Has RUSSIA Become MORE PRO-LIFE Than The U.S.？!
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode, Fr. Fr. Andrei is interviewed by Fr. Alexei Karpov, a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church, who talks about the differences between traditional Catholics and LGBTs, and how they can work together to protect family values.
Transcript
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Our moral constitution is based on our relations with God.
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The religion is the heart of pro-life movement.
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If you take out the religion, the heart will stop.
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So there is a movement in America and in Europe of pro-lifers.
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And so therefore, the movement to protect life, anti-abortion,
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has to be not religious at all, because then we're excluding all these people.
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So we have to make it just, you know, about just stopping abortion.
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No, it has to be just an abortion and no religion and nothing else.
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So she can have LGBT for life, atheists for life and all this stuff.
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Small children come to a priest and ask him, why should I be good?
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And until this small child understands that his father, his heavenly father is good,
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and he is the son or she is a daughter of heavenly father,
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So our moral, our, the, you know, say our moral constitution is based on our relations with God.
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So the religion is the heart of pro-life movement.
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If you take out the religion, the heart will stop and the pro-life will stop the whole world.
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That's why only the religion can be this heart.
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And the more religious people come into pro-life, the more lively it will be.
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And the more people will join because the request for traditional values is great in the world now.
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And we see like many people from many countries now in this not very simple political situation
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when Russia is accused of many sins, you know, a lot of people want to come to Russia.
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And France, in European countries, there are even some lists of waiting for getting Russian visas
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because they should understand that they will not get the level of life, the economic level be lower.
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But they still want to come because I don't want my children to see LGBT rights, you know.
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They want to live in a country with traditional values.
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So I think that's the beginning of the great sunrise of new Christian Orthodox Russia.
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And we're asking for our Christian brothers and sisters and the whole world
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And we are ready to work together because we know that we will give our testimony
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to our Father, how we use this weapon we have, the word, the ability to change the world,
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So that's the alliance we should have together because a lot of our foreign friends from America, from Britain,
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from other countries, we're all the children of our Lord.
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And when we change our opinions on this situation, where it's easier for us to fight with our enemy,
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the globalist elites who are not caring about their people, they don't understand what is their people.
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We have different interests, not national interests, not Christian interests.
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So we should locate this enemy and to make our nations bigger, stronger,
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and with religiously more conscious to protect the innocent.
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Because God, how Father gives His blessing to those nations who care about the unborn lives,
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This is the blessing for every nation and everybody knows that.
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We should unite for protection of our natural family values.
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Father, I have a question for you because this is a, it's a perhaps very different concept for you.
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The Orthodox Church in Russia is very unified on life and on family and on traditional values.
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The Catholic Church, especially in the last 13 years now, has been divided, very divided on these issues.
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Except there is a bunch of Catholics who identify as traditional Catholics.
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Who have none of that LGBT, they're always been the same.
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And so there is a natural alliance, at least on that, with traditional Catholics.
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But there's another thing about traditional Catholics that is really quite extraordinary,
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Now, I don't know if you've ever heard of Our Lady of Fatima or know much about it,
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It's one of the main reasons why I love to come to Russia and have great hopes for Russia's future.
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You might have heard already, Our Lady of the Mother of God visited three shepherd children in 1917,
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and that was photographed in many of the secular papers, even communist papers.
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The message of Our Lady of the Mother of God to the children was all about Russia.
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And so since 1917, you could say traditional Catholics of the world have been praying for Russia.
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It's interesting because it started praying before communism started, and she warned that if Russia is not consecrated to my Immaculate Heart,
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And at that time, everybody wondered what errors.
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But in light of communism coming to Russia, communism did spread throughout the whole wide world,
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even though most people don't understand what that is.
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But also abortion, very soon thereafter, 1920, spread throughout all the world.
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And so there's a neat thing about Russia and Russia's future,
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because a lot of people that I've spoken to the last time I was here, and this time even still,
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there's people who want to leave Russia because they say, oh, there's no hope here for the future.
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And I was like, wow, I know there's a real hope for Russia's future.
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Because consecration to Our Lady, consecration to her Immaculate Heart, and you know, consecration means
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this is like you consecrate your vessels at the Divine Liturgy, as you call it, or the Mass, as we call it.
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The chalice is consecrated to that. You don't use the chalice for anything.
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You don't take it home and have tea with it. It's used for this specific special sacred purpose.
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Russia is consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
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So in addition to its role, and I hope and pray too that it will lead the world back to sanity on life
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and on family, because it was the origin of going the wrong way. But in addition to that,
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my firm belief is that Russia will actually lead the way into honoring Our Lady once again,
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to giving proper honor due to the Mother of Jesus, because that was the message of Fatima.
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The whole prayers we're saying are in reparation for the sins, the blasphemies given to the Mother of God.
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So do you see any of that in Russia? And can you foresee Russia as being an example to the rest
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of the world in properly honoring the Mother of Jesus?
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If you only look at the map of the Russian Federation, you will see that the biggest number
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of churches is devoted to Our Lady. And we feel she's covering Russia. She's caring about us. She is praying to her
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divine son for our nation. We feel that a lot of martyrs, those people who gave their lives for Christ
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during the Bolshevik Revolution. Up to now, the numbers are secret. Nobody knows the scale of this number of martyrs,
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people, of holy people who gave their lives. But it shows how close to Russian heart was the faith
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in Jesus Christ. And there was a Russian miracle connected with the power of Our Holy Lady. When the
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Bolsheviks came, there was a miracle of the great, very honored icon of our mother as a mother of the Tsar,
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of the heavenly Tsar. This icon was given after a dream to a woman and was very widely spread because this
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icon was miraculous. And a lot of miracles happened after this. And many of the spiritually experienced
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people in the Russian church, they said that at the time the Tsar has left the heavenly mother of the Tsar,
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took her power over Russia, the protection of those people who stayed with Christ in Bolshevik Russia.
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And you see how a lot of, many of efforts were made to ruin the Church of Christ,
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the Orthodox Church of Russia. But Soviet Union has disappeared. And the Church is still alive
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and growing. And that is the answer for this, that it is growing because it is under protection.
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The Church is under protection of Our Holy Lady, Our Mother Mary. And we feel that in a lot of monasteries
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and devoted to her, we have special monasteries which are called the, especially devoted to Our Mother
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Mary, like Divyevo Monastery. And a lot of people from all the world come to this monastery because it's
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not possible to explain what they feel there. They feel the presence of her. Divyevo is a world famous
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monastery. And the other, other monasteries have you, if you notice, they have the main cathedral,
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even in Kremlin. The main cathedral is devoted to Our Holy Lady. Because the first Russian
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temple in the world, Orthodox Church in the world, it was built before Russia was baptized,
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was built in Holy Mount Athos, devoted to Our Holy Lady. And that's why in every, every monastery,
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the central cathedral devoted to her. That's significant, you know, and we feel her protection.
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We feel that even a small effort protected by her and supported by her becomes an effort which changes everything.
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So, last question for your father, and it might be a difficult one, but our Lord prayed,
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Father, let them be one, even as you and I are one. And he was talking about his followers.
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There is a big separation still between Christians and those who are sacramental,
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that have the true presence of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, that honor Our Lady. And specifically,
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obviously between Catholics and Orthodox, do you see that being repaired? And how would you see that
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being repaired? I know, I believe, Our Lord's Prayer will be answered. So that's coming sometime,
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somewhere. But what's your thought? When the enemy comes, people in the castle become, I would say,
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more negotiable about the certain things. And the background for us, which is just undiscussable,
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is the family values. Why? It is very important, because the family is the first church in the world.
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When Adam and Eve were created by our Heavenly Father, He gave them the school of love.
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He made a family like a school, as a school of love, because we cannot love being alone.
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So we were given, when two meet each other, and the third one comes, you know, it's a reflection
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of the relations among the Holy Trinity. And this is the background, you know. Our Lord said that,
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you will recognize my pupils, my followers, by love they have among each other.
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If we have the true love, if we have the true love, every miracle can happen, you know.
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And the most important thing for us, to be gathered around Christ. No one can be in the center but Him.
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If we take this as a background for this unity of all Christians, there will be no question, you know.
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Christ is the center of everything, because He is the door to our Heavenly Father.
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That's the background. And our Holy Mother helps us to understand this love, to practice this love.
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And She is the main protector of all those who are still keeping their faith in the world.
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The most repeated phrase in Scripture is, Do not be afraid.
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We are called to speak the truth, to proclaim the Gospel, and to live our lives without fear.
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For the past three years, we've brought this mission to the very heart of the Church.
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At the Rome Life Forum, you won't just hear truth proclaimed, you'll have the chance to ask your
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questions directly to the speakers. This is your opportunity to engage, to challenge, and to go deeper
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into the battles we face today. Fear not. Her Immaculate Heart will triumph.
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So we just heard there was a massive participation in prayer in Moscow only a couple weeks ago,
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not covered really by any of the mass media of the world. And yet it was a gathering of the faithful
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people to pray, to pray for Russia. Tell us about that. What was it?
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It was the traditional procession with cross and with prayers and with icons of Jesus Christ,
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which was in Russian Empire long ago. And it was also during the 90s, before this COVID situation,
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it was also performed, but not so many people. But at this time, when Patriarch called all the
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Orthodox people to come and to glory the great saints of Moscow, 400,000 people came and they came to pray.
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They came to glory our God. And I'm very surprised that it was not covered because it was not possible
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to hide it. Was it like a political demonstration too or no? It was religious, a religious demonstration
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with prayer from people, prayers for Russia, for the blessing of God to our country. And it was really
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great. Everybody was inspired. Everybody was happy joining this ceremony. And I think that a lot of
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authorities did not expect such a big number of people. But I would say it's not much,
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because there are much more Orthodox people in our country. But we just demonstrated that we are loving,
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praying, and standing for our sovereignty, for our religious freedom. Because the religious freedom is a
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basic value for any country, to my mind. Tell us about the flag that they were carrying. What is that flag?
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This flag is a traditional flag, which was used by our princes and Tsars. In the center of this flag,
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there is the icon of Jesus Christ, like the Pantokrator in Greek. And this is a traditional flag,
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which were used also in religious ceremonies, in military marches. And this is the best flag in the world,
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you know? Because I have nothing to explain. We are serving to God, we are His people. And the best flag
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I could ever see, I would say. But there were no other flags, only this one. But hundreds, thousands of
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people came there. That's great. Father, thank you so much. God bless. God bless you. Thank you.
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Aloha everyone, this is Jason Jones for LifeSide News. We hope you enjoyed this video. For more content
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