Posted on 03/17/2006 4:10:23 PM PST by vladimir998
Orthodox in Ukraine Ready to Go to Court for Return of Churches 17.03.2006, [11:48] // Protest //
Kyiv—The Orthodox of Ukraine are ready “by court proceedings to work for the return of former Orthodox churches which the Greek Catholics hold at the given moment.” So said Valentyn Lukianyk, head of the All-Ukrainian Orthodox Brotherhood of St. Michael the Archangel, at a press conference. Pravoslavye.org.ua posted the news on 14 March 2006.
"We are ready to bring the case to court,” Lukianyk said. According to Lukianyk, Greek Catholics now occupy two Orthodox churches in Kyiv, namely, St. Nicholas Church on Askold’s Tomb and the Chapel of Nicholas the Kind on Podil Street.
“The church on Askold’s Tomb is an architectural monument. But during its restoration the Uniates [Greek Catholics] changed its appearance and placed a memorial board with an image of the Pope of Rome, which, by the way, may serve as another reason for a separate suit,” said Lukianyk.
“We have addressed the Kyiv authorities many times. The authorities should have conscience and cancel the decision about the transfer of churches for the use of the Catholics. It is a shame, as Ukrainians recognized themselves as a nation in the struggle against the Uniates. The Uniates are building their cathedral in Kyiv, so let them gather there,” Lukianyk added.
Also, Lukianyk reported that the Orthodox are going to demand the return of the building of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) and found a monastery there.
RISU asked Fr. Ihor Yatsiv, head of the Press Service of the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), for commentary on Lukianyk’s statements. Fr. Yatsiv said that this is nothing else but “an attempt to prevent the faithful of the UGCC from participation in Liturgies.” According to Fr.Yatsiv, the mentioned churches of the UGCC gather many faithful at Sunday Liturgies, and he asked “Do these people have to celebrate outside?”
Fr. Yatsiv said he is convinced that the UOC-MP does not lack churches in Kyiv.
Regarding what Lukianyk referred to as “another reason for a separate suit,” according to UGCC Fr. Ihor Onyshkevych, pastor of the church on Askold’s Tomb, there were present at the ceremony of the unveiling of the memorial board portraying the Pope of Rome state officials responsible for the preservation of historical monuments.
So you wish to claim all of the credit while assigning all of the blame? Yes, I understand exactly where you are coming from.
Bravo Sierra.
Moscow (AsiaNews/Agencies) – An old monk can now preach online thanks to a website set up by Moscow’s Russian Orthodox Patriarchate.Over the years, the faithful by the tens of thousands have visited the Pskovo-Petcherski Monastery, where he used to, to listen to his sermons. But the Russian Orthodox Church now has made his available online at www.portal-slovo.ru.
With bells ringing and religious songs in the background, the wise man’s jerky but still forceful voice welcomes internet visitors in a traditional greeting: "My beloved brothers and sisters".
"We have come out sick and maimed from the times in which we were atheism’s prisoners. Who knows whether we can recover from it," Father Ionau says in one of his sermons.
Sent to a gulag camp in 1950 for "anti-Soviet propaganda", the former inmate now leads a hermit life after 40 years in Pskovo-Petcherski Monastery, where he welcomed tens of thousands of pilgrims, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Uh, where's the evidence he resisted? I see he was sent to gulag. Does that mean he openly resisted? No, not necessarily. If he openly resisted he would probably be dead -- like all the Catholic bishops of Russia arrested in the 1920's - 1940's. All of them. Dead.
Oh, I'm sorry, but sanormal has informed me that all of those clergy, including the 30,000 Orthodox clergy who were killed, don't count.
Yes, you can only count those who were killed after Stalin panicked after the Nazis invaded and he tried to play nice with the church?
Ok, got the rules now? Very good, please try again!
And how do you know that being thrown in the gulag doesn't indicate resistance? Perhaps because the Orthodox were the only Christian clergy there? Yeah, that one doesn't make sense to me at all. I guess you'll have to explain yourself a little better.
Did it ever occur to you that the Soviets may have eliminated all of their most determined opponents and tortured the rest into submission?
Whenever this topic comes up, invariably my opponent suggests that he/she would have gladly endured all of tortures that the Soviets inflicted on the Orthodox clergy many times over, and would have laughed in the Bolsheviks faces and dared them to do worse.
The reality is that not all of the Russian Orthodox clergy could manage to be as fearless and triumphant as their detractors imagine themselves to be, and they returned to minister their flocks as best they could until the time came that they could cast off the Communist yoke.
As to the idea that some clergy became "agents" of the Soviets, most of them were agents that the clergy were forced to accept under pain of death or torture (of course, their detractors would have laughed at such mere torment, brave and noble as they are) or by way of the Soviets holding their family members hostage (once again, the families of their detractors would have delighted in the torment visited upon them as a result of their family member's resistance).
It is a fact that all humans have their limits. As I have learned, it is also a fact that some humans believe their limits, though never tested to any such degree, would far exceed those displayed by these mere mortals.
A ping to post #27.
The greatest thinker of the 20th century - Solzhenitsyn -has warned against Christians battling each other. Like the Muslims, and like the secularists, the Soviet Communists killed millions of Christians, most Orthodox. That is fact!
Instead of fighting over sacred Christian topography, Ukrainians should demand of their hierarchy a cease and desist on disputes over the Lord's property. It is not the Pope's and it is not the Patriarch's. It is the Lord's.
The Christian battles should be with atheistic secularism which has infiltrated and rotted away the most sacred of places - the Church! It should be with the muslim ideology, and with the continual undermining of the Lord's commandments by those we entrust to protect and convey to the people.
Indeed. I believe that we should put down our Freeper battle spoons and pick up our swords to do battle side by side against the forces of evil.
Spoon fights have always been much more fun. :D
Why would the Eastern Orthodox clergy willingly and completely become agents of the same Communist Party that had murdered so many Eastern Orthodox clergy just a few years before?
Yes, we have a clear choice here, we can continue to demonize the other as the last vestiges of Communism and its aftermath are dealt with or we can stand together to battle the forces that support abortion, homosexual marriage, and the deconstruction of the family.
Pick one or the other because you can't choose to do both.
Sanormal's comment above is ignorant almost to the point of blasphemy. Mr. Sanormal, I invite you to read this book
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/096863480X/sr=8-3/qid=1142979556/ref=sr_1_3/102-0626012-1802531?%5Fencoding=UTF8
and then tell me that there were no Orthodox clergy who fought the great Satan of communsim.
Because the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches in the USSR didn't have so much as a fraction of the impact that you'd like to imagine that they had.
I have asked for others to offer a reason and have yet to get a reply.
Now you have.
The New Martyrs is not currently available at Amazon. Do you have any other source for it? In the meantime Sanormal read this below...and you can also get the Rev Wurmbrand's works which detail life for Christian faithful under the Communist beasts of Romania.
http://www.roca.org/OA/2/2c.htm
Yes, its available at the St. John of Kronstadt press run by Fr. Gregory Williams (also, please pray for him as he is ill) at
http://www.sjkp.org/search.php?category=c_livescol&keywords=&start_count=20
Sir,
I do not mean to be disrespectful to you, but I have yet to have a meaningful dialogue with a Roman Catholic apologist on this forum. You make several statements which you assume I accept: that is not the case. For one, I do not accept that the MP has grace, and that its synod, going back to Met. Sergius were legitimate bishops. There are many canons which support this view and up to a few years ago they were quoted by theologians in the Church Abroad. The MP bishops were appointed by the KGB and I view them as nothing but KGB agents in cassocks. They persecuted THE Church which went into the catacombs.
As for your comparison to RC bishops, again I have a different take. I view your bishops as nothing more than power hungry Western heretics and not legitimate bishops at all. I have no interest in them, or in anything they do or say. Thus, I don't really care to comment on anything they did.
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