There is one question that’s not easy to answer, as the days of the war advances: what to say to those who persist with their bewilderment, whilst falling head first for Vladimir Putin’s Soviet exercise in ‘disinformation,’ by applying his own brand of meaningless and abhorrent cynicism? We are not speaking about what we witness on our living room TV’s; I am speaking of those clueless fifth columnists, those masses that had been ever so easily transformed from confused No Vaxers of a few weeks ago into the willing media army for the tyrannical dictator of Moscow whose creeping insanity has finally flared up into an almost Hitlerian style frenzy.
I personally do not believe that war can ever be justified for any reason. “Thou shalt not kill” is not a suggestion but a moral imperative included as one of the Ten Commandments in the Torah. War tends to make killers out of normally decent people. There is a lot of turbulence within our world caused by diverse political opinions, and threats of war and violence seem to be an ever-present shadow that lurks over every single nation in the world. We should never be under the illusion that war –no matter how much politicians believe it necessary or justified– is not a crime against all of humanity. As God said to Cain ‘Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the soil. Now may you be cursed far from the soil that drank the blood of your brother that you have shed.” (Genesis 4:10-11) All citizens and governments have a duty to work toward the avoidance of war. War, even if defensive, is always illicit, it is never right, because killing is an evil in itself. Will an attacked people then have to accept being oppressed? No, but it cannot defend its just right to freedom with war. When an entire people is united in organised active resistance, even the most terrible invader or oppressor will understand; history has proved this time and time again. Those who advocate absolute non-violence as a defence strategy have always been ridiculed or at least pitied by others, they are seen as visionaries. This is morally wrong. If, on the other hand, the education of the masses in non-violent resistance had been taught, humanity would have known a golden era of peace for quite some time. An essential part of non-violent defence is the prevention of conflicts by removing social injustices, which always seem to be the cause of war, because injustice is a war in itself. Prevention requires the formation of social conscience, which consists in foreseeing and eliminating the negative consequences of our acts upon others. Prevention includes acceptance of those that are different, of foreign immigrants, of the nomads and refugees. Non-violent popular defence is a culture of life against a death culture. Jesus is extremely clear on this subject and without measure condemns the use of weapons for defence: “Put back your sword into its place. For all who take the sword shall die by the sword”(Matthew 26:52).
Comment by Fr. Ugo-Maria Ginex ESB (csr.)
We have all tried it, anyone who has participated on social media in the gigantic debate on the Russian military aggression against Ukraine in recent days. It is inevitable that we stumble upon hallucinatory pronouncements, in which the balderdash of the Kremlin’s propaganda machine is repeated without the slightest scrutiny or even a second thought. The March 9 2022, bombing of a maternity and children’s hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupo; the attack happened during an agreed ceasefire. The airstrike killed three civilians, including a child (a girl), and left many others wounded; Russian officials and conspiracy theorists state that the bombing had been staged by the Ukrainians whilst others state that it never happened, indeed some Russian officials even go so far as to saying that the Ukrainians themselves had committed the bombing act —which never happened— all by themselves in order to give Russia bad press. There is no war against the Ukraine, only a response to the “expansionism” of NATO, its the West that is guilty [Ed: ¿so its not about the denazification of Ukraine at all then? Apologies comrade Putin, I must have misheard what you said.] Who will pay for the lives lost and costs incurred by those nations who respond to a distant war, whatever will we do with all those refugees, who will come to their aid, who will welcome them and at what price? These are just some of the many questions that are now being asked.
A litany of nonsense, lies, shameful and insensitive words just seem to spew out of the Kremlin. It’s not a War! It’s a denazification of the Ukraine. Ukraine is developing bioweapons so we had to respond. The Russian president appeared on state television to give an angry, rambling lecture about the Ukraine, a country that according to Putin had become “a colony of a puppet regime”, with no historical rights to exist. Then in his address to the Russian people on Feb. 24, 2022, Putin said the purpose was to “protect people” who had been “subjected to bullying and genocide … for the last eight years. And for this we will strive for the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine”… [Ed. The denazification of Volodymyr Zelenskyy who was born to Jewish parents? now that should be interesting.]
So how do we prevent such deplorable inhumanity, cruelty and barbarity from corrupting our souls as well? I believe that the responsibility rests upon each and every single one of us. We have a moral duty to stand up against these acts and above all, we have to separate facts from all of the disinformation, cynicism, pure insensitivity and malice. Its a small daily battle for each of us, but we have the duty to be witnesses —in our minuscule— the values of the West and that the war criminal Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin by his own volition, illegally invaded the Ukraine and attacked the people of that nation with deadly force. Responding as long as possible, but also blocking and isolating.
Some people do not even deserve a reply or an answer, those who do not want to understand what is happening, those who also on this occasion refuse to study, read, or try to listen to those on the ground and prefer to accept the last post by a simpleton for good is one of the things that is effectively against us. Against our world.
History always reminds us of who we are talking about: children and younger brothers of those who, during the long years of the Cold War, looked toward the sun shining upon a future Moscow. People swept away by history and who know and feel no shame.
Speaking of listening to those who know, because they look and have seen this war with their own eyes and who have risked their lives for all of us, listen to the BBC’s correspondent Quentin Sommerville in Ukraine, in his podcast as he follows Ukrainian troops holding the front line as Russia pounds Kharkiv. Here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60785679 and here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-60699588
Please give a thought to the Ukrainian peoples and remember them in your prayers.
Emergency Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal
CAFOD and Christian Aid are among the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) members launching an appeal to help the people who have fled their homes to escape the conflict in Ukraine. The BBC reports that almost 3 million people have fled Ukraine.
St. Mary’s Hermitage 