In the years after the 1917 Russian Revolution and Civil War, the Bolsheviks, who were atheists, seized all property belonging churches, Orthodox, Catholic or otherwise. (Many churches were turned into grain silos or livestock barns). A relaxation on religious restrictions by Stalin during and after World War meant a slow (and very quiet) reclaiming of some church property, but it was largely left to the Orthodox, with little involvement of “western” religions like the Roman Catholics. Disputed church property is more problematic where Ukraine is concerned (see below). The Orthodox Church, for its part, also has accused the Catholic Church of possessing valuable icons and other sacred items. John Paul II’s decision to return the venerated Our Lady of Kazan icon to the Russian church in 2004 was seen as an effort by the pope to persuade the Russians to allow him to visit.
Mark Sappenfield
Dear Reader,
About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:
“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”
If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.
But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.
The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.
We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”
If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.
