The conflict between Ukraine and Russia shows no sign of slowing down, and it seems like a lot of parties are pushing for war, even nuclear war. At least, nobody's hiding from it. Matt Gaspers, managing editor of Catholic Family News, joins us to talk about the situation.
00:02:23.860I just noticed earlier this week, actually, I saw a headline that says Russia is, quote, willing to speak with Pope Francis about the war in Ukraine.
00:02:34.020And the lead line says Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said his government is willing to talk with Pope Francis, the United States, and France to find a solution to the war in Ukraine.
00:02:46.240And he's quoted as saying, we are willing to discuss all this, meaning the situation in Ukraine, with the Americans, with the French, and with the pontiff.
00:02:56.760There's a prophecy running around that I've spoken of before with one of the experts on Garabandal that talks about how once the pope leaves or he goes to visit Russia, once he returns, Moscow, that is, once he returns, that war would break out in Europe.
00:03:14.520So that would be a very interesting development indeed.
00:03:17.720In fact, Francis said before coming to Canada, as he just recently did, that he would be still going to Moscow.
00:03:27.080I think that there are bad actors on both sides.
00:03:30.220I mean, I do think that the West and NATO, et cetera, has really, they seem to really want this conflict.
00:03:37.060They've kind of been, by adding more and more countries and expanding eastward, the NATO alliance, which Russia has made very clear is a non-negotiable existential threat to our country, and that we will eventually respond if you continue to do this.
00:03:55.180I think there was a lot of things, very messed up things, that happened in Ukraine during the Obama administration in 2013, 2014, which I know we have audio recordings of, forget the late, I think her last name was Nuland, basically admitting on tape to helping install this puppet regime that Washington wanted, the Obama administration wanted.
00:04:16.400I really appreciated earlier this year, Patrick Delaney's report for LifeSite News called Monumental Provocation, how U.S. and international policymakers deliberately baited Putin to war.
00:04:30.060It's a very well-sourced, very thorough, lengthy report on all of this with lots of sources linked in it.
00:04:36.120Absolutely. He's got another one of those right now as well about the recent taking out of the pipeline and what that means for Europe and the responsibility there. So check that out as well.
00:04:49.020I certainly don't want to pretend that the West is somehow the innocent victim in all of this. I don't think that's true. But at the same time, we also have to remember that Vladimir Putin himself, back in July of 2001, signed a treaty of good neighborliness and friendly cooperation with communist China.
00:05:10.920And it says in the text that they have, quote, the hope of promoting and establishing a just and fair new world order based on universally recognized principles and norms of international laws.
00:05:24.520And we also know that just before the start of this current conflict, Vladimir Putin went to the communist China for the beginning of, I think it was the Olympic Games and released a statement with President Xi Jinping.
00:05:41.420So this is their joint statement that they issued just before the conflict broke out. I think it was issued like February 4th, something like that.
00:05:47.580Today, the world is going through momentous changes and humanity is entering a new era of rapid development and profound transformation, including, quote, transformation of the global governance architecture and world order.
00:06:03.540So in my view, the new world order, the deep state, whatever you want to call it, has Western and Eastern branches competing for dominance.
00:06:12.920So I mean, that's kind of my general take on the situation.
00:06:16.600But, you know, from heaven's perspective, Russia has been chosen very much like St. Paul was chosen to be a vessel of election is what God referred to St. Paul to be an instrument of conversion for the Gentiles, for the whole world.
00:06:33.060And, you know, that's where Russia, you know, where it comes into the conversion of the Muslims and the end of Islam, as I said in my 2017 talk, it's all connected to the message of Our Lady of Fatima and her promise that in the end, her immaculate heart will triumph.
00:06:51.240The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, Our Lady said, when she will be converted and a period of peace will be granted to the world.
00:06:59.620So those are the promised fruits. Those are the promised fruits that we have to look for.
00:07:04.240And specifically, we need to understand that the word conversion, according to Sister Lucia herself, I want to read this quote that I have here that I mentioned in my 2017 talk, because it's very important to understand.
00:07:17.620A lot of people will tell you that, you know, Sister Lucia thought or the word conversion simply means the fall of the Soviet Union.
00:07:26.240And that is not so. Father, a priest named Father Joaquin Alonso, who was the official Fatima archivist for over 16 years and conducted numerous one-on-one interviews with Sister Lucia during that time.
00:07:40.440He wrote in 1976 in his book, The Truth About the Secret of Fatima, he wrote the following,
00:07:47.200Lucia has always thought that the conversion of Russia does not extend only to a return of the Russian people to the Christian Orthodox religion while rejecting the Marxist atheism of the Soviets.
00:08:00.580And if you think about it for a minute, it makes perfect sense, because when Our Lady came in 1917 and she said Russia would be converted, that's what she already was, Russian Orthodox.
00:08:10.660So, you know, when Our Lady says conversion, she doesn't mean returning to a state of objective schism and heresy.
00:08:19.220She, as Sister Lucia, as this quote goes on from Father Alonso, he says,
00:08:23.280You know, Russian Christians before the Great Schism and even technically even after the Great Schism for a couple centuries were in communion with Rome.
00:08:42.840So, she's talking about a return to Catholic unity.
00:08:46.760And it's obvious, I think, to, well, it should be obvious to everyone, but I think at this point it should be that Russia just isn't there.
00:08:54.820It's not there in terms of Catholicism, obviously.
00:08:57.800They, I mean, I was in Russia in 20, I believe it was 2018, but, you know, you had to drive 45 minutes to find a Catholic church.
00:09:06.200So, there's a real repression of Catholicism in Russia.
00:09:09.660And, but also, you know, obviously what's going on with the war and the brutality of it is another sign that there is definitely something up with Russia and there's no peace as well.
00:09:20.700I'm not saying there's any great shakes about Zelenko either.
00:09:24.040We know he's in the antithesis of what you'd want as a leader because he's pro-death and the whole anti-family agenda is strong with him.
00:09:35.960But, yes, very, very confusing times, but evidently there is no yet conversion of Russia or peace being granted to the world.
00:09:46.060And yet there was that, you know, consecration of Russia to Our Lady by Pope Francis.
00:09:53.300And so people are left to wonder what does that mean?
00:09:57.200One of the things I think it certainly means is that, you know, it must be something other than Our Lady's promise.
00:10:09.380We have no doubt whatsoever about that.
00:10:12.740So we have to then look at what's what.
00:10:15.480Is it just to be a great delay or is that not the case?
00:10:19.980And if it's not the case, then what really is up?
00:10:22.520So I'd love for you to take a shot at that first.
00:10:24.860It's very important for people to understand that Our Lady gave very specific conditions for the fulfillment of the consecration.
00:10:33.180And I note them in articles I've written about Pope Francis' March 25th consecration.
00:10:39.240So in short, there are basically five things that need to be fulfilled simultaneously.
00:10:45.620First of all, it must be the Pope who publicly performs the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
00:10:51.600Hence, number two, he must name Russia explicitly as the object of consecration.
00:10:58.000And as we know from the wording of Pope Francis' consecration, he did name Russia, but Russia did not actually appear as the sole object of consecration.
00:11:10.400Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart, we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, referring to everyone who was in St. Peter's Basilica for the ceremony.
00:11:23.720The Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine, accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love, grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world.
00:11:37.380Sadly, that has not yet happened, what Pope Francis asked of Our Lady, that war may end and peace spread throughout the world.
00:11:44.060And you could argue that, obviously, it was the Pope who did the consecration.
00:11:48.240He did name Russia explicitly, but then we get to the third criteria, which Our Lady specified.
00:11:56.380The Pope must order all the bishops of the world to make the consecration of Russia to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart.
00:12:03.140And then it has to be in union with him and at the same time.
00:12:09.140So Pope Francis did issue, through the apostolic nuncious shurs throughout the world, an invitation to bishops, and he strongly encouraged them.
00:12:18.480But it was not technically a command to participate in the ceremony with him.
00:12:23.020And something else that Sister Lucia mentioned as necessary, in order for the consecration to actually convert Russia, this is the fifth criteria, the public ceremony must involve a conspicuous day of prayer and worldwide reparation.
00:12:41.180Number one, we obviously haven't seen the promised fruits.
00:12:43.940We have not seen the conversion of Russia to Catholic unity, nor have we seen a miraculous period of peace granted for the world.
00:12:53.020Our Lady did not promise that those things would happen instantaneously after the consecration.
00:12:59.440But as I've said before, I don't think there can be too much time.
00:13:04.640There can't be so much time in between the act of consecration and the promised fruits that there becomes a disconnect in people's minds between the cause and effect relationship of the two things.
00:13:16.860So, you know, if it didn't happen for like two or three generations, I don't think most people would put the two things together as, oh, that consecration caused these things.
00:13:27.680I think it has to be relatively close in time in order to keep that intact.
00:13:32.380I think the great apostle of Fatima, Father Gruner, he probably thought it was going to be so close that there would be no mistaking.
00:13:41.720And perhaps he gave hints that that was the reason why all the bishops of the world had to do it, not whenever they wanted in the same day and different time zones, but actually all at the same exact moment.
00:13:54.400Because I think he believed, he's probably the most studied or was the most studied guy on the question of Fatima itself.
00:14:02.300He believed that it would be sort of instantaneous, at least so related that people could see on this hour at this time.
00:14:34.040Since you brought up Father Gruner, I do have an interesting quote to share with you.
00:14:37.520He spoke about this, what it would look like, kind of the process of Russia converting and such.
00:14:45.5202007 conference speech that he gave, and I quoted in my 2017 talk, he said, quote,
00:14:51.400In the prophetic visions of St. John Bosco, we see that the Pope will not consecrate Russia until Russia invades the West.
00:14:59.220St. John Bosco had a vision of the Russian armies in France, and they have not been there yet this century for the last 100 years.
00:15:07.460They will bring with them a black standard or a black flag.
00:15:12.280While they are in France, their standard will turn from black to white.
00:15:16.960That moment will be when Russia has been consecrated and it has converted.
00:15:22.240The Russian armies then will stay in France and Western Europe, not as enemies, but as friends, to defend Europe from the invasion from the south.
00:15:32.360As St. John Bosco summarizes his dream, salvation is from the north, danger is from the south, meaning the Islamic armies that are marching into Europe.
00:15:43.640The Russians stay there, Father Gruner said, when they are converted and defeat the Islamic armies and save Europe.
00:15:56.760Yeah, I'd love to hear your take with regard to Russia and Islam and how all that figures in right now.
00:16:01.320So something else I brought up in my 2017 talk is that there's really been historically an alliance between Soviet Russia, which I know the Soviet Union fell in 1991.
00:16:14.760But some insiders have argued that it was actually more of a controlled demolition than really an organic crumbling of the regime.
00:16:23.640Soviet Russia, it's been well documented, had a very vested interest in co-opting Islam and using its adherents for their own purposes.
00:16:34.320And that's been documented by two Soviet defectors, both of whom have close ties to the KGB.
00:16:42.300The first one is Anatoly Golitsyn, who died in 2008.
00:16:46.060He's the author of two very important books, New Lies for Old and the Perestroika Deception.
00:16:53.600And the other is Ian Mahai Pachepa, who died more recently.
00:16:58.660And he's the former head of intelligence for communist Romania, who defected to the U.S. in 1978.
00:17:05.200And he wrote a book called Disinformation in 2013.
00:17:08.700So starting with Golitsyn, he wrote in New Lies for Old, published in 1984, quote,
00:17:17.420there's a special word needs to be said on the exploitation of religion and leading churchmen in the communist world for strategic political purposes.
00:17:26.640You know, the Russian Orthodox Church for decades has been infested with, you know, basically couldn't become a bishop if you weren't a KGB agent.
00:17:34.140And sadly, that's still the case with their current patriarch, his former KGB.
00:17:41.100But going on in New Lies for Old, he says,
00:17:44.940In March 1965, the first conference of Muslims of Asia and Africa was held in Indonesia.
00:17:52.840Thirty-five countries were represented.
00:17:55.120The Mufti of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, Babakhanov, led the Soviet delegation.
00:18:01.300The conference discussed the use of Muslim proselytizing societies as weapons against imperialism, meaning the West.
00:18:10.460The need to harness Islam, Golitsyn said, to the service of the revolution has been openly discussed by communist strategists.
00:18:19.320Based on Soviet experience in Central Asia, like the former Soviet republics ending in Stan, like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
00:18:28.500Golitsyn wrote, the problem of achieving this is considered difficult but soluble.
00:18:34.840And he went on to say in a footnote to that section of the text, he's quoting a Soviet Afghan scholar who wrote, quote,
00:18:44.600Albeit difficult, it is fully realistic in some way to enlist Islam in serving the revolution and the building of a new life.
00:18:54.500You know, at first glance, it seems very strange that there would be collaboration, cooperation between an atheistic communist system and a religion.
00:19:03.400But as I also discuss in my talk, they're actually ideological allies in many ways.
00:19:11.480I quote pretty extensively from a professor of history from, let me make sure I get his name right,
00:19:19.160Professor Dennis Dunn, who teaches at Texas State University and he specializes in Russian history.
00:19:26.320He's written a couple of books on the subject and he explains in one of his books called A History of Orthodox Islamic and Western Christian Political Values,
00:19:38.240basically demonstrates how Russian Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy in general, but Russian specifically, and Islam agree on several different things.
00:19:47.460First of all, that the church or the mosque and state should be virtually a single entity.
00:19:53.960In Orthodoxy, the state sadly controls the church, and in Islam, it's the other way around.
00:20:01.180Number two, the ruler's power should be absolute, in other words, beyond scrutiny from subordinates.
00:20:07.600Government should be centralized and admit of no self-direction for local communities, in other words, totalitarian.
00:20:14.560The community as a whole always trumps the individual or smaller groups within society, so it's a form of collectivism.
00:20:22.560And then finally, the central government should control the economy.
00:20:25.440So, as I said in my talk, right away, we should recognize the stark contrast between this value system that I just described and the one held by Western civilization,
00:20:36.660which holds the principles such as the rule of law, first and foremost, the natural law, to which even the ruler himself is subject,
00:20:43.840obviously individual freedom and responsibility, the principle of subsidiarity, a healthy distinction between church and state,
00:20:51.840as being sovereign institutions with complementary God-given missions, but they shouldn't be run by one or the other.
00:20:59.640They are distinct, and lots of other things like that.
00:21:02.920So, in many ways, Islam and communism are very much aligned ideologically.
00:21:10.780So, in that sense, and then they also have a common enemy, namely Christ and his church.
00:21:15.480So, it kind of makes sense why they would be aligned.
00:21:18.240Yeah, it's also fascinating because in terms of Catholic prophecy, there was Catholic prophecy that the Vatican would be invaded by Islam, not so much by the Russians.
00:21:30.780But so, I just wondered how that would be.
00:21:33.280But your quote there about how they'd invade from the south does seem to make sense as things line up.
00:21:42.340There are lots of Catholic prophecies concerning all of this, kind of specifically regarding two figures, the great monarch you may have heard of, who's supposed to arise.
00:21:53.560It's in lots of different private revelations, church-approved private revelations, prophecies.
00:21:58.700And then also the angelic pope, who's supposed to kind of be his spiritual counterpart to lead this Catholic renaissance throughout the world.
00:22:07.500And part of it definitely has to address the situation with Islam.
00:22:12.720So, there's a book that was originally published in 1970 by Yves Dupont called Catholic Prophecy, The Coming Chastisement.
00:26:30.900A lot of it has to do with the message of Our Lady of Fatima, studying that and knowing, you know,
00:26:36.960that God confirmed the message of Our Lady of Fatima with a miracle of biblical proportions.
00:26:43.440As you know, on October 13, 1917, probably the 20th century's best-kept secret in many ways,
00:26:52.340a crowd of over 70,000 people saw the sun dance in the sky, you know, emitting all the different colors of the rainbow.
00:27:00.640And it had been raining the whole night beforehand.
00:27:02.760And, you know, people were walking in mud up to their ankles.
00:27:06.880And at the end of this public miracle, which lasted, I think, around 10 minutes or so,
00:27:13.060people realized that their clothes were completely dry and clean,
00:27:18.620almost as if Our Lady had cleaned all of them up personally as the good mother that she is.
00:27:23.860So we know that this message has the seal of approval of Almighty God Himself through that miracle.
00:27:30.660And Our Lady said, as I quoted earlier,
00:27:33.920In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.
00:27:37.320The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted.
00:27:42.820And a period of peace will be granted to the world.
00:27:45.840She revealed that, of course, to the three shepherd children, the oldest of whom became Sister Lucia, a nun.
00:27:52.200And throughout Sister Lucia's life, Our Lady continued to appear to her periodically.
00:27:56.600She was basically the apostle, you might say, of the message of Our Lady of Fatima.
00:28:02.320And on one occasion, I remember Our Lady telling her that, you know, the Pope will do the consecration, but it will be late.
00:28:09.700And that probably means that it will, you know, things will get pretty bad before the definitive consecration actually happens.
00:28:18.580Whether or not that was the consecration Francis did on March 25th of this year or not, things, it will be a dire situation.
00:28:27.980But we, you know, the hope that we have is that Our Lady tells the truth, and we can trust in Her promise that, in the end, Her Immaculate Heart will triumph, and Russia will be converted.
00:28:42.300I think the most important thing for all of us as individual Catholics, Christians, is to stay close to Our Lady.
00:28:48.260Certainly praying the rosary, doing the five first Saturdays devotion of making reparation to Her Immaculate Heart.
00:28:56.140Sister Lucia said in one of her letters to her spiritual director that whether or not the world has war or peace depends on the practice of this devotion, referring to the first Saturdays devotion, as well as the consecration of Russia.
00:29:11.800So the laity do have their part to play in making those communions of reparations, doing the things that Our Lady said to do on the first Saturday of each month, going to confession, receiving communion, praying five decades of the rosary, and spending 15 minutes meditating on the mysteries of the rosary, all with the intention of making a reparation to Her Immaculate Heart.
00:29:35.800So I think we have to do our part and trust that God and Our Lady will come through at the appointed time.
00:29:44.720Amen to that. We're always in His hands, and He will never give us anything that we can't bear up under.
00:29:51.480He won't give us a cross too heavy for us, with His grace, of course.
00:29:55.160Matt Gaspers, thank you so much for being with us. Where can people find out more about you and what you do?
00:29:59.620I encourage everyone to visit the website of Catholic Family News, which is the company I work for.
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00:30:41.600Please subscribe to those, and thank you all for your support.
00:30:45.840Awesome, Matt. Thanks so much for being with us.