[TaxachusettsMan]

It was sad, yet predictable, to see the Mainstream Press greet the election of the former Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, by doing all in its power to portray him as the Supreme Pontifical Skunk at the Ecumenical Lawn Party.

Better they should spend some time and energy on a TRUE ecumenical dud, Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow, a man who hasn't smiled since birth and who hasn't had a nice word to say about the Roman Catholic Church since he learned how to talk.

He has a "problem" with the Eastern Churches who are in communion with the Pope. Particularly with the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Understandable. Since Stalin liquidated that Church, stole its buildings, and martyred its clergy and religious in staggering numbers back in the mid to late 1940s.

When the Soviet Union fell, parish after parish (and more frightening for Alexy, no doubt, priest after priest and parishioner after parishioner) came out of the catacombs to declare their restored communion with "the Pope of Rome" as they sing in the Divine Liturgy (about five or six commemorations in the Eastern Divine Liturgy compared to our single one in the Roman Rite!).

The reaction from up above - Moscow - was predictable, but over and over again the press echoes the Party Line (make no mistake, the Soviets may be gone, but it's still the Party line!) about the dastardly "proselytizing" by Roman Catholics.

Now tell me: if the Episcopal Church in the USA had stolen all our Roman Catholic church buildings in the 1940s, with the strong arm of the US government directing the take-over, and we had a chance to take them all back and declare our Roman Catholic loyalty publically 50 or 60 years later: do you think the Episcopal Church would be gracious or nasty about it? Do you think some born Episcopalians would jump ship and join the formerly persecuted Catholics?

That's pretty much what has been happening in the domain of Alexy II.

We can send Cardinal Kasper over on 100 trips, with the choir from the Russicum to provide background music, and restore the icon that belonged to the Russian Orthodox - and it's STILL not good enough! Pope Paul VI once knelt on the floor of St Peter's Basilica and kissed the feet of the Orthodox delegation to Vatican II. I'll not bother with the next (very obvious) line, but apparently even foot-kissing isn't enough!

As Fr. Robert Taft, S.J., a Vatican expert on the whole "problem" says, "They [Orthodox] believe rightly but behave badly."

Lay Roman Catholics in the USA have no problem offering vocal criticism of our hierarchy when we think it is due. It would be nice to hear some Russian Orthodox faithful (and maybe even some bishops!) tell Alexy: "Your Holiness: new Pope, new day, new attitude!" In fact they might even send Alexy the words of the supposedly "hard-line" Pope Benedict on the morning after his election:

"Nourished and sustained by the Eucharist, Catholics cannot but feel stimulated to tend towards that full unity for which Christ hoped in the Cenacle. Peter's Successor knows that he must take on this supreme desire of the Divine Master in a particularly special way. To him, indeed, has been entrusted the duty of strengthening his brethren.

"Thus, in full awareness and at the beginning of his ministry in the Church of Rome that Peter bathed with his blood, the current Successor assumes as his primary commitment that of working tirelessly towards the reconstitution of the full and visible unity of all Christ's followers. This is his ambition, this is his compelling duty. He is aware that to do so, expressions of good feelings are not enough. Concrete gestures are required to penetrate souls and move consciences, encouraging everyone to that interior conversion which is the basis for all progress on the road of ecumenism.

"Theological dialogue is necessary. A profound examination of the historical reasons behind past choices is also indispensable. But even more urgent is that 'purification of memory,' which was so often evoked by John Paul II, and which alone can dispose souls to welcome the full truth of Christ. It is before Him, supreme Judge of all living things, that each of us must stand, in the awareness that one day we must explain to Him what we did and what we did not do for the great good that is the full and visible unity of all His disciples.

"The current Successor of Peter feels himself to be personally implicated in this question and is disposed to do all in his power to promote the fundamental cause of ecumenism. In the wake of his predecessors, he is fully determined to cultivate any initiative that may seem appropriate to promote contact and agreement with representatives from the various Churches and ecclesial communities. Indeed, on this occasion too, he sends them his most cordial greetings in Christ, the one Lord of all."

[conservlib]

I agree with the Russian Patriarch. The Catholic Church and its money can be better spent spreading the Gospel to people who do not know Christ, like India, China, Japan, Pakistan, Indonesia,.....You have billions of people to convert to Christianity, why are you picking on the Russians? At least they used to be Orthodox. Orthodox is the closest thing to Catholic, so let the Russian Orthodox bring back their lost people. Even pay them money to bring them back to the church. Steeling market share is a big mistake that Pope John Paul II did in Russia. I loved that Pope, and defended him, and am catholic too, but the truth must be told. If we are going to reunite all Christians, we have to start with honesty.

[Thorin]

>>>>>>Better they should spend some time and energy on a TRUE ecumenical dud, Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow, a man who hasn't smiled since birth and who hasn't had a nice word to say about the Roman Catholic Church since he learned how to talk.

Amen!

>>>>>>He has a "problem" with the Eastern Churches who are in communion with the Pope. Particularly with the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Understandable. Since Stalin liquidated that Church, stole its buildings, and martyred its clergy and religious in staggering numbers back in the mid to late 1940s.

You are right: the Orthodox treatment of the Ukrainian Catholics is a scandal.

[dangus]

Pray for the Russian Orthodox Church to be liberated from the Communist-Party domination it suffers under.

Born in 1929, Alexi II was ordained in 1953, and was made Bishop of Estonia in 1961 at only 32 years old. In 1964, he was made Archbishop, and in 1968 -- at only 39 years old -- was made metropolitan.

A 35-year-old Archbishop? According to documents found in Estonian KGB Archives, he had become a KGB agent at 29 years old. He was routinely honored with state and clerical titles by the Stalinist regime, and was a major promoter, and sometime leader of the World Council of Churches, which has been exposed as a KGB plot to infect Western churches with Marxist ideology. He became Russian Patriarch in 1990, under Boris Yeltsin, and has tightly held Vladimir Putin's party line.

[lizol]

Ping!

[sergey1973]

When Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, thousands and thousands of Russian Orthodox priests and monks were brutally and sadistically murdered or thrown into Concentration Camps. Russian Orthodox Patriarch Tikhon issued an anathema against Bolshevik Regime and for that he was periodically imprisoned and harrassed. His death in 1925 was rumored to be orchestrated by the Bolshevik Regime.

http://www.roca.org/oa/18/18e.htm

The current official Russian Orthodox church headed by Alexy II came into existence as the result of pro-Bolshevik collaborative schismatic movement within Orthodoxy supported by Bolshevik regime. In 1920's, a certain number of Bishops chose to collaborate with Bolsheviks in one way or the other. After the Tikhon death and with assistance of the new regime, the collaborators essentially took over Moscow Patriarchate thus taking over the leadership of Russian Orthodox Church. Some of these Bishops chose collaboration in hope of preserving the Church in some form, but as the result of the collaboration with fanatically atheistic and totalitarian Bolshevik authorities, the official Russian Orthodox Church under the Bolshevik leadership became a tool used by the regime for their un-Godly purposes. This collaboration resulted in split between official Russian Orthodox Church who proclaimed loyalty to Bolsheviks and the refugees from Bolshevism in Europe who set up Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

Overall, Orthodoxy, like Catholicism, across centuries, had its martyrs, Holy People, great intellectuals and villains. Orthodox and Catholic churches have generally cordial relations here in America because US does not have state religion and does not play one religion against the other. When Orthodox Church in Russia will be divorced from State Powers, I'm sure the friendship with Catholics will become almost a certainty.

[wimpycat]

Alexy ruled out the possibility of inviting Benedict to Russia in the near future, calling on the new pope to address the proselytizing of Orthodox followers by Catholic missionaries that he alleges went on during John Paul's reign.:

There's nothing like a little competition to keep you on your toes, Father. You just need to try harder. That's the beauty of a capitalist system, and it's the beauty of freedom of religion. You're just not used to either of those concepts yet.

[NYer]

Thank you for this great post! It is a reminder of how 'stubborness' can permeate our lives and overtake what we know to be true in our souls.

From Zenit News Agency:

Date: 2005-04-21

Russian Catholics Invite Pope to Visit

MOSCOW, APRIL 21, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Catholic Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God of Moscow has invited the newly Pope Benedict XVI to visit Russia.

A message sent to the Holy Father expresses "the hope of a visit of yours to Russia … to reaffirm us in the faith and to develop the dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church."

"I wish to assure you, Holiness, that Russian Catholics will support you with their prayers and will ask the Lord to give you the physical and spiritual strength" to realize "the difficult mission that has been entrusted to you," he adds.

Archbishop Kondrusiewicz also wrote a letter, which will be read in parishes during next Sunday's Mass, in which he mentions that some books of then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, such as "Introduction to Christianity," are very popular in Russia.

The prelate believes that Benedict XVI will help the Church of today "to find the remedy against the pernicious influence of secularism and relativism."


Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz

Eastern Catholic Ping List
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[Conservative til I die]

I've really, really grown tired of the Russian Orthodox Church and their un-Christian witness.

[A. Pole]

Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow, a man who hasn't smiled since birth and who hasn't had a nice word to say about the Roman Catholic Church since he learned how to talk. He has a "problem" with the Eastern Churches who are in communion with the Pope. Particularly with the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Understandable. Since Stalin liquidated that Church, stole its buildings, and martyred its clergy and religious in staggering numbers back in the mid to late 1940s.

It is very insidious how you spin this story. Are you saying that Russian Orthodox Christians suffered LESS under the rule of militant atheists? Did they lose less clergy and faithful in the Gulag?

Soon you will blame Buddhists for the killing fields of Cambodia and Lutherans or Catholics for the Nazi atrocities. Shame on you.

[GOP_1900AD]

RE: Alexy ruled out the possibility of inviting Benedict to Russia in the near future, calling on the new pope to address the proselytizing of Orthodox followers by Catholic missionaries that he alleges went on during John Paul's reign.

Oooh, oooh, proselytizing! How evil! / sarcasm. I mean, look at the US, where churches go after converts from each other left and right. Speaking of which, let's see, which church has become one of the more aggressive ones in terms of seeking converts from long established churches? Which church brags extensively about its growth, almost as if calling coup?

[Cultural Jihad]

"There cannot be a visit for the sake of a visit."

As it says in the Gospels, eh?

[Ciexyz]

The window of religious freedom has been closing in Russia in recent years. I'd have to do some research on the matter before I can post any details, but I know that missionaries of many Western churches (Roman Catholic, evangelical etc.) have been saying that we have to get into Russia before the doors close and we should pray for the spread of the gospel in Russia, because the government is less and less hospitable to foreign missionaries.