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.
And I would not trust anything the Jews say when whining about the Catholic Church.
It is really a fascinating read, if you can find it.
I've read some wonderful Russian books, translated into English, of course. I've taught myself some Russian, but am not proficient enough to read, speak or write it.
Hermann why do you think it is that the vatican has repeatedly been named for hiding the evil in their own backyard and denying it? From the utashe being spirited away and supported in Argentina to the current "move the pedophile priest" exposure, you can honestly say you don't see a trend?
The book is very enjoyable, and let me know if you read it. When they find the family one of the first things the father asks is who the current Czar is. That's how isolated they were and for how long they were outside of any contact with society.
This was provoked by malakhi paraphrasing one of the condemnations made of Luther in the Bull Exsurge Domine "33. To burn heretics is against the will of the Spirit."
The heretics were not burned for their beliefs, but because they insisted on disturbing the faith of others and the order of Church and State. The burnings were carried out by their being handed over to the secular arm, because heresy was a crime against the State, since Christianity is part of the Common Law.
A perfect example of this is the Hussite rebellion, which was not merely a religious movement against the Church, but a political revolution against the established temporal order.
Similarly, there is nothing morally wrong with knocking down pagan temples or converting them into Churches once Paganism was outlawed, as the Church Fathers did.
I don't think there was anything morally wrong with the burnings of the middle ages by the Catholic Church, and they were certainly practiced all around by all sides, Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox. In fact, I think a world of good could be done today in ridding the Catholic Church of the heretic communist perverts hiding in clerics and molesting young boys by public burnings. Pope Piel may be saying this half in jest, but I as a Catholic am not. I'd be the first one there in my Altar Boy's cassock and surplice with the holy flame.
"If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall wither: and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire: and he burneth." (John 15.6)
One should keep firmly in mind that the Inquisition was aimed squarely at correcting wayward Catholics, not the faithful of other religions. Once the Protestant settlement ocurred in the mid-1500's after the Wars of Religion were finished, the Inqusition was no longer aimed at those men, since they were no longer rebels against the established order, nor had they left the Catholic Church anymore, but rather they were never a part of it from the beginning. Similarly in England with Catholics after the settlement of 1688.
No society can tolerate a willful and despiteful attempt to subvert its religion, no more than it would to break down its laws--a general, malicious and deliberate intent to overthrow Christianity, general Christianity. Without these restraints no free government could long exist. It is liberty run mad to declaim against the punishment of these offences, or to assert that the punishment is hostile to the spirit and genius of our government. They are far from being true friends to liberty who support this doctrine, and the promulgation of such opinions, and general receipt of them among the people, would be the sure forerunners of anarchy, and finally, of despotism. No free government now exists in the world unless where Christianity is acknowledged, and is the religion of the country.... Its foundations are broad and strong, and deep. .. it is the purest system of morality, the firmest auxiliary, and only stable support of all human laws. ...
(The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania 1824, in the Case of Updegraph V The Commonwealth 11 Serg. & R. 393-394, 398-399, 402, 507 [1824])
OH! Now it all makes perfect sense. You can burn people alive as long you have a good reason. I get it now.
Umm, Aliska, I think I am beginning to understand your sense of loneliness. Run while you still can. :-)
Whoops, I meant to include this quote as well.
I guess we may as well begin practising our toleration of flame. I am quite sure that the entire Orthodox church will fall under the label of wayward Catholics.
Introducing the amazing Pope Piel Porta-Purger™
Eliminate that wayward hand, wandering eye, heretical tongue or other offending body part with amazingly accurate Pope Piel Porta-Purger™. Handle heretics and priestly perverts where ye find them. No need to drag them to a Torquemada Inn wasting precious time.
Not to be used for home repair or other secular D-I-Y projects.
"Apply the Holy Flame and they won't be the same!"
Absolutely and thank you. I will plug it in on the library website. We just rented The Inspector General and a Gogol movie which was very unusual - about a witch and a priest in training. Anyway I will certainly love this movie you have described here and let you know when I have seen it.
Can you ping me after Armageddon? I'm going to go hide in the Taiga.
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