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While it is.dif cult to know exactly what is transpiring in the rmer U.S.S.R., other Easte Eu pean countries and e "republics" of e Soviet Union itself soon began llowing the road to eedom. The Berlin Wall was dest yed in November 1989; Czechoslovakia held " ee" elections in December 1989; Hungary held its elections in March 1990. In the U.S.S.R. the republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics began one by one declaring sovereignty. On ne 12, 1991, Boris Yeltsin, who stood r in dependence r all the republics, a ee market econo , and a democratic political system, was elec d President of the Russian Republic. Co unist hardliners attempted a coup in August 1991, but Yeltsin's leadership inspired resistance to the coup and it iled mise bly. On December 25, 1991 the ha er and sickle ag was lowered r e last time om above the Krem lin. The name of Russia's second largest city was changed om Leningrad back to St. Petersbu . However, Communists still retain positions of power, and the political, social and economic situation in the rmer Soviet Union remains unsettled.
The legacy of a eism and su ering le by Co unism will be with the people of Easte Europe and e rmer Soviet Union r years if not decades to come. There is also the grave problem of secularism and materialism entering for m the West. But a er decades of slavery, e dark shad of Communism appears at last to be li ing om these people.
The Second Vatican Council
In 1907 Pope St. Pius X had writ n the encyclical Pascendi, which condemned Mode ism, that heresy which denied the his rical reliability of Scripture and there re e ct of e Incarnation, denied the role of
