Sixty years ago, on March 15, 1959, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, in his nationally syndicated weekly newspaper column, called for American action designed to aid the liberation of the people enslaved by Soviet Russia, listing Ukraine among the top on the list.
Excerpts from the column were reprinted on the front page of The Ukrainian Weekly’s issue of March 28, 1959. Bishop Sheen wrote:
“If a neighbor across the street from where you live had knowingly and certainly robbed every other house on your side of the street save your own; if he had murdered some of the home owners or else sent a few of them into exile; if he had stripped many rooms of furniture and brought them into his own house, and then began accusing you of being a robber and a thief and a murderer, even writing articles to the paper to that effect, what would you do?
“Would you merely say that you were not a robber, or would you write to the newspapers and merely state that you are not a thief? Or if he made these charges in court, would you be silent about the plundering of the houses and the enslavement of some of the children?
“Then why is it that when the United States and the Western World are accused of being oppressors of people, wanting to start a nuclear war and enslave people, of being imperialistic and an enemy of peace, do we merely make denials at the United Nations instead of giving a list of the countries that they have robbed, pillaged, raped and confiscated! Why do we not name names, and remind the Soviet Union of some of the countries they have confiscated, such as Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Estonia, Latvia, the Karelian Isthmus of Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Armenia, Albania, Outer Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, China and others?”
Bishop Sheen urged that the Soviet Union should be questioned daily by the U.N. for its enslavement of the aforementioned countries. “…Instead of being on the defensive, would not our strength lie less in constantly dealing with the Soviets than in pleading for the liberty and independence of the submerged populations of Eastern Europe? There is nothing that so much disturbs a thief as to be caught with the stolen goods in his own hands, and not all the waters of seven seas are enough to wash the blood from the Soviet hands that suppressed freedom fighters of Hungary [referring to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956].”
Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov “lied when he said that he would allow the nations of Eastern Europe to preserve their integrity and sovereignty, so too Soviets today continue the dictum of Lenin to lie, deceive and distort in order to further the Soviet revolution,” Bishop Sheen continued.
Citing Lin Yutang’s book “The Secret Name,” Bishop Sheen noted that Stalin had won at the Yalta Conference following the second world war, and the Soviet leader lived up to the words he had spoken before the conference: Words have no relation to actions – otherwise what kind of diplomacy is it?
Mr. Yutang’s book reiterated: “Words are one thing; actions another. Good words are a mask for a concealment of bad deeds. Sincere diplomacy is no more possible than dry water or wooden air.”
Concluding his column, Bishop Sheen warned, “So long as the Soviets can make the United States discuss nuclear warfare, space, summit meetings and the free city of Berlin, it distracts the Western World from the basic problem of taking the stolen goods from their hands.”
Source: “Bishop Sheen says U.S. should act to liberate Reds’ enslaved nations,” The Ukrainian Weekly, March 28, 1959.