Some 82 per cent of the population are members of the Georgian Orthodox Church, with the next largest tranche of faith being the 10 per cent who count themselves Muslim.
Such a devout populace might have expected a unified condemnation of an attack on such a solid and venerable household of faith.
Pope Benedict XVI managed, from his holiday in the Italian Alps, to call for an “immediate” end to hostilities in South Ossetia and urged negotiations between Russia and Georgia over the contested province.
But it sounded like a rebuke to two squabbling children, not a plea for an end to a bloodbath, and carefully made no reference to the wider incursion into Georgia.
Elsewhere, there has been a resounding chorus of silence in the cloisters. Nothing from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the latter vociferous in his condemnation of Robert Mugabe’s aggressions in Zimbabwe.
Nothing from the Anglican Communion, so keen of late to re-engage on the international stage with its march through London in solidarity with the world’s poor.
In his own sanctimonious way, Pilcher is just doing what everyone else is doing under the circumstances: wringing his hands and complaining/pleading: “Why doesn’t someone do something?”
As for churches speaking up, Pilcher neglected to ask where was the Russian Orthodox Church when the troops went marching in, killing and maiming their Georgian Orthodox brethren and destroying their possessions and livelihoods?
What magic wand would Pilcher recommend we wave?
w.w.
I don’t think it’s fair to swing a brickbat at ++Rowan just yet. After all, the absence of Americans and Israelis from the conflict means this is not a black-and-white issue where you can be sure that you’ll be on the side of the angels.
This isn’t a George Bush attributable event….yet. The PB and EC and Peace Council will jump in just as soon as they can find a linkage.
w.w. – While I share your apparent concern about the possible entwinement of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government, Patriarch Alexy has at least said the right thing this time (via a comment at Fr. Stephen Freeman’s blog):
I am still not quite sure exactly what happened in the Russia/Georgia fiasco. Everybody’s pointing fingers at the other guy as the aggressor, and no one seems to be producing any proof either way, at leas that I have seen.
I imagine the truth of the matter is somewhere in between. When two sides start rattling sabres, someone gets hurt.
Russia has never liked independent-minded neighbors; it makes them worry.
While there are currently more differences than similarities, the question for the Europeans is if they remember the phrase “Sudetenland” and how borders and ethnic issues shouldn’t be resolved.
Pat. Alexei is unfortunately neither the Prime Minister nor President of Russia. If he were I do not think this would have happened. That said this is not as cut and dry as some are trying to make it out as. Russia is certainly trying to reassert itself and is using appalling and immoral methods in doing so. But the West’s hands are not clean here.
Ever since the fall of the Communists the US and Western Europeans have been scrambling to ring Russia in a wall of pro-Western NATO states. Georgia is a close ally of the United Sates. We have been encouraging them in their belligerent attitude towards their neighbor. We have encouraged them to stick their finger in Moscow’s eye. And we have encouraged them by promoting NATO membership for them, as well as all of the other countries bordering Russia that are malleable to our interests.
Then their is the way we and our allies have treated Russia since the fall of the Communists. At almost every opportunity we have rubbed their nose in the dirt reminding them that they lost the Cold War and that it is a one super power world now. Europe strong armed Russia with economic threats into abolition of capitol punishment. (For the record, I am an abolitionist myself, but sovereign nations should not be dictated to like wayward children.) We have unilaterally abandoned arms limitation treaties knowing that the Russians could not respond. And then of course there is Kosovo.
Serbia is Russia’s closest ally. Culturally they are as close to blood relations as nations can be. Kosovo has been historically Serbian for time immemorial. It is sacred territory to them, with enormous cultural and religious importance. And the United States and NATO bombed Serbia into submission and just stripped Serbia of a large part of their country handing it over to Muslim extremists who have a demonstrated penchant for terrorism and burning down Orthodox monasteries and churches. When Russia protested… we again rubbed their nose in the dirt.
No I am not saying that Russia is morally in the right here. They were provoked, but they way over reacted and are clearly taking advantage of Georgia’s foolish miscalculation to remind the world that while Russia may no longer be a superpower, they have returned to great power status and are not to be trifled with in their own backyard.
Russia is behaving badly. But while I can’t defend their actions, I can and will state that her actions are understandable given recent history. This a little bit of the old game of “what comes around, goes around.” My heart goes out to the people of Georgia and Russia who have been affected by this sad game of power politics.
ICXC NIKA
[url=http://ad-orientem.blogspot.com/]John[/url]
This link is a good primer on background events:
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/russia/articles/20080810.aspx
In reply to Number 7, I would not necessarily say that Russia was provoked, but rather say that Russia willingly put itself into a position where as tensions mounted, it was able to take advantage of the situation for its own ends.
Russia provoked??? To my knowledge four aircraft did not go roaring into the Kremlin (compared with our 9/11 episode). Now Russia is really griping about Polamd and her defensive misille launch facilities. Not getting ballasticmissiles to be aimed at Russia but to have defensive means to blow up any missiles aimed at Poland. Russia still has thousands of ICBM missile launch sites. I wonder how many Poland has???