Fr. Jason Charron is Wrong on Ukraine (Part 1)

Catholics remain deeply divided on the conflict in Ukraine. Though institutions such as the Knights of Columbus have provided humanitarian support to the country, many conservative Catholics follow the skepticism of fellow Catholic, Vice President J.D. Vance, who has openly expressed concerns with the Zelensky regime, its handling of the war, and its failure to protect religious liberty in Ukraine. For those Catholics who agree with the vice president, enough resources have been given to Ukraine, and it is now time for the battered nation to accept peace.

One outspoken supporter for war in Ukraine, however, is Fr. Jason Charron of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Fr. Jason has taken to social media, particularly to YouTube, to defend the Ukrainian government and advocate for more financial and military support to Ukraine. Unfortunately, Fr. Jason frequently fails to present an even-handed and nuanced view on the conflict, downplaying the deep failings of the Zelensky regime while exaggerating those of Russia. In this article, the first of two, I will address five of the top ten mistakes made by Fr. Jason during a recent longform interview on YouTube. Though these are mistakes made specifically by Fr. Jason, don’t be surprised if you hear the same things said by other sincerly mistaken Ukraine war supporters.

Although Fr. Jason appears to seek more military escalation and war in Ukraine, we should follow the advocacy of Pope Francis for peace, who told Ukraine: “When you are defeated… it is necessary to have the courage to negotiate.” If we are to heed the words of the Holy Father, we must dispel the errors espoused by fierce Ukrainian war advocates like Fr. Jason. It is only by embracing the truth that a real and lasting peace can be won.

10. Desperate content creators blindly accept Russian propaganda

Fr. Jason believes that conservative sentiment about Ukraine has shifted due to the popularity of anti-Ukraine war conservative influencers, and that these influencers, “desperate for content,” have been manipulated by Russian propaganda. According to Fr. Jason: “Content is being given to [content creators] by Russia-funded dark websites and propaganda minds that create a narrative that create a culture of different web sites that feed and then put that out in social media so that people who are desperate for content… go with that narrative…” While it’s certainly true that such “dark websites” exist, few Ukraine war critics rely on these websites for their criticism. As someone who has produced “content” about the fighting in Ukraine, I can honestly say I’ve never been handed content from Russia-funded dark websites.

Can the same be said about those who support Ukraine? Since 2022, US media outlets and pro-Ukraine influencers have based their reporting solely on information pushed by the Ukrainian government. We were told, for example, about the “Ghost of Kiev,” a fighter ace who shot down numerous Russian aircraft, only to discover that he was a work of pure fiction from Ukrainian propagandists. We’re told today that Russia has suffered nearly one million losses in Ukraine, yet Media Zona, an outlet that conducts forensic audits of Russian losses, can confirm only 100,000 loses – one tenth the number pushed by Ukraine supporters. While there are very few critics of the Ukraine conflict who receive content handed to them by Russia-funded dark websites, almost every Ukraine supporter does exactly that from Ukrainian sources. As we’ll soon see, the many bizzare arguments made by Fr. Jason appear to reflect this reality.

9. Russia is the world leader in abortions

When I have conversations about Russia, one of the most common objections I hear to Russia’s defense of traditional values is precisely the one that Fr. Jason asserts: “Russia is the world leader in abortions.” Indeed, the myth of Russia’s abortion numbers has become so ubiquitous that most Catholics assume it’s true.

The actual numbers, however, paint a much different picture. According to the International Abortion Rate Report, Russia ranks not #1 or even #5 in the world for total abortions. Russia ranks… #15. The US, on the other hand, comes in at #12. When considered in terms of abortions per 1,000 women, Russia finds itself all the way back at #112.

Perhaps the most astounding fact about abortion in Russia is that, according to Statista, since the year 2000 Russia’s total abortion numbers have fallen by a whopping 78%. Far from condemning Russia as the “world leader in abortion,” as Fr. Jason does, we should applaud Russia’s seemingly miraculous fight against abortion. Yet once again when we flip the tables, we see that Western nations taken together abort more than four times as many babies as Russia does.

What’s clear is that Russia does in fact defend traditional values. Propaganda from the LGBTQIA+ is not allowed. Gay marriage is banned. Transgenderism is nowhere on the horizon. Blasphemy laws protect the sacred. Visitors and immigrants to Russia report that people are free to speak their mind in defense of traditional values in Russia, and that Russians really do look at the Western nations as decadent cultural imperialists who seek to impose their decadence on Russia and the world. Pope Francis has a term for this cultural imperialism: Ideological Recolonization. Contrary to Fr. Jason, Russia really is a vital nation for every Christian who seeks to halt the spread of Western decadence.

8. Russia fights Ukraine due to a population shortage

Russia says it’s fighting in Ukraine due to the expansion of NATO, the festering wound of far-right fascist groups in the country, and the problem of a heavily armed nation on its borders. For Fr. Jason, however, the war is all about Russia’s population: “…the root of this war [is] not about NATO. It’s not about the culture war. It’s all about math. It’s all about math… Unless [Russia gets] an injection of warm bodies… it will cease to exist.”
He bases this assumption on Russia’s abortion rate, which we have already shown is faulty. While it is true that Russia’s birthrate is below the 2.1 children per woman replacement rate, its birthrate is not much lower than that of the EU.

Given Russia’s vastly improving numbers on abortion, it’s patently absurd to claim that Russia is fighting Ukraine over a population shortage. If population has anything to do with it, it’s the fact that a large number of ethnic Russians were abandoned inside Ukraine at the end of the Cold War. After the 2014 coup in Kiev, many of these ethnic Russians in south and eastern Ukraine sought a return to Russia. Sadly, a civil war in Ukraine was waged from 2014 until 2022, when Russia made the decision to enter a war already in progress by siding with the ethnic Russians fighting against the Kiev government. Population is an issue we should discuss, but it’s a discussion about ethnic populations rather than population shortages.

7. Christianity in Russia is mere “smoke and mirrors”

In order to counter the argument that Russia is a defender of Christianity and traditional values, Russia-critics attempt to reject Russia as a Christian nation. Fr. Jason claimed that a mere 0.5% of Russians in Moscow attended Easter services, and that Christianity in Russia is just “smoke and mirrors.”

While it is true that church attendance in Russia is very low, the rise of self-identifying Christians in Russia has spiked. In 1991, a mere 31% of Russians considered themselves Russian Orthodox, but by today that number has doubled to 62%. Meanwhile, the numbers of non-believers in Russia plummeted from 61% in 1991 to 21% today (compared to 28% in the US) as non-Orthodox people of faith, Christian or otherwise, rose to 17%.

When it comes to Christianity in Russia, we must remember that the Russian nation was devastated by decades of imposed communist atheism. Thousands upon thousands of churches, convents, and monasteries were destroyed, and Russia today is the process of rebuilding. Literally rebuilding. In recent years, the Russian nation completed the construction of three new churches each day (yes, each day), or 30,000 churches over a ten-year period.

Russian president, Vladimir Putin, regularly talks about his secret baptism as an infant, and participates in the sacramental life of the Russian Orthodox Church. Each January, he – along with thousands of others across Russia – takes an annual dip in freezing waters to commemorate the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. Does all this make him a saint? Of course not. But we can know with certainty that President Putin believes Russia is a Christian nation, that Christianity is good for individual Russians, and that he will do everything he can to promote Christianity to the Russian people. Catholics should stop comparing him to Stalin and start comparing him to Constantine.

6. Ukraine is not persecuting the historic Ukrainian Orthodox Church

One of the more shocking aspects about life in Ukraine since the coup of 2014, is the way in which the post-coup Ukrainian government has treated its ethnic minorities. Ukraine is a deeply divided country, with much of its south and eastern population comprised of ethnic Russians as the north and west is populated by ethnic Ukrainians (along with a mix of ethnic minorities such as Poles and Hungarians). The coup of 2014 gave control of the nation to Ukrainian nationalists, bent on forging a new Ukraine based on the Ukrainian ethnicity. This led to almost a decade of civil war as half the country felt it was being expelled from the civic, social, and religious life of Ukraine. Contrary to what Fr. Jason says, the historic Ukrainian Orthodox Church – tied to the liturgical heritage and leadership of Moscow – has come under intense persecution (which Fr. Jason merely calls “pressure”) by the nationalists now governing Ukraine.

Much of the persecution stems from the state-sponsored Orthodox Church of Ukraine (not to be confused with the historic Ukrainian Orthodox Church). Various schismatic Orthodox churches existed in Ukraine since the early 1990s, but in 2019 a group of them merged to form the Orthodox Church of Ukraine with the backing of the Ukrainian government and the blessing of the Patriarch of Constantinople (and perhaps, if the reports are accurate, with help of the CIA and money from USAID). The switch from Moscow to Constantinople isn’t simply a change in leadership; it marks many liturgical changes, particularly in the celebration of Christmas and Easter. Not only is the whole country torn apart by war, but now half the country will celebrate these high holy days at totally different times from each other. This is yet more unnecessary division in a nation already so deeply divided.

Since 2019, extreme “pressure” has been placed on members of the historical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to join the government-endorsed upstart church. Despite cutting ties with Moscow, The UOC has seen many of its churches seized (such as St. Michael’s Cathedral in city of Cherkasy), as clergy have been beaten (like Bishop Feodosiy, who was brutally attacked on the altar as police looked on) or arrested on bogus charges. Fr. Jason claims “a difference between persecution and… arresting criminal activity,” yet we can expect little justice to be had if these clerics receive the same “justice” as the American journalist, Gonzalo Lira, who was tortured and killed by the Zelensky regime on entirely fraudulent charges.

This past August, the Ukrainian legislature passed a new law that can effectively ban the historic Ukrainian Orthodox Church after a nine-month window expires in late May. Concerning the new law, the World Council of Churches has said it is “deeply alarmed by the potential for unjustified collective punishment of an entire religious community and violation of the principles of freedom of religion or belief.” Pope Francis also expressed his concern: "Let those who want to pray be able to pray in the church they consider theirs… Please let no Christian church be abolished directly or indirectly: the churches are not to be touched." Will Zelensky allow the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to survive into summer? I wouldn’t hold your breath.