link...
AMDG
Image: Corrispondenza Romana / Wikicommons
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link...
AMDG
23 comments:
Here is the problem. Every religious figure in Russia is KGB. Patriarch Nikodem visited John Paul I and died in his arms during the 33 day pontificate. It is documented that Nikodem was a colonel in the KGB. He was tortured on numerous occasions so that he would accept the jurisdiction of Putin's KGB.----There were 100 documented spies with KGB connections around JPII. The most notorious was Tomasz Turowski. He was a Jesuit priest and there are pictures of his interacting with JPII. With the death of JPII, Turowski left the priesthood and went to work for the collaborationist government in Poland which had direct connections to the KGB. In 2010, he was involved in the planning of the trip to Smolensk to commemorate the Katyn Forest massacre which occurred in 1945 when the Russians executed some 10,000 of Poland's elite. --- in April of 2010, 94 leaders of the Polish government which had once again thrown out the Russians and their connection died in a tragic plane crash when landing in Russia. This included the president and other leaders with members of the Polish hierarchy present as well. ---The point is that there will be no Russian pope without a connection to Putin. In Russia, religion is one of the departments in the Russian socialist government. There is no independence of religion. Religious leaders are expected to be part of the government and subservient to the dictator just like with Napoleon who wanted to be dictator and pope at the same time.-----Mehmet Ali Agca shot JPII. He subsequently claimed that he had help inside the Vatican. Cynics have claimed that JPII was shot in order to fulfill the Third Secret of Fatima. The problem with that reasoning is that JPII did not die and this would mean that another pope will subsequently die.
Healing the Schism would be a wonderful Blessing.
2 years ago I learned East & West reunited in the mid 1200's for a Decade or better.
I have read the theory that there may be a 1% chance we have true Catholic Pope in hiding.
In the Catholic Church pre-315 A.D. (Edict of Milan) there were a few Popes whom were unknown to 99% of the Clergy.The reason being is if the Popes identity were revealed,he would've been hunted down & murdered.
Fast forward to 2017,the same line of reasoning would be effective today.
Once again I do not know nor am I saying its true.
Its a very interesting theory even if its just a 1% chance.
Michael?
And in the 15th century.
The "healing" of the schism on the 1200s was no healing. Constantinople was sacked by the Western savages and occupied for about 70 years by greedy crusaders. Constantinople, under German and Italian barbarian occipation, was a "puppet" state which is even today ephemistically referred to as the "Latin Empire". So the " unity" between East and West was superficial and forced. The Orthodox were sceptical of a strong centralized Papacy exactly for the same reasons that we Catholics find ourselves in today, not knowing, and not anticipating, and confused, when confronted by a Pope who works against Tradition.They were, in many ways,the first, before the United States even existed, the first to propose to the world, a system of "checks and balances" on absolute power.
The death of the Polish leadership on the plane was not proven to be with Russian intent or conspiracy.I don't believe it was. It may have been stupidity on the part of the Polish leadership to bunch all the leaders together in one plane. But, the leadership was of the same leadership of what it is now. This leadership is a right-wing leadership, completely opposed to the "dictorship of relativism" of the EU and the leftist revolutionary values the US was exporting all over the world.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this sounds an awful like another book which became a huge hit in the mid-1960's. It was titled "Shoes of the Fisherman", and the premise was the election of a Russian Pope, Kyril I (played by the great actor Anthony Quinn in 1968).
This Pope in this novel is named Methodius? Cyril and Methodius were saints who carried Christianity to the Rus (Russians) in Byzantine times. This sounds an awful lot like "Shoes of the Fisherman".
I hope this novel didn't get a lot of it's ideas from the previous blockbuster!
Damian Malliapalli
West was a lib and didn't have his eyes opened with respect to the laicisation of the Church. His novel was one of expectant anxiety, awaiting the reconciliation of the Church with those all-important new ideas which this novel opposes.
Donald Tusk was the one who was collaborationist. Kacsynski was the president who was assassinated. His twin brother is a deadly enemy of Tusk and believes rightfully from reports that Tusk was involved in the conspiracy to kill his twin brother. Look at what Putin is doing in Ukraine. He is trying to cobble back together the Soviet empire.---Remember the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Those were heady days of throwing out the Russian collaborators. The president was then poisoned with dioxin and the Soviets slipped in the back door. The same holds true of the intent on the part of Russia to hold on to its influence in Poland.-----The Church is the backbone of Polish society. It is obvious that Francis is working on détente with Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church. He is doing the same in China by telling the underground Church to cooperate with the socialist leadership. This is a dangerous policy and the Russian bear is extremely dangerous to the point of being involved in the shooting of JPII.
Why don't you all ever mention
"The Slaughter of the Latins?"
Secondly,The Council of Florence was attended by the higher up's of the "Orthodox".
I have noticed in general (not everyone every time but in general) the Eastern parishoners consistently attack the Romans and have a tendency to skew or omit facts.
No this is not Michael.
Its a very interesting theory even though there is only a slim chance of this existing.
Also,I want to ad that I am not accusing you of being Eastern Orthodox.
What I wrote above is something I have noticed over the last 9 years.
Thank you for the clarification! I never read the book, but I have the movie on dvd, and watched it a few times. I remember one segment before the cardinals go into conclave where one obvious lib cardinal talks anout how the young priests want change and to name changes. I always cringe at that point, because we know knw now what came from that attitude of many young priests of the time who are either now very old priests, left the priesthood, or are dead. It was a very wishful, naïve time in the Church and that period caused trememdous damage...Francis is a byproduct. But an older Cardinal in the movie counters the liberal by saying that the young priests will case harm "by ignorance". This cardinal, modeled on the great Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, was played by the equally great British actor(and Catholic), Leo McKern (who many might remember playing in the Rumpole of the Bailey series from BBC).
But not many people know that the Anthony Quinn character was modeled on a cardinal who made great headlines at the time for being released by the Soviets....Josyf Cardinal Slipyj (1893-1984) Metropolitan Archbiop of Lvov from 1944-84.
Damian Malliapalli
Do you know when this book will be available in English? I would like to read it.
The most fervent, if poorly informed, Orthodox are mostly disaffected Catholics and Protestants. All ethnic Orthodox in the diaspora care about is making a living, fitting in and maybe getting their kids to learn Greek, or at least marry one...
Will keep you posted.
Tancred,
You speak wisely regarding ethnic Orthodox espec Greeks.
Often, their orthodoxy is a thin veneer of culture and ethnic trappings.
Sorry but true.
Of my father's nine brothers and sisters there are over 150 grandchildren and if there are a dozen who attend or practice the Orthodox faith I would be surprised.
As an admirer of those Eastern & Oriental Orthodox that do profess true faith, I apologize if my comments are taken with offense but just my personal experiences of the local Greek community.
An example of the ethno silliness is when a local priest named father Sean came to our area the local Bishop requested he change his name to Demetrius if that's not silly
I don't know what is.
Also that prieston is wife left the area and no longer serve in this area
My father became Roman Catholic in the 1950s when he married my mom. His own family cut him off but my dad in all humility said that becoming a Catholic was the best thing he ever did.
The ethnic Orthodox in US are a lot like the Irish. They also tend to vote heavily Democratic, although now that the party has sort of dissed them for being prosperous, there are Greeks now voting Republican, because Greek Americans and Greeks in general are a pretty hard working bunch.
"Constantinople was sacked by the Western savages..." ... invited by Byzantines (one party battling for the emperor's throne).
"The Orthodox were sceptical of a strong centralized Papacy..." ... but not of strong, centralized Tsardom or even - strong Muslim sultan who resided in Constantinople after 1453.
The only non-american Orthodox I have known were a bunch of Serbs who were old enough to remember Yugoslavia and to fight in Bosnia.
They were very good people who wanted the schism to end as much as me.
Speaking of Popes, I read it on the Vatican website today....but forget how to direct others to find it (sorry), that Pope Francis gave a very revealing homily at his little Casa Santa Martha chapel this am. It was a commentary on an Epistle of St.Paul. Francis states that there comes a point when the shepherd(bishop) should step down(resign), from his post because it isn't the shepherd who is the Church, it is Jesus.
I would be willing to bet(not money though:) that Francis is setting the Church up, preparing us for his surprise announcement that he's gonna quit...resign. Please do Francis. Please quit so that maybe the next time in conclave, the Cardinals will elect a Catholic.
Another telling sign, is that the Vatican is starting to cancel some overseas trips that had been in the works/planned for Francis this year and next. Two have been announced as cancelled....1 to Southern Sudan, and somewhere else, I can't remember.
They wouldn't suddenly start doing that unless:
1). Francis is going to quit/resign soon
2). He's seriously ill, or in declining health enough to justify cancelling/cutting back.
Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I would say it's both.
Damian Malliapalli
Bring out your dead.
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