Fatherlessness

All Russian television channels unanimously refused to broadcast the Pope's address to Russian Catholics. The press services of ORT and RTR commented on the situation in the same terms: Russia is not the canonical territory of the Vatican, we broadcast only addresses of the Patriarch. The management of the channels also referred to a statement that had appeared in advance by prominent spiritual leaders of Russia, who were terribly concerned about the expansion of the Vatican.
Who are these spiritual leaders who lied about the Pope? It’s interesting, by the way, who they lied to: the Pope is not accountable to the Patriarch, Putin also seems to have not yet decree him... Above the Pope there is only God: it turns out that Russian cultural figures turn to him. A mass appeal to God is always pleasant, especially when those praying had not previously been noticed in religious feelings: Lyudmila Zykina, who signed this appeal, was the favorite singer of Khrushchev and Brezhnev. Mikhail Ulyanov became famous for playing the role of Lenin, the main atheist in Russian history. Vasily Lanovoi, the star of the film “Officers,” appears to me against the backdrop of a red velvet curtain: it is he who opens the concert dedicated to the 25th Congress of the CPSU with “Poems about the Soviet Passport.” All these, no doubt, wonderful people lived an equally wonderful life under Soviet rule - and suddenly became concerned about the problem of canonical territories; Well, what a beauty this is! As a result, all Russian television channels as one were deprived of a truly uplifting spectacle: John Paul II will not say anything bad... “For Russia, a country with an ancient Christian culture, the very presence of Catholic missionaries is offensive,” the letter says. Eva how!
I don’t think that the Pope’s visit undermined faith in Allah and respect for Mohammed in the Islamic states he visited. I cannot imagine that the Ukrainian Orthodox suffered from his arrival in Ukraine. For a quarter of a century, John Paul II has been calling on Christians all over the Earth for tolerance and unity - in no way to the detriment of the national independence and traditional religion of each people. The Russian President has already noted that his visit to Russia would be desirable. But then a scythe struck a stone: the Moscow Patriarchate does not want to accept the pope. Probably not because he threatens the authority of Orthodoxy: there are ours in the Vatican, and nothing - Catholicism has not collapsed... The reason, probably, is that after the sermon of John Paul II, always original in thought, clear in form and deeply human in its basic pathos, comparison with some Orthodox clergy may not be in their favor... And they do, admittedly, not enough - especially if you remember the travel schedule of the elderly and sick John Paul II.
Well, thanks to our Orthodox channels. Instead of the Pope, we will see Zykina, Ulyanov and Lanovoy. As is the pop, so is the arrival.
Dmitry Bykov.