In the postscript of her very thoughtful book, ‘The Race to Save the Romanovs’, Helen Rappaport with a kindly eye and absolute objectivity asks who was to blame for not saving the Romanovs from their bloody and horrifying deaths. Her answer is quite simple. Referring to the working title of Dickens’ novel Little Dorrit, she remarks with true wisdom:

“The miseries of war and all it brought with it were ‘Nobody’s fault’. One might apply the same remark retrospectively to the collective guilt of the European monarchs and governments in the fate of the Romanov’s. For in truth, their murders were Everybody’s --- and nobody’s --- Fault.”

Helen Rappaport continues her reflection on the fate of the Romanovs by quoting Boris Yeltsin’s words when he attended the burial of some of the Romanovs (Maria and Alexey’s bones had not yet been found) in July 1988 at the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Yeltsin reflected:

“We all bear responsibility for the historical memory of the nation” The ‘Yekaterinburg massacre’ was he said “one of the most shameful episodes” in Russian history. “Those who committed this crime are as guilty as those who approved of it for decades. We are all guilty.”

Why do I mention this, as it does not seem to bear any relevance to the present situation in which the World finds itself. Surely the murder of the Romanovs cannot compare with the global pandemic that we are now enduring; however, it does.

In certain Catholic Media outlets, including those which normally show considerable integrity, there is a determination to blame China for the outbreak of the Corona Virus. Some secular opinion outlets also state this. These internet personalities seem to fail to realize that The Russians, the Americans, the Canadians, the British, and the French, and no doubt the Israeli’s, Indian Continent and many other industrialised countries are all involved in the weaponization of viruses. The Corona virus could easily have got out of the laboratories at Aldermaston, unfortunately they probably emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan. All Government including ours, and our scientists, are equally to blame.

It all, sadly comes down two things “Pride and Power”. Governments are not interested, in the main, in what their people truly need. It is all about getting the best for “the Country”, and if that means having bigger and better arms to protect the country’s interests, be they political, financial, ideological or otherwise, so much the better. It is the spirit of competition, the need for self-glorification, and the maintaining of national myths whatever they may be; such as revealed by “The American War of Independence”, “The Second World War” for the British, the Revolution for France, and so on. The need to see one’s own nation as a cut above the rest is as old as Time itself, from the murder of Abel by Cain to the slaughter meted out to the Iraqis in the Iraq War. It is too easy to see one’s country, one’s army, as defending freedom and the common man, whereas the reverse is too often the case, namely the slaughter of innocents, and the starving of the poor.

Whether the Chinese are to blame for the present Pandemic, or the Americans, or the British, or the Canadians, really doesn’t matter. It is somewhat beside the point, what matters is the Corona virus is spreading death throughout the globe, and we must stop closing stable doors after the horse has bolted. All the nations were sinning by working on such evil projects, and as the citizens of those nations, the guilt also comes upon ourselves.

But, God works through all things. And so, it is heartening and deeply moving to hear that three quarters of a million British men and women are volunteering to help the NHS in the war against this virus. And everyday more instances are becoming public of ordinary people doing what they can to help and cheer the old and vulnerable, like the person who took her alpacas outside the windows of a care home, to cheer up the elderly who were being protected inside.

Perhaps that is why God has allowed the Pandemic to occur, so that people can show their heroism and love in the defence life, where too often we have promoted the culture of death.

Fr. Stephen