By Ralph Benko

Metropolitan Peter, Patron Saint of Moscow, public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia.

UkrainianGlory.org has been emphasizing the power for the supporters of Ukraine to take the spiritual and social, in addition to military, commanding heights. Others more significant than us are coming to a similar conclusion.

Ultimately, this means stripping Russia’s dictator, Putin, of his pretensions of moral purity to turn the hearts of the romantic Russian people toward protection, rather than persecution, of their Ukrainian neighbors.

Now comes the Catholic pope in in an interview: “We are shepherds of the same holy people of God. For this we must seek ways of peace, to put an end to the firing of weapons. The Patriarch cannot transform himself into Putin’s altar boy.

Then, the European Union proposes the unprecedented step of freezing Russian Orthodox Patriarch Archbishop Kirill’s assets. Politico.eu reported:

The European Commission on Wednesday targeted the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, as part of its sixth package of sanctions against Russia.

According to a European External Action Service document seen by POLITICO, Kirill has been “one of the most prominent supporters of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine” and a key player in amplifying Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric on Ukraine.

The Commission highlighted a series of pro-war sermons and remarks by Kirill in the months since Russia’s lethal invasion began in February — plus his blessing for Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

We expressed that view forcefully in an earlier blog, To End the War on Ukraine, Discredit the Rogue Orthodox Patriarch and Appeal to the Better Angels of the Nature of the Russian People, declaring:

Here are the words of Otto von Bismarck to the German ambassador in Vienna, Heinrich VII Prince of Reuss, in Berlin, 3 May 1888, as translated and published by Rick Twisdale at Russia Insider:

“…The result of a war (against Russia) would never result in the destruction of the main power of Russia, which rests upon millions of Russians of the Greek [Orthodox] confession. Even if separated by treaty, these would just as soon reunite, like the parts of a splattered drop of mercury.”

The assuredly wise purpose of Mr. Twisdale’s article is to echo Bismarck’s counsel that to attack Russia would be, to put it mildly, counterproductive.

A second lesson to be drawn from the Iron Chancellor’s observation is that “the main power of Russia… rests upon millions of Russians of the … [Orthodox] confession.”

And in my columns at Newsmax:

Let Spiritual Justice Warriors Lead Crusade to Liberate Ukraine, declaring

Let Americans, and people of faith worldwide, serve as Spiritual Justice Warriors. Let’s blunt Putin’s claws by denying him his spurious claim to legitimacy.

Attacking a sovereign’s legitimacy is powerful. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense triggered the American Revolutionary War by attacking the legitimacy of the British monarchy.

Welcome to the war of ideas.

As Jeanne Whalen reports in The Washington Post writing on the divisiveness of the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church’s collusion with Putin:

“’Any war has to have guns and ideas,’ said Cyril Hovorun, professor of ecclesiology, international relations and ecumenism at University College Stockholm. ‘In this war the Kremlin has provided the guns, and I believe the church is providing the ideas.’ In the process, Kirill has caused deep schisms in the global Orthodox Church, with priests in Ukraine, elsewhere in Europe and the United States condemning his support.”
“Any war has to have guns and ideas.”

and in Confronting a ‘Pariah Church Within a Pariah State,’ declaring:

Russia is a nation of mystics. Before Putin there was Rasputin.

Putin presents as nihilism reincarnated. Per the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Russian Nihilism is perhaps best regarded as the intellectual pool … out of which later radical movements emerged; it held the potential for both Jacobinism and anarchism.”

Defeating the Jacobinism which fomented the Reign of Terror, and its guillotines, and the Black Handed anarchism that fomented a century of guerre à outrance demands fighting not only by hero-warriors but by spiritual justice warriors.

With world leaders far more consequential than us—the Pope and the EU—bringing moral and temporal pressure to bear on the rogue patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church, the allies of Free Ukraine are gaining a foothold on the commanding spiritual and social heights.

Our goal here? To strum the mystic chords of the heartstrings of the Russian people to have them transform the political will of Vladimir Putin turn toward diplomacy and to bring about the return of Putin’s troops to Russian soil, departing Ukraine.

And thereafter, inspire Ukraine’s allies to stand together to sustain the resolute and affectionate support of the world’s governments to provide Ukrainians with the resources to promptly and fully rebuild the infrastructures of their great state.

Glory to Ukraine!