The following comes from a Sept. 13 story from LifeNews.com.
“….The scale of social and cultural rot in contemporary Russian society is truly staggering,” [Ilan] Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council and editor of the Journal of International Security Affairs, told The Daily Caller in an email interview about his new book, “Implosion: The End of Russia and What it Means for America,” to be released Monday.
“Take abortion, for instance. According to official estimates, almost 1.2 million abortions are performed in Russia every year. That equals out to 300 babies every hour. According to unofficial projections, however, the true abortion rate could be as much as double that figure — which means that close to 2 percent of Russia’s potential population is being terminated every year!”
….The reality is that Russia continues to bleed population. For about a decade and a half now, projections have been that Russia’s population will plummet from 140-150 million to 104 million by 2050. What are the chief causal factors in this? There are several, but among the biggest is abortion, which occurs in Russia at an astonishingly high level. Putin has tried to slow the hemorrhage, but has failed to do so.
Abortion was legalized in Russia by the Bolsheviks shortly after they seized power in October 1917. Vladimir Lenin made good on his promise for an “unconditional annulment of all laws against abortion.” In short order, the number of abortions skyrocketed. By 1934, Moscow women were having three abortions for every live birth. The toll was so staggering that an appalled Joseph Stalin, the mass murderer, actually banned abortion in 1936, fearing a vanishing populace.
In 1955, Stalin’s successor, Nikita Khrushchev, reconstituted legalized abortion. By 1958, there were 5 million abortions per year in the Soviet Union. (This contradicted Margaret Sanger’s optimistic prediction that “neither abortions nor contraception will be necessary or desired” once a “functioning communistic society” was in full bloom in the Soviet Union.) By 1965, abortions peaked at 8.2 million, dwarfing the worst years in America post-Roe v. Wade. By 1970, some 3,000 full-time abortion doctors were performing roughly 7.2 million abortions per year. By the 1980s, Soviet citizens comprised 5-6 percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of the world’s abortions….
In response, Putin has taken major measures to try to stem this tide. In 2003, he implemented the first restrictions on abortion in Russia in almost 50 years, limiting abortions to within 12 weeks of gestation. Exemptions were allowed only for rape or the imprisonment, death, or severe disability of the husband.
Remarkably, Putin’s Russia has even gone so far as to initiate a National Fertility Day, aimed at getting the culture to produce more Russians.
To read entire story, click here.
To watch Russia Wonderland Abortion, click here.
Because the consecration of Russia, as Our Lady asked for, has NOT been done, Russia will continue to spread her errors. Most Russian men do not live to be fifty years old, because the majority are alcoholics, and the rest are killed by drunk drivers or by gangs. Sure, the communist flag has partially disappeared,, but a leopard never changes her spots. The Catholic Church is still discriminated against, and the population is dying off because of abortion and birth control. Things may appear to be better, but in reality, nothing has really changed. The Soviets said they would bury us, and they are doing that, while we have our eyes closed. Until Russia is converted the way Our Lady of Fatima asked for, there is no hope for this once great nation.
Fr. Karl, I agree with you on a lot of things, but when Blessed Pope John Paul II said he consecrated Russia to Our Lady then I took his word for it. It is reported that Sister Lucy said the consecration was acceptable before she passed away. Telling people it was not done only confuses us.
Anne T: Check into it. It was NOT done according to Mother Mary’s request. Had it been done properly there would be a “Period of Peace.” We are far from that. It is toooo long to go into here, but look up Fr. Nicholas Gruner or just Google something like the Consecration of Russia not fulfilled. You will find it.
RR this website now allows links to websites, you can add the link if you prefer
RR, I have read the other side, but when the Holy Father last consecrated the whole world to the Immaculate Heart with the bishops included, Sister Lucy said Our Lady had accepted it before she died. Consecrating the whole world includes Russia. All the rest is speculation and nitpicking as far as I see it. After all, Our Lady told St. Bernadette to have another vision be put on the Miraculous Medal at first, the one with the world in her hands, but the Holy Father at that time accepted the one we have now with the world under feet. St. Bernadette said that was fine, but there are some people out there who recently said that the Miraculous Medal we now have is not right one as if they are the ones to make that decision not the pope. Gheesh!
Anne, Pope John Paul II never consecrated Russia, and both Pope Benedict XVI and Sister Lucy remarked about this. Russia HAD to be mentioned by name, and not by inference. I was in St. Peter’s Square in the 1980’s when this event took place. There has been much miss-information concerning Fatima, and slowly they are being revealed. Just look at what is happening in Russia today. It is the same as before, only using different terms. If Russia were consecrated, and converted to the Catholic faith, a great improvement would have taken place.
All the information that came from Sister Lucy and the Vatican says that the consecration has been done and accepted by the Blessed Virgin. The promotion of the idea that it has not been done comes from a suspended priest named Nicolas Gruner. It is an error to think that the moral state of Russia and its current lack of conversion to the Catholic Faith is proof that it was not done. Pope Francis will again consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on October 13th.
If it was done right the first time then why is Pope Francis doing it again? That says a lot there to me.
Everybody renews their consecration to the Immaculate Heart. It is good to do it daily but at least on her feasts. Which reminds me….
Father Karl thank you for replying to Anne. I feel that we need to receive more clarity on this subject. I need to brush up on things, there is always something new to learn. I just pray that I end up learning from the truth not from the misinformation that is being fed to us.
You are right there is much confusion, I thought that the consecration took place. I don’t understand why it did not. I am saddened even more as I keep learning more and more of the things that they should have done but didn’t. I don’t even know who to believe. You hear read in one source yes and another no. May the good Lord have mercy on us all.
Plus its not all bad…Russia did reject same sex unions. and now they are looking into rejecting the abortion rates….I hope I am understanding all this…
Thank you and God bless you Father Karl. You may have already seen this video before but I had never seen it before. I just found it today after reading your post. This is a very informative You Tube. As a leading and respected exorcist, I do not think that Father Gabriele Amorth would ever make up this story or distort this important fact about what took place. For anyone who has not ever seen this particular explanation please view the “YouTube Father Amorth- Our Lady of Fatima.” Father Amorth is telling us that he actually helped arranged the event and that like you, he was also present. I had never heard this specific of an explanation before viewing this video today. Father Gabriele Amorth is informing us that the pressuring politicians who were present for the event kept telling Pope John Paul II to NOT specifically mention “Russia” while saying the words of the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pope John Paul II wanted to do this and the flood of surrounding politicians kept telling him NO! So Father Amorth, IS also informing us that this event was NOT done according to the “specific instructions” that were given by Our Lady to the three children. Yes, an event took place. but specific instructions were not followed. Father Amorth also said in this video that Pope Benedict XVI made a reference when he was visiting Fatima.
cont….
God sent his Blessed Mother to Fatima authorizing specific heavenly instructions and if the word “Russia” was omitted then it sounds no different than if a priest would omit the specific words and instructions that are necessary for the valid consecration of the Sacred Host. Without following the proper instructions and the right words then the little wafer is still just bread. It takes great faith and great trust in following God’s instructions to believe that with the proper words and instructions that this bread then truly becomes the Body, the Blood, the Soul, and the Divinity of Jesus Christ. Wouldn’t the unfulfilled request to follow specific instructions in Consecrating “Russia” to the Immaculate Heart of Mary also lose the validity of supernatural power that God intended? No wonder we are in such a mess for the time being. As Father Amorth says, the hour is late and there will be suffering but it will happen …”In The End My Immaculate Heart Will Triumph!’
God bless you Catherine…I thank you for bringing us more clarity. What can be done, now that everyone is insisting that it was done and was acceptable? Should we offer prayers to help with this situation? Since it is important for us of faith. Thank you sister, you do keep us informed and I am grateful that I found connection with truly devout faithful as you. I just feel helpless and wish I could do more…
I do not know, Fr. Karl. It all just confuses me. I will just keep saying my Rosary that I promised, wear my scapular and mind my own behavior. That is all that I can do because there are a lot of good priest on both sides of the issue.
EWTN has a letter where Fr. Robert Fox, a very holy priest, wrote to Sister Lucy, and he said that the consecration had been done well enough to satisfy Our Lady. I think he was head of the Blue Army at that time. That is what makes it all so confusing when some say it was not consecrated right.
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html
This is the official Vatican paper on it.
Anonymous, I read it and that settles it for me. It was done. Others should take and read the Vatican statement.
Anne I I understand how you feel
I believe you’re right Anne…. The obsession with this by the very controversial Fr. Grunner has many Catholics confused. Why not believe that some of the restrictions and Russia’s position on the promotion of homosexuality is a sign that Russia is changing….
And if Mary’s wishes were not met, why didn’t Our Lady mention this when she appeared in Akita, Japan?….I believe sometimes Catholics can get caught up with issues that take away from our mission of converting the world and standing up for the innocent unborn and the sanctity of marriage….
Amen! Ronnie.
Ronnie some things may seem controversial but it does not mean that it is right or wrong…only time will tell but we still search the truth and pray.
Oh, please.
All this fretting about whether the word “Russia” was uttered or not, whether Our Lady’s manual was followed precisely — do we REALLY believe this is how the Lord God Almighty operates?
Basing one’s faith on apparitions and legends and stories is not terribly adult.
Susanne look to the scriptures and believe. Read my other post to JonJ towards the end of this thread especially the one on Moses. I can’t blame you for your ignorance but remember as long as we are alive, we are still learning the ways of the Lord.
Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
Duck & Cover Campers
I was a Child of the 60s.
Neither ‘flower child’ nor ‘dirty hippie’ (they mostly were), but in grade school – where we held regular “Duck & Cover” Drills. Not for earthquakes mind – but A-Bombs from the Kommies.
Soviet leaders like Stalin & successor Nikita Krushchev seemed the distillation of backward incompetent shabbily dressed vodka soaked evil – with Nukes & Sputniks to boot, oh my!
Doctrines like “MAD” = Mutually Assured Destruction, seemed kinda iffy – even in grade school; particularly given Winston Churchill’s assertion that: “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
Fond of heart pounding theatrics, ‘little Niki’ was known worldwide for angrily banging his shoe at the UN, threatening to “Bury” Us.
Having already seen the movies of the WW-2 Ending Mushroom Clouds over Japan, we could well imagine (often based on personal tantrum theater experience)…
_ Just What a childishly despotic nuclear dictator was capable of – if he felt he got cheated out of going to Disneyland:
“And I say, I would very much like to go and see Disneyland. But then, we cannot guarantee your security, they say. Then what must I do? Commit suicide? What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken hold of the place that can destroy me?” NK 1960
Russia –Since the Fall of the ‘Soviet Union’ – remains rather a curious place too…
SSADly – Amerika has developed its own Childish Despotic Dictator issues.
Ah, Michael, the good old days…your remembrances bring it all back with a pang. Remember most of the country felt the urgency to catch up with the Russians after Sputnik? But, at the same time, there was such a comforting feeling that our leaders were competent and that we could trust their decisions. Now we still face the same uncertainties but no one is at the helm…if anything, it feels like Nikita is still pounding his shoe “we will destroy you” but now he’s so comfortable with his shoes on the desk and doing it without saying it. Childish indeed. The Blaze has an article today on the financial crunch of 2008…Russia, China etc. the usual suspects contrived to destroy us without firing a shot.
Michael,
How well I remember witnessing a Young Democrat “officer” imitating his hero by taking off his shoe and pounding on the table at a California Young Democrat Convention not too long after Nikita did it. That Young Democrat is now a member of the House of Representatives, it was either Waxman or Burton. At seventy four I don’t remember which one it was, but I remember the incident. It made me sick for my country.
May God have mercy on an amoral America!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Funny, when Putin was arresting the gays, y’all were ready to jump into his camp. Now that we have a more complete truth, y’all are sayin, “see i told ya so”. Well, on both counts, I told you so, but how many listened?
Is it not possible that a man does something right and another thing wrong?
yfc, as you know, Oscar Wilde was put in prison for his homosexuality and his health was destroyed…but on his deathbed he confessed his sins and joined the Catholic Church. In Joseph Pearce’s excellent bio we discover that he’d wanted to become Catholic in his teens but his father prohibited it. I’m merely speculating, mind you, but what do you suppose would have happened to him had he not been confronted and made to be aware of how destructive his behavior was, to himself, as well as to his wife and family. That time alone in Paris without a friend, an outcast of society, gave him time to reflect on truth and eternal things. That temporary suffering enabled him to save his soul. As Catholics, we know the ‘benefits’ of suffering…by falling into the lie that we must be content and happy (according to secular understanding) and avoid making unpleasant and seemingly dreadful decisions that imply failure and cut us off from our friends we also turn our backs on God’s Will for us. Was that young man that seduced and abandoned Wilde good for him? What if Wilde had not been abandoned…could he have given him up for his eternal soul? Just thoughts to ponder. I’m not trying to start an argument. Don’t get your bristles up, ;o)
And here we have it…
For all those who have been slobbering over “Mother Russia” and how much better THAT country is than our own.
“America — love it or leave it.”
I’m supposed to love the country that has murdered fifty million babies for their drug and sex addictions just because Russia is bad?
Don’t be such a stupid American.. Just because other countries are bad doesnt make yours good!
Michael and YFC, this proves nothing. All it says it that the United States AND Russia are in similar situations, but Putin is at least trying to change it while our President is making it worse — Putin trying to put in legislation to help traditional families and our President trying to do everything to destroy traditional families.
Anne T.
Thanks, you said it like it is!
Frankly I would take Putin over Obama any day of the week!
May God have mercy on an amoral America!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
I think that Russia is an excellent example, not a model. We can see what happens when men make themselves and their attempts to engineer the perfect society into the ultimate authority. Imagining that our scientific or intellectual gifts are sufficient to create a utopian human order has proved to be an empty promise and disastrous to many nations, not just Russia. Look at modern China and other extinct civilizations through the centuries. When human beings are their own gods, enormous suffering, violence, oppression and brutality result. The hopeful sign that Russians have realised the deadly and destructive effects of their policies is a hopeful sign for all societies. If Russia can turn back from this profound calamity, we can with God’s help.
As Maria so sensibly points out, Russia is an example — of things gone wrong.
As are we, Americans, in many ways.
“Just because you CAN do something, doesn’t me you SHOULD do it.”
We take our technology, including medical abilities, and mess with God’s plan.
It’s silly for us to blab on about how terrific Slobonia is, or how holy Peterstan looks, when each country has its own problems — putting down your own country all the time (as K.M.F. does ad nauseam with his “God have mercy on amoral America!” yammering) is self-defeating.
Work to make it better.
Pitch in where you see a need.
Trust in God.
And don’t embrace the silly notion that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence — or iron curtain.
Let us pray we all do. Putin is now wearing his baptismal cross that his mother gave him when she had him baptized. Reportedly his father looked the other way when she had it done. He needs to keep his shirt on, though, and stop showing off.
Borscht Badinov
As ironically iconic movie bad guys go, I have always ‘admired’ both Boris Godunov & ‘Hans’ Rickman in ‘Die Hard-1’:
“I Vant Blud!” – “And You shall have it, but first the Detonators!”
Although our own dear “Fearless Leader” from Bullwinkle cartoons (*Nyet 4 Das Movie – for vhich komrades Kostanza & RRusso should have been liquidated during the purges in reprisal) – served as a comedic foil for plucky squirrels, if not the State Department.
Anywayyyy… I Vanted to share with the great unwashed masses of downtrodden Proletariat out there (*You know who you are, and so do the running dog imperialists mass market spammers) – some favorite sources for ‘Ruski-Ology.
Compared to Gaystapo Propagandists running the bought and paid for ‘free press’ of Our own ‘State Television’; “RT” = Russia Today – really is “Pravda” (Truth) – with an Admitted Point of View rather hostile to the USA… But neither as crudely deceitful nor smugly bigoted as western Lamesteam Media.
My Advice – forget Tolstoy and start with “Flashman at the Charge” by George Macdonald Frasier, featuring the world’s most cowardly participant in the Charge of the Light Brigade – taken prisoner and dragged across Russia by cruel Cossacks.
Follow Up with Martin Cruz Smith (Gorky Park, Polar Star, Red Square…) – Whose Russian Detective Arkady Renko is a post Soviet Sherlock Holmes.
Then read William Gibson’s “Pattern Recognition” – Possibly as good a glimpse of Russia today, as an ‘Auslander’ has provided since daz internetski kowboys rode in to town at Moose-Kow.Kom
haha…I sure enjoy your posts, MM, punster par excellence. Is “Pattern Recognition” violent? I cannot bear gratuitous violence in books or movies. I’m unapologetically averse to vivid prose about murder and torture. Another reason I love Obrien’s books…some bad things happen but he avoids too much description that doesn’t help the narrative anyway. I’ll read the book, otherwise. Also, after reading War and Peace, which took me a whole week to wade through, I never want to see another Tolstoy book as long as I live…give me Dostoevsky any day. I re=read Fathers and Sons not too long ago…what a book! What a writer!
Russia is in a demographic death spiral and every thinking person in Russia knows it. Their abortion rates are astronomical; but let us not kid ourselves into smug self-satifaction. Given the policies of our administration we are not far behind. The motto of our feminazi movement is abort, abort, abort. This anti-human faction of the democrat party is getting no push-back from the liberal press, which agrees with the new world order in considering human beings parasites on Mother Earth. All Russia needs now is a full-fledged Sodomite movement to send it into the dustbin of history. I remember the swinging sixties and the early signs of a homo culture that proclaimed: “More brotherhood, less motherhood”. I for one wish Russia well. Their people are after all part of our Western Christian culture and worthy of preservation.
Russia may have millions of abortions, just like America, but at least Russia is not at the service of the sodomites, as America is.
Before conservatives get too cozy with Putin, they ought to read Senator McCain’s piece in Pravda.ru
https://english.pravda.ru/opinion/19-09-2013/125705-McCain_for_pravda_ru-0/#
Cite someone other than pro-abortion McCain and I’ll read it.
Greg, do you mean Sen. McCain, the neo-democrat turncoat senator from Arizona that earned a recent censure from the party he betrayed? You mean the man that has been supporting obamacare and bombing Syria…that McCain? Gee, I think I’ll give anything he’s written a pass, thanks. ;o)
Greg Smith, Senator McCain has no room to talk when it comes to the treatment of women. Yes, I voted for him against Candidate Obama, but I could see his heart was not in it as he never brought up abortion once, and now he is trying to get us into a no win war. Also, he needs to think twice about censorship. When Hollywood movies and television were more censored concerning sexual innuendo, vulgarity and at times down right filth, our country was far better for it and more families were intacted as far as I am concerned. Our youngest daughter and her husband will not even turn on the television during the day, and their children are not allowed to watch it. They use it for their parental approved videos.
Greg: I don’t believe anyone is getting cozzy with old Vlad! Most of us applaud him for respecting Russia’s traditional religious values and his stance against the homosexual menace. It’s no more complicated than that. Russia remains a geopolitical adversary of the US aligned with Iran and Syria. The US is now dominated by a combination of Marxist, collectivist, pro-abortion feminazi, pro-Gay claque. Let’s not get too cocky about our moral superiority over Russia.
Exactly, Anton.
Anton L Seidl very well said! Bravo!
I completely agree Abeca! Anton’s post is excellent! Thank you Anton L. Seidl !
Is his name truly Vlad?
Sounds like Vlad The Impaler — who turned into Dracula in popular myth!
Which rather fits with this horrible abortion story in Russia!
Suzanne: It may surprise you that Vladimir Putin is actually using his high office to speak out against abortion. In some parts of Russia employers are giving their people time off to “go home and make babies!” I am not kidding. Russia is quickly being depopulated. If trends are not reversed there won’t be enough hands left to run the economy. Our own demographic decline is masked because of immigrants who typically have larger families. Our Euro population is below replacement levels and yet, our feminist harpies cannot abort enough babies. Why does Obama not speak out? A huge number of aborted babies are black, effectively constituting a genocide. Obama is pure evil, as are all those in league with him.
If Russia is indeed encouraging families to BE families and to have more children, my hat is off to them — whoever is responsible.
So many countries are ‘dying out’ because no one wants to have kids, and then they wonder who will take care of the old folks.
When confused there are wonderful sources to help us form a good conscience and to know the TRUTH of what the Church really teaches –
1) Catholic Bible;
2) Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition;
3) Vatican web site for specific documents.
See “What Catholics REALLY Believe SOURCE”.
https://whatcatholicsreallybelieve.com/
I must confess, I find myself a bit puzzled how consecrating Russia to Mary could make such a difference in the fate of a nation.
Presumably, this instruction comes from Mary herself, so must be true. Yet, WHY it is true puzzles me.
To me, it strikes me as almost pagan magic. How could a religious ceremony performed by an outsider nullify the choices made by the people of Russia? Do they not have to choose to act according to God’s will, and won’t those choices determine their fate and not religious ceremonies performed by third parties?
To me, its almost as if the consecration were somehow trumping the free will of people in Russia.
Since God is all knowing, he knew what would happen, so he sent his Mother to relay the message.
The Mother of the second person of the Holy Trinity that is.
JonJ I wish I could explain it…..but look to the example in scriptures (Exodus 12:23) when Moses asked that they mark their front doors of their door posts, with the blood of the lamb so the angel of death won’t take their first born. Something like that, well it was an instruction that had to be done if you didn’t want to lose your first born. It’s the same with our Lady, her message has a meaning as well and even if we don’t understand it, but those in our church leadership need to be more attentive to those instructions. Or else face the consequences. There is still free will but not without a consequence if one chooses to disobey or not acknowledge it. Look what happen to Lot’s wife. The angel instructed them not to look back Lot’s wife disobeyed and for that she turned into a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19:26)
Vlad Putin is actually making POTUS Barry (Soetoro / Marshall Davis / ObamAcorn… Whoever the guy really is) actually look like the fascist totalitarian liar the lamesteam media in the west has covered up for these many years now.
By comparison to Putin – even the bogus ‘signer’ at the Mandella Funeral made more sense than Soetoro, although who has the better moves is open to debate… – but then the GPS (Gaystapo Propaganda System) wants any actual ‘debate’ suppressed in the west – so such politically incorrect questions will not be allowed in the land of the bought and paid for ‘free press’.
SEE
IS PUTIN ONE OF US? By: Patrick J. Buchanan
12/17/2013
Is Vladimir Putin a paleoconservative?
In the culture war for mankind’s future, is he one of us?
While such a question may be blasphemous in Western circles, consider the content of the Russian president’s state of the nation address.
With America clearly in mind, Putin declared, “In many countries today, moral and ethical norms are being reconsidered.”
“They’re now requiring not only the proper acknowledgment of freedom of conscience, political views and private life, but also the mandatory acknowledgment of the equality of good and evil.”
Translation: While privacy and freedom of thought, religion and speech are cherished rights, to equate traditional marriage and same-sex marriage is to equate good with evil.
No moral confusion here, this is moral clarity, agree or disagree.
President Reagan once called the old Soviet Empire “the focus of evil in the modern world.” President Putin is implying that Barack Obama’s America may deserve the title in the 21st century.
Nor is he without an argument when we reflect on America’s embrace of abortion on demand, homosexual marriage, pornography, promiscuity, and the whole panoply of Hollywood values.
https://www.humanevents.com/2013/12/17/is-putin-one-of-us/