George Weigel still fighting the Cold War?

Or at least our Russian brothers and sisters?

C'mon, George! :)

The L'viv Sobor (Council) of 1946.

"I ... noted that serious historians describe the L'viv Sobor as an act of the Stalinist state ..."

George Weigel's famous exchange with Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk.


Snippets from Weigel's column, Rome and Moscow published in Today's Catholic. Friday, March 25, 2011.

"Hilarion is an impressive personality in many ways: he is entirely at home in English, he displays a nice sense of humor, and his curriculum vitae includes a large number of publications and musical compositions.

"Yet when I asked him whether the L'viv Sobor (Council) of 1946 -- which forcibly reincorporated the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine into Russian Orthodoxy, turning the Greek Catholics into the world's largest illegal religious body -- was a theologically legitimate ecclesial act, Hilarion unhesitatingly responded yes.

"I then noted that serious historians describe the L'viv Sobor as an act of the Stalinist state, carried out by the NKVD (predecessor to the KGB); Hilarion responded that the modalities of history are always complicated.

"In any event, he continued, it was always legitimate for straying members of the Russian Orthodox flock (as he regarded the Ukrainian Greek Catholics) to return to their true home (i.e., Russian Orthodoxy)...

"Throughout the meeting, Hilarion smoothly but unmistakably tried to drive a wedge between Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II (whom two patriarchs of Moscow, both KGB - connected, refused to invite to Russia).

"He also suggested that Benedict's calls for a new evangelization in Europe, including a recovery of classic Christian morality, could be addressed by joint Catholic - Russian Orthodoxy initiatives..."

Humm ... you good people want to know something?

It almost sounds to yours truly as though Mr. George Weigel is trying to evoke some kind of almost tribal thing: let's call it The Spirit of Pope John Paul II -- to tie the hands of our current Pope, who has deliberately chosen the name of Benedict XVI!

As the March issue of Inside The Vatican makes clear, our current pope is very favorable to our Russian brothers and sisters, as well as to their civil and religious leaders.

So what the h*ll?

So, too, am I!

So maybe it's time to bury all this Cold War rhetoric & barnyard doo - doo -- and really start working together, o.k.?

O.K.!

As for our current pope, Pope Benedict XVI?

He's just doing his job,so to speak! :)