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.
Guess that makes me prime fuel for the fire....
The curses still stand as church doctrine
"If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ’s sake, let him be anathema" (Canon 12, Council of Trent).
"If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out that no debt of temporal punishment remains...let him be anathema (Canon 30, Council of Trent).
What, you married someone Orthodox?
Stepinac just couldn't be bothered to condemn them. But at least his "conscience was clear!"
No, I converted.
I'll add my two cents to this discussion as soon as I am able. But that said, FWIW, neither will our own US Government "apologize to the Serbs".
Although our own "genocide" against the Serbs was rather paltry by comparison -- we "did our best" to limit "civilian casualties", as much as you can "limit" civilian casualties when you drop 2,000-pound bombs on Orthodox Serbs who were after all (and I say so without pardoning in any way the inhumane brutalities of Warfare), responding to anti-Serb homicide raids by the Albanian Kosovar Drug Mafia.
All the same, I have to say... whether Hitler or Clinton, whether 1941 or 1999, the Western Nations seem to have acquired a nasty and deplorable habit of ordering the carpet-bombing of Serbia on Palm Sunday, of all days.
Hitler can scarcely earn a lower place in Hell; the bottom floor is reserved for Stalin and Satan alone. But Clinton must have at least taken himself down a few notches by that particular Willful Repetition of History, this time around as both Tragedy and Farce.
If memory serves, GWB, I believe your one-time electoral Preference was a Mr. Patrick J. Buchanan. And if memory serves, Mr. Buchanan always opposed the NATO assault on the Serbs.
A position morally superior to both his fellow "Catholic" Ustashe, and our own Department of War ("Defense" is simply the wrong term, in this case).
Would I ever vote for him? No. I'm a Libertarian. But Buchanan definitely had (and has) his good points.
They do not hold a grudge against the United States.
But if we ever get within spitting distance of Bubba or Hitlery, it's going to make the nightly news! ;-)
Indeed, no thinking person could hold that position.
And I've never met one who did.
I actually have no doubt whatsoever that your statement is entirely correct. If Orthodoxy is "the Religion of Love" as Marmema claims (vis-a-vis the "Law" of Rome and the "Faith" of Protestantism), this is certainly proved by the apparently unconditional Serbian love for America.
Considering that the USA sold them out to Tito's Communism in 1944, and then proceeded to carpet-bomb them throughout the 1990's, I'm beginning to think that the Serbs are gluttons for American Punishment.
Given their historical record, I suspect that the average Serb would respond to a Home-Invader by shooting the bastard and then chambering another round. Unless, of course, the Invader was an American. In which case, judging by their historical record, the Serbs would lay down their arms, forgive the incineration of their 1,000-year old church, and say a Prayer for our children -- even as we were shooting theirs.
The 1990's demonization of Serbia by the West is utterly Unforgivable. The still-unquenched love of America by the Serbs in frankly Inexplicable.
Some things just don't make a whole lot of sense to me.
But they are what they are.
So how did you come to the Orthodox church? You became irreligious after high school, and then acquired a thirst for God. Orthodox converts aren't very common, well, to me anyway. Lots of cradle catholics become protestants, or apostasize before rediscovering Catholicism, but converting to orthodoxy is kinda rare. What led you East? :o)
A lot of it has to do with Serbs living in the United States. The fact that very few of our Churches are destroyed here (only 3 were desecrated during the Clinton years).
Many American dollars have flowed into Serbia attempting to repair the damage that was done. The Serbs realize that Clinton was a horrible aberration in this nation's history. We should all pray that our fellow Americans come to this realization as well!
At least you acknowledge the shortcomings of your experience! Actually, the majority of the converts to Orthodoxy come from the Roman Church.
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