The word "martyrdom" is not a concept to be relegated to the imagination of the early Church. It characterizes every moment and every age of Christianity, and today we have a dramatic response in Asia, particularly in the Middle East. Last century, moreover, marked a dramatic return of anti-Christian persecution, which is what most emblematic moment of the oppression of totalitarian regimes, in their various forms. Most of these martyrdoms occurred under the communist regimes. The subject was addressed by the historian and theologian George Weigel, biographer of Pope John Paul II, who in recent months is facing so systematically the issue through a series of lectures in the United States and Europe, entitled The Communist War Against the Church. New Evidences from the Past and Lessons for the Future . "Twenty years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall - Weigel says - the memory of all that is fading." Yet we are talking about a real war that fielded spies, moles, secret agents, propaganda, disinformation, to the final solution of the gulag.
A major contribution of unpublished news comes from well-known "Mitrokhin archive" in this and other sources for Weigel drew his last biography of John Paul II, The End and the Beginning. Pope John Paul II - The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy, released in the U.S. last September. "The war against Communism, the Catholic Church - said Weigel - the ways in which it was conducted, the Church of resistance (some failures, some success) is an important warning for the future, as well as a contribution to the clarification of the past. Since the October Revolution, the Church was for the Soviets a 'mortal threat to their plans and interests'. " While the USA was the main military and political opponent, the Vatican was the main ideological adversary, as well as the main obstacle in exporting the ideals Marxists, in the Third World, particularly in Latin America.
Against this background lies the Soviets was sensational: Throughout the Cold War, the Kremlin denied it ever, even in diplomatic relations with the Holy See, any persecution of Christians behind the Iron Curtain. Lying and consciously lies the Soviet foreign minister has repeatedly held that in their country of religious freedom was protected. In the last years of the Cold War, however, were primarily services the Soviets to supply the black legend of pope Pius XII anti-Semitic and conniving with the Nazis. Destroy the reputation of the Catholic Church and its chief representative was the only way for the triumph of real socialism.
The first three decades of communism, are characterized by a more or less tenacious resistance from the national churches: emblematic in this sense, they are figures such as Cardinal Ukrainian Josyf Slipyi for almost twenty years imprisoned in the gulag, or of Bishop Aloysius Stepinac, Croatian controversial bishop, considered a martyr and a fascist by the anti-communists, as alleged collusion with the Ustasha regime. In this first phase, the historical figure "winning" is, however, notably that of the primate of Poland, Stefan Wyszynski, a witness of faith in a country rust Catholic who managed to resist the orthodox, Protestant, and in the last century, to Nazism and communism.
In the 60s the convening and conduct of the Second Vatican Council, with the arrival in Rome of many bishops behind the Iron Curtain, it represented a wonderful opportunity for the KGB, the Stasi, the SB and all intelligence services of European communist regimes to take stronger control of the Vatican from the inside. The Ostpolitik of Pope John XXIII, he pushed a strategy of caution toward the opponent, who on many occasions proved to be skillful in his work of corruption of many prelates and curial officials.
In 1978 the election to the papacy of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, archbishop of Krakow and worthy disciple of Wyszynski, sparigliò cards the table. Since the '50s, Wojtyla was considered a real loose cannon for the stability of communism in Poland. Became pontiff, John Paul II was well aware that the communist secret services were well established in the Vatican, changed the strategy: "The documents, which deal with Poland and other sensitive business - says Weigel - were no longer entrusted to the Secretary of State but kept all ' inside the papal apartment, away from speculation. " That Slavic pope was considered a "subversive", responsible for an "ideological struggle" aimed at damaging the socialist regimes. The failed attempt on the life of the pope on May 13, 1981 represented by no means the end of the war communism to the Church. A few months later, in fact, Poland is proclaimed martial law and repression intensifies. Among the martyrs of this difficult transition figure Jerzy Popieluszko, chaplain of Solidarity, a Polish priests loyal to the pope and most fiercely anticommunist. The war was total and unconditional ceasefire.
The first lesson to be learned from this story is that "Catholicism and Communism - Weigel said - and gave the world two radically different visions of human nature, human community, human origins and human destiny." In other words: they were incompatible with one hundred percent. It is from this incompatibility that resulted in the strategy of John Paul II, who was second in an ongoing real struggle between Good and Evil and the pursuit of a victory of freedom over tyranny was something much more visionary than a political compromise and Social evolution in the sense of both blocks.
that of religious freedom remains an open question in many communist countries, post-communist (China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba) or Islamic, whose regimes, so not too sheer, inspired by the Nazis or Leninism. But history has taught us that "appeasement did not work nor Napoleon, nor with the anti-clerical regimes English or Mexican and even in the region of, after the Nazi Anschluss, "says Weigel. Just also look at conditions in which the Catholic communities in Eastern Europe: Czech Republic and Hungary, where the acquiescence of the bishops to totalitarian regimes reached its highest level, the church is in deep crisis. Exactly the opposite of what is happening in Lithuania, Ukraine and especially in Poland.
The other great lesson for the future concerns the relationship between the Catholic Church and Russian Orthodox Church, and between the Vatican and Russia. The church of Rome and Moscow are in fact united by the extraordinary number of martyrs who have shed their blood during communism. And it is the blood martyrs in our time, the seed of the Christian victory. "Their sacrifice - Weigel concludes - and what can we learn about the virtue of fortitude (ie, courage) will never be forgotten."
(Source: Luke Marcolivio, The Ottini, March 16, 2011)
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