Here is your new saint! Saint Stepinac, with his Nazi buddies. Go ahead, pray for his intervention. What a disgrace that your pope made this friend of the Nazis into a saint. Got a mirror?
Posted on 06/30/2003 2:53:51 PM PDT by NYer
VATICAN CITY Pope John Paul II again reached out to the Orthodox Church on Sunday, saying his efforts at reconciliation weren't just "ecclesiastic courtesy" but a sign of his profound desire to unite the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.
John Paul made the comments during his regular appearance to pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter's Square. Later Sunday, he welcomed a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople at a traditional Mass marking the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul.
"The exchange of delegations between Rome and Constantinople, for the respective patron feasts, goes beyond just an act of ecclesiastic courtesy," the pontiff said. "It reflects the profound and rooted intention to re-establish the full communion between East and West."
John Paul has made improving relations with the Orthodox Church a hallmark of his nearly 25-year papacy, visiting several mostly Orthodox countries and expressing regret for the wrongs committed by the Catholic Church against Orthodox Christians.
Despite his efforts at healing the 1,000-year-old schism, he hasn't yet visited Russia because of objections from the Russian Orthodox Church.
During the Mass on Sunday, 42 new archbishops received the pallium, a band of white wool decorated with black crosses that symbolizes their bond with the Vatican. Two of the archbishops received the pallium in their home parishes; the rest took part in the Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.
The neo-Catholic establishment, on the other hand, ignoring this statement by the Pope and incapable of drawing distinctions or appreciating nuance, treats the ecumenical venture and the entire post-conciliar regime of novelty as if they were binding statements of Catholic doctrine, criticism of which involves one in disobedience in a matter of faith.
This is but a subset of their unstated principle: everything Rome does is ipso facto brilliant. One notorious neo-Catholic recently twisted himself into a pretzel to argue that Vatican II’s egregious failure to condemn Communism, seemingly a staggering blunder, was actually a stroke of genius. His starting point appears to be that it happened, so it must have been brilliant. Others have said (on television, no less) that the Pope was absolutely right not to remove any of the bishops implicated in the current scandals. You name it, the neo-Catholics defend it: the ceaseless apologies for the Church’s past; praying with witch doctors at Assisi; complete inaction in the face of moral and doctrinal chaos in the major religious orders; the Pope’s kissing of the Koran (no, this is not a misprint; "he meant it as a general sign of respect," goes the neo-Catholic non-explanation) – the list could go on and on. Whatever it is, there’s always an excuse. I hope that if I ever run a great institution into the ground I have such abject apologists as these.
And are you willing to extend such basic charity to Catholics, or does it only apply to Orthodox?
All right, so you prefer a KGB agent to Pope John Paul II. And you were saying something about 'not wanting to be enslaved'. 'Give us Freedom! Down with the Pope, long live the Secret Police !!' The commies in Spain actually used to chant something like that.
Ugh, him heap big chief.
Like you did when the Muslims took over the East? Maybe you should thank them for installing so many fine Patriarchs, and, according to Kallistos Ware, unwittingly serving as protector of the faith against the eeevil Catholics. History shows you prefer to side with Islam and the Mongols rather than come to terms with the West.
You're not answering my question. Are you willing to extend such basic charity to Catholics, or does it only apply to Orthodox?
The problem with "come to terms with the west" is that we have often suffered more torture and death under the "west", in the form of the roman catholic church.
Indeed, such coming to terms with the "west" has done much for the roman catholic church, has it not? Look at the glory found in westernization of the roman catholic church. Such impressive holiness in your so-called westernization.
Here is your new saint! Saint Stepinac, with his Nazi buddies. Go ahead, pray for his intervention. What a disgrace that your pope made this friend of the Nazis into a saint. Got a mirror?
Archbishop Stepinac: "God, who directs the destiny of nations and controls the hearts of Kings, has given us Ante Pavelic [head of a Nazi puppet regime in Yugoslavia] and moved the leader of a friendly and allied people, Adolf Hitler, to use his victorious troops to disperse our oppressors... Glory be to God, our gratitude to Adolf Hitler and loyalty to our Poglavnik [fuhrer], Ante Pavelic."
Articles > English
Moscow, 5 Feb (The Moscow Times) - At issue is a campaign to canonize the two men that is rooted in a widely embraced belief that the monarchy fell victim to a plot masterminded by Jews and Freemasons. Last week, a group of theologians, church historians and official Orthodox journalists de facto proclaimed what has long been discussed privately in church circles -- that the campaign is being carried out by a sect that is undermining the Russian Orthodox Church from within. For a decade the Moscow Patriarchate has tolerated the canonization drive in order to avoid a schism at all costs. But the drive has now grown so strong that the Patriarchate is considering changing its policy. It is unclear, however, whether it would be able to muster enough strength and moral authority to overcome the canonization forces. Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II has spoken out against the canonizations in unusually strong terms over the past year, stressing it would be impossible to canonize Ivan the Terrible, who ordered the deaths of several clergymen who were later sainted, and Rasputin, whose debauchery and dubious healing practices compromised the last imperial family of Tsar Nicholas II. "This is madness!" the patriarch said in his first statement on the subject in December 2001. "What believer would want to stay in a church that equally venerates murderers and martyrs, lechers and saints?" But repeated statements by the patriarch have had little affect. In October, canonization proponents held a conference in Moscow and urged him to consider their request. The theologians who last week linked the drive to a sect drew up a list of unofficial Orthodox newspapers, Internet sites and radio programs involved in the push and warned in a statement that they "undoubtedly could lead to a schism in the church." "These publications juggle the facts of church history, distort the foundations of the Orthodox faith and ultimately create a sectarian mentality," the statement said. The theologians said canonization supporters were also behind a protest against the government's decision to issue tax identification numbers (protesters likened the numbers to the apocalyptic sign of the beast) and a drive to venerate Nicholas II not as a passion bearer, as he was canonized in 2000, but as a co-redeemer -- which would put him on par with Jesus. They said the campaign was being driven by a low level of church culture and a large influx of neophytes with a dissident mentality. "Those demanding the canonization of Ivan the Terrible and Rasputin are a small but very noisy group," said Alexander Dvorkin, the church's leading expert on sects. "This will be followed by demands to canonize Stalin -- there is already some so-called research showing that he was secretly a monk. It is impossible to disprove all of these myths. "Religious hysterics are the basis of this pseudo-Orthodox sect acting within our church." Alexei Beglov, an Orthodox historian, said the roots of such thinking -- which includes the belief that Jesus will appear on earth as a new tsar -- can be traced to the apocalyptic superstitions of Russian peasants in the early 1900s. These beliefs could be written off if they did not represent the development of the most appealing and coherent anti-Semitic ideology within the Russian Orthodox Church today. Books and articles describing Ivan the Terrible as "St. Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich" and Rasputin as "Martyr for God and Tsar Elder Grigory Novy" first appeared in the mid-1990s, along with icons depicting them as saints and prayer services glorifying them. Most of these writings have a strong anti-clerical slant. One prayer to Rasputin, written by a certain Nikolai Kozlov and published in a brochure, reads: "Seeing thy otherworldly struggle and labor with their carnal eyes, Oh St. Grigory, and having listened to the Jewish slander and libel, many bishops and priests were tempted and persecuted thee and thy kin. ... Thereupon thou received bodily wounds and a ferocious death from the Jews." It is a matter of historical record that Rasputin was killed in 1916 by monarchists -- Prince Felix Yusupov and Duma member Vladimir Purishkevich, with the knowledge of Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich. But this does not sway the myth-makers. They describe Rasputin's killers as Freemasons, which is synonymous with Jews in their thinking. They believe that Rasputin's orgies were carried out by a double and staged by his enemies. They say Rasputin was a holy elder serving the tsar and healing his hemophiliac son, Alexis. The same is true of Ivan the Terrible. Proponents of his canonization see him only as a devout leader who formed the Russian monarchy in the 16th century and showed mercy while suppressing revolts. The dark side of his reign -- mass murders, including those of his son and prominent clergymen, as well as his many marriages -- are ignored or denied as slander. Proponents also ignore Russian Orthodox hymns that describe Ivan as a new pharaoh and new Herod. The canonization drive is an offshoot of the teachings of the charismatic and controversial Metropolitan Ioann of St. Petersburg, who died in 1995. Ioann taught that the monarchy was the last bastion of the Orthodox faith in a battle against the anti-Christian forces of Jews, Freemasons and Western Christian heretics, who he said led the Russian people to atheism and liberalism. His teachings say that Ivan the Terrible founded the bastion and Rasputin was sent to protect the last tsar and his son. The belief that Nicholas II was a sacrificial lamb slain by anti-Christian forces propelled a years-long campaign to canonize the imperial family. The Moscow Patriarchate, however, rejected the theories by canonizing the imperial family in 2000 as passion bearers -- people who accepted their imminent death with Christian humility. The canonization has only bolstered the confidence of people like Konstantin Dushenov, a former aide to Metropolitan Ioann who is one of the leaders of the campaign. He said Moscow Patriarchate officials were worried about the campaign only because they were realizing that they lack the moral authority to influence church members. "They can control cash flows and administrative resources but not the way that believers really feel," said Dushenov, editor of the St. Petersburg newspaper Rus Pravoslavnaya. "If it is God's will, no one will be able to stop us -- neither the patriarch nor the synod," he said. Andrei Zolotov Jr. © Copyright 2003 The Moscow Times. Posted on Religioscope with permission. The Moscow Times, Independent Press' flagship edition, was launched in March 1992 as a twice-weekly, and relaunched in October 1992 as a daily. The foreign community and Russian business people depend a great deal on the newspaper for up-to-the-minute news on Moscow, Russia and the world. The paper is an objective, reliable source for English-language news on business, politics and culture. TOP |
You're letting your rhetoric get ahead of your brain again. You're better than that.
"When the Ustashi were ushered into Zagreb by the Germans, Archbishop Stepinac of Croatia immediately offered his congratulations to the poglavnik and held a banquet to celebrate the founding of the new nation...[Stepinac] arranged to have Pavelic received by Pope Pius XII [in Rome]."
Former BBC commentator Avro Manhattan, an expert on Vatican policies, has written: "...here the Catholic Church [erected] a State in complete accord with all her tenets. The result was a monster standing upon the armed might of twin totalitarianisms: the totalitarianism of a ruthless Fascist State and the totalitarianism of Catholicism...What gives to such a creature of Vatican diplomacy its peculiar importance is that here we have an example of the Catholic Church's implementing all her principles unhampered by opposition, or by fear of world opinion.
"The uniqueness of the Independent Catholic State of Croatia lies precisely in this: that it provided a model, in miniature, of what the Catholic Church, had she the power, would like to see in the West and, indeed, everywhere. As such it should be carefully scrutinized. For its significance...is of the greatest import to all the freedom-loving peoples of the world."
Once Pavelic was in power, Archbishop Stepinac issued a Pastoral Letter ordering the Croatian clergy to support the new Ustasha State. "The involvement of Catholic clergy either in active participation or in blessing the Ustashi-run holocaust is well-documented...Archbishop Stepinac headed the committee which was responsible for forcible 'conversions' to Roman Catholicism under threat of death and was also the Supreme Military Apostolic Vicar of the Ustashi Army, which effected the slaughter of those who failed to convert. Stepinac was known as the 'Father Confessor' to the Ustashi and continually bestowed the blessing of Holy Mother Church upon its members and actions."
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