The Catholic Church in the USA and its attitude to the USSR (1933-1941): based on the materials of "Brief notes on the attitude of various Christian Churches to the moment" by Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov)

Abstract

The subject of the study is "Brief notes on the attitude of various Christian churches to the moment", compiled by Metropolitan of the Aleutians and North America, Exarch of the Russian Orthodox Church in North America Veniamin (Fedchenkov) on January 22, 1942. Analyzing their content, the author examines in detail the anti-Soviet activities of Catholics in the United States of America in 1933-1941, directed first against the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and the USSR, and then against the allocation of assistance to the Soviet Union to fight the Nazi invaders. The mentioned document has not yet been put into scientific circulation, although many of the thoughts and considerations of the mentioned church hierarch were used by the government of the USSR to develop its foreign policy course. The methodological basis of this work includes the principles of historicism, consistency and objectivity. The analysis of the "Brief Notes..." by Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov) in comparison with a wide range of other sources allowed us to build a logical chain of relations between the USSR and the USA in 1933-1941, in which the anti-Soviet activities of the Roman Catholic Church in the USA played a negative role. The study of the "Brief Notes..." by Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov) made it possible to assess not only the seriousness of the influence of the Catholic Church on the foreign policy of the United States of America and other European countries in 1933-1941 and to better understand the nature of the events that took place after the end of World War II, but also to comprehend the role of the Catholic Church in the political processes taking place in Ukraine today. In the "Brief Notes...", completed by 1942, Metropolitan Veniamin pointed out the religious origins of Ukrainian nationalism, the narratives of which have not changed since the time of the events under consideration. The Patriarchal exarch gave a surprisingly accurate description of the various movements of the Catholic Church in the United States, which, oddly enough, does not lose its relevance in current realities.