Posted on 12/17/2006 7:09:11 PM PST by Zemo
November 20, 2006
Russian Orthodox cleric says Catholics are allies
File photo of Pope Benedict XVI meeting Russia's Metropolitan Kirill (R) at the Vatican on May 18, 2006. Kirill, a top Russian Orthodox cleric, said on Sunday that the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church were allies in the face of hostile secularism. (REUTERS/Osservatore Romano)
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A top Russian Orthodox cleric said on Sunday that the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church were allies in the face of hostile secularism.
Metropolitan Kirill, the head of external relations for the Moscow Patriarchate, has met Pope Benedict and is thought to be pushing for closer ties with the Catholic Church.
"In the Vatican and not only in the Vatican but all over the world, Catholics understand that Orthodox (people) are their allies," Kirill told the Rossiya television station.
"And Orthodox (people) are more and more coming to understand that Catholics are their allies in the face of hostile and non-religious secularism," Kirill said.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which split from Rome in the Great Schism of 1054, had chilly relations with the late John Paul II, a Pole who had campaigned against communism and sought in vain to visit post-communist Russia.
Senior Vatican officials have said they are working towards an eventual meeting between Benedict and Patriarch Alexiy II.
Kirill, one of the most senior clerics from the Russian Orthodox Church to meet Benedict since his 2005 election, slammed homosexuality.
"When the declaration of human rights was made no-one in their worst nightmare could imagine a gay parade in Jerusalem," Kirill said.
Gays and their supporters rallied in Jerusalem on Nov. 10 in a festival that has sparked religious protests.
Kirill said liberalism was simplistic to put too much stress on individual rights: "Yes it is your own affair if you want to be a sinner or a villain ... But you cannot say society does not care who you are."
When asked about the use in services of Church Slavonic, which is difficult to understand for speakers of modern Russian, Kirill said some Slavic texts could be edited to bring them up to date, a radical move in the conservative Orthodox Church.
"We should edit Slavic texts to bring them closer to contemporary people but at the same time not destroy the cultural traditions connected with the divine service," he said.
Heck yes, we're allies, big time.
It's funny how the Catholics, Anglicans and Orthodox have their respective language stuggles. Latin, King James English and Old Church Slavonic have led to heated and devisive debates between those who wish to uphold the majesty, beauty and tradition of the old tongue vs those who insist that the Gospel is better communicated in modern language.
Positive news! Ping to you all - what think ye?
"Positive news! Ping to you all - what think ye?"
This news is a bit dated. The MP, since this comment, has again condemned prosyltization by the Latin Church. Now Met. Kyrill's comments aren't necessarily contradictory to that position since he is taking about cooperation in the secular world which we certainly do need. I just wouldn't read anything about a reunion of the particular churches into +Kyrill's remarks.
Unlike Muslims with their Koran there is no official language for Christianity, as long as the translations are correct. The language issue is more cultural that spiritual.
Has the Greek Church ever experienced problems associated with updating the liturgy as the language evolves? That's the crux of the problems Anglicans are having since the classic liturgies are in a form of English that is no longer in common use (there has always been a joke about the nostalgic old church lady saying of King James English "If it was good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for me").
The Greek used in liturgical settings is different from the Greek spoken today but I figure it is about as different as the King James' bible English vs American English. The difference in Old Church Slavonic to modern Russian is much more pronounced - I would say for comparison's sake that it is like the English of Beowulf vs modern American English.
Greeks of today tend to speak 3 Greek dialects. The Koine Greek of the New Testament and Church services, Katharévusa (I think it means the clean or pure or perfect language in Greek) which is based on the classical Greek of Athens and was used for literary, juridic, administrative and scientific purposes during the 19th and early 20th centuries but was dropped by the Greek govt in the 1970s and Dhimotikí which just means the language of the people and is what everyone uses on a daily basis and is not the official form of Greek for the country.
Still, Koine, the version of Greek used to write the New Testament and the Septuagint, is still relatively easy to understand for modern speakers and Koine is the basis for Dhimotikí.
In America there is a few problems with the Greek of the church services. With Greek-American who speek English as a first language having difficulty understanding the Koine Greek of the church even if they speak some Greek and there is the problem of how to present the church service to non-Greek converts (who marry and adopt the religion of their Greek spouse, etc) as well as non Greek Orthodox immigrants who have no choice but to attend the Greek church because there is not an Orthodox church available for their specific nationality.
I have read that English is being used more and more in such Greek Orthodox church services in unison with Greek.
Sorry for the long winded answer.
How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - flung from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so forth. Every day new sects spring up, and what St Paul says about human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error (cf. Eph 4: 14) comes true.
PRO ELIGENDO HOMILY - prior to the Conclave.
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It would be nice if we could hold on to this thought for a while.
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