Monday, June 12, 2017

Russian Greek Catholic Church Feels Neglected by Rome

The small church of the Byzantine rite, unified with Rome, has met for its first synod in a century. It wants its own bishop and resources for priestly education.


Bergamo (kath.net/jg) The Russian Greek Catholic Church accuses Pope Francis not to taking their concerns into account so as not to jeopardize the approach to the Russian Orthodox Church. This has been reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The leadership of the church, which is unified with Rome, wishes for its own bishop and resources for priestly formation. Currently, the Russian Greek Catholic Church is headed by Joseph Werth SJ, the Latin diocesan bishop of Novosibirsk.

"The survival of the Russian Greek Catholic Church is at stake," says Lawrence Cross, one of her priests, who lives in Melbourne, Australia. The head of the Russian Greek Catholic Church is meeting for the first synod for a century in Bergamo (Italy).

The relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church is strained. The Moscow Patriarchate tolerates the Greek Catholic clergy in Russia. However, a bishop of the Greek Catholic Church in Russia is unacceptable to the Orthodox, says Ronald Roberson, an adviser to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the United States. [But Orthodox Bishops in Italy are acceptable?]

With fewer than 30,000 members, the Russian Greek Catholic Church is one of the smallest churches in Rome. Most of them live outside Russia. There are communities in Western Europe, the USA, South America and Australia.

AMDG


9 comments:

  1. Russia invaded Ukraine and took Crimea. Greek church property was a primary target. Russia is now consolidating their prizes and preparing to extend their efforts into Ukraine. Putin wants to consolidate his former empire and reaffirm Russian hegemony over the Eastern bloc. There is evidence that Russia did the same at Smolensk in Poland and wiped out the Polish leadership.------The Russian Orthodox is only a department within the Soviet government. Francis can't be that naïve. He wants to negotiate with the Russian Orthodox Church.----Patriarch Nikodem went to visit John Paul I during his 33 day pontificate. He died in the arms of the pope during his visit. Nikodem was a colonel in the KGB who was tortured numerous times in order to ensure his loyalty to the Soviet cause.-----The Soviets shot JPII. Without a doubt, Putin is working with radical Islam. The shooter of JPII was a Turk. Francis needs to wake up from his "sugar plum fairy" dream of the simplicity of life and problems.

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  2. There is no evidence that Russia was involved in the airplane crash that killed the Polish leadership some years ago. This is speculation. But there is the opposite speculation that Tusk was hidding the fact that the US or at least the EU governments had planned the death of the government leadership that would have opposed admission of Poland into the EU with such a "hard line" conservative and Catholic leadership, of which the current Polish party leadership is made up of. The Conservative leadership should have disappeared,in the minds of the EU and Obama administration, and Poland was supposed to be then open and more pliable to leftist and anticlerical EU/Western proEnlightenment ideologies. Indeed, Tusk and his leftist capitalist party won. And the media portrayed him and his party as the new and more"centrist" conservatism. Instead they did not expect a resurgence of the Law and Justice Party of which only 1 leftover brother of the former leadership was able to put back together.

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    1. There are pictures of Tusk arm in arm with Putin at the Smolensk site. In fact, there is a picture of them hugging closely. To say that Tusk was allied and conspiring with the West is laughable. The one twin left is very accurate in the assessment of the murder of his brother.

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    2. Walter Mitty lives.

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  3. I didn't know Eastern Rite Churches used Latin Rite "Bishops".

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    1. The Russian Greek Catholic Church probably hasn't had a bishop since the Servant of God Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky consecrated Blessed Leonid Fedorov as Exarch of the Russian Greek Catholic Church.

      Blessed Leonid Fedorov was beatified in June 2001 by PJPII (now a Saint).

      Btw, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church didn't fare any better. When Cardinal Joseph Slipyj was released as a result of the Vatican-Moscow agreement, he was expected to keep his mouth shut. Instead, he kept talking about the evils of Communism, which made the Vatican very uncomfortable.

      Also, Metropolitan Sheptytsky is still a Servant of God while PJPII was declared a saint less than 10 years after his death. (However, his brother Clement was also beatified by PJPII in June 2001 and is now Blessed Clement Sheptytsky.)

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    2. If any Eastern Catholic Church does not have its own bishop, the local Latin bishop is to take care of them - always preserving the patrimony of that particular Church - until that Eastern Catholic Church gets its own exarch or eparch.

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  4. They should tell Rome to KMA and elect their own patriarch.

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