MOSCOW — The head of the Russian Orthodox Church said Wednesday that although the church views homosexuality as a sin, gays should not face discrimination.
Patriarch Kirill said "those who sin" must not be punished and therefore the church opposes any discrimination. Same-sex unions, however, should not be considered equal to heterosexual marriages, he said.
"We accept all the choices a person makes — in terms of their sexuality as well," the patriarch said in comments carried by the state RIA Novosti news agency.
Gay rights advocates argue that homosexuality is not wrong because it is an in-born orientation, but the church insists that it is a choice.
It was unclear to what extent the patriarch was easing church dogma in his carefully chosen statements, made during a meeting with visiting Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland.
Opposition to gay rights remains widespread in Russia, where homosexuality was decriminalized only in 1993.
Several high-profile Russian politicians have spoken against gay rights. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov once described gays as "sodomites" and has blamed them for spreading AIDS.
Kirill, who was elected patriarch in January, has been seen as a modernizer and a politically savvy figure, but so far he has made no major statements that would signal a shift in the church's conservative views on homosexuality and abortion.
Link to original...
Showing posts with label Orthodoxy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orthodoxy. Show all posts
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Wave of Clergy Killings in Russia
Voice of America
The second murder of a Russian priest in as many months has prompted a call by the Orthodox Church for Russians to think about their country's spiritual and moral condition. The killings follow more violence this year directed against Muslim clerics in Russia's troubled Caucasus region.
Tuesday's shooting death of 39-year-old priest Alexander Filippov is alleged to be the act of two intoxicated men in the village of Satino-Russkoye near Moscow. His widow is quoted as saying Filippov had reproached the suspects for relieving themselves at the entrance of their apartment building.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, called Filippov a bright and clean-living individual who leaves behind three daughters.
Kirill says the priest was killed because he was not indifferent to disgusting human behavior and took a principled stand against it in accordance with his calling.
The Interfax News Agency says a total of 26 Orthodox priests have been murdered in Russia since 1990. Many others have been assaulted. They include Vitaly Zubkov, who was kicked and beaten last month, just days after the murder of his friend, Father Daniil Sysoyev in Moscow. Sysoyev had received death threats for his outspoken criticism of Islam and attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity.
News reports quote Orthodox Church Spokesman Vladimir Legoida as saying that recent events show Russians must think of the spiritual and moral situation they live in.
The head of the Religion and Law Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Roman Lunkin, told VOA many Russians call themselves Orthodox Christians but have no idea about the obligations required by organized religion. He says Russian spiritual leaders themselves often set the wrong example by mixing church-state relations.
Lunkin says church leaders send a signal that to call oneself an Orthodox, it is enough to maintain close ties with the state or government officials and to participate in official ceremonies. He says this reveals an absence of true faith, adding that priests often begin with the construction of a church building, instead of first organizing a community of believers.
Lunkin says communism stripped many Russians of religious faith, and with it any respect for priests and churches.
Lunkin recalls an incident several years ago when a priest began building a church in the Ivanovo region north of Moscow and arrived one morning to find that local residents had dismantled the structure for its bricks because there was no organized community in that village and no one knew what Orthodoxy was. He adds that local hooligans who killed the priest considered themselves to be Orthodox.
Russia's Islamic community has also been rocked this year by several high-profile killings of Muslim clerics in the Caucasus. They include Akhmed Tagayev, deputy mufti of Dagestan, and Ismail Bostanov, rector of the Islamic Institute in the southern Karachai-Cherkessia region.
Some observers link those murders to Islamic militants who are fighting pro-Kremlin authorities. The deputy head of Russia's Mufti Council, Damir Khazrat Gizatullin rejects any connection. He told VOA he attributes the violence to incivility throughout Russia stemming from 70 years of communist rule.
Gizatullin says people in Russia do not know how to listen to one another, to give others the right away on the road, or to understand the foundations of spirituality and religion. This, he concludes, leads to current situation, which follows 70 years of alienation from the spiritual roots and traditions of Russia. He says people now fail to realize that members of the clergy and all others are protected by the Almighty and by the law.
He says Communists also made the mistake of focusing on the construction of buildings at the expense of community.
Gizatullin says Soviet authorities wanted to construct more living space for people, but toilets and other communal structures were forgotten. He says there was no time, no energy, and no resources for such things, and now Russia is reaping those elements of Soviet life.
Murders of prominent Russians are not limited to the clergy. Investigative journalists and political activists have also been victims. Most of the killers remain at large.
Link to original...
The second murder of a Russian priest in as many months has prompted a call by the Orthodox Church for Russians to think about their country's spiritual and moral condition. The killings follow more violence this year directed against Muslim clerics in Russia's troubled Caucasus region.
Tuesday's shooting death of 39-year-old priest Alexander Filippov is alleged to be the act of two intoxicated men in the village of Satino-Russkoye near Moscow. His widow is quoted as saying Filippov had reproached the suspects for relieving themselves at the entrance of their apartment building.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, called Filippov a bright and clean-living individual who leaves behind three daughters.
Kirill says the priest was killed because he was not indifferent to disgusting human behavior and took a principled stand against it in accordance with his calling.
The Interfax News Agency says a total of 26 Orthodox priests have been murdered in Russia since 1990. Many others have been assaulted. They include Vitaly Zubkov, who was kicked and beaten last month, just days after the murder of his friend, Father Daniil Sysoyev in Moscow. Sysoyev had received death threats for his outspoken criticism of Islam and attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity.
News reports quote Orthodox Church Spokesman Vladimir Legoida as saying that recent events show Russians must think of the spiritual and moral situation they live in.
The head of the Religion and Law Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Roman Lunkin, told VOA many Russians call themselves Orthodox Christians but have no idea about the obligations required by organized religion. He says Russian spiritual leaders themselves often set the wrong example by mixing church-state relations.
Lunkin says church leaders send a signal that to call oneself an Orthodox, it is enough to maintain close ties with the state or government officials and to participate in official ceremonies. He says this reveals an absence of true faith, adding that priests often begin with the construction of a church building, instead of first organizing a community of believers.
Lunkin says communism stripped many Russians of religious faith, and with it any respect for priests and churches.
Lunkin recalls an incident several years ago when a priest began building a church in the Ivanovo region north of Moscow and arrived one morning to find that local residents had dismantled the structure for its bricks because there was no organized community in that village and no one knew what Orthodoxy was. He adds that local hooligans who killed the priest considered themselves to be Orthodox.
Russia's Islamic community has also been rocked this year by several high-profile killings of Muslim clerics in the Caucasus. They include Akhmed Tagayev, deputy mufti of Dagestan, and Ismail Bostanov, rector of the Islamic Institute in the southern Karachai-Cherkessia region.
Some observers link those murders to Islamic militants who are fighting pro-Kremlin authorities. The deputy head of Russia's Mufti Council, Damir Khazrat Gizatullin rejects any connection. He told VOA he attributes the violence to incivility throughout Russia stemming from 70 years of communist rule.
Gizatullin says people in Russia do not know how to listen to one another, to give others the right away on the road, or to understand the foundations of spirituality and religion. This, he concludes, leads to current situation, which follows 70 years of alienation from the spiritual roots and traditions of Russia. He says people now fail to realize that members of the clergy and all others are protected by the Almighty and by the law.
He says Communists also made the mistake of focusing on the construction of buildings at the expense of community.
Gizatullin says Soviet authorities wanted to construct more living space for people, but toilets and other communal structures were forgotten. He says there was no time, no energy, and no resources for such things, and now Russia is reaping those elements of Soviet life.
Murders of prominent Russians are not limited to the clergy. Investigative journalists and political activists have also been victims. Most of the killers remain at large.
Link to original...
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Orthodox Church Saved Russia from Both Reds and Whites
In represents the latest effort of Russian nationalist activists close to the Moscow Patriarchate to promote the role of Orthodoxy in Russia, a new book on the Russian Civil War argues that the Church saved Russians from the catastrophes that would have been visited on them by any final victory of either the Reds or the Whites.
The book, “The Civil War in Russia: An Encyclopedia of a Catastrophe” (in Russian; Moscow: Sibirsky Tsiryul’nik, 2010, compiled by Dmitry Volodikhin), argues, according to a review by Pavel Svyatenkov, that “the official historiography” of that long-ago conflict is completely wrong (www.russ.ru/pole/Cerkov-po-tu-storonu-belogo-i-krasnogo).
That historiography, Svyatenkov writes, views the Civil War “through the prism of the conflict of the Reds and the Whites,” with the battle presented as one between “the central Bolshevik government in Moscow” and “numerous ‘separatists’ – the White generals Kolchak, Denikin, Yudenich and Wrangel.”
Consequently, “from the point of view of Soviet historiography as it was established under Stalin, the Bolsheviks behaved as ‘Ivan Kalitas,’ as ingatherers of the Russian lands that had fallen away.” And “therefore, the cult of empire in the post-Soviet period is not accidental – its roots are in the propaganda model of Stalinist times.”
Link to original...
The book, “The Civil War in Russia: An Encyclopedia of a Catastrophe” (in Russian; Moscow: Sibirsky Tsiryul’nik, 2010, compiled by Dmitry Volodikhin), argues, according to a review by Pavel Svyatenkov, that “the official historiography” of that long-ago conflict is completely wrong (www.russ.ru/pole/Cerkov-po-tu-storonu-belogo-i-krasnogo).
That historiography, Svyatenkov writes, views the Civil War “through the prism of the conflict of the Reds and the Whites,” with the battle presented as one between “the central Bolshevik government in Moscow” and “numerous ‘separatists’ – the White generals Kolchak, Denikin, Yudenich and Wrangel.”
Consequently, “from the point of view of Soviet historiography as it was established under Stalin, the Bolsheviks behaved as ‘Ivan Kalitas,’ as ingatherers of the Russian lands that had fallen away.” And “therefore, the cult of empire in the post-Soviet period is not accidental – its roots are in the propaganda model of Stalinist times.”
Link to original...
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Catholics and Orthodox Sharing Priestly Duties in India
Catholic and Orthodox Churches have agreed to share priestly services and infrastructure, in a major development in their 356-year-old troubled history.
The Inter-religious Dialogue Commission of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council met with the Syrian Jacobite and Syrian orthodox Churches mid December to seek ways to foster better unity and cooperation among them, UCA News reports.
The three Churches are based in Kerala, southern India, and trace their faith to Saint Thomas the Apostle.
The Church split in 1653 after Portuguese missioners tried to impose their ways on the native Christians.
Link to orignal...
The Inter-religious Dialogue Commission of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council met with the Syrian Jacobite and Syrian orthodox Churches mid December to seek ways to foster better unity and cooperation among them, UCA News reports.
The three Churches are based in Kerala, southern India, and trace their faith to Saint Thomas the Apostle.
The Church split in 1653 after Portuguese missioners tried to impose their ways on the native Christians.
Link to orignal...
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Moscow and Rome Making Progress
Inevitably, this is going to happen and it's just a matter of time. The friendly overtures on the part of the Bulgarians as well as the recent talks in Cyprus point to it, but there are negative reasons as well, threats that are far greater than the Turk.
By Oleg Shchedrov
MOSCOW, Dec 3 (Reuters) - The Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church are making progress towards healing their 1,000-year-old rift, a senior Russian official said ahead of President Dmitry Medvedev's first visit to the Vatican.
But the Russian leader will not invite Pope Benedict to make an historic visit to Russia when the two meet on Thursday because he believes church heads should take the initiative, said the official, who refused to be identified.
"It is not appropriate for a secular leader to raise the issue in the absence of a hierarch," the official said. "They (Church leaders) should decide the issue themselves."
"However, a movement towards normalisation is clearly seen and things are moving in the right direction," he added.
The Russian Orthodox Church has revived dramatically since the collapse of communism and is now a powerful and influential force. Its leader, Patriarch Kirill, is often seen with Kremlin chiefs, top officials and visiting foreign leaders.
Visits by Russian leaders to the Holy See in the past have failed to help heal the rift between the churches.
But fresh hopes emerged when Kirill took power after the death of his theologically more conservative predecessor Alexiy II last December.
Patriarch Alexiy, who spearheaded the revival of his church after decades of Communist persecution, treated rival religions and churches with suspicion.
The Russian Orthodox Church has accused the Vatican of poaching for converts in its territory, including Slav neighbour Ukraine. The Catholic Church says it is only ministering to an existing flock of around half a million Russian Catholics.
The mediaeval Christian church split into Eastern and Western branches in the Great Schism of 1054 amid disputes over papal authority and the insertion of a clause into the Nicene Creed. The divide has never been healed.
Patriarch Kirill, who headed the Church's foreign relations department for many years before taking his present job, has shown less hostility towards Catholics than Alexiy.
German-born Pope Benedict, a theological conservative, is viewed by Orthodox hierarchs as a more welcome partner than his predecessor John Paul II.
John Paul hailed from Poland, a traditional enemy of Russia, and his fight against Soviet Communism was interpreted by the Orthodox Church as a crusade against Russia.
In March, Medvedev took part in a ceremony in which the Italian government handed a pilgrimage centre in the southern city of Bari to the Orthodox Church.
"I think relations (between the churches) are now becoming more open," the Russian source said. "These steps show they are working on the atmosphere and we appreciate this."
© 2009 Reuters
Link to original...
By Oleg Shchedrov
MOSCOW, Dec 3 (Reuters) - The Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church are making progress towards healing their 1,000-year-old rift, a senior Russian official said ahead of President Dmitry Medvedev's first visit to the Vatican.
But the Russian leader will not invite Pope Benedict to make an historic visit to Russia when the two meet on Thursday because he believes church heads should take the initiative, said the official, who refused to be identified.
"It is not appropriate for a secular leader to raise the issue in the absence of a hierarch," the official said. "They (Church leaders) should decide the issue themselves."
"However, a movement towards normalisation is clearly seen and things are moving in the right direction," he added.
The Russian Orthodox Church has revived dramatically since the collapse of communism and is now a powerful and influential force. Its leader, Patriarch Kirill, is often seen with Kremlin chiefs, top officials and visiting foreign leaders.
Visits by Russian leaders to the Holy See in the past have failed to help heal the rift between the churches.
But fresh hopes emerged when Kirill took power after the death of his theologically more conservative predecessor Alexiy II last December.
Patriarch Alexiy, who spearheaded the revival of his church after decades of Communist persecution, treated rival religions and churches with suspicion.
The Russian Orthodox Church has accused the Vatican of poaching for converts in its territory, including Slav neighbour Ukraine. The Catholic Church says it is only ministering to an existing flock of around half a million Russian Catholics.
The mediaeval Christian church split into Eastern and Western branches in the Great Schism of 1054 amid disputes over papal authority and the insertion of a clause into the Nicene Creed. The divide has never been healed.
Patriarch Kirill, who headed the Church's foreign relations department for many years before taking his present job, has shown less hostility towards Catholics than Alexiy.
German-born Pope Benedict, a theological conservative, is viewed by Orthodox hierarchs as a more welcome partner than his predecessor John Paul II.
John Paul hailed from Poland, a traditional enemy of Russia, and his fight against Soviet Communism was interpreted by the Orthodox Church as a crusade against Russia.
In March, Medvedev took part in a ceremony in which the Italian government handed a pilgrimage centre in the southern city of Bari to the Orthodox Church.
"I think relations (between the churches) are now becoming more open," the Russian source said. "These steps show they are working on the atmosphere and we appreciate this."
© 2009 Reuters
Link to original...
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Orthodox Monastery at the End of the World
Antarctica has several religious buildings used for worship services: the Chapel of the Snows, Antarctica (a non-denominational Christian chapel at McMurdo Station), Trinity Church, Antarctica (a Russian Orthodox church at Bellingshausen Station), Santa Maria Reina de la Paz Church at the Villa Las Estrellas, and a permanent Catholic chapel made entirely of ice at Belgrano II Base. The Worldwide Antarctic Program proposes building a Catholic chapel at Mario Zucchelli Station, Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica; while the first Catholic chapel (named after Saint Francis of Assisi) was built in 1976 at the Argentine Esperanza Base. The southernmost Catholic chapel lies at the Argentine Belgrano II Base.
There are also churches on some of the Sub-Antarctic islands, including Grytviken on South Georgia; and Port-aux-Français on the main island of Kerguelen, and St. Ivan Rilski Chapel (a Bulgarian Orthodox chapel at St. Kliment Ohridski Base), San Francisco de Asis Chapel at Esperanza Base, South Shetland Islands.
Link to original...
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
New Uzbek Moves against Soviet and Orthodox Symbols a Challenge for Russia
Georgia Daily
November 23, 2009
Paul Goble
Tashkent’s decision to remove monuments glorifying Soviet military achievements and to tear down a Russian Orthodox church there dating from 1898 in the first instance reflects the Uzbek government’s desire to take greater control over its own national destiny.
But the combination of these actions – one Moscow newspaper suggested today that they were “removing the traces of the USSR and of Orthodoxy” from that Central Asian republic – create more than usual problems for Russia because it raises questions about the relationship of the Soviet and Russian past in the future.
And that relationship is increasingly sensitive not only in the ethnically charged atmosphere in the Russian population but also as President Dmitry Medvedev seeks to maintain the former Soviet space as a Russian sphere of influence even while pursuing closer relations with the Western powers.
Over the weekend, “Komsomolskaya Pravda” reported today, the Uzbek authorities demolished or moved away monuments that formed part of the Park of Military Glory that the Soviet authorities had set up in 1973 and tore down an Orthodox church as part of a plan to build a new government administration building (kp.ru/daily/24398/575153/).
Link to original...
November 23, 2009
Paul Goble
Tashkent’s decision to remove monuments glorifying Soviet military achievements and to tear down a Russian Orthodox church there dating from 1898 in the first instance reflects the Uzbek government’s desire to take greater control over its own national destiny.
But the combination of these actions – one Moscow newspaper suggested today that they were “removing the traces of the USSR and of Orthodoxy” from that Central Asian republic – create more than usual problems for Russia because it raises questions about the relationship of the Soviet and Russian past in the future.
And that relationship is increasingly sensitive not only in the ethnically charged atmosphere in the Russian population but also as President Dmitry Medvedev seeks to maintain the former Soviet space as a Russian sphere of influence even while pursuing closer relations with the Western powers.
Over the weekend, “Komsomolskaya Pravda” reported today, the Uzbek authorities demolished or moved away monuments that formed part of the Park of Military Glory that the Soviet authorities had set up in 1973 and tore down an Orthodox church as part of a plan to build a new government administration building (kp.ru/daily/24398/575153/).
Link to original...
Monday, November 23, 2009
Let's Face it: Russia is Dying
Some of us look hopefully at a resurgence of the Orthodox Faith in Russia as part of the promise Our Lady has made to convert Russia, yet Russia is dying. No consecration of Russia has happened yet, but there are signs and expectations. What seems to be the case is that no one but Our Lady can save her.
Telegraph Blogs
The BBC reports that Mr Bill Browder, head of a company called Hermitage Capital and once the largest foreign investor in Russia, has now described that large and empty country as “essentially a criminal state”. One’s first reaction is that Mr Browder, who has had far better opportunities for observation than most of us, has taken rather a long time to realise this. But then none of us has been particularly quick off the mark in grasping what has been right in front of our noses for years. Their representatives are still polluting the G8, the Council of Europe and other supposedly civilised institutions. We still pretend politely to take Mr Vladimir Putin seriously.
Read further...
See especially Pat Buchanan's Death of the West.
Also see, St. Jean Raspail.
Telegraph Blogs
The BBC reports that Mr Bill Browder, head of a company called Hermitage Capital and once the largest foreign investor in Russia, has now described that large and empty country as “essentially a criminal state”. One’s first reaction is that Mr Browder, who has had far better opportunities for observation than most of us, has taken rather a long time to realise this. But then none of us has been particularly quick off the mark in grasping what has been right in front of our noses for years. Their representatives are still polluting the G8, the Council of Europe and other supposedly civilised institutions. We still pretend politely to take Mr Vladimir Putin seriously.
Read further...
See especially Pat Buchanan's Death of the West.
Also see, St. Jean Raspail.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Famous Orthodox Missionary Murdered by Masked Gunman in Moscow
Moskau (kath.net/RNA)
35 Year old priest Daniil Syssojew was one of the most active missionaries in the Russian Orthodox Church.
He was killed by numerous shots fired at him in his church along with another priest who was wounded. It is possible that he was murdered out of religious motivations, as Interfax Agency the reported on Friday. Accordingly, a masked man was seen bursting into the church that Thursday evening.
He fired on Syssojew and wounded also another priest. The state prosecuter suspects radical Islamists or sects of the crime had assaulted the priest
Link to article..
Interfax...
35 Year old priest Daniil Syssojew was one of the most active missionaries in the Russian Orthodox Church.
He was killed by numerous shots fired at him in his church along with another priest who was wounded. It is possible that he was murdered out of religious motivations, as Interfax Agency the reported on Friday. Accordingly, a masked man was seen bursting into the church that Thursday evening.
He fired on Syssojew and wounded also another priest. The state prosecuter suspects radical Islamists or sects of the crime had assaulted the priest
Link to article..
Interfax...
Thursday, November 19, 2009
600,000 Serbs Mourn Patriarch Pavle at Holy Archangels Monastery near Belgrade
B92 News
The spiritual leader of the Serb Orthodox Christians was laid to rest this afternoon at the Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Rakovica, near Belgrade, next to Patriarch Dimitrije, who headed the Serb Church from 1920 until 1930.
The funeral service at the grave was served by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and the keeper of the throne of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) until a new patriarch has been elected, Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and Littoral.
A message from Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill was also read.
Read further...
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Lottery System to choose next Serbian Patriarch
Faith World
If U.S. voters elected their president in the same way the Serbian Orthodox Church chooses it patriarch, they could have seen Ralph Nader, Ross Perot or other third place finishers taking up residence in the White House. That’s because the Church, in a move originally aimed at thwarting Communist authorities, uses a system that incorporates a lottery within the election by church elders to choose a leader.
The Holy Synod of Bishops, the Church’s top executive body, will use that system within the next three months to elect a successor to Patriarch Pavle, who died on Sunday. Pavle headed the Serbian Orthodox Church during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s as Serbs warred with neighbours of other faiths.
Pavle, 95, died at Belgrade’s Military Hospital where he had been treated since 2007 for various ailments. As his health deteriorated, although nominally still head of the church until death, Pavle had given up its day-to-day running in 2008 to Bishop Amfilohije, who is seen as a Serb nationalist on issues such as Kosovo.
Read further...
If U.S. voters elected their president in the same way the Serbian Orthodox Church chooses it patriarch, they could have seen Ralph Nader, Ross Perot or other third place finishers taking up residence in the White House. That’s because the Church, in a move originally aimed at thwarting Communist authorities, uses a system that incorporates a lottery within the election by church elders to choose a leader.
The Holy Synod of Bishops, the Church’s top executive body, will use that system within the next three months to elect a successor to Patriarch Pavle, who died on Sunday. Pavle headed the Serbian Orthodox Church during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s as Serbs warred with neighbours of other faiths.
Pavle, 95, died at Belgrade’s Military Hospital where he had been treated since 2007 for various ailments. As his health deteriorated, although nominally still head of the church until death, Pavle had given up its day-to-day running in 2008 to Bishop Amfilohije, who is seen as a Serb nationalist on issues such as Kosovo.
Read further...
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Greek Orthodox solidarity in face of crucifix ban
The Turks were a good incentive for talks of reunion at the Council of Lyon in 1276 and at Ferrara-Florence in 1438. Now we together face both Islam and Secularism at the same time. Examples like this are further encouragements for those of us who are optomistic about an end to the Great Schism.
The Greek Orthodox Church is urging Christians across Europe to oppose a ban on crucifixes in classrooms in Italy. The ban came as a result of a November 3 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in France that the presence of crucifixes violated a child's right to freedom of religion. The European Court of Human Rights found that the compulsory display of crucifixes violated parents' rights to educate their children as they saw fit and restricted the right of children to believe or not to believe. Immediately after the ruling, Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said the crucifix was a fundamental sign of the importance of religious values in Italian history and culture and was a symbol of unity and welcoming for all of humanity — not one of exclusion.
Read Further...
The Greek Orthodox Church is urging Christians across Europe to oppose a ban on crucifixes in classrooms in Italy. The ban came as a result of a November 3 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in France that the presence of crucifixes violated a child's right to freedom of religion. The European Court of Human Rights found that the compulsory display of crucifixes violated parents' rights to educate their children as they saw fit and restricted the right of children to believe or not to believe. Immediately after the ruling, Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said the crucifix was a fundamental sign of the importance of religious values in Italian history and culture and was a symbol of unity and welcoming for all of humanity — not one of exclusion.
Read Further...
The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Pavle, has died in Belgrade, the Church has announced.
The patriarch, 95, became leader of the Church in 1990. He was admitted to the city's military hospital two years ago.
Though he reportedly suffered from heart and lung conditions, the Church did not specify the cause of death.
Most of Serbia's population of seven million people are Orthodox Christians. President Boris Tadic said this was "an irredeemable death" for the nation.
"There are people who bond entire nations and Pavle was such a person," Mr Tadic said in a statement.
"His death is also my personal loss," the president said.
Bishop Amfilohije, who has served as acting head of the church during most of Pavle's illness, broke into tears as he held a prayer after announcing the death.
Serbs mourn. Bells tolled from Serbian churches, as the government announced three days of mourning, beginning on Monday.
Another bishop, Lavrentije, said the patriarch's death was no reason to be sad.
"The Serbian people now have someone to represent them before God better than anyone else," Lavrentije said.
The Church's highest body, the Holy Synod, may announce as early as Monday when a new patriarch will be chosen - usually after at least 40 days.
Serb interests
Pavle was a respected theologian and linguist, known for personal humility and modesty.
After the fall of communism and rise of Serb nationalism, the Church regained a leading role during his rule.
At the beginning of the Balkan wars that followed the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Pavle said - according to Serbian state television: "It is our oath not to make a single child cry or sadden a single old woman because they are of another religion or nation."
But critics accused him of failing to contain hardline bishops and priests who supported Serb paramilitaries against Catholic Croats and Bosnian Muslims.
After those wars, Pavle became more directly involved - openly criticising Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, after he lost Kosovo following Nato's intervention.
Since then, the Serbian Orthodox Church has strongly supported the Serbian government in its efforts to stop Kosovo's independence drive.
"Kosovo is not only a question of territory, it is a question of our spiritual being," he said after Kosovo's declaration of independence.
Link to article...
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Russian Church is to suspend its dialogue with German Lutherans
German Lutherans must not have much of a commitment to ecumenical dialogue if they're so insensitive as to ordain a female Bishop as they've done recently. It can't bode well either that the Swedish Lutheran Church has ordained a female homosexual either. Lines are being drawn in this battle, and it looks like dying protestant denominations are doing almost as much for the Catholic cause as Benedict by making an infernal marriage with the spirit of the post-modern age.
Moscow, November 12, Interfax – The Russian Orthodox Church is ready to suspend the dialogue with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany after woman bishop Margot Kaessmann has become its leader.
“We planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our dialogue with the Lutheran Church in Germany in late November or early December. The 50th anniversary of the dialogue will become the end of it,” head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk was quoted as saying by the Kommersant daily on Thursday.
Archbishop Hilarion reminded that Orthodoxy did not accept female priesthood.
“We can develop the dialogue, but there raise lots of simple protocol questions. How will the Patriarch address her or meet with her?” the Russian Church representative said.
Kaessmann, 51, a divorced mother of four daughters, was elected head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany, which unites over twenty Lutheran and Reformed Churches, during the Synod held on October 28.
Russian Lutherans supported the Moscow Patriarchate official’s statement and agreed that female episcopate is a sign of crisis in the Western society.
“We don’t have women bishops as introducing such an institute is not a Biblical action,” general secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria (Russia) Fr. Alexander Prilutsky said.
Link to article...
Moscow, November 12, Interfax – The Russian Orthodox Church is ready to suspend the dialogue with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany after woman bishop Margot Kaessmann has become its leader.
“We planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our dialogue with the Lutheran Church in Germany in late November or early December. The 50th anniversary of the dialogue will become the end of it,” head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk was quoted as saying by the Kommersant daily on Thursday.
Archbishop Hilarion reminded that Orthodoxy did not accept female priesthood.
“We can develop the dialogue, but there raise lots of simple protocol questions. How will the Patriarch address her or meet with her?” the Russian Church representative said.
Kaessmann, 51, a divorced mother of four daughters, was elected head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany, which unites over twenty Lutheran and Reformed Churches, during the Synod held on October 28.
Russian Lutherans supported the Moscow Patriarchate official’s statement and agreed that female episcopate is a sign of crisis in the Western society.
“We don’t have women bishops as introducing such an institute is not a Biblical action,” general secretary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria (Russia) Fr. Alexander Prilutsky said.
Link to article...
Meeting possible between Pope, Patriarch Kirill - Archbishop Hilarion
Moscow, November 12, Interfax - Relations between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches are improving and a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and the Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, may be on the cards, a Russian Orthodox bishop said.
"Today it can be said that we are moving to a moment when it becomes possible to prepare a meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch of Moscow," Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the head of the Department for External Church Relations, told reporters in Moscow.
"There are no specific plans for the venue or timing of such a meeting but on both sides there is a desire to prepare it," the Archbishop said.
Preparations for such a meeting must involve finding "a common platform on all remaining points of dispute," the Archbishop said.
One such issue are relations between the Uniate community and Orthodox believers in Ukraine. In the early 1990s, "the fragile interdenominational balance was upset and a serious situation took shape that still exists," Archbishop Hilarion said.
At the same time, conversion of Orthodox believers into Catholicism is less of a problem today than it was a decade ago, he said.
Benedict XVI is "a very reserved, traditional man who does not seek the expansion of the Catholic Church to traditionally Orthodox regions," the Archbishop said.
When Benedict XVI, shortly after being elected Pope, met with Metropolitan Kirill (the present Russian Patriarch, then head of the DECR, a papal visit to Russia "was taken off the agenda as now it appears to us to be impossible," the bishop said.
After Metropolitan Kirill has been elected Patriarch, "one can hope for further steps" in Orthodox-Catholic dialogue because the Patriarch "will continue the line on relations with Christians of other denominations that he pursued as part of his former activities," the Archbishop said.
Link to article...
"Today it can be said that we are moving to a moment when it becomes possible to prepare a meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch of Moscow," Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the head of the Department for External Church Relations, told reporters in Moscow.
"There are no specific plans for the venue or timing of such a meeting but on both sides there is a desire to prepare it," the Archbishop said.
Preparations for such a meeting must involve finding "a common platform on all remaining points of dispute," the Archbishop said.
One such issue are relations between the Uniate community and Orthodox believers in Ukraine. In the early 1990s, "the fragile interdenominational balance was upset and a serious situation took shape that still exists," Archbishop Hilarion said.
At the same time, conversion of Orthodox believers into Catholicism is less of a problem today than it was a decade ago, he said.
Benedict XVI is "a very reserved, traditional man who does not seek the expansion of the Catholic Church to traditionally Orthodox regions," the Archbishop said.
When Benedict XVI, shortly after being elected Pope, met with Metropolitan Kirill (the present Russian Patriarch, then head of the DECR, a papal visit to Russia "was taken off the agenda as now it appears to us to be impossible," the bishop said.
After Metropolitan Kirill has been elected Patriarch, "one can hope for further steps" in Orthodox-Catholic dialogue because the Patriarch "will continue the line on relations with Christians of other denominations that he pursued as part of his former activities," the Archbishop said.
Link to article...
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Orthodoxy again becoming Russia's State Religion
by Christopher A. Ferrara
Two recent developments remind us of the centrality of Russia in the future of our troubled world. In the first, as reported by The New York Times in mid-August, Russian nuclear-powered submarines have been detected patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States, “a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military… [and] has echoes of the cold war era, when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly parked submarines off each other’s coasts to steal military secrets, track the movements of their underwater fleets — and be poised for war.” (New York Times, 4 August 2009).
The Times, quoting a naval historian, notes that there had not been any Russian subs in that class off the United States coast for about fifteen years. “Anytime the Russian Navy does something so out of the ordinary it is cause for worry,” said a senior Defense Department official quoted in the piece. “We’re concerned just because they are there,” he added.
The second development, which has been underway since 2006, is that Russian pupils in the regions of Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga and Smolensk “will be taught the basics of Orthodox Christianity” in the classroom, and that the subject will also be included as an option “in the school curriculum in 11 other regions across the country.” (BBC, 31 August 2006). It seems that “lawmakers in the 15 regions backed the move” even though it would appear to contradict the requirement of state secularity in the Russian constitution. Russian Education Minister Andrei Fursenko is quoted as saying that “schoolchildren must know the history of religion and religious culture.”
What are we to make of these developments? On the human level, together they indicate a program already observed in this column: Putin’s harnessing of Russian Orthodoxy to nationalism in a rebirth of Russia as a dominant geopolitical player — a project that also includes the rehabilitation of Stalin as a “great leader.” The idea that Putin wants to convert Russia into a nation of pious and prayerful Orthodox is laughable. There is no sign that Russia has turned away from its binge of abortion, alcohol and divorce.
Then again, in God’s providence what is happening in the Russian schools and her military buildup could both be a material preparation — quite unintended by their proponents — for the true conversion of Russia and her reunion with Rome to save the West in the midst of some dire scenario like the one predicted by the Russian mystic and philosopher Vladimir Soloviev at the turn of the 20th Century.
All things work together in the divine plan, whether or not God’s rebellious subjects freely cooperate in it. Thus there is reason to hope that, whatever Putin intends, Russia is being prepared for its consecration and the consequent Triumph of the Immaculate Heart — an event that, as Antonio Socci has so eloquently put it, will mean “a radical and extraordinary change in the world, an overthrow of the mentality dominating modernity, probably following dramatic events for humanity.” Clearly, those dramatic events are very near.
Link to article...
Two recent developments remind us of the centrality of Russia in the future of our troubled world. In the first, as reported by The New York Times in mid-August, Russian nuclear-powered submarines have been detected patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States, “a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military… [and] has echoes of the cold war era, when the United States and the Soviet Union regularly parked submarines off each other’s coasts to steal military secrets, track the movements of their underwater fleets — and be poised for war.” (New York Times, 4 August 2009).
The Times, quoting a naval historian, notes that there had not been any Russian subs in that class off the United States coast for about fifteen years. “Anytime the Russian Navy does something so out of the ordinary it is cause for worry,” said a senior Defense Department official quoted in the piece. “We’re concerned just because they are there,” he added.
The second development, which has been underway since 2006, is that Russian pupils in the regions of Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga and Smolensk “will be taught the basics of Orthodox Christianity” in the classroom, and that the subject will also be included as an option “in the school curriculum in 11 other regions across the country.” (BBC, 31 August 2006). It seems that “lawmakers in the 15 regions backed the move” even though it would appear to contradict the requirement of state secularity in the Russian constitution. Russian Education Minister Andrei Fursenko is quoted as saying that “schoolchildren must know the history of religion and religious culture.”
What are we to make of these developments? On the human level, together they indicate a program already observed in this column: Putin’s harnessing of Russian Orthodoxy to nationalism in a rebirth of Russia as a dominant geopolitical player — a project that also includes the rehabilitation of Stalin as a “great leader.” The idea that Putin wants to convert Russia into a nation of pious and prayerful Orthodox is laughable. There is no sign that Russia has turned away from its binge of abortion, alcohol and divorce.
Then again, in God’s providence what is happening in the Russian schools and her military buildup could both be a material preparation — quite unintended by their proponents — for the true conversion of Russia and her reunion with Rome to save the West in the midst of some dire scenario like the one predicted by the Russian mystic and philosopher Vladimir Soloviev at the turn of the 20th Century.
All things work together in the divine plan, whether or not God’s rebellious subjects freely cooperate in it. Thus there is reason to hope that, whatever Putin intends, Russia is being prepared for its consecration and the consequent Triumph of the Immaculate Heart — an event that, as Antonio Socci has so eloquently put it, will mean “a radical and extraordinary change in the world, an overthrow of the mentality dominating modernity, probably following dramatic events for humanity.” Clearly, those dramatic events are very near.
Link to article...
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The State Departement is Displeased with Bulgaria
Intolerance by Bulgarian local authorities of non-Orthodox Christian religious groups and anti-Semitic messages by Volen Siderov’s Ataka party are among issues raised in the US state department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report, released on October 26 2009.
The report said that Bulgaria’s constitution provides for freedom of religion and prohibits religious discrimination but designates Eastern Orthodox Christianity as the "traditional" religion.
Read more...
Monday, October 26, 2009
"Ratzinger Blitzkriegs Protestants." Are you Sure?
It's so great that others are fully perceiving the greatness and decisiveness of this bold master stroke as Der Panzerpapst has effectively drawn attention to the teetering structure of Anglican Catholicism while opening a door to disaffected Traditional Anglicans who can no longer find a home in the toxic atmosphere of the CoE. This article by an writer at the Trumpet, however, is willing to view Cardinal Kasper's sidelining as an accidental oversight. It takes away the contrast between two respective and irreconcilable approaches to Ecumenism, one faltering and indecisive and the other reminiscent of the Great Commission.
Everything else is idle speculation and definitely an indication that there was far more hope of re-union with the Traditional Anglicans than there is with the Orthodox who, while being positive to these overtures and willing to discuss, are far less sanguine to the ecumenicism of engagement and more hesitant to reunite.
The Trumpet, for those of you who might not know is a publication produced in Philadelphia by The Church of God.
Article Here...
Did Benedict’s seeming undue haste [He can't be bold and in undue haste at the same time] to make this announcement perhaps have bearing on the reason why the German Cardinal Kasper was in Cyprus? Was it timed to send a signal to the Eastern Orthodox hierarchy that the pope is ready to make similar concessions to the Orthodox community if they capitulate to Rome? After all, Kasper was Johnny on the spot to assess their reaction to this dramatic announcement to then be in a position to report that reaction firsthand to Benedict upon his return to Rome from Nicosia.
Everything else is idle speculation and definitely an indication that there was far more hope of re-union with the Traditional Anglicans than there is with the Orthodox who, while being positive to these overtures and willing to discuss, are far less sanguine to the ecumenicism of engagement and more hesitant to reunite.
The Trumpet, for those of you who might not know is a publication produced in Philadelphia by The Church of God.
Article Here...
Friday, October 23, 2009
Bulgarian Patriarch Eager For Union With Rome.
VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org) Bulgarian Orthodox prelate told Benedict XVI of his desire for unity, and his commitment to accelerate communion with the Catholic Church.
At the end of Wednesday's general audience, Bishop Tichon, head of the diocese for Central and Western Europe of the Patriarchate of Bulgaria, stated to the Pope, "We must find unity as soon as possible and finally celebrate together," L'Osservatore Romano reported.
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