The big lie: changing human nature

In 1917, during one of Our Lady’s apparitions at Fatima, the three shepherd children were given a vision of hell. Our Lady warned that if people didn’t stop offending God, then another war would come. In reparation, Our Lady asked “for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays.” She added, “If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecution of the Church.”

What, then, were the errors of Russia that she was referring to? Most of us think of Russian errors largely as communist and Marxist ideologies. This is generally correct, as Marxism is behind most of the ideologies we face today either openly or surreptitiously, be it communism, collectivism, or socialism. But could there be more to it than just that? ...

… Women’s liberation, the Bolsheviks believed, was completely tied to the success of communism. … It was imperative that the idea of motherhood was divorced from the reality of being a woman. The official party position [stated by Aleksandra Kollentai, head of the Soviet “Women’s Department] said, “The shackles of the family, of the housework, of prostitution still weigh heavily on the working woman. Working women and peasant women can only rid themselves of this situation and achieve equality in life itself, and not just in law, if they put all their energies into making Russia a truly communist society.” The Bolsheviks severed the tie between motherhood and womanhood. These same ideas would be echoed by the women’s liberation movement in the West several decades later.

The Soviets worked quickly to legalize abortion to make women equal to men, and then they put the women to work. … With abortion free and legal, it spread like wildfire among the population. In 1934, abortions outweighed live births by three to one. …

The Soviets, not content with their own borders, sought to take over neighboring countries. … they were victorious in taking … Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Latvia, Georgia, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. Behind this new “Iron Curtain,” these once vibrant countries were stuffed into the gray, ill-fitting militant uniform required by the Soviets. Faith was clandestine, friends turned on each other in an instant, and everyone – friend, foe, or family – was a “comrade.”

The Russian Revolution unleashed the idea that human nature is infinitely malleable and can be rearranged into perfect equality. … The natural and supernatural orders were the real obstacles that had to be destroyed. It is impossible to describe the widespread devastation these errors brought to the people of Russia and beyond. 

Excerpt from The Anti-Mary Exposed: Rescuing the Culture from Toxic Femininity, by Carrie Gress (TAN Books, 2019), pp. 47-52. www.TANBooks.com

CARRIE GRESS, PH.D. is the editor at the online women’s magazine Theology of Home. She has written for numerous publications, is a frequent radio and TV guest, and worked professionally in Washington, D.C. and Rome. Among her other books are Theology of Home (I & II), Nudging Conversions, Ultimate Makeover, The Marian Option, and Marian Consecration for Children.