At this morning’s Liturgy at the historic Kiev Caves, His Beatitude, Onuphriy, Metropolitan of Kiev and All-Ukraine, commemorated His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of All-Russia (as is customary).
What is not customary is that he also commemorated all of the primates of the other autocephalous Churches (excluding the primates who recognize Epiphany). This is the prerogative of the Primates of autocephalous Churches only.
Metropolitan Onuphriy is the primate of an autonomous Church. In commemorating all other primates, His Beatitude has declared autocephaly for the eparchy of Kiev, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Given the current hostilities between Ukraine and Russia, one could be forgiven for thinking that this action was inevitable. Indeed, one would expect outright schism between Kiev and Moscow. This, however, has not happened yet. https://orthochristian.com/146428.html
Again, Onuphriy commemorated Kirill, as a brother primate, and the primates who are in communion with Patriarch Kirill as brothers as well. Conspicuously absent from the liturgical commemoration were the Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Athens, and Cyprus.
Interestingly, although the OCA has expressed concern over Russia’s involvement in Ukraine, it has never refrained from honoring Onuphriy as the canonical head of the Ukrainian Church. It continues to do so.
If you go to the video below, you will see at 1:16:25, the deacon commemorating the “Orthodox patriarchs, followed by Metropolitan Onuphriy.”
If you go to 1:31:25, Onuphriy reads the names of the Orthodox primates with whom he is in communion during the Great Entrance. Again, the prerogative of the primatial head of an autocephalous Church. https://youtu.be/MtlLNJn_4c
Any way you cut it, announcing autocephaly is a declaration of independence.
Moscow is refraining from comment for the moment. Instead, it is awaiting “an official communication from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.” (https://orthochristian.com/146422.)
The Ukrainians for their part are not acting precipitously. In the communique from their most recent synodal meeting on Friday, they resolved that “it’s fundamentally important that this process [independence] takes place without violating Church order. . .The discussion on this or that issue should not lead to going beyond the canonical field and should not lead to new divisions in the Church of Christ.” [Emphasis added.]
In our opinion, there are several things going on here –all to the detriment of Istanbul:
- Onuphriy has declared himself to be the primate of the only, real autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), permanently planting it in Ukraine, and doing so ina way that will hopefully avoid schism with Moscow.
- Onuphriy’s decision may have be done in concert with the support of Patriarch Kirill. It should be noted that Metropolitan Onuphriy has been styled as “His Beatitude” for several years now. This honorific is applied only to the primates of autocephalous Churches, particularly those that are presided over by Archbishops or Metropolitans, e.g. Albania, Cyprus, Greece, etc. (Patriarchs on the other hand are usually granted the honorific as “His Holiness”.) Kirill, for his part, has never taken offense at Onuphriy’s title.
- Onuphriy is laying down markers against the schismatics in Ukraine, specifically Demenko, Maletych, and of course, the ever-problematic Denisenko. This declaration solidifies his place as the legitimate, canonical Metropolitan of Kiev and All-Ukraine, throwing down the gauntlet to the four local Churches, i.e. Greece, Cyprus, Alexandria, and Constantinople, who supported the OCU. He is also letting the Ukrainian government know that it will need his offices in the future, as he is the only Ukrainian hierarch that has the moral stature to heal their wounded land.
- Onuphriy is announcing to the Orthodox world that, the schism that Bartholomew initiated in Ukraine will continue without his support, making Bartholomew’s (and the State Department’s) position in Ukraine untenable, as well as giving Bartholomew the chance to “revisit” his handiwork in Ukraine.
What His Beatitude has done is two things: first, he has seized the initiative and overturned the status quo, and second, he has subtly created what is called in diplomatic circles an “exit ramp.” By this, I mean a road that will allow the Church of Greece a way in which they could “climb down” from their hasty –not to mention canonically messy–recognition of Dumenko’s sect.
Even though Prime Minister Mitsotakis is firmly on board as a puppet of the State Department, the Greek shipping owners, the oligarchs who actually run Greece, have let it be known that they will ignore any and all sanctions against Russian oil shipments. Thanks to these restrictions the premium for Russian oil (and thus shipping) has risen significantly and the Greeks are getting ready to make out like bandits.
As for Alexandria and Cyprus, other off-ramps exist. Whether they will take them remains to be seen. As for myself, I can’t imagine that Istanbul will do the sensible thing given their slavish attitude towards Foggy Bottom. On the other hand, even here anything is possible: Erdogan has proven himself to be a firm anchor of support for Russia during the entire Ukrainian war. As such, he could apply the necessary pressure to the Phanar if he felt it was in his interests.
Time is on the side of the Russians. It should be noted at present that those areas which Russia has seized in the South and East of Ukraine are not going to be given back. Unlike we Americans, the Russians don’t waste their blood and treasure on foolish adventures and then squander their hard-fought gains on the battlefield.
Along with the autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphriy, a rump Ukrainian state headed by Kiev, will remain. How big (or small) the future Ukrainian state is to be, will be decided at the negotiating table. As for whether the contours of the newly-declared autocephalous Church in Ukraine will be coterminous with the future Ukrainian polity remains an open question.*
What will not exist (or possess any legitimacy) will be the spurious, uncanonical sect created by the American State Department and its minions in Istanbul. As to the continued utility of Patriarch Bartholomew to the Globalists, one can only speculate.
*If anybody has any information regarding the number of churches and monasteries that exist within the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine at present, we would certainly appreciate it.
It will not be apparent to me that the UOC has claimed autocephaly until it claims autocephaly. If Met. Onuphry has been addressed before as “His Beatitude”, it may make more sense to look at his recitation of those local churches with which he is in communion as just that, not a claim of autocephaly but an assurance that the UOC will not cross the line of excommunication established by the ROC regarding Constantinople and its satellites.
Now, the Russians recognized out of their latest synod that the UOC is under severe pressure and thus they will review things in light of canon law and their arrangement of autonomy. But they have received no request from the UOC for autocephaly at this point.
It may be that Russia may grant autocephaly to the UOC and this may be the UOC’s initial step in requesting this status. And this might help the UOC given its persecution by the Kiev regime and the OCU. But it might not. Even autocephaly, while retaining intercommunion with Moscow, may not be acceptable to the nationalists. After all, they already have their own Ukron-zi church.
Anyway, the UOC is not autocephalous until the MP says it is or, alternatively, unless the MP falls into heresy and thus leaves the Church (which is, in reality, how Moscow received its autocephaly as a result of the apostasy of Constantinople).
The areas controlled by the RF now roughly approximate to the areas ceded to Ukraine in 1922, as seen on the map in the previous post. Looks like Russia will at least add Kharkov, Mykolaiv, and Odessa to what it already holds and annex them to its territory. Maybe more, too.
Several local jurisdictions in Ukraine have banned the canonical Church over accusations that it is controlled by Moscow. My guess is that this is a way to distance itself from Moscow for its own self-preservation. It could also be trying to give a compromise to the solution, that there will be Ukrainian independence but only on canonical norms. Then the various Churches will have to pick which Ukrainian sect they believe is most canonical instead of choosing the EP or the MP. If they pick the schismatic sect, they will effectively admit to EP supremacy, which effectively admits to papal supremacy, since all the canons put Old Rome before New Rome.
That’s my guess. I don’t think it’s a huge scandal, and I don’t think that Moscow will make a big deal out of it. The Ukrainian Church is functionally autocephalous anyway.
Patriarch Kirill replied:
“We fully understand how the UOC is suffering today. We understand that His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry and the episcopate must act as wisely as possible today not to complicate the life of their faithful people,” https://spzh.news/en/news/88727-patriarkh-kirill-prokommentiroval-situaciju-v-upc
This is definitely not an easy situation to deal with. Since the Russian army is not likely to obtain control over all of Ukraine (because that is not its primary military objective), it is leaving exposed many Ukrainian Orthodox churches such as the Kiev Caves and Pochaev monasteries as a ripe target for schismatics and persecution. Already Dumenko’s people have repeated Filaret’s age old demands to cede part of the Kiev Caves monastery to them, and they are filing an official petition.
Let’s also note, by the way, that Met. Onufri never used the “A” word: autocephaly. Two reasons: he would have to officially ask Moscow for it, something that won’t go down well, or he would have to go outside of Moscow, and that means outside of Bartholomew (who would simply say: “I already took care of that for you, give them a call they’re waiting”), they really have no choice.
It’s a very difficult position to be in, because if the Russians went “shock and awe” into this, they would already have Kiev and even Pochaev, but it would have a very high human casualty count and that’s exactly what the Kremlin does NOT want (contrary to what western journalists want you to believe). The complex nature of this war is forcing very difficult diplomacy on the church level. We’ll see how this ends up, too early to know but it could ultimately end up creating more resolution in the future. We shall see.
For those interested, here is the litany of primates which Onuphriy mentioned today at the Great Entrance:
“Most holy Orthodox Patriarchs: John of Antioch, Theophilos of Jerusalem, Kirill of Moscow and All-Russia, Ilia of Georgia, Porfirije of Serbia, Daniel of Romania, Neophyte of Bulgaria; Beatitude Archbishops an Bishops: Anastasius of Albania, Savva of Poland, Rostislav of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, Tikhon of America and Canada…may the Lord God remember in His Kingdom always, now and ever and unto ages of ages.”
Well, it looks like John X of Antioch got bumped up to first place and the OCA moved up a notch as well (i.e. ahead of Ukraine).
As noted, conspicuous in their absence were Cpole, Alexandria, Cyprus and Greece. I just have this gut feeling that Cyprus and Greece are not going to like being on the outside looking in. I’m also sure that given the fact that Cpole won’t see the light, Alexandria will find a way to “solve” the Russian Exarchate “problem” in Africa real soon. If for no other reason than to move to the head of the Diptychs.
Now, it’s up to Met Tikhon and the OCA synod to decide how they’re going to handle the sticky wicket that is the GOA, given that our autocephaly is now more firmly recognized by several of the remaining local Churches.
What Onuphriy has done, has made his Jurisdiction uncanonical. Unless Moscow accepts this unilateral declaration of Autocephaly, there is now NO canonical church in Ukraine.
No, he hasn’t.
Easy there, fella. Even the Patriarchate in Moscow hasn’t expressed any serious concern for what just happened in Kiev.
Nicholas, you’re at least right about the UOC no longer having any canonical basis as of May 27. By changing their charter to no longer require Moscow’s approval of their elected head, the UOC has self-proclaimed their autocephaly. They have essentially become a second “Kievan Patriarchate”, and the U.S. support of the ongoing war in Ukraine can probably be blamed for this fissure in the Orthodox Church. Perhaps we can even credit the fact Democrats are being distracted away from criticizing this war by domestic squabbles over “abortion rights”.
Moscow hasn’t announced it as schism yet, but that will likely come. The clue here is that Moscow only is making statements about the reaffirmation of the 1990 tomos of autonomy, and nothing about a readiness to grant autocephaly. Moscow is trying to pretend that nothing has changed. Yet even if autocephaly were granted, there will almost certainly be a split in the UOC by breakaway pro-Russian bishops.
Nevertheless, I would hope that you and others will soon recognize, that by God’s providence, there still is a canonical Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Correction, the UOC has become the only “Kievan Patriarchate,” as they’re the only one recognized as canonical and I would argue it was the U.S.’s support of Bartholomew’s imperialist intentions that led to the war.
For Moscow, nothing has changed. For years now, they have been out of communion with Bartholomew. They haven’t acknowledged Bartholomew as anything other than a schismatic for founding the OCU in Ukraine, courtesy of an oligarch who wanted to win an election and the U.S. State Department wanting to move into the territory.
There are always “break-away” clergy who leave the Church because they’ve been deposed, defrocked, laicized, or identify more with a political faction than with the actual Church.
They go to a church but they don’t think they need the canonical part so the fact that the greater Church won’t commune with them doesn’t seem to bother them.
I’m sure it bothers Bartholomew, though. It never occurred to him that he would be shut out, even though each of his brother bishops warned him not to bring in the OCU.
It’s going to be an embarrassment for him when reporters start breaking down his true role outside the Church and that he doesn’t speak for anyone, except for the <25% who will still commune with him outside the Church.
As I understand it, though the UOC chose autonomy
(specifically on on the broad terms offered by Moscow),
autocephaly was always on offer if they wanted it.
Well, now they feel they need it it (simply to survive?)
in today’s toxic Phanariot/OCU/State Department climate.
Perhaps by seeming to ‘assert’ it rather than ‘apply’ for it,
they can get the politicians and State Dept off their back;
and, after a decent interval, Moscow can regularise a ‘fait accompli’.
Perhaps the Ohrid/MOC autocephaly supplied the idea for this…
Given that the ROC has not excommunicated the UOC, there are only two possibilities. One is that the UOC did not declare autocephaly and nothing of substance has changed. If anyone can point me to an explicit declaration of “autocephaly” then I will stand corrected but at this moment this seems the most likely case. The other is that the UOC did somehow claim autocephaly without explicitly doing so and the ROC has accepted this by acquiescence. In neither case is the UOC uncanonical. They have apostolic succession and remain in good standing with their mother church. And they have not called their canonical status into question by intercommunion with schismatics.
It’s anyone’s guess for how long the ROC will keep pretending that nothing has happened. However, we can see that the Rovenky Diocese of Lugansk has already stopped commemorating Metropolitan Onuphry:
https://orthochristian.com/146480.html
George has pointed out (in the headline story of this thread) that Moscow is still waiting for an official communication from the UOC Council. For how much longer will the ROC “wait” by their mailbox, blaming the slowness of the mail to the “military operation”, “Covid”, a dearth of postal employees, etc.?
Rather, it appears that nothing was actually sent, and there’s probably no plans to send anything either. Moscow could be “waiting” for quite a while.
I wouldn’t put too much stock in the word “waiting.” We don’t know what Russia is doing. All we know is Metropolitan Onuphry went through the diptychs as a primate would do. It’s unreasonable to cast dispersions on Metropolitan Onuphry. He has a reputation for being by the book. I’m sure Bartholomew is kicking up some dirt and Russia’s moving through this canonically and methodically.
It is not Moscow that is pretending that nothing has happened, it is the UOC. All they had to do to dispel all doubt was to use the word “autocephaly” and make a formal request for such from the MP. This is not the MP’s problem; it is the self-created problem of the UOC. Though I have great respect for Met. Onuphry, he screwed the pooch in this instance. There is no question of the canonical status of the UOC. However, there is a question as to what its status within the Church is due specifically to the ambiguous nature of the UOC synodal decisions.
There is no intermediate state between autonomous and autocephalous. That is the fallacy behind both the tomoses of the OCU and the OCA. The first was granted an “autocephaly” under the omophorion of Constantinople (an oxymoron) the second was granted an “autocephaly” with no exclusive canonical jurisdiction (another oxymoron).
It’s a tempest in a teapot, the product of timid indecision. In the immortal words of St. Yoda the Green: “Either do, or do not. There is no ‘try‘.”
Joseph, I suspect Moscow is not:
“pretending nothing has happened”.
Instead I think Moscow will not be rushed into over-hasty reaction,
any more than it was when the Phanar set up the schismatic OCU.
Well, fie on the Rovensky Diocese! If they want to commune with graceless schismatics, they are more than welcome to do so.
They haven’t switched to OCU, but to only commemorating Patriarch Kyrill. They are in Lugansk and disagree with the UOC’s decision.
Misha, you are closer to the truth than my own assessment. As it was explained to Gail and me yesterday, the UOC under Met Onuphriy has “maximal autonomy.”
Admittedly, the recitation of the diptychs by a primatial metropolitan/archbishop at the Great Entrance is the prerogative of an autocephalous primate, and what Onuphriy did was “irregular,” it was, all things being equal, not the end of the world.
You are right: neither Onuphriy nor any of the other bishops of the UOC have declared autocephaly –in word or in deed–but this was the declaration of a future intent at the very least.
At any rate, it warmed my heart to see that Onuphriy did not mention Bartholomew; mainly because he is the author of his nation’s misfortune.
Yes, George. Maximal autonomy sounds right at this juncture. I’d even say that the UOC is being purposefully ambiguous and Moscow is playing along. At this point, that is wiser than simply requesting and/or granting autocephaly. Though I believe that simply letting sleeping dogs lie would have been better.
The bottom line is that no one knows what Ukraine is going to look like in six months. I think the Russians will take Kharkov and Sumy, don’t know about Kiev. They will expand to the southwest through Odessa, probably to Transnistria. I’m sure the east and south are lost to Ukraine. And there are bishops in these regions who reject any change at all in the status quo.
You are right too about not mentioning Bartholomew. Personally, I think the ROC and UOC-MP should simply lose his number. No reason to beat a dead horse. If the Phanar returns to sanity, glory to God. If not, no reason to argue with the devil.
Agreed. As more hierarchs distance themselves from Bartholomew maybe he will realize he has totally screwed up.
I also like how the UOC in their recent synod made sure to highlight the “talking terms” regarding the OCU, with one of the main points being that the OCU doesn’t actually have that much autonomy/autocephaly, especially compared to the UOC. I’m pretty sure the OCU has also previously mentioned this. I’m sure that will cause them to think and the rails will eventually come off. The more doubt they have, the better
Much like the Dems couldn’t keep control or Antifa, Bartholomew is not going to be able to keep the OCU on track.
Militarily speaking, I don’t think that Kiev is a target. However, if things continue to collapse for St Zelensky and if this collapse accelerates, then all bets are off.
I agree, Nikolayev, Odessa are going to be Russia, so Ukraine will be a land-locked country.
I can’t help but shake the feeling that the Poles will take Galicia. Perhaps Lviv will be the capital of the rump Ukrainian state if Kiev falls. As far as I’m concerned, let the Poles have it.
Lvov will be stuffed with Nazis,
Nazis who are armed to the teeth,
Nazis who like Poles about as much as they like Russians.
Does Poland really want it?
Perhaps its a Catholic guilt thing…
Canons exist as they are applied, they are not self-executing. The UOC may be autocephalous in its own eyes, but if Moscow and the other churches continue to treat them as an autonomous part of the Russian Church, and communion is maintained, there is no problem.
“Given the current hostilities between Ukraine and Russia…
one would expect outright schism between Kiev and Moscow.”
Separation through autocephaly for the UOC, perhaps.
But outright schism? Surely not…
I stand corrected.
God can make lemonade when we stupid humans give lemons.
If this war brings out another autocephalous church in our Orthodox communion under the omophor of the saintly Metropolitan Onuphriy, I say all the better. Why not?
The only reason that the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church has not been autocephalous prior to now is that they never requested it.
It’s a boon all around — an autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the omophor of a likely living Saint, further marginalization of the silly fake church created by Istanbul and our U.S. State Department, Clinton/Pompeo/the neocons eat crow, Denisenko is further proven to be a charlatan, etc etc. What’s not to like?
Patriarch Kyrill may be everyone’s favorite church hierarch to ridicule these days, but he is no dummy. He knows the saintliness of Met. Onuphriy and, as George highlighted above, even said that “We fully understand how the UOC is suffering today. We understand that His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry and the episcopate must act as wisely as possible today not to complicate the life of their faithful people.”
The CNN caricatures of Patriarch Kyrill are ludicrous. All indications demonstrate that he is a good man, a good hierarch, who loves and works to protect the flock entrusted to him. If the Ukrainian flock would be better served under an autocephalous model, then so be it. It’s not all about power as our ridiculous media loves to portray it.
Called it. As per the directives of several Ukrainian dioceses, the situation is rather fluid:
https://orthochristian.com/146444.html
In other words, when this thing is over, several dioceses will no longer be under the UOC but directly under Moscow. As opposed to now, where all of Ukraine as a discreet eparchy is under Moscow.
It will be interesting to see what the UOC headed by Met. Onuphry will do with the OCU and how the OCU responds. If God has permitted this so that apostolic succession can be restored then thanks be to God. Much like we have seen a huge surge in converts post-Covid, God can make anything possible out of a mess.
I too, pray for the restoration of the OCU. They must first repent and then receive valid ordinations.
Amen, George…amen!
It is a destabilizing state of affairs. The UOC synod should have either sustained the status quo or applied to the MP for autocephaly. “The only thing in the middle of the road is a yellow streak and a dead dog.” The notion seems to have been to appropriate something akin to autocephaly-lite without saying the word in order to fool the schismatic OCU and government into believing there was some break with Moscow afoot.
But a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. They risk alienating everyone and satisfying no one.
This is not middle of the road. No, the UOC has actually claimed technical autocephaly as of May 27.
Any newly elected Metropolitan of Kiev of the UOC no longer has to receive approval from Moscow. That clause was omitted from their new charter. So by actual definition, this is a self-proclaimed autocephaly as opposed to the broad autonomy of the former UOC-MP.
Basically, the UOC under Metropolitan Onuphry has now become a second version of the “Kievan Patriarchate”. Read about it here:
https://lb.ua/news/2022/05/29/518315_in_middle_nowhere_upts_mp.html
Moscow is currently playing a “let’s pretend” game of denial by saying that Patriarch Alexei’s 1990 tomos of autonomy is only being reaffirmed, but that’s simply not true. As of May 27, the original 1990 tomos has been rejected by the UOC. This will become increasingly clear in the coming days or weeks.
Very strange to claim autocephaly without claiming “autocephaly” (i.e., by name).
This is middle of the road and an uncanonical mess caused by extortion by OCU sect and anti russian hysteria caused by Ukrainian government. Can not be autocephaly because no Church would accept this. Even Bartholomew :))
But there is also an option in the end that those uncanonical changes can be arbitrarily used by Bishops. An this will determine things after division of Ukraine, or whatever is left from Ukraine.
https://spzh.news/en/zashhita-very/88740-reshenija-sobora-upc-raskol-ili-net
Forced independence of the dioceses
“For the period of martial law, when the relations between the eparchies and the Church governing centre are complicated or absent, the Council considers it appropriate to empower eparchial bishops to make independent decisions on various issues of eparchial life, which fall within the competence of the Holy Synod or the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, followed by informing the clergy if possible.”
It is no coincidence that we placed this point of the Statute last. Of course, it is intended to address a whole range of issues in the life of the dioceses, which are outside Ukrainian control and with which communication during the war is difficult or impossible. These include staff issues, the opening of monasteries, the establishment of educational institutions and so on. But there is another one, and it is probably the main one right now.
Such dioceses have the right to be guided in their work by the former Statute of the UOC. Donetsk, Simferopol and Crimean dioceses of the UOC have already announced that they intend to exercise this right.
I think this is closer to the truth.
This video is gone, is there another copy somewhere?
I’ve been very grateful for this blog post and the comments, because I’m having a Dickens of a time figuring all this out. I still don’t understand it and am looking forward to ongoing posts and comments unraveling this situation.
Thank you, Christine. Gail and I will continue to do our dead-level best.
https://spzh.news/en/zashhita-very/88740-reshenija-sobora-upc-raskol-ili-net
Allow me to suggest another possibility here. It is possible to look at the recent decisions of the UOC as, effectively, a dissolution of their synod. The independence granted to bishops to abide by either the new quasi-autocephaly or the old tomos of autonomy from Patriarch Alexi (1990) is having the effect of allowing dioceses to go their separate ways. This is what you would expect in the event of the political dissolution of the Ukraine.
Along the lines of which way the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church is going to go, watch this short, five minute video about Mariupol and its revitalization by the Russians:
https://youtu.be/-kFGB6DqzrY
One thing for sure, these people ain’t going back under Kievan rule. I’d say the same thing for the rest of the lands conquered/liberated by the Russians.
That may be a reason why Metropolitan Onuphriy didn’t ask for outright autocephaly. He sees which way the wind is blowing (even if the collective West can’t).
I can’t help but think that the Russian government planned the timing of this operation perfectly – we’ve had almost 100 days of slow, grinding warfare through the muddy season, and it looks like the UAF are going to collapse in Donbass any week now. Once that happens, the Russian army is going to have several months of warm, dry summer weather for high-speed offensives, and absolutely no Ukrainian defenses between them and Poland. Summer blitzkreig?
Entirely possible.
Goodbye, Harry Lime:
The Old Vienna and the New Europe
By Batiushka for the Saker Blog
” The Old Vienna
… In history the city is where the Congress of Vienna took place in 1814–1815. This was an international diplomatic conference called to reconstitute the European political order after the downfall of Napoleon, the product of the French Revolution. Dominated by Russia, Prussia, Britain, Austria and France, it was a turning point – the first genuine attempt to forge an international order, to frame a ‘Concert of Europe’, and to bring long-term peace to a troubled Continent. Whatever the shortcomings and criticisms of that Congress, it did create relative peace in Europe for a century. Since then we have only had war. …
The Third Man
Vienna was also the city in the 1949 film, The Third Man, reckoned by many to be among the ten greatest films ever made. It portrays a post-war, black-market, out-of-joint Vienna where the mood is cold, dark and hungry. It tells the story of an American racketeer, Harry Lime, who was ‘about the worst racketeer that ever made a dirty living in this city’, responsible for the deaths and insanity of hundreds, including many children, through his cynical and amoral greed …
Lime is ‘the third man’, who grins cynically from out of the shadows. Trying to escape from the sewers, where, symbolically, he has sought refuge, Lime ends up being killed by his onetime friend, Holly Martins, a regular, good-hearted, but, as is so often the case, very naïve, American. And here we are now, 73 years on, not in Vienna, but on the world stage, once more facing cold, dark and hunger, racketeered by the third man global elite, headquartered in the sewers of the USA, who grin cynically from out of the shadows.
Like Lime, the global elite also want Europeans (and indeed the whole world) to sell their souls to them, in exchange for heat, light and food. Otherwise, Europe will suffer cold, dark and hunger. But Europe is already suffering from cold, dark and hunger and some Europeans at least understand that it does not need to sell its soul for heat, light and food. There is an alternative to the racketeering American gangster, Harry Lime. It can keep its soul if it wants.
Cold, Dark and Hunger
Thanks to the third man who imposed ‘anti-Russian’ sanctions on Europe, the prices of oil and gas in Europe have rocketed, often more than doubling. There will be cold for many in Europe from this autumn onwards. However, the third man is also post-modern man, who believes in nothing, except the cold of cynicism. Europe is starting to feel the cold, not just physically, but also in its soul, and that is the beginning of an emptiness which ruins human lives and ends them prematurely.
Thanks to the third man who imposed ‘anti-Russian’ sanctions on Europe, the lights will be going off in Europe. There will be darkness for many in Europe from this autumn onwards. However, the third man is also the man of darkness of the spirit, who does not know so many basic things, for example that injustice and greed are wrong, that mothers are not economic units, but the most important people in the world, and that what goes round comes round.
Thanks to the third man who imposed ‘anti-Russian’ sanctions on Europe and had the wheat blockaded in Black Sea ports by American-backed Ukrainian separatists. There will be hunger for many in Europe from this autumn onwards. However, the third man is also the man of hunger, who does not know that human-beings cannot live by bread alone …
The New Europe
Once the third man-racketeer Harry Lime has been killed, perhaps necessarily by a new Holly Martins, this whole American Nazi/NATO/EU nightmare of the present ‘Ukraine’ will end. The New Ukraine will be a small country of some fifteen million people and Europe will at last understand its century-old delusions.
Then Europe will need a Second Congress of Vienna. …
Once Harry Lime is dead, we shall tell Holly Martins to return to the USA. Now with some experience of the real world, he may be able to start sorting out some of the massive problems and iniquities there. And we might well repeat these words from The Third Man to that naïve and blundering American:
‘Stop behaving like a fool…Go home, Martins, like a sensible chap, you don’t know what you’re mixing in. Get the next plane’. ”
Can Life learn from Art?
Having read a few posts by “Batiushka” on The Saker… does anyone agree with me that it reads just like the former Archpriest Andrew Philips of Orthodox England fame?
Interesting thought.
The use of language points to the author being a native
speaker – and specifically an educated Englishman.
The delight in speculative geopolitical rearrangement
is one of the highlights of the Orthodox England site.
I think you might be right.
PS: I forgot to include the weblink to the Batiushka post. Here it is:
https://thesaker.is/goodbye-harry-lime-the-old-vienna-and-the-new-europe/