Ukraine

History thrives on images. In pictures, often far more vividly than in words, the ones who came before us become present to their children's children; and it's certainly no accident that the earliest forms of writing we have are, themselves, made in the form of pictures. Even before written history, the paintings of our ancestors appear on the walls of caves: the mute testimony of human artists, refuting the venomous lie that prehistoric man was a brute who clubbed prehistoric woman and dragged her about by the hair. Were some prehistoric men brutes? Well, think it through: are some modern-day men brutes? Absolutely. Are we all brutes? Absolutely not. (Why is racism acceptable when it's aimed at the dead? Is it because they can't defend themselves? Try to think of a single movie, for example, in which the protagonists time-travel to the Dark Ages and don't have to escape from would-be witch-burners. Because all medieval Europeans were ignorant savages, you see!)

When history remembers Joseph Biden, it will call up the image of defenseless Afghanis desperately begging for help from the country that betrayed and abandoned them, clinging to the wings of departing American airplanes and falling to their deaths. When it remembers Pope Francis, it will see the image of the Vicar of Christ on Earth, openly worshiping the demonic pagan idol Pachamama within the Vatican itself: "What the pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils. You cannot drink the cup of God and also the cup of Satan" (1 Corinthians 10:20-21). These things happened and cannot be undone. But they need not be the only legacy of this Pope and this President.

It's so easy to forget that nations are mortal and people are not. Will the geopolitical region of Ukraine exist in a trillion years? Doubtful. Will the memory of a beloved homeland still exist in the immortal souls of Ukrainians who are alive right now? You damn betcha. Is it, therefore, incredible to think that the entire crisis in Ukraine might be allowed by Our Lord for the sole purpose of offering a few individuals a chance to seek redemption and salvation? Of course not! "What is man that You value him, or the son of man that You cherish him?" (Psalm 8:4).

What can Biden do in the face of Russia? Well--for starters, I suppose, he could try reminding himself that he's a man, and an American. But more importantly, he could begin, for the very first time, to practice his ostensible faith.

What can Pope Francis do? Well--apart from the bit about being American--see above.