….It’s not only Vladimir Putin who has declared Ukraine a “holy war,” but also religious leaders such as Moscow Patriarch Kirill. Putin is cynically using the Orthodox as moral cover for his ambitions.  But he’s also intuited that to “make Russia great again,” Russian Orthodoxy – the bearer of many deep elements in the myth of Holy Mother Russia and its secular projection, “Russian world” – is crucial to the political plan.

The Russian Orthodox leaders have no such political excuse.

In fact, we now see not only political corruption among compromised Russian religious leaders, but a deep spiritual divide that was somewhat covered over by professions of Christian brotherhood. There are even Christians in the West who, traumatized by our decadence and woke-ism, have convinced themselves that Putin’s Russia – with its generalized repression, assassination of dissidents (even abroad), and the highest rate of abortion in the world – is somehow a religious savior.

Several recent popes have made serious efforts to heal the schism between Rome and Orthodoxy – and have generally been rebuffed. Before the war started, Pope Francis was seeking a second meeting with Patriarch Kirill. The first took place in 2016 at the Havana airport. Agreeing to that pariah venue was bad, but at least both leaders expressed a “deep desire” for unity. And the pope said of the meeting “We spoke as brothers.”

That fraternal spirit has not lasted. During their Zoom meeting earlier this month, Francis seems to have boldly chided Kirill, for claiming the Ukrainian “special military action” is  “holy war.” Francis made an even bolder move on Friday with the consecration of Russia, Ukraine, and the whole world to Our Lady of Fatima. Kirill and Putin know that Our Lady asked for that consecration to stop Russia’s errors from spreading and to bring about the nation’s conversion. Kudos to Francis for doing both things, whatever objections may have come his way.

Unfortunately, Francis also contradicted the whole Christian tradition in the meeting with Kirill with the claim that all wars are unjust. Just this past week, he added while speaking to a coalition of women’s groups, “I was embarrassed when I read that a group of states have committed to spending two percent. . .of GDP in acquiring weapons as a response to what is happening now. Madness.” And he deplored “the old logic of power that still dominates so-called geopolitics.”

Indeed, it does – and will, so long as fallen human beings continue to exist on earth. Which is why some powers – imperfect, historically and morally – must at times stop the most ruthless among us from dominating the world.

It’s not “madness” when nations decide on defense budgets in light of the threats they face. Given an aggressive Russia, political leaders are merely being responsible in beefing up national defenses, late though it’s coming.

Francis seems to think that “dialogue” not deterrence is the only permissible Christian response to threats. You may appreciate his horror at war without accepting that premise. Dialogue has not even brought religious agreement with Kirill. Putin, I’m sure, would love to see dialogue, endless dialogue – in the churches, NATO, American politics – while he moves on one nation after another….

The above comes from a March 28 posting by Robert Royal on The Catholic Thing.