(LifeSiteNews) — Joining me on this special episode of The John-Henry Westen Show from Russia is Jozef and Ann Schutzman, who emigrated from the United States to Russia with their six children in 2023. We discussed why they decided to move to Russia, common misconceptions about the Russian people, Our Lady of Fatima’s message about the conversion of the country, and more.
After being introduced to each of the Schutzman children, I asked the couple why they decided to move to Russia, of all places. Jozef explained they were deeply concerned about the direction America was taking, particularly with the COVID lockdowns, the immoral content being taught in schools, and other issues.
“What happened during COVID destroyed a generation of children. It was already being destroyed, certainly, the schools as they are now today, particularly the public schools. … But after the whole COVID thing and people lost their ever-loving minds, we saw an entire generation of children that was destroyed,” Jozef said.
“They were … so far behind in their school, (experienced a) loss of focus, lots of experimentation on things that children should never, ever be exposed to,” he added. “And not only are those the children that came back out after COVID, but those are going to be adults one day. And my children will be adults with them, and they will live in the world with those children, and that’s what we did not want for our children.”
READ: Our Lady’s request for the consecration of Russia has not yet been fulfilled
I jumped in to ask why move to Russia specifically, of all the other countries in the world, noting that Russia isn’t even a Catholic country. Jozef emphasized that Catholics often forget that the natural law was the very first law God imposed on the world, and Russia, unlike Western countries, is following the natural law, so they eventually decided to make the move there.
Ann emphasized just how dire the situation had become in the U.S., with their children constantly being exposed to something morally harmful.
“(E)very week … we would run into something that was … morally harmful in the raising of children. Just (at) the playground down the road, having to deal with … same-sex couples who came to the playground with their … child, and … the children are asking questions (like): ‘Why does this boy say he has two mommies?'” she recalled. “And it was in our face all the time. Every week, there’d be two or three incidents that we had to always kind of try to manage or explain or try not to explain.”
“We found that it interfered with our daily lives,” she added. “We felt that we were starting to live in a bubble because we stopped taking the children to the grocery store because of all the filthy magazines and just the spirit there. There are continually even more and more problems that we ran into.”
READ: Understanding the connection between Our Lady of Fatima and Russia
Jozef added that after looking at the globe and eliminating so many other places to relocate because of their similar moral issues as in the U.S., they decided to make the move to Russia.
I jumped back in to note that the mainstream media often portrays Russia as this evil country, and even many traditional Catholics see it as this anti-Catholic country. I asked how their lives have been in Russia, to which Jozef said it’s been surprisingly great, especially because of how the Russian people value children and large families.
“Russians treat children like gold, like gold bars, that’s how they treat children,” he said. “(W)hen you’re walking around with your family … in America … somebody might come up to your wife and ask her why she doesn’t watch TV or does she do anything else with her time other than make kids.”
“Where you come here and you have people shouting from across the street, like, ‘Well done, keep going, more children.'”
To hear much more from the Schutzman family, tune in to this episode of The John-Henry Westen Show.
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