Telesphorus, I was just thinking that after I posted my harangue. The unadorned communism of Russia was much more militant than our democracies and directly attacked the Church. It makes sense that Mary would "make a statement" about it.
Again, it's just the people who make "consecrating Russia" into their pet cause that bother me. Mary said Russia would have to be consecrated THEN, not now. It's too late.
That being said, maybe I am crazy, but I kind of prefer when communism shows its true face. When it comes right out and says "YOU, Catholic Church, and Catholic people, are my enemy." At least then we know who we're fighting. We're not just lost in a nebulous fog, punching at shadows.
If I were living in Poland when the commies took over I'd have been martyred. Here I'd have been drafted and sent off to die in a Jєωιѕн war, which, unlike martyrdom, may not lead to heaven.
What is so uniquely ominous about America ( Mystery Babylon? the New Egypt at least ) throughout its history, and it hasn't been much different in Europe over the last few centuries, is that while it allows you to be Catholic in theory and in name, it twists the truth around so much, flipping it right upside down, that I'm not sure God will recognize some of these Catholics as Catholics.
Of course, communism does the same, with more vicious tactics. It kills those who speak up and then helps the rest to sell out. Here you can speak up and you just get ignored or treated as a basement-dwelling loony. So I guess we do have relative freedom, in a way. Unfortunately not enough people choose to exercise it correctly. They buy into all sorts of lies.
I am talking to Dawn in E-mails and she knows the truth. Many others on this site do. The question is, how much truth do you need in order to please God and get into heaven? What happens to a Catholic kid who is drafted into World War I or II, which I believe God would see as unjust wars? I don't know why, but this really troubles me. Luckily, I doubt God sees things as black-and-white as I do.