On Fatima And The Russian Error
By FR. JAMES ALTMAN
Dear family, on this glorious week when we celebrate Ascension Thursday — we do at St. James the Less, because we celebrate it in the Traditional Rite — as well as Our Lady of Fatima, let us begin by invoking the protection of Our Blessed Mother who warned us about the Russian Error. Our Lady of Fatima, ora pro nobis.
Dear family, I don’t have to reinvent the wheel and come up with some clever restatement about it all. Fatima.org already did so, and I quote it now:
“When Our Lady appeared to the children at Fatima, she gave the fateful warning that if Her requests were not granted, ‘Russia will spread its errors throughout the world, raising up wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer and various nations will be annihilated’. . . . It is commonly understood that these errors of Russia would be the errors of Communism and atheism, which are of course grave errors. Nevertheless, there are other inherent errors to the old Russian system that were spread throughout the world through the nefarious means of the Soviets.”
Many see the error of Communism as related only to a purely economic system, in which the greatest error is the rejection of the so-called “free market.” We are seeing the utter and complete disaster of such an economic policy in just the last few months. In just four short months we have gone from being — for the first time in about 70 years — totally energy independent and an exporter of energy to lines forming at gas stations due to a shortage of fuel!
It only took about “a year of fear” to get Lenin’s useful idiots to acquiesce like lemmings in the destruction of the global economy, and only four months of the Biden “mis-Administration” to wreak havoc on our lives. It only took that same period of time to double and triple lumber and steel prices. It only took that period of time for people to turn to the Godless government for their next “free money” of a stimulus check.
And look how Godless Gov. Newsom is trying to salvage his recall in California — by announcing yet another free-money stimulus check! California already is so deep in debt that it will never see the light of solvency again, but that doesn’t matter to Newsom — let’s just use free money to buy votes.
Marxism’s economic errors are disastrous and we are seeing them play out at this very moment before our very eyes, though the ignorant and uninformed — the aforementioned useful idiots — could not care less. “Gimme more free money” they say, as they refuse to go to work because it would put all that free money from excess unemployment benefits at risk! That is one reason why oil and lumber and steel are in short supply and the prices have skyrocketed. It is why Chick-fil-A had to announce it could no longer include extra sauce for its customers because there was a shortage in the supply chain. We readily can recognize the looming Marxist/Communist/Socialist disaster — even if the many useful idiots cannot.
Yet, however disastrous are Marxism’s economic affects, eternally more important are its philosophical and spiritual errors that all boil down to the belief that people do not belong to God, they belong to the all-powerful state. It all boils down to the fact that if we belong to the state as our ultimate master, then we no longer belong to God.
Communist societies are intrinsically materialist and see progress only measurable by material equity. Thus, all members of the society are seen as potential resource-accumulating lemmings, rather than as unique persons made in the image and likeness of God. This insistence on production turns the person and the family into a cog in the wheel of socialism. Because of this, women are thrust out of the home, and children into institutional daycare. The Soviets were voracious in their contraceptive and sterilization practices, and their zeal for abortion was unmatched.
And there it is — the sum and substance of the Russian Error: destruction of faith and destruction of family, facilitated by a radical, toxic feminism.
Dear family, as you may have guessed, I actually do have a prejudice. I am 100 percent prejudiced against those people who do not use the brains God gave them. In other words, I am 100 percent prejudiced against Marxists who now are known by less inflammatory terms as progressives and “democratic” socialists. And I am prejudiced against them not because they act in a stupid way that endangers themselves, though that is bad enough. I am 100 percent prejudiced against such toxic radical socialists because they have enabled a handful nefarious minions “at the top” to promulgate and perpetuate the anti-Christ that is the Russian Error — an error that openly and notoriously promotes the destruction of Faith and Family.
Which brings us to Fatima. Dear family, we know about Pope Leo XIII’s vision on October 13, 1884 — Satan wanting 100 years and a lot more power. We know how Our Blessed Mother warned us about the spread of the Russian error. We know how on the 33rd anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s vision, on October 13, 1917, about 70,000 people — including avowed atheists and atheist media — witnessed the Miracle of the Sun. Now we find ourselves, 100 years later and we clearly can see what Gandalf said to Pippin before the start of the final battle: The board is set, the pieces are moving (The Lord of the Rings).
We were warned in 1978 by Pope St. John Paul II that the board already was set and the pieces were moving. He said the great majority of Catholics and Christians were unaware of what is really happening. As a saint who grew up under the fullness of the Russian error, he certainly knew what he was talking about and he could see it all around him, even if the majority of useful idiots could not.
The Power Of God
Let us, dear family, use the brains God gave us and recognize our time for what it is. Let us realize that the useful idiots, the majority, are indeed uninformed and they run, not walk, like lemmings to follow the Godless directives of a Godless government which does not have the salvation of their eternal souls as its primary goal.
And, most important, in these dangerous, dangerous times, let us never get discouraged. Let us never get discouraged because as we have pondered before, Almighty God does not need big numbers of faithful to achieve His plan. He only needs a few who are faithful. He can take the few who are faithful and multiply them like Jesus multiplied the fish and the loaves. He can take the few Christian Soldiers — as we used to refer to ourselves — and multiply them into the power of God Himself. With Himself as the power behind it all, He can and will defeat Satan, and all his minions, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
So, as we contemplate Our Lady of Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun, realize that the greatest miracle of all time is the Miracle of the Son. Then let us keep our eyes on Jesus, knowing that all things will work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
God bless you all and keep you safe in these dangerous times.
