Signs of the rise of Christianity in Russia

Seven Signs of the rise of Christianity in Russia and Our Lady’s wish for the consecration of Russia

Outside of the “culture war” issues there may not be a more hotly debated subject among the Catholic faithful then the “Consecration” of Russia by Pope John Paul II in 1984.

It has never been entirely clear if Pope John Paul “properly” completed the consecration of Russia to Our Lady’s heart but Vatican Secretary Bertone says emphatically the act of Russia’s consecration did occur and indeed Russia is converting  – not to Catholicism but rather to “Our Lady’s’ heart.

On the other side of the debate there are those who fiercely deny that the Consecration of Russia has occurred and believe there is a hidden “Fourth Secret” given to the seers  of Fatima by the Virgin Mary.  The secret, it is believed, speaks to consequences  that will engulf the Church if the faithful fail to heed Our Lady’s requests.   Many feel the Vatican is keeping  the hidden fourth secret to themselves because it reveals a deep crisis within the Church.

But now with rapidly changing events around the world and the surprising signs of a Christian revival in Russia perhaps we are witnessing  signs of the times and that the Blessed Mother’s call for Russia’s consecration has indeed been fulfilled.

American Thinker writes: “For those of us who grew up in America being told that the godless communist atheists in Russia were our enemies, the idea that America might give up on God and Christianity while Russia embraces religion might once have been difficult to accept. But by 2015, the everyday signs in America show a growing contempt for Christianity, under the first president whose very claims of being a Christian are questionable. The exact opposite trend is happening in Russia and its leaders—a return to Christian roots.”

Here are just some of the surprising religious events that have occurred in Russia  on the past couple of years.

1. Moscow, November 7, Interfax – A high-ranking Russian Orthodox Church priest has highly commended the President of Russia’s meeting with representatives of the Orthodox public, saying that the Russian Orthodox Church will continue its policy of crafting a “symphony” in the relationship between the church and state.   (Not so in the United States)

2.Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken of the fruitfulness of cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and government and public institutions and called the revival of Orthodox Christianity in Russian in the past two decades a miracle.

Putin: “Speaking of what has happened in these 20 years from the viewpoint of my feelings as an Orthodox Christian, it is simply a miracle. Frankly speaking I could not imagine 15-20 years ago that the revival, the recovery of faith for an enormous number of our compatriots would proceed at such a speed.”

3. Vladimir Putin, travelled to the St. Petersburg airport to meet the relic known as the “Belt of the Virgin Mary.  The relic is a highly revered Orthodox piece of antiquity credited with fertility-boosting powers.  Clerics said they hoped the relic would help more Russian women become mothers as the influential Russian Orthodox Church is actively promoting motherhood to help the government curtail a population decline.  The relic venerated by believers as the belt of the Virgin Mary arrived on loan from economically ravaged  Greece in the northwestern city of Saint Petersburg where hundreds waited patiently to pay their respects.

4.Moscow, October 31, Interfax – The Russian Orthodox Church has made colossal achievements in its revival over the past 20 years, the Moscow Patriarchate said:

“In 1991, the Russian Orthodox Church had 12,000 parishes, 117 monasteries and convents, two theologian academies, seven theologian seminaries, 16 theologian colleges and four schools. In 2011, we have 30,675 parishes, 29,324 priests, 3,850 deacons and 805 monasteries and convents. The number of theologian educational establishments has increased, too. Twenty years is not much in the history of a Church on the one hand, but on the other, the achievements made since 1991 are colossal,” Vladimir Legoida, the head of the Synodal Information Department, said at a news conference at Interfax on Monday.

5. Russia’s abortion rate — 1.3 million, or 73 per 100 births in 2009 — is the world’s highest.

Backed by the Russian Orthodox Church, an influential anti-abortion lobby is driving a moral crusade to tighten legislation and shift public attitudes that are largely a legacy of the Soviet era.Adding to the debate is the Russian government’s effort to reverse a population decline caused by low birth rates combined with very high death rates. With Russians dying nearly twice as fast as they are born, the United Nations predicts that by 2050 its population will shrink by almost one fifth to 116 million.

6.  A new  Russian nuclear submarine has been named after Saint Aleksandr Nevsky of Russia. The new sub will be fitted with its own Orthodox chapel after the vessel finishes its sea trials.The military chapel on the submarine will allow sailors to attend religious services right on board during the sub’s long missions.  It is the sixth military chapel to consecrated into the Russian Navy. The other five were installed on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, the heavy cruiser Pyotr Veliky, Russian Navy sail training ship Kruzenshtern, guided missile cruiser Moskva, and nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine K-433 Svyatoy Georgiy Pobedonosets.

7.  On Abortion …Cardinal Francis E. George wrote on October 22, 2012 that “A small irony of history cropped up at the United Nations a few weeks ago when Russia joined the majority of other nations to defeat the United States and the western European nations that wanted to declare that killing the unborn should be a universal human right. Who is on the wrong side of history now?”  The Cardinal went on to say, speaking about the religious trends in the United States “Communism imposed a total way of life based upon the belief that God does not exist. Secularism (in the United States) is communism’s better-scrubbed bedfellow?