Posted on 04/18/2026 6:08:47 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
It's an incredibly painful and difficult thing to realize that you really cannot completely trust ecclesial authority -- not Catholic, not Orthodox, not Protestant...
I am an Orthodox Christian, and my faith today is not challenged by revelations like that about the Romanian patriarch. Why is that? Because I also know that the corruption of the clergy does not negate the truths proclaimed by the Church (not the core ones)...
This research I'm doing for my next book, about re-enchantment, has been a great booster of my faith, in fact. It makes very clear that God is real, Christ is real, and that the holy work of the Church (churches) continues despite the corruption of the clergy...
I'm writing about stories like the young Italian man I met in Barcelona a few years back...He was raised in Rome, in an atheist family. One day... he was walking around Rome with his buddies, when a homeless man approached him, greeted him by name, told him that he (the homeless man) had been waiting for this moment, and then proceeded to tell him his sins. The mysterious stranger told him that Christ was calling him -- then the man walked away, and disappeared. It rocked the teenager to the bottom of his soul. Eventually he converted to Christianity, and get this: he witnessed to his entire family, and they converted too...
There are so many stories like this...that nevertheless testify to the truth of what Christianity claims. As wicked as churchmen can be, that wickedness does not negate these truths, this reality -- but it can most definitely obscure it!
In "Andrei Rublev," the title character -- regains his faith, not by denying the evil in the world -- but by learning how to see through it to the truth of Christ.
(Excerpt) Read more at theamericanconservative.com ...
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Scripture says, “He that trusts in man is under a curse.”
The only thing I trust is God’s Word...Never has failed me yet...
Who is the Romanian patriarch?
It was painful and difficult to wake up to the realization that men can't be trusted?????
Wow, someone sure has been living in a bubble if they thought they could trust a religion or so-called religious leaders.
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