FATHER FRANK’S RANTS - Pussies’ Penance

Rant Number 501       16 August 2012

‘The Pussy Riot girls: had they carried out a similar action in a Caucasus mosque or in an Orthodox synagogue in Israel, what would their fate at the worshipper’ hands have been?’ A question I crib from Vladimir Putin. You have to give the devil his due – the old KGB agent had a kind of point...

However, the Pussies’ raucous protest was in Moscow. Inside a sacred Christian space, the Saviour Cathedral. Thus, religiously speaking, it was a sinful, blasphemous act. The outrage felt by Orthodox faithful is perfectly justified. Nonetheless, voices calling for harsh penalties are wrong. (Pugachev, a crazy blogger, even calls for the pretty Pussies’ mutilation – may God not allow it!) To sin, however horrible, compassion is the proper response. The priest prays for a lenient sentence to be passed tomorrow. Not out of sentimentality or political correctitude but out of spirituality.

You can’t be more Russian and more Orthodox than Dostoevsky. Go to his tremendous novel, Brothers Karamazov. You will find there a splendid legend, ‘The Virgin Mary’s Journeys into Hell’. It describes Mary’s visits to the sorrowful realm of the damned. Her heart, the soft heart of a mother, is touched by the dreadful spectacle of the lost souls’ sufferings. They beseech her to ask God the Father to grant them a short, tiny respite from their pain. So the Virgin does that. But God is also the deity of the Old Testament, a stern, severe Judge. He is not easily moved. He argues back. He shows the Virgin the gory sights of her Son’s scourging, his tortures on Calvary, the nails driven into his flesh, the horror of the Cross, all that. ‘See’, he gestures, ‘sinners did that to your son. How then can you ask me to have even the least compassion on them?’

A powerfully emotive argument – you can hardly expect less from the Lord. But the Virgin is resilient. Dostoevsky has her call on all the saints, all the angels and the archangels, all the company of Heaven. They all fall on their knees and pray, beg the Father to relent, to give the lost souls a minute’s relief from pain – till God at last is moved and complies.

OK, this is fantastic literature, mysticism if you like, not strict theology. But St Ambrose rightly saw Mary as a type, a foreshadowing of the Church. In giving birth to Christ, Mary also brought forward Christians – in a sense they too were formed in her womb, along with Jesus. And the Church is also a mother – hence she must display the wonderful qualities of motherhood: tenderness, kindness, gentleness, compassion and love.

As feminists, I suspect the Moscow Pussies might sneer and scoff at this depiction of motherhood. Male hogwash, they might grin. Yet, the gracefulness and graciousness of the Mother is reflected in many Russian icons. Further, it is an awareness shared by human beings of all faiths and nations. I know a Muslim mother would immediately identify with my description and so would Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, all mums. It is a universal thing – if you have been born of a woman, you have good reason to be immensely thankful for that!

By now you have got it. The Church, like Mary, must always display the utmost pity and compassion on sinners. I wish Patriarch Kirill had asked the Court for clemency. Of course, he has reason to be sensitive – the historical Church of Christ the Saviour was dynamited by the evil Stalinist regime, to be rebuilt as a palace of socialism. Communism literally crucified Russian Christianity. But after death comes the Resurrection. The Soviets have ended up in the gutter while the Church, like Christ, has risen again from the darkness of atheist rule. Pious Orthodox folks may perceive new threats, many engendered and funded by hostile Western agencies and trends, including certain types of satanic music and fashion, but surely prayer is the right way to combat those – what else?

The pretty Pussies are on trial for hooliganism. Yet, our media have darkly remarked on religious themes having surfaced during the trial, as if that was ipso facto obscurantist. Amazing how the West’s professional apologists keep writing as if only their provincial, basically parochial world view was the only one with a right to exist. Actually, in many cultures law and religion are inextricably linked – true even of Britain avant le deluge of secularism. Of course, the priest’s argument is exactly a religious one: the Church’s ministry of compassion dictates clemency, not harshness. Sorry to disappoint...

By apologising to the Church, the Pussies have implicitly admitted their sin. They never meant to offend the faithful. Objectively speaking though, they did. The question arises: if they are sincere, how could they best show their contrition? Once upon a time a stint in a monastery, under the watchful supervision of holy nuns (anyone who has experience of nuns would vouchsafe what formidable, spiffing persons they are), would have sufficed. The Pussies would have come out better persons. Not yelling out their cacophonous punk noises but singing holy hymns and spiritual songs. Not likely, alas. What about exorcism?

Don’t be shocked. Some believe the trio are possessed. A demon of feminism? No, I won’t have it. Feminism has many strands. There are devout Christian feminists, too. But the devil is cunning. The fiend takes many guises. As a former exorcist, I know a thing or two about it. The Pussies may believe their conscience was behind their protest but...what if it was Old Nick? As a virus can infest your computer, unbeknownst to you, so could a demon get inside you...Huh! I strongly advise the girls to seek the Church’s help on this grave matter.

Lastly, depressing and predictable how all sorts of dubious Western celebs have climbed on the easy PR bandwagon of the Pussies’ defence. Eminent amongst them is Madonna. Can’t bear being rude to a lady, I just hand it over to Elton John, my favourite gay icon. Madonna, Sir Elton is reported saying, ‘is a f...g fairground stripper...her career is over.’

Revd Frank Julian Gelli