Wars and Rumors of Wars, part four

The principal point that I have tried to make in Wars and Rumors of Rumors, parts one, two, and three, is that the Russian invasion of Ukraine, whose leaders since 2014 have sought to curry favor with Western globalists and moral anarchists (see Ukraine’s Leaders Conspired With Democrats Against Trump to Prevent the Kind of War Happening Now Under Biden. The Bet Backfired Badly) who tried to sabotage Donald John Trump’s campaign in 2016 and did manage to sabotage his presidency and re-election in 2020, is unjustifiable from the standpoint of the Just War Theory.

1. There was no immediate threat to Russia of an imminent invasion by Ukrainian military forces.
2. Whatever military action Ukraine took within its own borders to retake the Donbas did not of its own pose a sufficient reason for a wholesale invasion of Ukraine by the forces of the Russian Federation and its mercenary associates (the Chechens, Syrians, et al.).
3. The level of force being used by the Russians is completely unjustifiable. No one has to support Volodymyr Zelensky, who is a show boater and extortionist par excellence, to recognize that the deliberate, intentional killing of Ukrainian citizens is not justifiable. Indeed, such killing—and the massive destruction of cities and the country’s infrastructure—has not been a matter of Ukrainian disinformation. While there has been such disinformation on both sides, to be sure, any Catholic whose heart is not filled with sorrow over the bombings of civilian residences, the ruthless killing of innocent children, the slaughter of whole families by remorseless Russian soldiers, and the displacement of over 4.5 million Ukrainian nations is not thinking clearly.
4. Ukrainian political officials and elite, to be sure, have sold their souls to the globalists in the Deep State of the Federal government in the United Stats of America, the European Union, the World Economic Forum, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and other such entities (see Ukraine, It Was All Written in the Rand Corp Plan). Doing so made gave Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin every excuse imaginable to launch his invasion of Ukraine as his real desire has been to subsume it into the Russian Federation or, at the very least, to partition in in a manner that would create something approximating a new “iron curtain” inside of Ukraine by keeping the disputed eastern sections of the country and making sure that a “friendly” regime is installed in Kyiv.

To wit, consider these qualifications under the Just War Theory that I have discussed many times on this site but have been summarized very succinctly on a Thomistic website:

• D. Qualifying Conditions – from the justification of self-defense and the theory of double-effect.
  • Cannot intend intrinsically evil actions: Combatants must respect non-combatants.
    a. Combatants who cease to be such.
    i. Surrendering.
    ii. Wounded.
    b. A nation can never justly target civilians.
    i. Civilian casualties, while foreseeable, cannot be intended.
    ii. Measures must be taken to minimize civilian casualties.
  • The violence inherent in war is the tolerated evil secondary effect, never directly intended; the primary good effect of peace must be directly intended.
  • Proportionality: the good to be achieved outweighs the evil of war.
    a. One cannot war justly over a slight cause.
    (i. War is a last resort.)
    (ii. There must be a reasonable hope of success; one cannot engage in justified, but hopeless actions.)
    b. One may only use the minimal force necessary to achieve just ends. (Just War – Thomistic Philosophy Page.)

Anyone thinks that either Vladimir Putin or Volodymyr Zelensky (a) care about these principles or (b) have ordered his forces to observe them during the Russo-Ukrainian War that began when Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, is living in an alternative universe. Catholics must stop living in imaginary worlds in which they place their own Catholic thoughts into the skulls of people who are not Catholics, do not think as Catholics, and who care nothing for the thought of their eternal salvation.

Vladimir Putin is a killer who came to power in what amounted to coup (War brought Vladimir Putin to power in 1999) as the drunken snot Boris Yeltsin, the first President of the Russian Federation who came to power after the collapse of the Union of Socialist Republics on December 25, 1991, had run the Russian economy into the ground. And all the former actor named Volodymyr Zelensky cares about is milking the cash cow that is the administration of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and the various governments of the European Union. Neither man has had a bit of compunction about using their young citizens as so much cannon fodder.

Indeed, the outgoing globalists in the failed administration of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and Kamala Harris Emhoff are urging Volodymyr Zelensky’s government to lower its draft age to eighteen years of age to provide more cannon fodder to maimed or killed by Russian troops and the 10,000 North Korean mercenaries who have been sent to the Russo-Ukrainian front by the murderous thug named Kim Jung Un:

Preesident Biden’s administration is urging Ukraine to lower its draft age to conscript 18-year-olds to keep pace with Russia’s growing military nearly three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

A senior Biden administration official told The Associated Press Wednesday that "the pure math" of Ukraine’s situation calls for lowering the draft age from the current age of 25 to expand its outnumbered fighting force.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ukraine is failing to mobilize and train enough soldiers to replace its battlefield losses and keep pace with Russia's growing forces.

In April, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law that lowered the military conscription age from 27 to 25 to replenish its depleted ranks.

Lowering the minimum conscription age, however, has some Ukrainians worried that taking more young adults out of the workforce could further damage its already war-ravaged economy. Some Ukrainian officials see the push from the U.S. as part of a Western effort to distract from their own delays in providing weaponry and other equipment.

Even with more than 1 million Ukrainians now in uniform, including the National Guard and other units, Ukrainian officials have said they need about 160,000 additional troops to keep pace on the battlefield. 

But the Biden administration believes they probably will need even more, saying that shoring up Ukraine’s manpower shortage far eclipses the need for military equipment.

White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett in a statement said the administration will continue sending Ukraine weaponry but believes "manpower is the most vital need" for Ukraine.

"So, we’re also ready to ramp up our training capacity if they take appropriate steps to fill out their ranks," Savett said.

The White House has pushed more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia's February 2022 invasion and expects to send billions more to Kyiv before Biden leaves office in less than two months.

President-elect Trump has said that he will bring about a swift end to the war when he takes office on Jan. 20, 2025, though some are concerned that he may not continue to provide Ukraine with military support. (Biden admin urges Ukraine to lower draft age to 18 to replenish fighting force.)

To what end?

For what?

Much of eastern Ukraine is occupied by forces of the Russian Federation and Vladimir Putin is not going to relinquish control over the occupied land.

How many more men must be sent to their deaths in a war that Ukraine can neither win nor sustain but will continue for as long as Vladimir Putin, who cares nothing about the human toll exacted on his own forces, desires?

How much more of Ukrainian infrastructure must be destroyed?

What country is going to pay for the rebuilding of that infrastructure?

Might it be the same countries that have been extending the war needlessly by sending the Ukrainians sophisticated military equipment that its forces do not know use to operate?

How much more American taxpayer dollars have to be wasted to fuel the continuation of a pointless bloodbath?

Consider the facts about the human toll that has been exacted by the Russo-Ukrainian War as reported recently by Al Jazeera:

How many people have died in the war?

Last month, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing intelligence and undisclosed sources, reported a grim milestone: about one million Ukrainians and Russians have been killed or wounded since the war began.

The majority of dead are soldiers on both sides, followed by Ukrainian civilians.

According to government figures, in the first half of 2024, three times as many people died in Ukraine as were born, the WSJ reported.

Experts have long warned of a bleak demographic future for Ukraine.

Population loss is one of the reasons why Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has refused to mobilise men aged 18-25, as most of them have not had children yet, according to Ukrainian officials. The eligible age range for Ukraine’s military is 25 to 60.

How many are civilians?

Statistics vary.

In June, Ukrainian officials said “Russian invaders” had killed more than 12,000 civilians, including 551 children.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) reported in February that more than 10,200 civilians had been confirmed as killed, with nearly 20,000 injured.

The London-based Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) charity reported that 7,001 people had been killed in Ukraine as of September 23, with more than 20,000 civilians injured.

About 95 percent of civilian casualties occurred in populated areas, with the Donetsk region the most affected, AOAV said.

But these figures are the lowest estimates as the charity solely records “incident-specific casualty figures” reported in English-language media, it added.

Last month, the NRC reported that this summer Ukraine marked its highest three-month civilian casualty total since 2022.

More than 3,200 civilian casualties were recorded in Ukraine between June and August this year – a 33.7 percent increase compared with the same period last year, the NRC said.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) also documented a sharp increase in civilian deaths and injuries over the summer.

Attacks in government-controlled territory from August 26 to September 6 killed 64 civilians and injured 392 people, it said.

In August alone, 184 civilians were killed and 856 injured, the second-highest monthly casualty figure of the year after July, when at least 219 civilians were killed and 1,018 were injured.

Why did Ukrainian casualties rise in the summer?

Joachim Giaminardi, NRC’s advocacy manager in Ukraine, told Al Jazeera that the conflict has widened.

“We are seeing an expansion of the conflict, both geographically and in terms of the frequency and intensity of the attacks,” Giaminardi said. “The people who are paying the price are civilians.”

Danielle Bell, the head of HRMMU, said in a statement last month that “powerful missiles and bombs have struck populated areas, killing and injuring civilians across the country”.

“Targeted attacks on Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure have again triggered lengthy nationwide power cuts while recent attacks have destroyed or damaged hospitals, schools, supermarkets, and critical energy infrastructure.”

Have Russian civilians been killed?

Yes, but Russia has suffered far fewer civilian deaths than Ukraine.

Russian civilians have been killed in border areas amid fighting.

Moscow has not released an official overall casualty toll.

Media outlets, some linked to the state, occasionally report on civilian deaths.

Last August, The Moscow Times, citing independent news website 7×7, said 80 civilians had been killed since the invasion began.

Two months ago, the Kremlin-aligned outlet TASS reported that 31 people had been killed during Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Kursk.

How many Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed?

The death toll is impossible to verify. More on that later. Let’s start with what has been reported.

More than 71,000 Russian soldiers have been identified and confirmed to have been killed in Ukraine, according to a late-September report by the independent Russian media outlet Mediazona.

Using open source research, Mediazona has been documenting the names of Russian soldiers killed, verifying the information through obituaries, posts by relatives, statements from local authorities and other public reports.

Leaked US documents suggest that more Russian soldiers have been killed than previously estimated.

In July, The Economist reported that between 462,000 and 728,000 Russian soldiers had been killed, injured or captured by mid-June, citing documents by the US Department of Defense.

“Russia’s losses in Ukraine since 2022 dwarf the number of casualties from all its wars since the second world war combined,” The Economist reported, referring to wars in Chechnya, Afghanistan and Ukraine from 2014 until February 2022.

According to Ukraine’s General Staff, as of October 1, more than 654,000 Russian personnel have died.

As for Ukrainian troops, the Russian Ministry of Defence estimates that Kyiv has lost almost half a million men, according to a report published last month by the RT news website.

However, according to Western estimates, some 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since February 2022.

In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters that Ukrainian losses are five times higher than Russia’s, with Kyiv losing at least 50,000 service personnel a month.

Both Russia and Ukraine face manpower woes.

A Ukrainian platoon commander cited by the Reuters news agency estimated that only 60-70 percent of the several thousand men in the brigade at the start of the war were still serving. The rest had been killed, wounded or signed off due to old age or illness.

Why is the death toll so hard to verify?

Marina Miron, a researcher at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera that governments do not publicly report on their casualties to avoid giving the enemy information on how effective their operations have been.

During World War II, for instance, each side underreported their casualties by half and exaggerated enemy casualties by two to three times, she said.

A death is confirmed only once the body has been found, and the concerned defence ministry thereby sends a death notification to the family. But many bodies have not been recovered and are categorised as MIA (missing in action). They could be an army deserter or could have been taken prisoner, Miron said.

If a government does not officially accept a soldier as dead, it manages to evade the obligation to pay the families of the deceased, which has become a problem in Russia and Ukraine, she added.

Casualties among non-state actors, like Russia’s Wagner Group, are not included in available statistics.

What’s next for Ukraine?

Miron told Al Jazeera that she does not see the war as sustainable for Ukraine, which faces numerous problems: a shortage of troops, a struggling economy, and its dependence on Western aid.

“Ukraine does not have an actual strategy, neither does NATO,” she said.

While the Russians operate their equipment, Ukraine does not have enough troops who know how to operate Western weapons systems; training them is time-consuming. Training 20 pilots to operate F-16 fighters took more than a year, she said.

“Russia will have enough resources to go on for a couple [of] years more. Ukraine does not have that time, neither does NATO because NATO itself is facing shortages in air defence systems,” Miron said, adding that Ukraine is not a priority for policymakers as the Middle East crisis worsens.

With Ukraine’s counteroffensive lagging, officials are searching for a diplomatic solution to end the war, one that would include Russia.

“Russia can sustain this [war], but Ukraine cannot,” she said. (Record high deaths in the Russia-Ukraine war: What you should know | Russia-Ukraine war News. Also see Russia-Ukraine war in maps and charts: Live Tracker | Infographic News.)

Is it any wonder that Ukrainian soldiers are deserting in droves?

With no end in sight to the ongoing war with Russia, tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have deserted their posts, creating a “critical” problem military officials only expect will worsen with time.

The soldier shortage has hampered Ukraine’s battle plans as the Russian invasion nears the three-year mark.

“This problem is critical,” said Oleksandr Kovalenko, a Kyiv-based military analyst.

“This is the third year of war, and this problem will only grow.”

Some soldiers have taken medical leave and never returned, while others have left mid-firefight. The Entire units have also walked off the battlefield together, according to a report.

The manpower dearth could put Ukraine at a serious disadvantage in future ceasefire talks.

Since Russia invaded in February 2022, over 100,000 soldiers were charged under Ukraine’s desertion laws, according to the country’s General Prosecutor’s Office.

Nearly half of those came within the last year.

An estimated 200,000 Ukrainian soldiers have gone AWOL, the report said.

U.S. officials are urging Kyiv to draft more troops and allow for the conscription of citizens as young as 18.

The report came as Ukraine said the war has damaged 15 of the nation’s 20 civilian airports, limiting options for Ukranians who aim to travel abroad.

Separately, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un decalred that the Hermit Kingdom’s support of Russia remains unwavering after he met with Russia’s defense chief.

“The DPRK government, army and people will invariably support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity from the imperialists’ moves for hegemony,” Kim said, according to state media.

In June, the North Korean leader and Putin signed a new partnership agreement that includes a vow of mutual aid if either country is ever attacked.

North Korea has sent more than 10,000 of its troops to fight for Russia, and some have been spotted on the frontlines in Ukraine.

In other developments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Western aid has fallen short of expectations — and needs.

Ukraine’s allies provided enough aid to fully equip not even three of the 10 Ukrainian brigades Zelensky sought support for.

“Just equip the brigades,” Zelensky told Sky News when asked what NATO or the U.S. could do to help tackle Ukraine’s manpower issues.

“They speak about mobilization, but the real problem [is] with 10 brigades which our partners didn’t equip,” Zelensky said.

The comments came a day after Zelensky revealed he’d consider ceding some territories to Russia, if it secures NATO protection for Ukraine and brings an end to the fighting. (Under-equipped Ukrainian Soldiers fleeing the frontlines.)

This is reason renough for Vladimir Zelensky to come to grips with the reality his country has lost the war. It is time to give up, and his attitude at this point is reminiscent of the infamous Bag Man in a Karakul Hat, Hamid Karzai, who wanted Amercans to keep sending money, military equipment, and troops in the effort to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. There is no purpose to keep sending Ukrainians to their deaths. It is now irresponsible for Zelensky to keep up with he must know is a losing battle unless he, like Karzi before him, is about the money and preserving his undeserved reputation as a "fighter" for Ukraine. 

As noted in We Have No "Rooting" Interest in the Russo-Ukraine War Other Than for a Just Peace, there comes a time when clear-eyed realism informed by the dictates of the Just War Theory and the common temporal good has to reckon with these words of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ:

Or what king, about to go to make war against another king, doth not first sit down, and think whether he be able, with ten thousand, to meet him that, with twenty thousand, cometh against him?  32 Or else, whilst the other is yet afar off, sending an embassy, he desireth conditions of peace. (Luke 14: 31-32.)

The time for Volodymyr Zelensky to do this came a long time ago, and although Vladimir Putin bears responsibility for starting the war by means of his invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the war has been prolonged because of Zelensky’s vainglorious refusal to cede to the actual military reality that has cost so many countrymen their very lives and destroyed various churches and historical sites. This was all avoidable, something that Zelensky is perhaps beginning to realize now that the Western pipeline of money, arms, and supplies might be coming to an end in seven weeks, four days when the forty-fifth president of the United States of America is inaugurated as the forty-seventh president of the United States of America:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is willing to hand over territory to Russia in exchange for NATO protection if it means ending the war.

“If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under [the] NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” Zelensky said through a translator in an interview with Sky News Friday.

“That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically.”

Zelensky’s comments are a stark departure from his previous stance — he vowed to continue fighting until Ukraine was returned to its internationally recognized borders, including Crimea.

In 2022, Putin annexed four regions in Ukraine — Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia — calling them “our citizens forever” in a move that was denounced by Western leaders.

Zelensky’s comments come just a week after a marked shift in the 1,000-day war — when Ukraine fired eight American-supplied longer-range missiles into Russia, several of which struck an ammunition supply location.

“All our partners always look for permission from the United States,” Zelensky told Fox News last week. “If the United States doesn’t give it, Europe will not give.”

Russia retaliated by launching new experimental, hypersonic ballistic missiles on the battlefield, a move that has allowed the Kremlin to advance deeper into Ukraine — prompting NATO officials to host emergency talks this week.

Putin, who has boosted his dwindling troops with an estimated 11,000 North Korean soldiers, has also threatened to strike Ukraine’s “decision-making centers” in retaliation.

The Kremlin has made huge advances in Ukraine over the past week, taking 90 square miles in the long-bombarded Donetsk region, the fastest clip since the war began nearly three years ago.

Putin had previously claimed the only path to peace would be for Ukraine to surrender all its territory that Russia has laid claim to and renounce its intention to join NATO. (Zelensky willing to cede territory to Russia in exchange for NATO protection — in stark departure from previous stance.)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has had no business intervening in the Russo-Ukrainian War, which the leaders of its member nations helped to provoke by its decades long meddling in the internal affairs of Ukraine. In this regard, the administration of Barack Hussein Obama/Barry Soetoro and Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. (who stood a lot to gain personally from making sure a “friendly” Ukrainian government would give Burisma, in which his son was invested, the natural gas and oil deals it sought), bears particular responsibility, especially for its covert role in helping to promote the so-called “Orange Revolution” in 2014 that overthrew a pro-

Russian government in Ukraine. (The complex history of Ukraine’s relationship to Russia, both during and after Soviet captivity, was summarized in Wars and Rumors of Wars, Wars and Rumors of Wars, part two, and Wars and Rumors of Wars, part three.)

Currently, of course, the outgoing administration of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr, and Kamala Harris Emhoff has decided to pursue the utterly reckless course of providing the untrained Ukrainian military long-range missiles capable of striking deep into Russian territory:

Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, supporters of President-elect Donald Trump took to social media on Sunday to react to President Joe Biden's reported authorization of Ukraine to use U.S. ATACMS rockets to launch strikes into Russian territory.

According to Reuters, who spoke to three sources familiar with the decision on Sunday, Biden will authorize Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to launch strikes against Moscow, adding that the first deep strikes are likely to occur in the coming days, with further details under wraps due to operational security concerns. In addition, Ukrainian forces could use ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) rockets, which have a range of up to 190 miles, to launch the strikes.

It comes after Ukraine has for months urged the U.S. to authorize long-range strikes into Russian territory, but the White House has resisted doing so over fears of escalation. However, Moscow's decision to deploy North Korean soldiers to the Ukrainian front has changed the administration's thinking.

The National Security Council (NSC) previously told Newsweek on Sunday that it had nothing to provide on this report. The Pentagon also declined to comment to Newsweek.

Trump Communications Director Steven Cheung told Newsweek: "As President Trump has said on the campaign trail, he is the only person who can bring both sides together in order to negotiate peace, and work towards ending the war and stopping the killing. Only official statements on this matter will come directly from President Trump or his authorized spokespeople."

Russian media reported that Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RBC TV that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already spoken on what he thinks about potential strikes inside Russia with U.S. long-range weapons.

Referring to remarks made on September 12, Putin said that the potential decision to use Western long-range missiles against Russia would be viewed as the United States' and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries' direct participation in the war, which he said would significantly change "the very nature of the conflict."

The decision drew immediate backlash as several Trump supporters took to X, formerly Twitter, to accuse Biden of escalating the conflict with just months left in office and highlighting Trump's campaign promise to end the conflict.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and staunch Trump supporter, condemned Biden writing on X, "On his way out of office, Joe Biden is dangerously trying to start WWIII by authorizing Ukraine the use of U.S. long range missiles into Russia. The American people gave a mandate on Nov 5th against these exact America last decisions and do NOT want to fund or fight foreign wars. We want to fix our own problems. Enough of this, it must stop."

Venture capitalist and co-host of the All-In Podcast David Sacks also posted on X and wrote: "President Trump won a clear mandate to end the war in Ukraine. So what does Biden do in his final two months in office? Massively escalate it. Is his goal to hand Trump the worst situation possible?"

Responding to Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, who wrote on X that "Libs love war" and "War facilitates bigger government," billionaire Elon Musk retweeted Lee's post with the message, "True."

While Trump has not yet made a statement on Biden's decision, his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X: "The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives. Gotta lock in those $Trillions. Life be damned!!! Imbeciles!"

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk wrote on X, "Biden is trying to start World War 3. This is pathological and totally insane. US weaponry should NOT be used to fire into the interior of Russia! Imagine if Russia supplied missiles to fire into America!"

Newsweek has reached out to the White House via email for comment.

Meanwhile, Trump has previously said that if he were at the negotiating table with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the war between the two Eastern European nations would end "within 24 hours."

After he won this year's presidential election, Trump wasted no time and called Zelensky and Putin within the first few days. Zelensky recently told Ukrainian outlet Suspilne that Trump's return to office makes it "certain that the war will end sooner."

However, critics warn that a rushed settlement of the war could favor Putin.

The Biden administration has pledged to continue strengthening U.S. military support for Ukraine in the final months of his administration, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed Wednesday.

The announcement follows intensifying Russian attacks, most recently a Russian missile and drone strike on Kyiv, marking the first such attack on the Ukrainian capital in 73 days.

"We will continue to shore up everything we're doing for Ukraine to make sure that it can effectively defend itself against this Russian aggression," Blinken told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels, prior to meetings with allied envoys and Ukrainian officials.

In addition, the decision comes as North Korea recently sent around 10,000 of its elite troops to Kursk, a Russian region that Ukraine took over this summer when its forces made a major and unexpected push across the border.

The Biden administration fears that more North Korean special forces could deploy and bolster Russia's forces. Vedant Patel, a U.S. State Department spokesperson, told reporters last week that Washington remains "incredibly concerned" about the Kursk development. (Trump Allies React to Biden Allowing Ukraine to Hit Russia With US ATACMS. Another very good commentary can be found at Reject 'Just Peace' in Ukraine, and Just Seek Peace.)

Although there are a few of the Trotskyite neoconservatives from the days of George Herbert Walker Bush and George Walker Bush still in the Republican Party (most notably, of course, war hawks such Addison Mitchell McConnell, who is going to be new Willard Mitt Romney when the next Congress convenes on January 3, 2025, by seeking to thwart President Donald John Trump at every turn along with fellow war hawks Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, newly-elected John Curtis, and Thom Tillis), many of the never-ending wars Trotskyites such as William Kristol and Robert Kagan have declared themselves to be bitter Never Trumpers who remain as committed to pursuit of wars that result only in the needless deaths of American service personnel and thousands upon thousands of deaths of innocent civilians in those countries these war hawks deem worthy of being “liberated” by their “American exceptionalism.” Gee, how well did that work in Iraq or Afghanistan?

While Vladmir Putin has threatened the NATO powers with retaliation for the Biden administration’s reckless decision to send long-range missiles to Ukraine, there will be no nuclear war as Putin knows there will be new American decision-makers who oppose endless American interventions in foreign wars and that he can have confirmed at the negotiating table what his military forces have already won, at great cost to Russian soldiers and to the citizenry and infrastructure of Ukraine, on the battlefield.

Even when there is a cease-fire and ultimate treaty or accord to end the hostilities, there can never be any true peace as long as men are at war with Christ the King by means of their unrepentant sins and that of the reasons Ukraine, which is a mostly atheistic nation (Zelensky, of course, is  secular Jew whose immortal soul is steeped in the ravages of Original Sin), is being chastised by the amoral actions of the amoral Vladimir Putin, who is a Russian imperialist and not a “savior” of Western “values,” is the  widespread use of contraception in Ukraine and its permissive policies permitting the slaughter of innocent preborn babies, to say noting of the Zelensky’s open embrace of the sodomite agenda, have made Ukraine, which once had a thriving Catholic population prior to the Holodomor, so spiritually poor that its leaders have permitted the country to commit population suicide just as have the countries of most of Western Europe have done over the past one hundred six years since the end of World War I.

The people of Ukraine have forgotten the message of Our Lady of Ukraine concerning what would happen to their country if they did not heed her call to pray her Most Holy Rosary and convert to the Catholic Faith:

Our Lady herself appeared in Ukraine in 1914 to warn Catholics there of grave chastisements that would befall their nation, which is why she implored them to pray the Rosary, a practice that is not part of the tradition of many Uniat Rites, although many individual Uniat Catholics, including Ukrainians, do indeed pray the Rosary daily. The warnings of Our Lady were quite specific and should serve as a wake-up call to us all:

Ukraine 12^th May 1914

The year 988 marks the beginning of Christianity in Kievan Rus’ when Grand Prince Vladimir and his family were baptised. Kievan Rus’ was a loose federation of Eastern Slavic and Uralic people and ‘Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, all claim Kievan Rus’ as their cultural ancestor’. In 1037, Prince Yaroslav the Wise, dedicated the region to the Mother of God, making it the first European state to honour the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Our Lady appeared in the village of Hrushiv some 350 years ago and a weeping willow was planted to commemorate the apparition. A spring developed under the tree and in the Cholera plague of 1855, the villagers restored the spring, and from then  on, no one died of cholera.

On 12^th May 1914, two weeks before WWI, twenty-two people were mowing the field near the church of The Holy Trinity, when they saw Our Lady. She asked for prayer, fasting and penance and said,

“There will be a war. Russia will become a Godless country. The Ukraine, as a nation will suffer terribly for eighty years – and will have to live through the world wars but will be free afterwards.”

(In 1929, Stalin’s intensive collectivised farming destroyed Ukraine’s independence. This plan to ‘liquidate the kulaks as a class’, was the beginning of the famines which killed between 7 and 10 million people.)

26^th April – 15th August 1978

Ukraine had been a Christian state for nearly one thousand years, when Our Lady appeared in Hrushiv a third time. Exactly one year after the Chernobyl disaster, Marina Kizyn, aged twelve, saw a bright light covering the church of the Holy Trinity, and a woman, who appeared to be floating above the cupola. Over the next four months approximately 500,000 people saw Our Lady, including the KGB and Russian Military personal. The apparition was also filmed and shown on TV.

‘I have come on purpose to thank the Ukrainian people because you have suffered most for the Church of Christ in the last seventy years. I have come to comfort you and to tell you that your suffering will soon come to an end. Ukraine will become an independent state.’

‘Do not forget those who have died in the Chernobyl disaster. Chernobyl is a reminder and a sign for the whole world.’

‘Forgive your enemies, through you and the blood of the martyrs will come the conversion of Russia. The times are coming which have been foretold in the end times…. See the desolation which surrounds the world…. the sin, the sloth, the genocide. Pray for Russia. Oppression and wars continue to occupy the minds and hearts of many people. Russia, despite everything continues to deny My Son…. if there is not a return of Christianity to Russia, there will be a third world war, and the whole world faces ruin.’ (As found at: Our Lady of Hrushiv. There are references to “Saint John Paul II” in other parts of this article that one can ignore as completely irrelevant. For more information on Our Lady’s apparition in 1987, please see Our Lady of Ukraine.)

Our Lady’s specific call for the Rosary to be prayed by Ukrainian Catholics was made when she appeared to Marina Kizyn on April 26, 1987. Here is the message:

I have come on purpose to thank the Ukrainian people because you have suffered most for the church of Christ in the last 70 years. I have come to comfort you and to tell you that your suffering will soon come to an end. Ukraine will become an independent state.

Do not forget those who have died in the Chernobyl disaster. Chernobyl is a reminder and a sign for the whole world.

Forgive your enemies. Through you and the blood of martyrs will come the conversion or Russia. Repent and love one another. The times are coming which have been foretold as being those in the end times. See the desolation which surrounds the world…the sin, the sloth, the genocide. Pray for Russia. Oppression and war continue to occupy the minds of and hearts of many people. Russia, despite everything, continues to deny my Son. Russia rejects real life and continues to live in darkness. If this not a return to Christianity in Russia, there will be a Third World War: the whole world will face ruin.

Teach the children to pray. Then them to live in truth and live yourselves in truth. Say the Rosary, It is the weapon against Satan. He fears the Rosary. Recite the Rosary at any gathering of people.

I have come to comfort you and to tell you that your suffering will end soon. I shall protect you for the glory and the future of God’s kingdom on earth, which will last for a thousand years. The Kingdom of Heaven and Earth is close at hand. It will come only through penance and the repentance of sins.

This wicked world is feasting on depravity and impurity. Many lies are proclaimed against the Truth. The innocent are condemned. Many come as false messiahs and false prophets. Be diligent. Be on your guard.

Happy are they whose lives are blameless and who walk in fear of the Lord.

My children, all of you are dear to me and please my heart. I make no distinction of race of religion. You her in the Ukraine have received knowledge of the One, True, Apostolic Church. You have been shown the door to Heaven. You must follow this path, even though it may be painful.

The Eternal God is calling you, This is why I have been sent to you. You in the Ukraine were the first nation to be entrusted to me. (The ruler Yaroslav the Wise dedicated the Ukraine to the Most Holy Mother of God in the year 1037.) Throughout your long persecution you have not lost faith, hope, or love. I always pray for you, my dear children, wherever you are. (As found at: Our Lady of Ukraine.)

Before any legalists in cyberspace point out that this apparition has not been approved by the authority of the Catholic Church, I would urge one and all to see that the words attributed to our dear Lady, she to whom the cause of world peace has been entrusted by her Divine Son through her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, are both inspiring and efficacious. They serve as a warning to us take seriously the holy season of Advent, which begins with First Vespers this evening, November 30, 2024, the Feast of Saint Andrew, especially prayer and fasting, and the message of Our Lady of Ukraine exhorts us to pray her most Holy Rosary, to forgive our enemies, and to remember that she loves all children, including infidels, apostates, and heretics, as she desires them to be enfolded in the one true church, the Catholic Church.

Vladimir Putin knows nothing of forgiveness as he is a vengeful former KGB officer in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the head of its successor, the FSB, the Russian Federation under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s. He is a ruthless, remorseless killer who has ordered a massive roundup of those opposing his war policies. Numerous of his domestic critics have had rather untimely “accidents.”

Volodymyr Zelensky, whose “comedy” act was so lewd that it cannot be mentioned, is a secular Jew who knows nothing of forgiveness, which is why he has sought control the press in his own right and why he was unwilling to cede the Donbas to the Russians to stop the carnage that he, egged on by his Western enablers, helped to provoke and thus unleashed Putin’s pent up rage about the dissolution of the Soviet empire.

The world must be punished because men continue to sin unrepentantly and because they believe that they can establish a “better” world and build “peace without Christ the King and His true Church and without a tender devotion to and firm reliance upon His Most Blessed Mother, especially through her Most Holy Rosary. This is true of the West, and it is true of Russia, which has not been converted back to Christianity as true Christianity is found only in the Catholic Church:

Just as Christianity cannot penetrate into the soul without making it better, so it cannot enter into public life without establishing order. With the idea of a God Who governs all, Who is infinitely Wise, Good, and Just, the idea of duty seizes upon the consciences of men. It assuages sorrow, it calms hatred, it engenders heroes. If it has transformed pagan society--and that transformation was a veritable resurrection--for barbarism disappeared in proportion as Christianity extended its sway, so, after the terrible shocks which unbelief has given to the world in our days, it will be able to put that world again on the true road, and bring back to order the States and peoples of modern times. But the return of Christianity will not be efficacious and complete if it does not restore the world to a sincere love of the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. In the Catholic Church Christianity is Incarnate. It identifies Itself with that perfect, spiritual, and, in its own order, sovereign society, which is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and which has for Its visible head the Roman Pontiff, successor of the Prince of the Apostles. It is the continuation of the mission of the Savior, the daughter and the heiress of His Redemption. It has preached the Gospel, and has defended it at the price of Its blood, and strong in the Divine assistance and of that immortality which has been promised it, It makes no terms with error but remains faithful to the commands which it has received, to carry the doctrine of Jesus Christ to the uttermost limits of the world and to the end of time, and to protect it in its inviolable integrity. Legitimate dispenser of the teachings of the Gospel it does not reveal itself only as the consoler and Redeemer of souls, but It is still more the internal source of justice and charity, and the propagator as well as the guardian of true liberty, and of that equality which alone is possible here below. In applying the doctrine of its Divine Founder, It maintains a wise equilibrium and marks the true limits between the rights and privileges of society. The equality which it proclaims does not destroy the distinction between the different social classes. It keeps them intact, as nature itself demands, in order to oppose the anarchy of reason emancipated from Faith, and abandoned to its own devices. The liberty which it gives in no wise conflicts with the rights of truth, because those rights are superior to the demands of liberty. Not does it infringe upon the rights of justice, because those rights are superior to the claims of mere numbers or power. Nor does it assail the rights of God because they are superior to the rights of humanity. (Pope Leo XIII, A Review of His Pontificate, March 19, 1902.)

Those of you who have yet to accept the simple truth that the Catholic Church cannot make any compromises with error ought to reread the following sentence from the passage above as the conciliar “popes” have indeed made terms with error have polluted the integrity of the doctrine of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and all that Jorge Mario Bergoglio at this time to put these errors in easily understandable terms to as to tickle the itching ears of the multitudes:

It makes no terms with error but remains faithful to the commands which it has received, to carry the doctrine of Jesus Christ to the uttermost limits of the world and to the end of time, and to protect it in its inviolable integrity. (Pope Leo XIII, A Review of His Pontificate, March 19, 1902.)

Yes, Pope Leo XIII was a very wise pope, and we have not had the voice of a true pope for over sixty-six years, which is why so many people are looking to “conservative” figures in the counterfeit church of conciliarism for leadership and guidance. The counterfeit church of conciliarism is no more the standard bearer of Christianity than is the Russian Orthodox Church.

We must always remember these words of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and not permit those who make a living discussing doomsday scenarios that generate plenty of “hits” to their websites or videos that do nothing the advance the Supernatural Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity in the souls of Catholics, who, above all people, are expected to remain calm in the midst of whatever circumstances God in His Divine Providence permits to unfold during our lives here below as members of the Church Militant on earth:

And Jesus being come out of the temple, went away. And his disciples came to shew him the buildings of the temple. [2] And he answering, said to them: Do you see all these things? Amen I say to you there shall not be left here a stone upon a stone that shall not be destroyed. [3] And when he was sitting on mount Olivet, the disciples came to him privately, saying: Tell us when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the consummation of the world? [4] And Jesus answering, said to them: Take heed that no man seduce you: [5] For many will come in my name saying, I am Christ: and they will seduce many.

[6] And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that ye be not troubled. For these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. [7] For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be pestilences, and famines, and earthquakes in places: [8] Now all these are the beginnings of sorrows. [9] Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death: and you shall be hated by all nations for my name's sake. [10] And then shall many be scandalized: and shall betray one another: and shall hate one another.

[11] And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many. [12] And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold. [13] But he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved. [14] And this gospel of the kingdom, shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the consummation come. [15] When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand.

[16] Then they that are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains: [17] And he that is on the housetop, let him not come down to take any thing out of his house: [18] And he that is in the field, let him not go back to take his coat. [19] And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. [20] But pray that your flight be not in the winter, or on the sabbath.

[21] For there shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, neither shall be. [22] And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened. [23] Then if any man shall say to you: Lo here is Christ, or there, do not believe him. [24] For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. [25] Behold I have told it to you, beforehand.

[26] If therefore they shall say to you: Behold he is in the desert, go ye not out: Behold he is in the closets, believe it not. [27] For as lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth even into the west: so shall the coming of the Son of man be. [28] Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together. [29] And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be moved: [30] And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all tribes of the earth mourn: and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much power and majesty. (Matthew 24: 1-30.)

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ taught us to remain calm in every circumstance of our lives, explaining that there will be wars and rumors of wars but that the end is not yet to come. We must remain ever calm in the loving arms of Our Lady, who told Juan Diego the following as his uncle was suffering from an illness from which Juan Diego thought he was going to die:

"Listen and take heed, least of my sons," she said quietly. "There is nothing which thou needst dread. Let not thy heart be troubled. Do not fear this illness, neither any other illness or affliction. Am I not here beside thee; I, thy Merciful Mother? Am I not thy hope and salvation? Of what more dost thou have need? Let nothing distress or harass thee. As to the illness of thy uncle, he will not die of it. Indeed, I ask thee to accept as a certainty my assurance that he is already cured." (Frances Parkinson Keyes, The Grace of Guadalupe, published in 1941 by Julian Messner, Inc., pp. 47-48.)

We are not to fear any illness or affliction. There is no suffering, nor any world crisis, that we can bear in this life that is the equal of what one of our least Venial Sins caused Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to suffer in His Sacred Humanity during His fearful Passion and Death as those Seven Swords of Sorrow were plunged through and through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Concluding Remarks on the Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle

It is very appropriate that this commentary is being posted on the Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle, the brother of Saint Peter, and the principal Patron of Russia and of Ukraine as he preached in both places!

Dom Prosper Gueranger’s reflection on Saint Andrew is quite relevant to the tragedy that has unfolded between Russia and Ukraine:

The Proper of the Saints in the Roman Missal opens with St. Andrew, because, although his Feast sometimes occurs before the holy season of Advent has begun, it frequently happens that we have entered Advent when the memory of this great Apostle has to be celebrated by the Church. This Feast is therefore destined to terminate with solemnity the cycle which is at its close, or to add luster to the new one which has just begun. It seems, indeed, fitting that the Christian year should begin and end with the Cross, which has merited for us each of the years that it has pleased the divine goodness to grant us, and which is to appear, on the last day, in the clouds of Heaven, as the seal put on time.

We should remember that St. Andrew is the Apostle of the Cross. To St. Peter, Jesus has given firmness of faith; to St. John, warmth of love; the mission of St. Andrew is to represent the Cross of his divine Master. Now it is by these three—faith, love, and the Cross, that the Church renders Herself worthy of Her Spouse. Everything She has or is, bears this three-fold character. Hence it is that after the two Apostles just named, there is none who hold such a prominent place in the universal Liturgy as St. Andrew.

But let us read the life of this glorious fisherman of the lake of Genesareth, who was afterwards to be the successor of Christ Himself, and the companion of his brother St. Peter, on the tree of the Cross. The Church has compiled it from the ancient Acts of the martyrdom of the holy Apostle, drawn up by the priests of the Church of Patras, which was founded by the Saint. The authenticity of this venerable piece has been contested by Protestants, inasmuch as it makes mention of several things which would militate against them—including the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Holy Eucharist. Their sentiment has been adopted by several critics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. On the other hand, these Acts have been accepted by a far greater number of Catholic writers of eminence; amongst whom may be mentioned the great Baronius, Labbe, Noel Alexander, Gallandus, Lumper, Morcelli, etc. The Churches, too, of both east and west, which have inserted these Acts in their respective Offices of St. Andrew, are of some authority, as is also St. Bernard, who has made them the groundwork of his three admirable sermons on St. Andrew:

St. Andrew the Apostle, born at Bethsaida, a town of Galilee, was a brother of St. Peter, and disciple of St. John the Baptist. Having heard his master say, speaking of Christ: Behold the Lamb of God! he followed Jesus, and brought to Him his brother also. When, afterwards, he was fishing with his brother in the sea of Galilee, they were both called, before any of the other Apostles, by Our Lord, Who, passing by, said to them: Come after Me; I will make you to be fishers of men. Without delay, they left their nets and followed Him. After the Passion and Resurrection, St. Andrew went to spread the Faith of Christ in Scythia in Europe, which was the province assigned to him; then he travelled through Epirus and Thrace, and by his teaching and miracles converted innumerable souls to Christ. Afterwards, having reached Patras in Achaia, he persuaded many in that city to embrace the truth of the Gospel. Finding that the proconsul Aegeas resisted the preaching of the Gospel, he most freely upbraided him for that he, who desired to be considered as a judge of men, should be so far deceived by devils as not to acknowledge Christ to be God, the Judge of all.

Then Aegeas being angry, said: Cease to boast of this Christ, Whom such words as these kept not from being crucified by the Jews. But finding that St. Andrew continued boldly preaching that Christ had offered Himself to be crucified for the salvation of mankind, he interrupted him by an impious speech, and at length exhorted him to look to his own interest and sacrifice to the gods. St. Andrew answered him: I offer up every day to almighty God, Who is one and true, not the flesh of oxen, nor the blood of goats, but the spotless Lamb upon the altar; of Whose flesh the whole multitude of the faithful eat, and the Lamb that is sacrificed remains whole and living. Whereupon Aegeas being exceedingly angry, ordered him to be thrust into prison, whence the people would have easily freed St. Andrew, had he not himself appeased the multitude, begging of them, with most earnest entreaty, that they would not keep him from the long-desired crown of martyrdom, to which he was hastening.

Not long after this, he was brought before the tribunal; where he began to extol the mystery of the Cross, and rebuke the judge for his impiety. Aegeas, no longer able to contain himself on hearing these words, ordered him to be raised on a cross, and so to die like Christ. St. Andrew, having been brought to the place of execution, seeing the cross at some distance, began to cry out: O good cross, made beautiful by the Body of my Lord! so long desired, so anxiously sought after, and now at last ready for my soul to enjoy! take me from amidst men, and restore me to my Master; that by thee He may receive me, Who by thee redeemed me. He was therefore fastened to the cross, on which he hung alive two days, preaching without cessation the Faith of Christ: after which he passed to Him, Whose death he had so coveted. The priests and deacons of Achaia, who wrote his passion, attest that all the things which they have recorded were heard and seen by them. His relics were first translated to Constantinople under the Emperor Constantius, and afterwards to Amalfi. During the Pontificate of Pius II, the head was taken to Rome, and placed in the Basilica of St. Peter. (From Matins, The Divine Office, Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle, November 30.)

The Greek Church was as fervent as any of the Churches of the west in celebrating the prerogatives and merits of St. Andrew. He was the more dear to it, because Constantinople considered him as her patron Apostle. It would, perhaps, be difficult for the Greeks to give any solid proofs of St. Andrew’s having founded, as they pretend, the Church of Byzantium; but this is certain, that Constantinople enjoyed, for many centuries, the possession of the precious treasure of the Saint's relics. They were translated to that city in the year 357, through the interest of the Emperor Constantius, who placed them in the Basilica of the Apostles built by his father Constantine. Later on, that is, about the middle of the sixth century, Justinian caused them to be translated a second time, but only from one part of the same Basilica to another.

The Church of Constantinople was at length deprived of the precious treasure of his relics. This happened in the year 1210, when the city was taken by the crusaders. Cardinal Peter of Capua, the legate of the Holy See, translated the body of St. Andrew into the Cathedral of Amalfi, a town in the kingdom of Naples, where it remains to this day, the glorious instrument of numberless miracles, and the object of the devout veneration of the people. It is well known how, at the same period, the most precious relics of the Greek Church came, by a visible judgment of God, into the possession of the Latins. Byzantium refused to accept those terrible warnings, and continued obstinate in her schism. She was still in possession of the head of the Holy Apostle, owing, no doubt, to this circumstance, that in the several translations which had been made, it had been kept in a separate reliquary by itself. When the Byzantine empire was destroyed by the Turks, Divine Providence so arranged events, as that the Church of Rome should be enriched with the magnificent relic. In 1462, the head of St. Andrew was, therefore, brought there by the celebrated Cardinal Bessarion; and on Palm Sunday, the 12th of April, the heroic Pope Pius II went in great pomp to meet it as far as the Milvian Bridge, and then placed it in the Basilica of St. Peter, on the Vatican, near the Confession of the Prince of the Apostles. At the sight of this venerable head, Pius II was transported with a religious enthusiasm, and before taking up the glorious relic in order to carry it into Rome, he pronounced the following magnificent address, which we give as a conclusion to this account of the Liturgy of the Feast of St. Andrew.

At length thou hast arrived, O most holy and venerable head of the saintly Apostle! The fury of the Turks has driven thee from thy resting-place, and thou art come as an exile to thy brother, the Prince of the Apostles. Thy brother will not fail thee; and by the will of God, the day will come when men shall say in thy praise: O happy banishment, which caused thee to receive such a welcome! Meanwhile, here shalt thou dwell with thy brother, and share in his honors.

This is Rome, the venerable city, which was dedicated by thy brother's precious blood. The people thou seest are they whom the blessed Apostle, thy most loving brother, and St. Paul, the vessel of election, regenerated unto Christ our Lord. Thus the Romans are thy kinsmen. They venerate, and honor, and love thee as their father's brother; nay, as their second father; and are confident of thy patronage in the presence of the great God.

O most blessed Apostle Andrew! thou preacher of the truth, and defender of the dogma of the most Holy Trinity! with what joy dost thou fill us on this day, whereon it is given us to behold thy sacred and venerable head, which deserved that, on the day of Pentecost, the holy Paraclete should rest upon it in the form of fire!

O ye Christians that visit Jerusalem out of reverence for your Savior, that there you may see the places where His feet have stood; lo! here is the throne of the Holy Ghost. Here sat the Spirit of the Lord. Here was seen the Third Person of the Trinity. Here were the eyes that so often saw Jesus in the flesh. This was the mouth that so often spoke to Jesus; and on these cheeks did that same Lord doubtless impress His sacred kisses.

O wondrous sanctuary, wherein dwelt charity, and kindness, and gentleness, and spiritual consolation. Who could look upon such venerable and precious relics of the Apostle of Christ and not be moved? and not be filled with tender devotion? and not shed tears for very joy? Yea, O most admirable Apostle Andrew! we rejoice, and are glad, and exult, at this thy coming, for we doubt not that thou thyself art present here, and bearest us company as we enter with thy head into the holy city.

The Turks are indeed our enemies, as being the enemies of the Christian religion: but in that they have been the occasion of thy coming amongst us, we are grateful to them. For what greater blessing could have befallen us than that we should be permitted to see thy most sacred head, and that our Rome should be filled with its fragrance! Oh! that we could welcome thee with the honors which are due to thee, and receive thee in a way becoming thy exceeding holiness! But accept our good will, and our sincere desires to honor thee, and suffer us now to touch thy relics with our unworthy hands, and, though sinners, to accompany thee within the walls of the city.

Enter, then, the holy city, and show thy love to her people. May thy coming be a boon to Christendom. May thy entrance be peaceful, and thy abode amongst us bring happiness and prosperity. Be thou our advocate in Heaven, and, together with the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, defend this city, and protect with thy love all Christian people; that, by thy intercession, the mercy of God may be upon us; and if His indignation be enkindled against us by reason of our manifold sins, let it fall upon the impious Turks and the pagan nations that blaspheme Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thus has the glory of St. Andrew been blended in Rome with that of St. Peter. But the Apostle of the Cross, whose Feast was heretofore kept in many churches with an octave, has also been chosen as patron of one of the kingdoms of the west. Scotland, when she was a Catholic country, had put herself under his protection. May he still exercise his protection over her, and, by his prayers, hasten her return to the true Faith! (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B. The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle, November 30.)

I am not a prophet of end times or of any times and cannot explain to anyone with any kind of authority or “infallible” insight what the tragic events still unfolding in war that began thirty-three months ago when Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin undertook an invasion of  neighboring Ukraine, with which it has a long and most complex historical relationship, including the Soviet-era forced starvation of Ukrainians that killed upwards of ten million people (advising the presence of graphic images of starving human beings, see History of Ukraine: The genocide of Ukrainians by Stalin for more details).

I do know, however, that all that happens is within the Providence of God and that we must simply realm in a spirit of perfect equanimity as remain steadfast upon Our Lord, especially through her Most Holy Rosary, through these incredibly tumultuous times when neither men nor their nations are willing to submit themselves with docility to Christ the King and His true Church.

Thus, we must pray this day to Our Lady of Ukraine and to Saint Andrew, who is the patron not only of Russia and Ukraine but to all the Eastern Slavic peoples (as well as, of course, once Catholic Scotland), for the conversion of the likes of Volodymyr Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., Lloyd Austin, Anthony Blinken, Donald John Trump, James David Vance, and all the people and the nations of the world to the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order within nations or a just peace among them.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Andrew the Apostle, pray for us. 

Appendix

Archishop Jacobus de Voragine’s Account of Saint Andrew the Apostle in The Golden Legend

After the Feast of Our Lord Jesu Christ tofore set in order follow the legends of Saints, and first of Saint Andrew.

Andrew is expounded, and is as much as to say as fair, or answering unto strength, and it is said of andor, that is as much to say as strength; or Andrew is said thus, as antipos of ana, which is to say high, and of tropos which is conversion, so that Andrew is to say, a man highly converted, and in heaven addressed unto his maker. He was fair in his life, answering in wisdom and in doctrine, strong in pain and converted high in glory. The priests and deacons of Achaia wrote his passion like as they had seen it with their eyes.

Andrew and some other disciples were called three times of our Lord. He called them first in the knowledging of him, as when Saint Andrew was with John the Baptist, his master, and another disciple; he heard that John said: Lo! here the Lamb of God; and then he went anon with another disciple, and came to Jesu Christ and abode with him all that day. And then Saint Andrew found Simon, his brother, and brought him to Jesu Christ, and the next day following they went to their craft of fishing. And after this he called them the second time by the stagne of Gennesereth, which is named the sea of Galilee. He entered into the ship of Simon and of Andrew, and there was taken great multitude of fish, and he called James and John, which were in another ship, and they followed him, and after went into their proper places.

After this he called them from their fishing, and said: Come, follow me, I shall make you fishers of men. Then they left their ships and nets, and followed him, and after this they abode with him, and went no more to their own houses. And howbeit he called Andrew and some other to be apostles, of which calling, Matthew saith in the third chapter: He called to him them that he would. And after the ascension of our Lord, the apostles were departed, and Andrew preached in Scythia and Matthew in Murgondy. And the men of this country refused utterly the preaching of Saint Matthew, and drew out his eyes, and cast him in prison fast bounden. In the meanwhile an angel, sent from our Lord, and commanded him to go to Saint Matthew into Murgondy, and he answered that he knew not the way. And then the angel commanded him that he should go unto the seaside, and that be should enter into the first ship that he should find, and so he did gladly, in accomplishing the commandment, and went into the city by the leading of the angel, and had wind propitious. And when he was come he found the prison open, where Saint Matthew was in; and when he saw him he wept sore and worshipped him; and then our Lord rendered and gave again to Saint Matthew his two eyes and his sight. And then Saint Matthew departed from thence and came into Antioch, and Saint Andrew abode in Murgondy, and they of the country were wroth that Saint Matthew was so escaped. Then took they Saint Andrew and drew him through the places, his hands bounden in such wise that the blood ran out. He prayed for them to Jesu Christ, and converted them by his prayer; and from thence he came to Antioch. This that is said of the blinding of Saint Matthew, I suppose that it is not true, nor that the evangelist was not so infirm, but that he might get for his sight that Saint Andrew gat for him so lightly.

It was so that a young man came and followed Saint Andrew, against the will of all his parents; and on a time his parents set fire on the house where he was with the apostle, and when the flame surmounted right high, the child took a brush full of water and sprinkled withal the fire, and anon the fire quenched. And then his friends and parents said: Our son is made an enchanter. And as they would have gone up by the ladders, they were suddenly made blind, that they saw not the ladders, and then one of them recried and said: Wherefore enforce ye you against them? God fighteth for them and ye see it not. Cease ye and leave off, lest the ire of our Lord fall on you. Then many of them that saw this believed in our Lord, and the parents died within forty days after, and were put in one sepulchre.

There was a woman with child, joined in wedlock with a homicide who was troubled greatly upon her deliverance; and at the time of childing she might not be delivered. She bade her sister to go to Diana and pray to her that she help me. She went and prayed, and Diana said to her, which was the devil in an idol: Wherefore prayest thou to me? I may not help ne profit thee, but go unto Andrew the apostle which may help thee and thy sister. And she went to him, and brought him to her sister, which travailed in great pain, and began to perish. And the apostle said to her: By good right thou sufferest this pain; thou conceivedst in treachery and sin, and thou counselledst with the devil. Repent thee, and believe in Jesu Christ, and thou shalt be anon delivered of thy child. And when she believed and was repentant, she was delivered of her child, and the pain and sorrow passed and ceased.

An old man called Nicholas by name, went unto the apostle and said to him: Sir, I have lived fifty years, and always in lechery. And I took on a time a gospel, in praying God that he would give me from then forthon continence. But I am accustomed in this sin, and full of evil delectation, in such wise that I shall return to this sin accustomed. On a time that I was inflamed by luxury, I went to the bordel, and forgat the gospel upon me, and anon the foul woman said: Go hence thou old man, for thou art an angel of God, touch me not, nor come not near me, for I see marvel upon thee. And I was abashed of the word of the woman, and I remembered that I had the gospel upon me, wherefore I beseech thee to pray God for me and for my health. And when Saint Andrew heard this he began to weep, and prayed from tierce unto nones. And when he arose he would not eat, and said: I shall eat no meat till I know whether our Lord shall have pity of this old man. And when he had fasted five days, a voice came to Saint Andrew and said to him: Andrew, thy request is granted for the old man, for like as thou hast fasted and made thyself lean, so shall he fast and make himself lean by fastings for to be saved. And so he did, for he fasted six months to bread and water. and after that he rested in peace and good works. Then came a voice that said: I have gotten Nicholas by thy prayers whom I had lost.

A young christian man said to Saint Andrew: My mother saw that I was fair, and required me for to have to do sin with her; and when I would not consent to her in no manner, she went to the judge, and would return and lay to me the sin of so great a felony. Pray for me that I die not so untruly; for when I shall be accused I shall hold my peace and speak not one word, and have liefer to die than to defame and slander my mother so foully. Thus came he to judgment, and his mother accused him, saying that he would have defouled her. And it was asked of him oft if it was so as she said, and he answered nothing. Then said Saint Andrew to her: Thou art most cruel of all women, which for the accomplishment of thy lechery wilt make thy son to die. Then said this woman to the provost: Sir, sith that my son came, and accompanied with this man, he would have done his will with me, but I withstood him that he might not. And anon the provost and judge commanded that the son should be put in a sack anointed with glue, and thrown into the river, and Saint Andrew to be put in prison till he had advised him how he might torment him. But Saint Andrew made his prayer to God, and anon came an horrible thunder, which feared them all, and made the earth to tremble strongly and the woman was smitten with the thunder unto the death. And the other prayed the apostle that they might not perish, and he prayed for them, and the tempest ceased. Thus then the provost believed in God, and all his meiny.

After this, as the apostle was in the city of Nice, the citizens said to him that there were seven devils without the city, by the highway, which slew all them that passed forthby. And the apostle Andrew commanded them to come to him, which came in the likeness of dogs, and sith he commanded them that they should go whereas they should not grieve ne do harm to any man; and anon they vanished away. And when the people saw this they received the faith of Jesu Christ. And when the apostle came to the gate of another city there was brought out a young man dead. The apostle demanded what was befallen him, and it was told him that seven dogs came and strangled him. Then the apostle wept and said: O Lord God, I know well that these were the devils that I put out of Nice; and after said to the father of him that was dead: What wilt thou give to me if I raise him? And he said: I have nothing so dear as him, I shall give him to thee. And anon the apostle made his prayers unto almighty God, and raised him from death to life, and he went and followed him.

On a time there were forty men by number, which were coming by the sea, sailing unto the apostle, for to receive of him the doctrine of the faith. And the devil raised and moved a great storm and so horrible a torment that all they were drowned together. And when their bodies were brought tofore the apostle, he raised them from death to life anon, and there they said all that was befallen to them. And therefore it is read in an hymn that he rendered the life to young men drowned in the sea. And the blessed Saint Andrew, whilst he was in Achaia, he replenished all the country with churches and converted the people to the faith of Jesu Christ and informed the wife of AEgeas, which was provost and judge of the town, in the faith, and baptized her. And when AEgeas heard this he came into the city of Patras and constrained the christians to sacrifice. And Saint Andrew came unto him, and said: It behoveth thee which hast deserved to be a judge, to know thy judge which is in heaven, and he so known, to worship him, and so worshipping, withdraw thy courage from the false gods. And AEgeas said: Thou art Andrew that preachest a false law, which the princes of Rome have commanded to be destroyed. To whom Andrew said: The princes of Rome knew never how the son of God came and taught and informed them that the idols be devils, and he that teacheth such things angereth God, and he, so angered, departeth from them that he heareth them not, and therefore be they caitiffs of the devil and be so illused and deceived that they issue out of the body all naked, and bear nothing with them but sins.

And AEgeas said to him: These be the vanities that your Jesus preached, which was nailed on the gallows of the cross. To whom Andrew said: He received with his agreement the gibbet of the cross, not for his culp and trespass, but for our redemption. And AEgeas said: When he was delivered of his disciple, taken and holden with the Jews, and crucified by the knyghts, how sayst thou that it was by his agreement? Then Saint Andrew began to show by five reasons that Jesu Christ received death by his own agreement and will, forasmuch as he came tofore his passion, and said to his disciples that it should be, when he said: We shall go up to Jerusalem, and the son of the maid shall be betrayed. And also for that Peter would withdraw him, he reproved him, and said: Go after me, Sathanas. And also for that he showed that he had power to suffer death, and to rise again when he said: I have power to put away my soul and to take it again. And also for that he knew tofore him that betrayed him, when he gave him his supper, and showed him not. And also for that he chose the place where he should be taken, for he knew well that the traitor should come. And Saint Andrew said that he had been at all these things, and yet he said more, that the mystery of the cross was great. To whom AEgeas said: It may not be said mystery, but torment, and if thou wilt not grant to my sayings, truly I shall make thee prove this mystery. And Andrew said to him: If I doubted the gibbet of the cross I would not preach the glory thereof. I will that thou hear the mystery, and if thou knew and believedst on it thou shouldst be saved. Then he showed to him the mystery of the cross, and assigned five reasons. The first is this: Forasmuch as the first man that deserved death was because of the tree, in breaking the commandment of God, then is it thing convenable that the second man should put away that death, in suffering the same on the tree. The second was that, he that was made of earth not corrupted, and was breaker of the commandment, then was it thing convenable that he that should repel this default, should be born of a virgin. The third; for so much as Adam had stretched his hand disordinately to the fruit forbidden, it was thing convenable that the new Adam should stretch his hands on the cross. The fourth; for so much as Adam had tasted sweetly the fruit forbidden, it is therefore reason that it be put away by thing contrary; so that Jesu Christ was fed with bitter gall. The fifth; for as much as Jesu Christ gave to us his immortality, it is thing reasonable, that he take our mortality. For if Jesu Christ had not been dead, man had never been made immortal. And then said AEgeas: Tell to thy disciples such vanities, and obey thou to me, and make sacrifice unto the Gods almighty. And then said Saint Andrew: I offer every day unto God Almighty, a lamb without spot, and after that he is received of all the people, so liveth he and is all whole. Then demanded AEgeas how that might be. And Andrew said: Take the form for to be a disciple, and thou shalt know it well. I shall demand thee, said AEgeas, by torments. Then he being all angry, commanded that he should be enclosed in prison, and on the morn he came to judgment, and the blessed Saint Andrew unto the sacrifice of the idols. And AEgeas commanded to be said to him: If thou obey not to me, I shall do hang thee on the cross, for so much as thou hast praised it. And thus as he menaced him of many torments Saint Andrew said to him: Think what torment that is most grievous that thou mayst do to me, and the more I suffer, the more I shall be agreeable to my king, because I shall be most firm in the torments and pain. Then commanded AEgeas that he should be beaten of twenty-one men, and that he should be so beaten, bounden by the feet and hands unto the cross, to the end that his pain should endure the longer. And when he was led unto the cross, there ran much people thit And when he saw the cross from far he saluted it, and said: All hail cross which art dedicate in the body of Jesu Christ, and wert adorned with the members of him, as of precious stones. Tofore that our Lord ascended on thee, thou wert the power earthly, now thou art the love of heaven; thou shalt receive me by my desire. I come to thee surely and gladly so that thou receive me gladly as disciple of him that hung on thee. For I have alway worshipped thee and have desired thee to embrace. O thou cross which hast received beauty and noblesse of the members of our Lord, whom I have so long desired and curiously loved, and whom my courage hath so much desired and coveted, take me from hence, and yield me to my master, to the end that he may receive me by thee. And in thus saying, he despoiled and unclad him, and gave his clothes unto the butchers. And then they hung him on the cross, like as to them was commanded. And there he lived two days, and preached to twenty thousand men that were there. Then all the company swore the death of AEgeas, and said: The holy man and debonair ought not to suffer this. Then came thither AEgeas for to take him down off the cross. And when Andrew saw him he said: Wherefore art thou come to me, AEgeas? If it be for penance thou shalt have it, and if it be for to take me down, know thou for certain thou shalt not take me hereof alive; for I see now my lord and king that abideth for me. Therewith they would have unbound him, and they might in nowise touch him for their arms were bynomen and of no power. And when the holy Saint Andrew saw that the world would have taken him down off the cross he made this orison hanging on the cross, as Saint Austin saith in the book of penance: Sire, suffer me not to descend from this cross alive, for it is time that thou command my body to the earth, for I have born long the charge, and have so much watched upon that which was commanded to me, and have so long travailed, that I would now be delivered of this obedience, and be taken away from this agreeable charge. I remember that it is much grievous, in proud bearing, in doubting, unsteadfast in nourishing, and have gladly laboured in the refraining of them. Sire, thou knowest how oft the world hath entended to withdraw me from the purity of contemplation, how oft he hath entended to awake me from the sleep of my sweet rest, how much and how oft times he hath made me to sorrow, and as much as I have had might I have resisted it right debonairly in fighting against it, and have by thy work and aid surmounted it: and I require of thee just and debonair guerdon and reward, and that thou command that I go not again thereto, but I yield to thee that which thou hast delivered me. Command it to another and empesh me no more, but keep me in the resurrection, so that I may receive the merit of my labour. Command my body unto the earth, so that it behoveth no more to wake, but let it be stretched freely to thee, which art fountain of joy never failing. And when he had said this, there came from heaven a right great shining light, which environed him by the space of half an hour, in such wise that no man might see him. And when this light departed he yielded and rendered therewith his spirit. And Maximilla, the wife of AEgeas, took away the body of the apostle, and buried it honourably. And ere that AEgeas was come again to his house, he was ravished with a devil by the way, and died tofore them all. And it is said that out of the sepulchre of Saint Andrew cometh manna like unto meal, and oil which hath a right sweet savour and odour. And by that is shewed to the people of the country when there shall be plenty of goods. For when ther cometh but little of manna, the earth shall bring forth but little fruit, and when it cometh abundantly, the earth bringeth forth fruit plenteously. And this might well happen of old time, for the body of him was transported into Constantinople.

There was a bishop that led an holy and religious life, and loved Saint Andrew by great devotion, and worshipped him above all other saints, so that in all his works he remembered him every day, and said certain prayers in the honour of God and Saint Andrew, in such wise that the enemy had envy on him, and set him for to deceive him with all his malice, and transformed him into the form of a right fair woman, and came to the palace of the bishop, and said that she would be confessed to him. And the bishop bade her to go confess her to his penitencer, which had plain power of him. And she sent him word again that she would not reveal nor show the secrets of her confession to none but to him, and so the bishop commanded her to come; and she said to him: Sir, I pray thee that thou have mercy on me; I am so as ye see in the years of my youth, and a maid, and was deliciously nourished from my infancy, and born of royal lineage, but I am come alone, in a strange habit; for my father which is a right mighty king would give me to a prince by marriage; whereto I answer that I have horror of all beds of marriage, and I have given my virginity to Jesu Christ for ever, and therefore I may not consent to carnal copulation. And in the end he constrained me so much that I must consent to his will or suffer divers torments; so that I am fled secretly away, and had liefer be in exile, than to break and corrupt my faith to my spouse. And because I hear the praising of your right holy life, I am fled unto you and to your guard, in hope that I may find with you place of rest, whereas I may be secret in contemplation, and eschew the evil perils of this present life, and flee the diverse tribulations of the world. Of which thing the bishop marvelled him greatly, as well for the great noblesse of her lineage, as for the beauty of her body, for the burning of the great love of God, and for the honest fair speaking of this woman. So that the bishop answered to her, with a meek and pleasant voice: Daughter, be sure and doubt nothing; for he for whose love thou hast despised thyself and these things, shall give to thee the great thing. In this time present is little glory or joy, but it shall be in time to come. And I which am sergeant of the same, offer me to thee, and my goods; and choose thee an house where it shall please thee, and I will that thou dine with me this day. And she answered and said: Father, require of me no such thing, for by adventure some evil suspicion might come thereof. And also the resplendour of your good renomee might be thereby impaired. To whom the bishop answered: We shall be many together, and I shall not be with you alone, and therefore there may be no suspicion of evil. Then they came to the table, and were set, that one against that other, and the other folk here and there, and the bishop entendeth much to her, and beheld her alway in the visage, and he marvelled of her great beauty. And thus as he fixed his eyes on her his courage was hurt, and the ancient enemy, when he saw the heart of him, hurt with a grievous dart. And this devil apperceived it and began to increase her beauty more and more; insomuch that the bishop was then ready for to require her to sin when he might.

Then a pilgrim came and began to smite strongly at the gate or door, and they would not open it. Then he cried and knocked more strongly; and the bishop asked of the woman if she would that the pilgrim should enter. And she said; Men should ask first of him a question, grievous enough, and if he could answer thereto, he should be received, and if he could not, he should abide without, and not come in, as he that were not worthy but unwitting. And all agreed to her sentence, and enquired which of them were sufficient to put the question. And when none was found sufficient, the bishop said: None of us is so sufficient as ye, dame, for ye pass us all in fair speaking, and shine in wisdom more than we all; propose ye the question. Then she said: Demand ye of him, which is the greatest marvel that ever God made in little space. And then one went and demanded the pilgrim. The pilgrim answered to the messenger that it was the diversity and excellence of the faces of men: for among all so many men as have been sith the beginning of the world unto the end, two men might not be found of whom their faces were like and semblable in all things. And when the answer was heard, all they marvelled and said that this was a very and right good answer of the question. Then the woman said: Let the second question be proposed to him, which shall be more grievous to answer to, for to prove the better the wisdom of him, which was this: Whether the earth is higher than all the heaven? And when it was demanded of him the pilgrim answered: In the heaven imperial where the body of Jesu Christ is, which is form of our flesh, he is more high than all the heaven. Of this answer they marvelled all when the messenger reported it, and praised marvellously his wisdom. Consequently she said the third question, which was more dark and grievous to assoil. For to prove the third time his wisdom, and that then he be worthy to be received at the bishop’s table, demand and ask of him; How much space is from the abysm unto the same heaven. Then the messenger demanded of the pilgrim, and he answered him: Go to him that sent thee to me and ask of him this thing, for he knoweth better than I, and can better answer to it, for he hath measured this space when he fell from heaven into the abysm, and I never measured it. This is nothing a woman but it is a devil which hath taken the form of a woman. And when the messenger heard this, he was sore afraid and told tofore them all this that he had heard. And when the bishop heard this and all other, they were sore afraid. And anon forthwith, the devil vanished away tofore their eyes.

And after, the bishop came again to himself, and reproved himself bitterly, weeping, repenting and requiring pardon of his sin, and sent a messenger for to fetch and bring in the pilgrim, but he found him never after. Then the bishop assembled the people, and told to them the manner of this thing, and prayed them that they would all be in orisons and prayers, in such wise that our lord would show to some person who this pilgrim was which had delivered him from so great peril. And then it was showed that night to the bishop that it was Saint Andrew which had put him in the habit of a pilgrim for the deliverance of him. Then began the bishop more and more to have devotion and remembrance to Saint Andrew than he had tofore.

The provost of a city had taken away a field from the church of Saint Andrew, and by the prayer of the bishop he was fallen into a strong fever. And then he prayed the bishop that he would pray for him, and he would again yield the field. And when the bishop had prayed for him, and he had his health, he took the field again. Then the bishop put himself to prayer and orisons, and brake all the lamps of the church, and said: There shall none of them be lighted till that our Lord hath venged him on his enemy, and that the church have recovered that which she hath lost. And then the provost was strongly tormented with fevers, and sent to the bishop by messengers that he should pray for him, and he would yield again his field and another semblable. Then the bishop answered: I have heretofore prayed for him, and God heard and granted my prayer, and when he was whole, he took from me again the field. And then the provost made him to be borne to the bishop, and constrained him for to enter into the church for to pray. And the bishop entered into the church, and anon the provost died, and the field was re-established unto the church. Et sic est finis.