Pope crusade against the ussr. Pius xii and the "crusade" against the ussr - n3yron - livejournal. Brzezinski - "godfather" of Pope John Paul II

The idea of \u200b\u200bcrusades is a favorite "method" of the Vatican for realizing its ambitious and selfish aspirations. This is eloquently evidenced by the history of the Crusades of the Middle Ages.

The Crusades strengthened the power of the popes and enriched them, but in fact they did not give anything for the consolidation of the Christian faith, for the Christianization of society at that time. On the contrary, the crusades marred the purity of the exalted Christian teaching in its practical implementation. This can be judged by the actions of the crusaders in the capture of Jerusalem and Constantinople.

Jerusalem was taken by the crusaders on July 15, 1099. It was especially remarkable that the city was taken at three o'clock in the afternoon on Friday - the day and hour of the Savior's suffering.

This victory was accompanied by predation and bloodshed, shameful for the Christian name.

Jerusalem was in the hands of the unbelievers. But Constantinople was then under the rule of the Greek Orthodox tsar. Meanwhile, the crusaders in 1204 rampaged in Constantinople even more than in Jerusalem.

In this way, the popes established the Catholic patriarchates in Antioch, Jerusalem and Constantinople. In general, the Crusades over three centuries brought great suffering to humanity.

The Roman bishops, captivating Western Christians with the idea of \u200b\u200bcrusades for the liberation of the Holy Land from the Turks, in fact turned these campaigns into a kind of military expeditions for the realization of their, purely earthly, interests of ambition and greed.

But when the fascination of Western Christians with the idea of \u200b\u200bcampaigns in Palestine cooled down, the popes rushed to the Orthodox eastern Slavs, especially to Russia.

It is known that the popes organized crusades from Sweden and Livonia. The Swedish ruler Birger, at the behest of Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241) and Pope Innocent IV (1242-1254), set out on a crusade to Russia in order to convert the Orthodox to Catholicism. Alexander Nevsky in 1240 and 1242 inflicted severe defeats on the Swedes and the German knights.

Having suffered defeat in the north-east of Russia, the popes rushed to the south-west of it, to Galicia. When Polish rule was established here (1340), Catholics began to take away from the Orthodox churches and convert them to churches. The Lviv Cathedral was seized by the Catholic Archbishop. From 1376 there was a metropolitanate and four dioceses in Galicia. Then the Dominicans arrived there, captured several orthodox monasteries and introduced their own inquisition. With the blessing of the popes, the activity of the Inquisition especially intensified here with the Brest Union (1596).

The suffering of the Galicians continued for 350 years, until the accession of the Galician Uniates to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1946.

The method of violence was and is one of the favorite methods of the Vatican in establishing the pope's leadership in the Church. The disguise of this method has changed depending on certain historical circumstances, but the essence has always remained the same. This character of the Vatican's actions has become especially noticeable in recent decades, that is, since the Great October socialist revolution in our country.

Given the international situation and the hostility of the capitalist governments against the USSR, the popes of this period, Benedict XV, Pius XI and Pius XII, consistently one after another call for crusades, ostensibly to protect the Christian faith in our country.

The Russian Orthodox Church exists freely in the USSR. Worship is freely performed in churches and houses of prayer, in which there are always many worshipers. There are spiritual educational institutions - academies and seminaries. Of course, the dads know all this well. They call for crusades to defend the faith, but in essence for other reasons, in particular, to cover up their power-hungry plans in relation to the Russian Orthodox Church. Desiring to use the new conditions of life of the Russian Orthodox Church in connection with the law on the separation of the Church from the State, the popes decided to subjugate the Russian Orthodox Church. Then they thought it was a very easy thing. Under the Vatican, a seminary "Russikum" was created to train cadres of priests who should be priests in Russian parishes with the aim of seducing them into union with Catholicism. During the German occupation, pupils of "Russikum" appeared as Orthodox priests in Ukraine and the North Caucasus.

The decree on the separation of the Church from the State by the Vatican was adopted in the sense that from now on in the USSR the Catholic Church can hope for significant growth in Russia.

Pope Benedict XV tried to enter into official relations with the Soviet Government.

In the fall of 1920, secret meetings were held in Berlin under the chairmanship of Monsignor Ropp. Russian émigrés - Orthodox or converted to Catholicism - and several German priests took part in these meetings. They tried to find means to substantiate the idea of \u200b\u200buniting Orthodox Russia with the Catholic Church. All agreed, - reports the Roman Observer, - that the present moment is very suitable for this association.

Following this conference, Monsignor Ropp, by order of the Vatican, tried to obtain permission from the Soviet Government to travel from Warsaw to then Petrograd.

The efforts shown by the Roman Church since the beginning of the Great October Socialist Revolution to penetrate directly into Russia and establish their positions there, have not yet led to the results desired for Benedict XV. The whole point is that Rome did not take into account the main force of Orthodoxy - belief in the truth, as well as its patriotic and national character.

Pope Benedict XV's attempt to penetrate directly into Russia was only one episode of the crusade aimed at putting an end to "Eastern schism" and realizing the unification of the Churches.

The Propaganda of Faith Congregation cherishes a constant goal: to bring Eastern Christians by any means into the enclosure of the Roman Church.

Benedict XV instructed his missionaries to show great respect for the liturgy and rites of the Eastern Church. Leo XIII was the first pope to demand respect not only for rituals, but also for "discipline," that is, the internal organization of the Eastern Church. “The true unity of Christians is that which the Creator of the Church, Jesus Christ, established and desired: it consists in the unity of faith and government. Neither we nor our successors will ever destroy either the rights or privileges of the Eastern patriarchs or the rituals of every Church. In the behavior of St. Throne, as well as in his thoughts, there has always been and will always be a desire to be generous and to make any concessions in relation to the principles and morals of each Church. "

These words, addressed by Leo XIII to the Eastern Church, the best way define the policy that he initiated and which his successors tried to continue.

Great efforts were needed to destroy the prejudice, as a result of which the Uniates were considered Christians of the second rank, and to force the clergy and missionaries of the West to abandon the custom of converting Christians of the Eastern Churches to Latinism. But a beginning has now been made: in order to patronize the spread of Catholicism in the East, Rome decisively prohibits the development of Latinism in the East. Converted Eastern Christians remain Eastern Christians, maintaining their traditions, rituals and discipline.

True to the thought of Leo XIII, Benedict XV devoted much attention to organizing the activities that were to unfold in Europe along the entire eastern border of the Catholic world. From the Baltic to the Black Sea, churches were built that differed from Roman churches in ritual, discipline, local traditions, which were united with the Roman Church by a common dogma of submission to the Pope. These Uniate communities formed, as it were, the vanguard posts of Catholicism. Benedict XV wanted to have accurate information about the existence of conditions for the implementation of his goals in Belarus, Ukraine. On his instructions, Metropolitan of Lvov and Galician Andrey Sheptytsky sent him detailed reports.

When ataman Petliura organized an "independent" Ukrainian government in Kiev, Benedict XV hurried to recognize it. Sending Monsignor Ropp to Warsaw, the Pope appoints Fr. Genocchi to Ukraine. Pope Benedict XV wants at any cost to prevent the Catholic Ukrainian group from turning to the East, to Orthodoxy, and, conversely, strives to achieve his goal: the subordination of the Eastern Church to the Vatican. He realizes his goal through the Russikum founded by him. Benedict XV died without waiting for favorable results from his Eastern policy.

Pius XI continued his policy towards the Russian Orthodox Church. A few months after the election of Pius XI, the Geneva Conference began and the Pope used it to speak with Russian representatives. He not only sent his instructions to the Archbishop of Geneva Signori, but sent him to Geneva, to the conference, with his power of attorney, Monsignor Sinsero. Archbishop Signori behaves extremely helpful towards the Russian delegates: he invites them to his place, gives them a visit; at a breakfast hosted by the Italian king, exchanges cards with G. Chicherin. This behavior of the Signori made the Sinsero's position very difficult. The Vatican recalled its envoy to Rome and called on Monsignor Signori to behave more modestly.

A few days later, Pius XI set off to his goal along a different road. In a letter addressed to Cardinal Gasparri, he expressed deep regret for the fate of Russia and declared his sympathy for her; then he praised the alliance between Russia and the West; only such a union, according to the pope, could bring peace and prosperity to the whole world. This document made a big impression in Geneva. Lloyd George commented on it in front of reporters, the German delegates publicly praised this speech by Pius XI, and the Italians congratulated themselves on such a speech by the pope.

In the first days of May, the Vatican's envoy, Monsignor Pizzardo, arrived in Geneva. Monsignor Pizzardo's private conversations with G. Chicherin in Geneva and in Rome with V. Vorovsky led to the following results. The Soviet Government guaranteed freedom of entry and freedom of movement on the territory of the Union to a certain number of missionaries, who received an assignment from the Vatican to study on the spot the means of providing the peoples of the USSR with food, clothing, medicine, etc. On July 24, 1922, 11 missionaries from Rome left: three Italians - to Moscow, three Jesuits to Rostov, three Dutchmen and two Spanish fathers to Ekaterinodar (Krasnodar). They had to refrain from any religious propaganda and provide assistance to all who needed it, regardless of religion. The missionaries brought with them a million packages with the inscription: "To Russian children from the Pope."

On the day of the departure of the missionaries, Pius XI appealed to all the bishops of the Catholic world with an appeal to raise the necessary funds to organize aid to Russia, announcing that he himself donated two and a half million lire. The Vatican Printing House published a brochure in five languages, announcing the disasters of Russian children to the whole world and reporting on the measures taken by St. The throne to help them. The subscription was open everywhere; it was especially fruitful in the USA.

From the very beginning, the mission was very active. However, it turned out that the papal mission sought to take advantage of its stay in the USSR to achieve goals that had nothing to do with the help of the starving people. For this reason, the Soviet Government invited her in 1924 to leave the territory of the USSR.

On this occasion, Pius XI on December 18, 1924, made a speech in the secret consistory that, while sending his mission to the USSR to help the starving, he did not mean to favor the Soviet system, which “he has so little sympathy for”, but always “ considered it his duty to repeatedly and publicly "call for the fight against him.

During the Genoa Conference, Pius XI spoke three times (April 7 and 29, May 9, 1922) with the demand to open access to the Jesuits in the USSR for missionary purposes, that is, for the conversion of Russian Orthodox Christians to Catholicism. According to Pius XI, the center of missionary activity of the Jesuits should be the Russicum, established on October 25, 1917. In 1922, Pius XI entrusted it to the Jesuit Order. Its current rector, French Jesuit Fr. Mikhail D'Erbigny is an expert on the Slavic world. The Institute has a rich library. A diploma from this Institute will be required for all applicants for employment in the Eastern Congregation.

In 1924, Cardinal D'Herbigny launched an extensive plan for an "offensive to the East."

First of all, the Vatican is concerned with the formation of a zealous, educated clergy for the Eastern Churches. The seminaries created for this are led by the Catholic clergy. The seminaries that train priests for the Eastern Churches are numerous.

To maintain the moral level of the Eastern clergy, Rome, without declaring celibacy compulsory, still recommends giving preference to celibate priests. In educational institutions led by the Catholic clergy, through the example of teachers and methods of education, the idea of \u200b\u200bcelibacy is gradually instilled in students.

In August 1924 a large congress was held in Moravia, near the tomb of St. Methodius in order to study the question of what means can be used to organize rapprochement between the Eastern and Western Churches.

The Pope delegated his Prague nuncio to this Congress; the main Catholic and Orthodox communities in Central Europe and the East were represented by both clergy and laypersons, and, finally, several Catholics came from major Western countries to participate in the work of this congress. One of the points to be debated concerned the subordination of Latin missionaries to the authority of the Eastern Catholic bishops.

The attack on the East, mainly on the Russian Orthodox Church, was for Pius XI cherished dream... To implement his plans, he decided to convene an Ecumenical Council. By his order, the committee preparing the world “Conference of Faith and Church Constitution” was to develop special questionnaires and send them to more than 2,000 bishops, metropolitans and patriarchs, with an invitation to this future Ecumenical Council and representatives of the Eastern Churches.

In subordinating himself to the Russian Orthodox Church, Pius XI did not even stop at political combinations. It is known that on February 2, 1930, he called on the Western peoples to organize crusades against our Motherland. He hoped with the victory over it to get a wide opportunity for the activities of his missionaries in it.

In this respect, his hatred of Russia was so great that on March 19, 1930, he appointed a special prayer for the defeat of our Motherland.

Since his pontificate (March 12, 1939), Pope Pius XII has developed active work on the organization of crusades against the USSR, with the aim of subordinating the Vatican to the Russian Orthodox Church. Numerous facts from international life speak volumes about this.

When the war broke out between Finland and the USSR, Pius XII took an active part in fomenting the war against the USSR.

On December 24, 1939, Pius XII made a radio speech in which he called on Europe to provide aid with troops and arms to Finland, and two days later he sent a large sum of money to his representative in Finland, Bishop Robett, to subsidize the war. At the behest of Pius XII, one of the editors of the papal Osservatore Romano, Guido Gonella, on February 17, 1940, came up with an article in connection with the war in Finland. He called, with the blessing of the Pope, for a military action against the USSR.

Foreign newspapers reported that Pius XII was depressed by the failure of the White Finns' military adventure.

When Hitler appeared on the historical stage, Pius XII hastened to join him in order to carry out his idea of \u200b\u200ba crusade against the USSR through him. For proof, you can refer to the book of the Catholic publicist Gabriel de Jaret - “His Holiness Pius XII. Wartime messages to the world. Paris, 1945 ". In it, G. Jaret tries to prove that the pope called the peoples to peace, but at the same time says that Pius XII agreed with Hitler that he would send his priests to the occupied parts of the USSR to convert Russian Orthodox Christians to Catholicism.

All papal rhetoric about peace is just a "smokescreen" to cover up their crusade against the USSR.

The main principle of Pius XII's activity is the desire for world domination by the Vatican over all Churches. In the preface to the German text of the Lateran Treaty (Pius XI - Mussolini) in 1929 it is said that after the Lateran Agreement, the church leadership, recognized state power, will be able to devote his energies to the tasks of the "world church".

And since on the way to the implementation of the basic principle of the Vatican's activity in its striving for domination in the world Church is mainly the Russian Orthodox Church, all the intrigues of the Vatican are directed precisely towards the destruction of this Church and other Slavic Orthodox Churches.

In Moscow from 8 to 18 July 1948, on the occasion of the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the autocephaly of the Russian Orthodox Church, a congress of representatives of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches took place.

The representatives of the autocephalous Churches talked about the intrigues of the Vatican, which he resorted to to destroy the Orthodox Churches.

Before World War II, at the behest of the Vatican, 135 Orthodox churches were destroyed in Poland.

But an even greater persecution of Orthodoxy was from the Vatican in the Balkans.

Eminent hierarchs of the Balkan Orthodox Churches reported to the high assembly about the horrors that the Orthodox of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered from the Roman curia.

With the blessing of Pius XII, Italy occupied Albania (April 14, 1939). At the behest of the Vatican, the persecution of the Orthodox began and their forcible conversion to Catholicism.

In 1943, a large book of documents was published in Chicago about the extermination of the Serbian population of Croatia by the occupiers and Ustasha, about the Vatican's persecution of the Orthodox Church. The book was published by the Orthodox Serbian Church in America and came out with a preface by the New York Bishop T. Manning.

“Many Orthodox churches,” says this book, “were destroyed. Many Orthodox institutions have been confiscated, others have been converted into Catholic churches. Monasteries, some of which have a long historical past, were handed over to the Roman Catholic orders. The Patriarchal Palace was occupied by Catholics. Officials of the Orthodox faith have been notified that in the Croatian state they may remain on public service only those who belong to the Roman Catholic Church. "

The Roman Catholic clergy took all measures to forcibly convert the Orthodox to Catholicism. 240,000 Serbs were converted to the union. The Gorno-Karlovatskaya diocese was destroyed; from the large and flourishing diocese, only 25 parishes remained.

The priests from the church pulpits called for the destruction of the Orthodox.

It was tempting to launch a crusade against the USSR not only from the West, but also from the East, and to surround this country with a ring of a powerful blockade. The country that could benefit the Catholic Church in the first place was Japan. This was due to the following factors. First, it was clear that Japan intended to expand its expansion into China, where the Catholic Church had its own interests. Secondly, Japan was an old enemy of Russia, especially after the Great October Socialist Revolution.

Japan quickly realized the benefits that the Catholic Church could bring to it. Having seized vast Chinese territories, she promised to respect the interests of the Catholic mission in China and even, if possible, provide Catholics with all kinds of privileges.

These friendly relations were reinforced by the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Tokyo in March 1942. Several months later, namely in June 1942, Pius XII established diplomatic relations with Chiang Kai-shek. In this case, the Vatican sought to establish a stronger alliance with China, firstly, because it already began to doubt the victory of Germany and Japan and in the person of China wanted to have a support for a crusade against the USSR. At the same time, the Catholic Church in China, in order to strengthen its position, began to create cadres of clergy from local Chinese. This was one of the issues on which Pius XII and Chiang Kai-shek very soon reached an understanding.

However, the defeat of Japan and Chiang Kai-shek forced Pius XII to switch to subservience to the US government.

Everything last years the activities of the Vatican are so imbued with the principles of American politics that in the world press the nickname "American" was established for it. This is the American period in the history of the Vatican. It is characterized by the Vatican's connection to American politics.

Since the main pivot of American policy is the preparation for the third world war, the Vatican's servility is expressed in participation in the preparation of a new bloody massacre.

It is very characteristic and indicative that the Vatican was completely indifferent to the World Congress of Nations in Defense of Peace.

Christ calls the peoples of all countries to unite among themselves in the spirit of peace and love. Christ and His Apostles categorically prohibit the use of violence to convert to the Christian faith. Of course, the Vatican knows this very well, but it does not need the embodiment of Christ's covenants in life, but the most zealous fulfillment of the order of American imperialism, which has nothing to do with Christianity.

Now, in the American period of its history, the Vatican, in the name of the idea of \u200b\u200ba crusade, does not object to either the bloody war in Korea, or to bacteriological warfare and atomic bombs.

In December 1952, the World Congress of Peoples for Peace was held in Vienna.

It is known that Pope Pius XII did not give his blessing to Catholics to take part in the work of this Congress.

ARCHBISHOP HERMOGEN

The funds of the Local Lore Museum contain interesting photographs of the 1930s, reflecting important events of the pre-war period. The photographs show a demonstration of workers in the city of Penza, organized in response to the "crusade" against the USSR, announced by the Pope in 1930. The demonstration took place on Sovetskaya Square, which was attended by a large group of townspeople carrying banners and banners.

From the very beginning of the existence of the Soviet state, the ruling circles of the capitalist countries of Europe and the United States, trying to destroy or weaken it, tried to oppose the young socialist republic a hostile bloc of European countries, supposedly united by Christian civilization. The Vatican provided all possible support to these circles. In 1918-1920. Pope Benedict XIV, hiding behind the slogan of protecting religion, actively supported foreign intervention in Russia, put together an anti-Soviet front. Ten years later, in 1930, another Roman high priest, Pius XI, proclaimed a "crusade" against the USSR, which served as a signal for unleashing an anti-Soviet campaign on an international scale.

In the 1930s, the slogan of the "crusade" was taken up by the German and Italian fascists. Calls to put an end to "god-loathing Bolshevism", the Goebbels and Rosenbergs sought to mislead the German and world community by portraying the fascist thugs as fighters for Christian principles, and sought to mobilize the Germans to prepare for an aggressive war against the USSR. It is characteristic that the Nazis named their plan of attack on the Soviet Union after the German leader of the third "crusade", Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa.

Mussolini's admirers did not lag behind the Nazis, who in their own way even "improved" the practice of crusader propaganda, expanding the scope of its application. Exterminating the civilian population of Ethiopia in 1935, the Italian fascists insisted that they were doing this in the name of introducing the Ethiopians - heretics, schismatics and pagans to the true faith: a "crusade" was proclaimed against Ethiopia - thus, the fascists hoped to consecrate the aggressive war in the eyes of believers Italians.

The same trick was used by the Spanish fascist rebels, who, together with their German and Italian allies, strangled the republic in Spain under the banner of a "crusade" against the "red".

Thus, even before the outbreak of World War II, the medieval slogan of the "crusade" was widely used in reactionary imperialist propaganda. Papacy and fascism, in their hatred of the USSR, acting hand in hand, put a content different from the medieval one into the concept of "crusade". They adapted it to their goals, seeing in it an important means of ideological preparation and justification of the bloody adventures of the imperialists.

This practice of lying and deceiving got further development during the Second World War, when those who directed Hitler's aggression tried in every possible way to instill in the fascist soldiers the idea that by killing and plundering, burning and destroying, the army of the fascist Reich was acting in the name of the highest ideals approved by heaven itself. "God is with us" - such a motto was inscribed on the belt buckles of Hitler's soldiers. The slogan of the "crusade" against Bolshevism, proclaimed by the German fascists, served as the banner for the darkest part of the soldiers of the German fascist army, Catholics and Protestants, intoxicated by Nazi propaganda.

The First Crusade Proclaimed by Pope Urban II

The church could have benefited substantially from the crusade against the Seljuk Turks, since Urban II was aware of the potentially significant benefits of helping the Byzantines.

P apa Roman Urban II announced First Crusade November 27, 1095 at the Church Council in the French city of Clermont. A church-sanctified attempt to expel people "enslaved by demons" would have served many purposes: the Seljuk Turks successfully occupied the Holy Land, which at that time was part of the Byzantine Empire. Since the pontificate of Gregory VII and the fatal battle of Manzikert, in which the forces of Byzantium were defeated, the eastern emperors have sent appeals to Rome for help. The Pope was now able to act on an opportunity that would give him an excuse to do much more than just send a number of mounted knights.

Goals and objectives of the First Crusade

Europe was a battlefield, a place of continuous conflict and endless war. Uniting feudal factions against a common enemy would reduce the likelihood of further wars and channel their resources and energies against Muslims. " Let those who are accustomed to waging prodigal private wars even against the Faithful go against the Infidels in the future in a battle worthy of being undertaken ... ” Pope Urban II announced the first of its kind unconditional indulgence to those who "Fights against the pagans"... For a medieval man who feared the fire of purgatory, this absolution was very convincing.

A successful Crusade would greatly increase the prestige of the papacy and perhaps put an end to the schism between the east and west. christian churches... And although the emperor Alexey I Komnin asked for a relatively small number of professional soldiers - mounted knights, Urban called all Christians: knights, lackeys, "Rich and poor", and even "Robbers"... Despite its might, none of the worthy kings could lead this army; and Philip I of Franceand Henry IV of Germany were excommunicated.

Incentives to participate in the First Crusade

For those participants in the Campaign who owned land, the Church guaranteed its protection and surety, so that while the lords are in distant lands, fighting for Christ, the offenders could not take possession of them. Those who raise the cross have their debts forgiven. Since usury was prohibited, many of these debts were incurred through Jewish creditors.

However, European Jews were not taken into account even when the participants of the Campaign began to mercilessly kill them all over Europe. For them, there was no difference between the Jews and the so-called Infidels, whom they would soon face outside the borders of Constantinople. The Jews turned to the Church for help. Some brave bishops opened their gates to Jews seeking asylum, but many others remained deaf to their pleas.

The city of Nicaea was liberated from Muslim control in 1097, and in 1099 the army of the Crusade was already at the gates of Jerusalem. The final battle became a bloodbath: thousands were executed. Fulcherius of Chartres writes that, “If you were there, your feet would sink to the ankles in the blood of the slain. None of them were left alive. They did not spare either women or children ”.

Legacy of the First Crusade

In March 2000 Pope John Paul II apologized for sins committed in the name of the Church, including the Crusades. The First Crusade led to approximately 150 years of crusading activity, both official and unofficial. Peasant crusade, headed by Peter Hermitended in a full-scale massacre outside Constantinople, while ill-born Children's Crusade ended with the captains of the ships ferrying the youth to North Africa instead of the Middle East to sell them there as slavery.

The crusade did not end the church schism, nor did it end the "private wars" in Europe. Nevertheless, it was the impetus for a new age of commerce and trade, a significant benefit that was able to pave the way for the prosperity of the city-states that emerged in Italy.

Pope Francis made the first canonization in his life

On May 12, in St. Peter's Square, he canonized 800 martyrs from Otranto and two Latin American nuns. According to Vatican Radio, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, among other things, noted:

« Today the Church offers for our veneration a number of martyrs who were called together to the supreme testimony of the gospel in 1480. About eight hundred people who survived the siege and capture of Otranto were beheaded near this city. They did not want to renounce their faith and perished confessing the Risen Christ. Where did they find the strength to remain faithful? It is in faith, which makes it possible to see beyond the human gaze, beyond the boundaries of earthly life, that makes it possible to contemplate the "open heavens" - as St. Stephen - and the living Christ at the right hand of the Father».

In our world, it sometimes happens that the assignment of this or that person or group of people begins to acquire a political meaning. It is possible that something similar can happen to the Otrant martyrs. Recall that they took death from the soldiers of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II... Known as the Conqueror, this sultan is an iconic hero in Turkish history and politics. It is with him that great victories are associated Ottoman Empire, including the capture of Constantinople. In 1480, the troops of Mehmed II landed with an army in Italy, just in the Otranto region. After the siege, Ottoman soldiers took the city. 800 men of working age were asked to convert to Islam. They refused, for which they were beheaded, legend says.

It is possible that everything was so. Although for Mehmed II, who was a dervish, such cruel behavior was extremely uncharacteristic. However, today, in the 1990s, the Archdiocese of Otranto initiated a study of this story to consider the canonization of the townspeople. In 2007 the Pope Benedict XVI launches the process of canonization of 800 martyrs of Otranta with the formulation as killed “ out of hatred for faith". So Pope Francis only completed the work started by his predecessors. Regarding the solemn announcement in the Vatican of the decision on new saints, the Turkish press has so far limited itself to only brief informational remarks. The only thing that the leading Turkish newspapers Milliyet and Zaman did was to add to the news reprints the formula that 800 residents of Otranto were “allegedly” executed for refusing to convert to Islam, thereby challenging the main postulate of the Vatican about the suffering of martyrs “out of hatred of faith”.

Canonization was the second landmark action of the Vatican to affect Turkey in two weeks of May. Earlier this month, news agencies reported about the re-edition of the book of the Pope Francis « In heaven and on earth", In which he, in particular, condemned the Armenian Genocide. As the current pope noted, being then a cardinal BergoglioIn the twentieth century, the Turks razed cities and villages to the ground, because they presented themselves as a god. Considering that in the first two months of his pontificate, Francis, for the first time in the history of the schism between Catholics and Orthodox Christians, invited the Patriarch of Constantinople to Rome for his enthronement, accepted the latter's invitation to visit Istanbul and Jerusalem, and also held a number of meetings with representatives of North African and Middle Eastern Churches in the Vatican, it begs next output. It is not excluded that the introduction of a new, additional religious factor is envisaged in the reformatting of the Greater Middle East (we will use this American term). If until now only the confrontation between Shiites and Sunnis within the framework of a single Islam was taken into account, then, perhaps, now the factor of Catholicism can be added to them.

This has already happened in this region at the dawn of the second millennium from Nativity of Christwhen, as a result of the Roman-blessed Crusades in Palestine, the Kingdom of Jerusalem was formed. It existed for a relatively short time, from 1099 to 1291, but left behind a number of clues. In particular, political technologies for the development and spread of militant Catholic orders were worked out here. The orders did not obey either the Pope or the King. They were largely self-sufficient and did not have to carry military service, but in fact they participated in all major battles. After the fall of the kingdom, the orders moved their activities to Europe, where the same Templars began to represent a very impressive force, for which they were destroyed by the French monarch Philip the Beautifuland in 1312 the pope Clement V dissolved their order. By the way, the current head of the Roman Catholic Church, Francis, comes from perhaps the most .

The current Vatican can find itself again in the Middle East only with the active support of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which is also called Ecumenical. This is not an exaggeration. If in Istanbul itself the heirs of Byzantine Constantinople are locked in the Phanar quarter, outside Turkey the influence of the Ecumenical Patriarch extends to the United States and Europe, Greece and Jerusalem. Until now, the governor of Phanar, patriarch Bartholomew in political games was significantly limited by the need to adjust to the official Ankara. Pope Francis' accession to the throne seemed to provide room for maneuver. And in the first days of Francis' march, Patriarch Bartholomew made a number of careless remarks, when he even suggested that the old schism between Catholics and Orthodox Christians would soon heal with the prospect of starting a new super-Church ( those. ecumenism, betrayal of Orthodoxy and entry into an alliance with Rome, which plundered Constantinople during the "fourth crusade" in 1204 and the subsequent infliction of the Constantinovol hierarchs themselves, who adopted in 1439 ("Florentine") union with Catholicism , which led to the final fall of morals in Byzantium and the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 - approx. ed ). Then the capabilities of the Constantinople ruler could be supported by the power of the Vatican, which would have an unpredictable effect on the geopolitical situation in the Middle East.

As can be judged, the Turkish authorities have considered a similar option. The answer came instantly. The Turkish police took Bartholomew under increased protection after the appearance of “ information about the planned attempt on his life». As reported On May 10, Reuters, the Turkish prosecutor's office received an anonymous letter outlining a murder plan (the press secretary Dosifei Anagnostopoulos said that the Patriarch did not receive any direct threats, but learned about the alleged conspiracy from the Turkish media, which was later confirmed by the Turkish police - approx. ed .). The assassination attempt was scheduled for May 29, which will mark the 500th anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. In turn, the Patriarch of Constantinople commented on the fact of disclosing a conspiracy against himself as follows: “ I'm not worried, because, first of all, God protects me, and, secondly, the Turkish authorities and the Turkish government". This reaction is understandable. Indeed, under the pretext of the need to protect Bartholomew from malefactors, Ankara could well have made him banned from leaving the Phanar quarter for a long time. In any case, at the moment, the Patriarch of Constantinople will not be entirely up to Pope Francis.

Time will tell what the Vatican will do next in this situation. Let's note one thing. Not long ago, the Pope's former personal secretary John XXIII, archbishop Loris Francesco Capavila drew attention to the great similarity that exists between John XXIII and Francis. In an interview with the Internet portal Vatican Insider, the 98-year-old man said that both pontiffs are united by their love for the periphery. John XXIII was bishop of Rome for less than five years, from 1958 to 1963. Prior to being elected Pope, he was a Vatican diplomat, and served as papal nuncio (envoy) in Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and France. He is especially famous for having initiated the convening of the Second Vatican Council ( justified the Jews in the betrayal of Christ - approx. ed ), as a result of which part of the communities departed from the Roman Catholic Church ( it is no less symbolic that there were two popes named after John XXIII. In addition to the one mentioned above - who justified the Jews in their betrayal, in the history of Rome there was another John XXIII - "antipope" (cm. Leo Taxil... "Sacred nativity scene"). Moreover, he was such an odious person that after him for almost 500 years not one of the pontiffs took the name John - approx. ed ). There is something to think about, given the comparison made by Archbishop Loris Francesco Capavila.

Stanislav Stremidlovsky

In February 1930, Pope Pius XI appealed to the clergy and believers with an appeal for a "crusade" against the USSR. This call served as the beginning of a broad anti-Soviet campaign in many countries, which, according to the organizers of this campaign, should have made it easier for the imperialists to prepare for a war against the USSR.

Pius XI borrowed the idea of \u200b\u200ba "crusade" from the arsenal of the Middle Ages. From the end of the XI century. to the end of the XIII century. at the call of the popes, a number of military colonization campaigns to the East were organized, which were called "crusades". According to the statements of popes, church preachers and reactionary bourgeois historians, the crusades were allegedly organized with the aim of "freeing the Holy Sepulcher" in Jerusalem, then under the rule of the Turks.

In fact, the Crusades were military-plundering campaigns to the East, and it was not the struggle of Christians with Muslims, with "infidels" that lay at their basis.

Various classes of the then society took part in the crusades: large feudal lords (kings, princes, barons, dukes), who strove to conquer new rich lands and increase income, small knights (nobles) who went on crusades with the aim of plunder and seizure of lands and serfs. Many of them counted on getting rid of debts for participating in the campaigns. The masses of the slaughtered and crushed peasantry, whose situation was then extremely difficult, also took part in the crusades. Going on campaigns, they hoped to free themselves from serf yoke, run away from their owners, find freedom (serfs who went on a campaign were freed from serfdom). The Crusades were supported and subsidized by the trading cities of Italy (Venice, Genoa, etc.), which expected to conquer trade routes to the East with the help of the Crusaders.

The Crusades, which brought immense riches to the church, contributed to the rise of religious fanaticism among the population. The popes arranged special monetary collections and even introduced taxes on the organization of the crusades, and the property of the non-returning participants in the campaigns became the property of the church. In this way, the crusades, inspired and organized by the popes, raised the political weight of the papacy and served as a new source of increasing wealth and increasing the influence of the church. The declassified rabble took an active part in the crusades: tramps and criminal elements who were looking for opportunities to rob.

In 1095, Pope Urban II, at a church council in Clermont, called christian world to the crusade to the East.

In 1096 the first crusade began. Unorganized crowds of peasants, bandits-knights and the criminal rabble who joined them moved from France, Germany, England, Scandinavia, Italy and Spain to Constantinople. Passing through the Christian states of Europe, they plundered cities and villages, raped, arousing universal hatred.

The first detachments of the Crusaders were defeated by the Turks, but in the fall of 1096 new detachments moved to the East. When in 1097 the crusaders reached Constantinople, the Greek Christians, whom the crusaders allegedly went to help against the "infidels" (Turks), saw that they were dealing with a rabble, with rude barbarians looking only for personal gain, and began to take measures against the crusaders who tried to plunder Constantinople. From there, the crusaders moved to Asia Minor, producing terrible devastation along the way and organizing a total massacre of the local Muslim population. Only in 1099 did the crusaders reach Jerusalem and took the city on July 15. The host of Christ staged a massacre in the city, alternating with solemn divine services. Eyewitnesses report that the crusaders literally walked through pools of blood. They killed men, women, smashed their heads on stones. The crusader army plundered everything that could be plundered: houses, churches, shops, public institutions.