Author: Lawrence B. Wheeler

My wife and my eldest grandchild turned sixteen on March 17. (No, his parents did not name him Patrick after the saint. ) I asked him whether he was following the war in Ukraine, and decided to follow up on that conversation with an e-mail. It’s below. I also sent to him with a link to Pres. Vladimir Putin’s soon-to-be famous address to the Russian people of February 21. The link to the speech is here:

 http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/67828

Certain Kool Aid drinkers of the disreputable American press consider Putin’s speech to be irrational and the autocrat to be unhinged. I challenge you to find evidence of mental illness in the speech in that link above.

Here’s what I wrote to my grandson in that e-mail message:

“When considering current events and historical events, it is always best to refer to original sources. I am enclosing Pres. Vladimir Putin’s speech to the people of Russia dated February 21. At the conclusion of the speech, of course, Putin declares that Russia will recognize the two states in the Donbass region of southeastern Ukraine. Importantly, however, the preceding body of the speech outlines Putin’s rationale for his subsequent actions, i.e. the historical attachment of Ukraine to Russia, the present corruption in Ukraine’s government, and the encroachment of NATO. “

Yours truly

Next is something that has been of great concern over the last four years to Orthodox Christians who have been paying attention to the state of the Church and the pseudo-Church in Ukraine. Below is a paragraph from that same speech by Pres. Putin. We can pray there will be a silver lining to the tragedy of war, i.e., that the contra-canonical violence against the OCU-MP will be eliminated by Russia’s military actions.

“Kiev continues to prepare the destruction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. This is not an emotional judgement; proof of this can be found in concrete decisions and documents. The Ukrainian authorities have cynically turned the tragedy of the schism into an instrument of state policy. The current authorities do not react to the Ukrainian people’s appeals to abolish the laws that are infringing on believers’ rights. Moreover, new draft laws directed against the clergy and millions of parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate have been registered in the Verkhovna Rada.”

Vladimir Putin, 2/21/22

Former papal nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, has written a stunning and thoroughgoing indictment of the leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the United States – particularly President Joe Biden – the European Union, President Zelensky, the Italian Prime Minister and oligarchs of the New World Order like Klaus Schwab, George Soros and Bill & Melinda Gates. He rightly blames them for triggering the unfortunate conflict between Russia and Ukraine. There are few elder statesmen alive today, but Abp. Vigano is one of them. Here is the open letter that he has issued to the world.

https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/5881-on-the-russia-ukraine-crisis-a-message-from-abp-vigano-former-apostolic-nuncio-to-the-u-s/

Dateline: Wednesday, March 9, 2022.

Good News from the American Socialist Republic of Hawai’i.

Finally! Gov. David Igé has announced that he will allow the so-called emergency mask mandate to “sunset” on March 26. Igé made the call two weeks after all other 49 states had ceased their pandemic mandates. The fiftieth state has the dubious honor of being the very last state to lift the ridiculous requirement and end the “current emergency proclamation”. At only 1,354 dead from …or with… Covid-19, Hawai’i has the lowest death count of all fifty states. The run-of-the-mill leftists who populate the state will, of course, brag that our state ohana (family) have kept the number low by being cautious… painstakingly cautious in mitigating the spread of the disease. Normal people, however, wonder why the nation’s most politically liberal state has taken so long the liberate the populace from these cumbersome measures while the Omicron variant is no more than a common cold. If you ask me, it’s all about control. This is a one-party state. The Democrats have had a stranglehold on political power since the “revolution” of 1954. We have seen that it is the states controlled by Democrats – the “liberal” party – that have been the most oppressed by the scare tactics during the pandemic. Against conventional logic, it is the states with Republican governors who have been the most liberal during the pandemic.

But wait! There’s more news. Hawai’i’s schools will continue to require indoor masking of its pupils and employees. This, in ignorance …or defiance… of the fact that children are not affected by Covid-19. So we can see that the gradual social conditioning of our next generation continues apace. The soft oppression by the statewide department of education rules the day, as Hawai’i is the only state in the nation with a centralized school system. Children who have become accustomed to government commands will grow up to be docile adults who lack a will to defy the government and fight for their freedoms. I’m glad that I’ll be dead before these kids take over our society.

Dateline: March 5, 2022

Russian armed forces invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Our own United States federal government and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have been itching for this proxy war with Russia for a very long time. Now they have it. They have encroached on the Russian sphere of influence by increments over the last thirty years since the toppling of the Berlin Wall ended the Cold War. They have kept NATO fresh well past its expiration date and expanded its membership to the nations of Eastern Europe, breaking their promise NOT to expand it beyond Germany. They have infiltrated the Ukrainian nation, triggered the Maidan Coup D’èta. Since 2014, they have armed the corrupt Ukrainian government and backed the slaughter by Neo-Nazis of 14,000 Ukrainians, most of whom are ethnic Russians in the southeastern Donbas. They have ignored the Minsk Agreements for a ceasefire.

It is no wonder that Mr. Putin decided that he had finally had enough. He would not tolerate the existence of such a regime on the border with Russia. He has threatened several times in the past to invade Ukraine in order to put an end to the shenanigans. With thousands of his troops amassed on the border, Putin even offered one last time to refrain from invading Ukraine if President Zelensky and his government would simply give assurances to remain a neutral country and refuse to join NATO.

Mr. Zelensky relayed the Russians’ offer to his patrons in Washington, but he was instructed to turn it down!

We can only surmise that it was our own Commander-in-Chief Joseph Biden who was directly responsible for the refusal. If so, then this war between Russia and Ukraine is HIS fault – not because of a negligence that stems from his obvious senility, but rather because it was deliberate. We have to conclude then that it was Biden’s plan all along to cause this war. And then to blame it on Putin. And to stir up the American people to support the ravaging of a country with a corrupt government…just like our own! And, by doing so, to improve his dismal poll numbers. Who knows how far this premeditated war will escalate in the near term? Let us hope that it does not expand to any of the states who are members of NATO. And let us pray to God that it never goes nuclear.

What a monstrous betrayal Mr. Biden’s administration has perpetrated on the Ukrainians… and on us Americans! They say that our president is willing “to fight the Russians to the last Ukrainian”. That may be so. Mr. Biden and the cynical warmongers of both American political parties now have blood on their hands. If the bulk of what I have written here is true, then may God have mercy on their souls on the day of reckoning!

I suppose I had it coming. When His Eminence made those subtle remarks at the National March for Life, I just couldn’t let them go unchallenged. The archbishop made an association between the Blessèd Virgin’s willing response to the Archangel Gabriel and the “autonomy of women” to abort their pregnancies. One had to read between the lines to get what he was trying to say, but it was manifestly obvious to anyone who has been paying attention. Cunning comments like that delivered by a bishop before thousands of pro-lifers have a chilling effect to say the least. Bishops are supposed to be guardians of the Faith, so such misguidance from the primate of an Orthodox Church begs the question:

Is he truly Orthodox?

So, why did I just post that? There are two reasons:

1. Braggadocio. I wanted to brag that I was one of those who had “spoken truth to power”. I had challenged the archbishop face to face two years ago and he was kind enough to answer my queries. Now that he has done some very controversial things, there is cause to challenge him more vigorously.
2. Confirmation. The archbishop – or his Twitter troupe of handlers – have added to the ever-mounting evidence that many leftists don’t want to engage with those who differ with them. Others have been blocked by Elpidophoros; I’m only the latest.

I’ve been on a long journey to the Faith – a journey that I had never planned on beginning. “The Hound of heaven” has led me along to this point where now I have found the true Church. Just think how disturbing it is to a convert like me who has come home and breathed a sigh of relief, only to find that there is a traitor in the house. Is it too alarmist to say such a thing?

While my daughter was growing up, she adored Audrey Hepburn for her poise and gentility. I dare say that she became much like the actress that she so emulated. Boys in particular have a deep yearning in their hearts for heroes. They have an instinctive admiration for strong and good men who will set an example for them to become as they mature. There are lots of antiheroes out there, especially in our aimless generation, and many boys emulate them for lack of better examples. They lead them to listlessness or worse.

But there are heroes to be found. Being an Anglophile, I am not ashamed to admit that one of my heroes has always been Sir Winston Churchill, the greatest Englishman of the twentieth century. Even Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt stated at the opening of the war in the European Theatre that perhaps Churchill was the greatest man alive.

I have been Orthodox for a few years now but I am still looking for heroes amongst the hierarchy. Abp. Elpidophoros is no hero of mine since he acts more like a corrupt politician than like a man of God. I’m sad to say that, but it appears to be true nonetheless. One man of the Faith whom I admire no end is the well-known St. Paisios of recent memory, who was not even a deacon. God grant us more humble heroes of the Faith like Paisios for us to emulate in these very disturbing times.

Canada is now officially a dictatorship. The United States is led by an empty suit. Russia’s tanks are rolling as their president takes advantage of our president’s senility. China is already at war with us in every way but the obvious one. Meanwhile, on the ecclesiastical scene, Constantinople is nipping at Moscow’s heels at every turn. The Phanar is hell-bent on dividing the Church by uniting with the Rome. To top it off, our health care bureaucracy has utterly betrayed the public that they are there to serve.

Am I overreacting? Let’s hope that some of our bishops will take up the mantle and lead the way in the midst of these unprecedented crises. Can anyone point out an American bishop who is able to meet the challenge?