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Eastern Catholic Patriarchs who are not members of the College of Cardinals are take precedence over all other prelates of the Catholic Church with the exception of Cardinal Bishops.

Eastern Catholic Patriarchs form a college of their own (College of Patriarchs) and are automatically granted the title Assistant to the Papal Throne, a position that accords them special rank and position in the Papal Chapel.

Eastern Catholic Patriarchs have the title, Beatitude, unless they are members of the College of Cardinals, in which case they have the title, Emminence.

My sincerest apologies for the incendary rhetoric. It is not meant to raise blood pressure.

Blessed Lent to you.

Perhaps you can shed some light onto why the Eastern Orthodox Churches became agents and collaborators with Muslim Ottomans and Atheist Soviets?

Is this a historical pattern?

Prior to the change in Soviet attitudes toward the ROC in 1939, there were millions that were martyred for their faith and allegiances to Orthodoxy. They were holy witnesses to truth.

After 1939, the ROC Holy Synod was controlled by the KGB and made into a mouthpiece of the Communist Party, furthering Soviet foreign policy and the ongoing Soviet persecution of non-Russians. The ROC was responsible for the forced integration of non-Russians and non-Orthodox into the Holy Synod. The ROC defends these actions, still.

I compare this to the role that the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches in the USSR had in overthrowing Communism and undermining the Soviets from within.

I have yet to form an opinion as to why there was such an extremely different outcome to the same persecution and oppression.

I have asked for others to offer a reason and have yet to get a reply. Perhaps you would proffer one?

FYI

http://www.chnetwork.org/ewtn.htm

The Journey Home is a TV program on EWTN. Hosted by a former Methodist minister, the show features primarily former Protestant ministers who share their stories of becoming Catholic.

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

What happened to Church Soviet relations after 1946?

BTW, use your decoder ring to read AA-1025. It will blow your mind!

"Radical KKKer's would not effect Christianity, because Christianity is based on the commands and example of Christ."

The KKK profoundly effected Christianity and American society.

The Klan was able to infiltrate and control many of the largest American denominations. Most segregated their institutions or banned African-Americans, outright. Some promoted Klan recruiting in their ranks. Most supported oppressive Jim Crow Laws in the South. Even in the early 60's while major American denominations denounced racism and bigotry, they refused to integrate.

The Klan was responsible for the propaganda film, Birth of a Nation, which premiered at the White House (it was orginally called, The Clansman). It was the highest grossing film of its day.

The Klan controled Southern politics through their political arm, the Democrat Party. The Klan built memorials to the Confederacy and its leaders throughout the South.

It took the US government to detangle the Klan's tentacles from American society. Thankfully, we have turned the page.

"Can we agree to oppose the barbaric murdering Muslims today, whatever the history that got us here?"

Since you asked.

I believe that the barbaric blood cult that dominates Islam must be opposed. This cult, fed by unlimited petrodollars, has transformed Islam into a cruel instrument of tyranny.

What if the KKK had unlimited petrodollars? How would that effect Christianity? How would that effect society? The Wahhabis are Islam's KKK. They have profoundly transformed Islam and they must be opposed, clearly, without hesitation.

"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."

My fascination was why the Eastern Orthodox Churches would so quickly become agents of the same murderous Soviet regime that had slaughtered so many.

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?

Jews comprised less than 2% of the population of Spain, perhaps less than 80,000 persons. Most lived in small towns in the country-side. Most made their living off the land.

Many of this number had recently fled from North Africa because of the bitter persecution of Jews and Christians by the Muslim Almoravids.

Spain, unlike other European nations, never enforced the anti-Jewish Council of Arles (France) in 1235 which called for Jews to wear a round yellow patch, 4 fingers in length, over their hearts as a mark of identification. Jews in Spain were under the personal jurisdiction of the soveriegn. They were not limited to certain professions or unable to own property. Ghetto laws, so common in Europe during this time, were not enforced in Spain.

In 1290 England expelled all its Jews. In 1306, France followed suit. After the Black Death, Jews faced violent persecution in Spain. Tens of thousands converted during this period. They were called Conversos.

By 1492, their collective annual tax contribution represented only 0.33% of ordinary revenue. Jewish sectors of most major cities were empty or extremely small. In Toledo, the ancient Jewish sector consisted of only 40 houses.

Most of the Jews that left Spain were poor. Only half of Spain's Jews left, perhaps 40,000. They were only forbidden to export gold or silver. Embarkation lists for the ports of Malaga and Almeria show that Jews took substantial sums out of the country. Most, however, were poor to begin with.

Most left for Italy, Navarre, Portugal or North Africa. Few left for Turkey (that would come later).

From: The Spanish Inquisition, A Historical Revision by Henry Kamen, Yale University Press, 1997.

Jews were a tiny minority on the Iberian Peninsula prior to the expulsion. Most European sovereigns had taken action to remove Jews from their realms prior to the Spanish expulsion. Ferdinand and Isabella were congratulated for their belated action by their European peers.

Spain allowed the Jews to leave with their wealth. The economic impact that the expulsion had was tiny. Most chose to stay and become converts. If they could not leave with their wealth, it was returned to them if they came back.

What Spain lost in the expulsion was not people, for few left, nor wealth, for they were not wealthy. Spain lost the ability to protect all of her people.

Perhaps the point was that, institutionally, Eastern Orthodoxy looks more like a movement and less like an institution. This is precisely what attracts many Protestants to Eastern Orthodoxy, as it is similar, in this one respect, to most Protestant communities.

It is also the frequent criticism of Catholics.

"Orthodoxy is less of an institution (like, say, the Episcopal Church) and more of a spiritual path (like Buddhism)."

Exactly.

Stalin associated the Eastern Orthodox Churches with Czarist powers and, therefore, tried to eliminate them. I recognize that many tens of thousands were martyred during this reign of destruction.

Stalin realized that Christian Churches could be easily co-opted as agents of the Communist Party. He accomplished this aim with facility with Eastern Orthodox Churches. Indeed, some Eastern Orthodox Churches remain steadfast in this agency.

He was never able to accomplish this aim with Roman or Eastern Catholic Churches.

Indeed, the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches were instrumental in the peaceful overthrow of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe.

I wasn't being glib. I'm really interested in Eastern Orthodox resistance to the Soviets after Stalin changed his strategy to coopt the Churches rather than eliminate them.

Please educate me.

The issue is rather thorny.

I see the border issue as a security matter. The security and soveriegnty of our borders is paramount in a post 9/11 world.

Those that assist illegal border crossers are "helping" them into a dark underworld ruled by drug gangs, low-wage slavers and transporter mobsters. The crossers are "helped" by being taught how to break our laws and live under the law. The crossers are "helped" into a life with no hope. Having babies in the US and getting welfare is the pinnacle of achievement for these "immigrants." Because they are illegal, they have no hope of the American Dream

Doesn't seem like help to me, at all.

Should helping people break the law be a crime? Hmmm...

"The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the only organs through which, during the present dispensation, God conveys to us a knowledge of his will about what we are to believe concerning himself, and what duties he requires of us."

Got a Scripture reference for that?

Is there any example of Eastern Orthodox resistance of Communism in the former Soviet Bloc?

Did all these Eastern Orthdox Churches become agents of the Soviets?