A Newly Martyred Priest

The Following two reports are from Interfax

First, this report...

2009-11-20 13:41:00

Famous Orthodox priest killed in Moscow

Moscow, November 20, Interfax – The famous priest Daniil Sysoyev, the rector of the St. Thomas Cathedral, has been killed in Moscow, a source in law enforcement agencies told Interfax.

The priest received gunshot wounds to the head and chest, his assistant Vladimir Strelbitsky was wounded in the chest, he said.

"I do not recall a priest being killed in Moscow, let alone shot at by an assault rifle," the source told.

The priest died on the surgical table at 0:15 a.m. Moscow time, a source in medical circles said. His aide is in very critical condition.

A criminal case has been launched over the priest's murder.

And this follow up....

2009-11-20 13:57:00

Moscow priest could have been killed by extremists, pagans – sources

Moscow, November 20, Interfax - Moscow priest Daniil Sysoyev most likely has been killed for his missionary activity among the non-Orthodox Russian population, a source at law enforcement agencies told Interfax.

"He had recently received constant death threats from some extremist organizations. Daniil Sysoyev complained about it several times to the Federal Security Service," the source said.

Fr. Daniil said he received anonymous phone calls and e-mails promising to "have his guts for garters," he said.

"Sysoyev received the last threat in early October. Someone called him and said he had been sentenced to a death penalty," the source said.

Rev. Daniil is known as an experienced theologian who had been in constant dispute with the extremist branches of Islam. He began receiving threats four years ago after holding a public debate with Vyacheslav Polosin, the former Orthodox priest who converted to Islam.

Fr. Daniil might also have been killed by members from the so-called sect of Rodnovers (Slavic Neo-pagans), the source told Interfax.

Investigators are following all lines of inquiry but this theory remains the main one, he said.

This is evidenced by the fact that the perpetrator did not leave the weapon at the crime scene, he said. "Rodnovers are not professional killers, which is why they count every barrel," he said.

The Rodnovers organization mainly consists of young pagans.

Earlier Rodnovers staged an explosion at one of Moscow's churches.

As horrible as this incident is, it causes me to wonder if I have ever proclaimed the Faith so clearly, so powerfully, with such dedication, grace and Love that I even seemed dangerous to the pagans and other non-Christians around me. I fear that the demons have found little of interest in me due to my own sinfulness and self-condemnatory life - they needn't bother.

Shame on me.

And as for Father Daniil, may his memory be eternal!

Icon starts streaming myrrh at Cathedral of Christ the Savior

Moscow, January 27, Interfax - The Softener of Evil Hearts Mother of God Icon at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow has started streaming myrrh.Vesti television channel reported citing evidence of numerous churchgoers that the icon was "streaming myrrh very intensively."In line with a long-standing church tradition, the icon has been specially brought to the Church Council meeting currently being held in Moscow, at which over 700 of its participants earlier cast their ballots to elect a new Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.A tabulation commission member is expected to announce the result of the voting within minutes.

UPDATE: 2:00 pm edt - Metropolitan Kirill has been elected Patriarch of Moscow and all the Rus

UDATE2: http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/36500

Memory Eternal

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexy II dies

By JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press Writer


MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II, who presided over a vast post-Soviet revival of faith but was accused of making the church a force for nationalism, died Friday at age 79, the church headquarters said.

The Moscow Patriarchate said he died at his residence outside Moscow, but did not give a cause of death. Alexy had long suffered from a heart ailment.

Alexy became leader of the church in 1990, as the officially atheist Soviet Union was loosening its restrictions on religion. After the Soviet Union collapsed the following year, the church's popularity surged. Church domes that had been stripped of their gold under the Soviets were regilded, churches that had been converted into warehouses or left to rot in neglect were painstakingly restored and hours-long Masses on major religious holidays were broadcast live on national television.

By the time of Alexy's death, the church's flock was estimated to include about two-thirds of Russia's 142 million people, making it the world's largest Orthodox church.

But Alexy often complained that Russia's new religious freedom put the church under severe pressure and he bitterly resented what he said were attempts by other Christian churches to poach adherents among people who he said should have belonged to the Orthodox church.

These complaints focused on the Roman Catholic Church, and Alexy refused to agree to a papal visit to Russia unless the proselytization issue was resolved.

"Patriarch Alexy II was tasked with leading the Church at a time of great transformation," the secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, Monsignor Brian Farrell, told the ANSA news agency. "He was able to carry out this task with a great sense of responsibility and love of the Russian tradition."

Alexy lived long enough to see another major religious dispute resolved. In 2007, he signed a pact with Metropolitan Laurus, the leader of the breakaway Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, to bring the churches closer together. The U.S.-based ROCOR had split off in 1927, after the Moscow church's leader declared loyalty to the Communist government.

Alexy successfully lobbied for the 1997 passage of a religion law that places restrictions on the activities of religions other than Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. Under his leadership, the church also vehemently opposed schismatic Orthodox churches in neighboring Ukraine, claiming the Ukrainian church should remain under Moscow's control.

He was born Alexei Mikhailovich Ridiger on Feb. 23, 1929 in Tallinn, Estonia. The son of a priest, Alexy often accompanied his parents on pilgrimages to churches and monasteries, and he helped his father minister to prisoners in Nazi concentration camps in Estonia. It was during those visits that Alexy decided to pursue a religious life.

Under Soviet rule, this was not an easy choice. Lenin and Stalin suppressed religion and thousands of churches were destroyed or converted to other uses, such as museums devoted to atheism or, in some cases, stables. Many priests and parishioners were persecuted for their beliefs.

The persecution eased somewhat during World War II, when Stalin discovered that the church could be used as a propaganda tool in the fight against the Nazis. But the Soviet authorities never fully loosened their grip, penetrating the church at the highest levels.

Alexy was ordained in 1950, progressed through the Orthodox hierarchy, and was consecrated Bishop of Tallinn and Estonia in 1961.

The British-based Keston Institute, which monitors religious freedom in former Communist countries, has cited research suggesting that Alexy's career may have been aided by assistance he gave the KGB while a young priest in Tallinn. Orthodox Church officials vehemently denied the allegations.

also

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II died

05.12.2008, 13.11

MOSCOW, December 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Tolling of bells in the bell-towers of Moscow City's 600 or so churches has officially announced to the lay the passing away of the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, His Holiness Alexy II.

The bells were tolled in strict comformity with the regulations the canon of the Russian Orthodox Church envisions for such cases.

Patriarch Alexy II took office in 1990, when resurrection of the Church and spiritual life in Russia was just at the beginning. During his stay at the helm of Moscow Patriarchate, this country has seen a de fact rebirth of the Orthodox Christian faith, as thousands of churches and monasteries were restored from complete decay or built anew, millions of people got baptized and the Church re-emerged as a full-fledged social and juridical organization.

He died at the age of 79 Friday morning at this residence in Peredelkino, to the southwest of Moscow. According to medical reports, he suffered from a number of chronic illnesses.

and

Head of Russian Orthodox Church Dies at 79


5 December 2008, Friday

Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexy II, died at his home outside Moscow on Friday at the age of 79, the church reported.

"This is an irretrievable loss for all Russian Orthodox people, wherever they live," speaker of the upper house of the parliament, Sergei Mironov, declared.

Patriarch Alexy II was an establishment figure who restored the authority of the church after decades of Soviet repression and had been a moral authority among millions of Russian believers.

The patriarch had led the world's biggest Orthodox church since 1990.

and also

Russian Orthodox Church leader Alexy II dies

05/12/2008 12:57 MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Patriarch Alexy II, who led the Orthodox Church for almost 20 years, died at the age of 79 in his residency near the Russian capital on Friday morning, a Moscow Patriarchy official said.

The cause of death has not been reported, but the patriarch was known to have suffered from heart disease.

On Thursday evening, Alexy II held a church service in one of Moscow's central cathedrals to mark a major religious holiday.

The church's ruling body, the Holy Synod, is due to gather for an urgent meeting in Moscow on Saturday following the patriarch's death.

Alexy II suffered a severe stroke in 2002. In April 2007, media reports said he was in a Swiss clinic in a serious condition or even dead. Church officials then confirmed the patriarch had undergone medical treatment in Switzerland, but denied the seriousness of his condition.

On the Suffering of Palestinian Christians

From CNSNews.com comes this important report on the suffering of Palestinian Christians. In the US, the word "Palestinian" is often synonymous with "muslim" and, until 9-11, "terrorist". In fact, some Palestinians are Orthodox Christians and Greek Catholic Christians. (Remember Sayidna Elias Zoghby of blessed memory.)

Palestinian Christians Suffering ‘Severe Blows’ From Muslims, Muslim Says
Friday, November 14, 2008
By Julie Stahl


Manger Square in the West Bank City of Bethlehem. (Photo by Julie Stahl/CNSNews.com)
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – Palestinian Christians are suffering “severe blows” at the hands of Muslims, a Palestinian wrote in an exceptionally candid column about the situation of Christians in Arab countries.

“Let us be honest with ourselves and courageously say out loud that Palestinian Christians are taking many severe blows, yet are suffering in silence so as not to attract attention,” wrote Abd Al-Nasser Al-Najjar in the P.A. daily Al-Ayyam. (A translation was provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute this week.)

Muslims and most Christians in Palestinian areas tell journalists that they are all Palestinians. Publicly, they usually deny that there are any problems or differences between them. They say that they get along fine and the main problem is the Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank.

Privately, however, some Christians admit to job losses, land seizures, attacks on churches, intimidation, torture, beatings, kidnappings, forced marriage and sexual harassment of Christian women. Some Christians have been killed.

But examples of inter-religious tension rarely make it into the Palestinian or Arab media.

In his column on October 25, Al-Najjar, who is himself a Muslim and a regular contributor to the official P.A. newspaper, criticized the Muslim persecution of Christians in Arab countries, particularly in Palestinian Authority-administered areas.

Al-Najjar said Christians are suffering, not because of the Israeli “occupation” but because of the confiscation of Christian property, especially in theWest Bank cities of Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Al-Birah.

What makes the situation worse is that those who are plundering the property of Christians are either powerful themselves, or they are backed by powerful people, including “high-ranking military officials or influential members of large clans,” he wrote.

Attempts by political leaders or the judiciary system to rectify the situation have failed, Al-Najjar said.

“Over the past few years, several of my Christian friends have told me of the harm they have suffered, including various threats, even death threats, for trying to gain access to their lands after they were taken over by influential Bethlehem residents.

“Furthermore, there has been an attempt to marginalize Christian culture in Palestine, even though it is rich and deeply rooted [there]. This began with [accusations] of unbelief [against Christians] -- a move that ultimately harmed Palestinian society as a whole,” Al-Najjar wrote.

Despite the injustices against Christians, no one in the government, non-government organizations or political factions has taken constructive action to stop it or to defend the Christians, he said.

Such action should have been forthcoming, “not out of kindness and compassion” but because Palestinian Christians are indigenous to the land and “no different from us, with the same rights and obligations” as Muslims.

“We continue to instill a horrific culture in our children, one that sees Christians as infidels,” Al-Najjar wrote. He called for a “national awakening” to restore the rights of the Christians and preserve the “demographic balance.”

Tens of thousands of Arab Christians have fled the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the years. In Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, the Christian exodus has been most acute. In 1990, 60 percent of the population there was Christian. Today, some estimates say 20 percent or less of the city’s population is Christian. Only 1.5 percent of the population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is Christian.

“[Let us] remember that the tribes of Arabia were Christian. The best writers and poets were Christian, as were [many] warriors and philosophers... It is they who bore the banner of pan-Arabism. The first Palestinian university was established by Christians.

Al-Najjar called for tyrannical rulers to be presented with “progressive attitudes” and “truth” – “so that clerics and old men will not be the only Christians left in the Holy Land and in the city of [Jesus'] birth.”

Al-Najjar also mentioned recent attacks on Christians in Iraq, many of whom have been forced to flee after a series of killings over the last several months. Hundreds of thousands of Christians are estimated to have fled the country since the U.S.-led military invasion in 2003.

Just this week, two Christian sisters were murdered by gunmen identified as Islamic extremists in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

“Christians are being persecuted not only in Iraq, but in most Arab countries, regardless of their numbers there. They are subjected to every possible kind of discrimination, as well as expulsion,” Al-Najjar wrote.

Not only do Arab officials remain silent but so do Arab intellectuals, elites, non-government organizations and private sector leaders, he wrote. He also mentioned Egypt, Lebanon and Algeria as countries with the same “rampant” anti-Christian problem.

Al-Najjar’s assessment of the situation is backed up by the State Department’s 2008 International Religious Freedom Report.

In Algeria, government respect for religious freedom has declined, the U.S. says. “There were many claims of government restrictions on worship, including the arrest and sentencing of converts to Christianity, ordered closure of churches, the dismissal of a Christian school director for allegedly using a school for evangelizing, and confiscation of Bibles,” the report said.

In Egypt, respect for religious freedom also has declined, amid violent incidents and attacks on Christian institutions, the report said.

In Lebanon, the report noted that over the past 60 years, “there has been a steady decline in the number of Christians as compared to Muslims, mostly due to the emigration of large numbers of Maronite Christians and a higher than average birth rate among the Muslim population.”

Interesting Report on Christians in Lebanon

The unusual blog Sigmund, Carl and Alfred, has a very interesting article on the plight of Christians in Lebanon entitled The Forgotten Christians of Lebanon.

Consider a few excerpts...

I am not suggesting that all Western involvement in the affairs of the Near and Middle East over the centuries has been detrimental to the region's Christians. Far from it. However, the fact remains that the West's interaction with the Middle East was always designed to serve primarily the West's interests. This includes the Protestant missionary activities of the nineteenth century, which, after failing to make noticeable headway among Muslims, turned their energies to converting the local Christians to the creeds of Europe's great Reformers. Resulting tensions and mutual misunderstandings between the native churches and the newly transplanted Protestants linger to the present.

Meanwhile, the reputed tolerance of Islam, particularly for the "People of the Book," as Jews and Christians are designated, created in reality the dhimmi system of second-class servitude, which, under the guise of toleration, was actually a system of subtle repression and dehumanization leading to gradual liquidation.

...

Back in the 1970s and '80s it became disgracefully fashionable in Western policy and media circles to put down the Lebanese Christians, particularly the Maronites. These attacks often bordered on outright racism. Similarly today it has become fashionable to lay all the blame for the Bosnian conflict on the shoulders of the Serbs. If the priorities of certain Western governments and their policy planners (Washington included) have dictated that such one-sided obfuscations serve as the basis for ethically dubious policies, the priorities of self-aware and morally critical Christians in these same Western countries ought to be markedly different.

...

Western apathy. In the hard-nosed world of realpolitik, petroleum-free Lebanon does not amount to much either strategically or economically for a country like the United States. Injecting other human and value-oriented parameters and ingredients into the policy calculus of Washington that would elevate Lebanon on the scale of foreign-policy priorities is in itself an awesome and daunting undertaking requiring prayer and patient hard work.

Read it all here.

Two Stories - Interesting Contrast

I happened upon both of these stories this morning. They provide an interesting contrast in the one's assertion of the persistence of perception versus reality, and the other's observation of a reality that has historically been minimized or forgotten entirely.

Check out So Much for the 'Looted Sites' from the Wall Street Journal and Those Whitewashed Walls from First Things On the Square.

Reflect on both articles and consider the need for greater prayer and fasting in a fallen and corrupt world.

Update on Bishop Nicholae

Catholic News Agency has the update....

Romanian Orthodox synod disciplines bishop for intercommunion with Catholics


Bucharest, Jul 11, 2008 / 06:03 am (CNA).- The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church has decided to “forgive” two Orthodox bishops for their participation in religious rites with Eastern Catholics. However, it warned that no Orthodox cleric may celebrate sacraments or blessings with ministers of other religions on pain of excommunication.

Nicolae Corneanu, the Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of Banat, had provoked controversy after receiving Holy Communion during a Greek Catholic Mass in Timisoara on May 25. The synod’s forgiveness has reportedly settled the controversy, according to the SIR News Agency.

“The Holy Eucharist is not a means and a stage towards the unity of the Christian Church, but the deepest manifestation of the unity of the Church, its highlight,” stated Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Orthodox Church in a speech to the synod.

Patriarch Daniel reportedly intended to reassert the fundamental principle of Orthodox ecclesiology and ecumenism. He said that such gestures of “so-called inter-communion” in fact “reduce the dogmatic differences between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church and undermine the unity of faith as the foundation of the reconstruction of the communion between the two Churches.”

The Patriarch reiterated that it is forbidden for Orthodox believers to receive the Eucharist in a different Church.

He also said the decision does not intend to treat other Christians “with arrogance or contempt” or to interrupt theological dialogue.

“Through a sincere, deep theological dialogue, the dogmas that separate the Catholic Church from the Orthodox Church can be redefined,” he concluded.

Father Francisc Dobos, spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Bucharest, responded to the decision, saying in a press release, “We believe it is right for every Church to solve its own problems according to its own principles and regulations. We are convinced that the dialogue between the two Churches will move on, towards a communion from the same chalice.”

The Romanian synod also “forgave” Bishop Sofronie of Oradea, another Orthodox prelate, who had celebrated the blessing of holy water with the Greek Catholic Bishop of Oradea, Virgil Bercea, on “Twelfth Night,” the evening of Epiphany.

“The Holy Synod disapproved of the non-canonical gestures made by the two leaders and accepted their change of mind and repentance as a first sign of their correction,” read a press release from the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate.

And so it goes

Articles and Posts of Interest

Sandro Magister reprints an article on a visit to the Holy Mountain. It catches the spirit of a pilgrimage with impressionistic beauty.

A representative paragraph:

There is the scent of the East, of Byzantium, at Megisti Lavra. There is the aroma of cypress and incense, the fragrance of beeswax, of relics, of ancient things mysteriously near. Because the monks of Athos don't suffer the passage of time. They tell you of their saints, of that Saint Athanasius who planted two cypresses at the center of the Megisti Lavra; who with Herculean strength built the catholikon; who shaped the monasticism of Athos; as if he had not died in the year 1000 but just yesterday, as if they had met him personally and not long ago.

The Vatican Information Service has more on the Armenian Catholicos's visit to the Holy See.

An interesting note here is that at least the English translation seems to have transferred Pentecost from Sunday to tomorrow (Saturday).

Witness the following:

After the Patriarch's greeting, the Pope addressed the assembly. Referring to tomorrow's solemnity of Pentecost, Benedict XVI affirmed that, on this day, "we will pray in a particular way for the unity of the Church. (...) If our hearts and minds are open to the Spirit of communion, God can work miracles again in the Church, restoring the bonds of unity. Striving for Christian unity is an act of obedient trust in the work of the Holy Spirit, who leads the Church to the full realization of the Father's plan, in conformity with the will of Christ".

I guess daylight savings time and a smaller environmental (read: GREEN) footprint have a way of working their own magic.

And Finally, hat tips to several websites and bloggers for picking up on the Torn Notebook blog posts by Wei-Hsien Wan. Wan has posted a three part discussion on the Church Fathers and Unity. These are accurate and thought-provoking for any serious Christian pondering the Unity of the Faith. The links are first here, and then here, here and here.

No snippets, just go and read them!

MercatorNet on the Austrian Monster

In life, we are most shocked when evil appears in circumstances so unimaginable to moral people that we are dumbfounded when we hear of it. Our outrage, our abhorrence at barbarity causes within us a sorrow that wells up from the depths of our humanity. How could this happen? How could anyone so besmirch their human nature as to commit such atrocities?

This is the topic of a MercatorNet essay on Josef Fritzl. Read it. Ponder it. Pray about it.

Faith - A Danger to Society... and Freedom from Faith?

It seems to me that faith education works all right as long as people are not that serious about their faith. (Emphasis added)

Barry Sheerman, chairman of the Schools Select Committee, House of Parliament, UK

Comment made in justifying the calling in of Catholic Bishops to explain why Catholic Schools should have a crucifix in every classroom and should teach chastity.

And in US news....

1 in 4 teenaged US girls have had sexually-transmitted disease: study

CHICAGO (AFP) — One in four teenaged girls in the United Sates has been infected with at least one sexually transmitted disease, according to a study released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The first study to examine the combined national prevalence of common STDs among adolescent women in the United States estimates that at least 3.2 million teens aged 14 to 19 are currently infected.

Since the study only tested for the four most common sexually transmitted diseases, it is possible that the total prevalence among US teens is greater than the study's rate of 26 percent, the authors warned.

"Today's data demonstrate the significant health risk STDs pose to millions of young women in this country every year," said Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention.

"Given that the health effects of STDs for women -- from infertility to cervical cancer -- are particularly severe, STD screening, vaccination and other prevention strategies for sexually active women are among our highest public health priorities."

Yet, chastity is frowned upon in the US, too.

Lord, have mercy!

Hope for the Ecumenical Patriarchate?

From Today's Zaman comes this interesting story for which we can pray and hope a joyful ending.

Government warm to patriarch’s ‘ecumenical' title

Despite the absence of signs of preparation for a plan to recognize the ecumenical status of the İstanbul-based Greek Orthodox Patriarchate at the bureaucratic level, senior members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) haven't ruled out the possibility of amending the country's long-established policy on the controversial issue.

This new stance of the government was first displayed last Wednesday by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Speaking at a joint press conference following his meeting with visiting Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, Erdoğan said the government was working on a solution that would allow the Patriarchate to reopen a Greek Orthodox seminary in Turkey and emphasized that the government has been doing its best to make things easier for the Patriarchate.

"As a matter of fact, the ecumenical issue is an internal issue of the Orthodox Christian world. Turkey's positive attitude [toward the Patriarchate] has been revealed in the elections [of patriarchs] and is obvious," Erdoğan said without elaborating and in an apparent reference to the fact that patriarchs have been elected freely by the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate since the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923.

Two days later, more elaborated remarks on the issue came from Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, who is also the country's chief EU negotiator. In response to a question, Babacan initially referred the correspondent to Erdoğan's remarks, describing the issue as "an internal issue" for the Orthodox world.

"Actually, when we look at the issue with a long-term perspective and when we also take Turkey and İstanbul's position into consideration, perhaps it is an issue on which we should develop a new view and an issue which we should not consider taboo," Babacan said.

"Consequently, this issue will absolutely be spoken about and discussed. What matters in the long term is the position of Turkey and İstanbul in the world -- Turkey's power. What makes Turkey stronger or what makes Turkey weaker should be very carefully calculated," he added.

These remarks from Erdoğan and Babacan have already been interpreted as a divergence from Ankara's well-known stance of considering the Patriarchate a domestic issue since it is by law a Turkish institution.

While diplomats speaking with Today's Zaman refrained from interpreting these remarks, a statement by Egemen Bağış, a top foreign policy adviser to Erdoğan, strengthened assertions concerning the possibility of the government bringing in a new perspective on the issue.

"The Patriarchate is not an institution that was just founded yesterday. It is an institution that has been present in these lands throughout the centuries. There is a need for looking at the past and making an analysis of the periods during which the Patriarchate positively or negatively contributed to these lands," Bağış, now in charge of foreign policy affairs in the AK Party, told Today's Zaman.

Ankara does not recognize Patriarch Bartholomew's international role as the spiritual leader of hundreds of millions of Orthodox Christians worldwide. It rejects his use of the title "ecumenical," or universal, arguing instead that the patriarch is merely the spiritual leader of İstanbul's dwindling Orthodox community.

The Fener Greek Patriarchate in İstanbul dates from the 1,100-year-old Orthodox Greek Byzantine Empire, which collapsed when Muslim Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, today's İstanbul, in 1453. "After making such an analysis, if eventual assessment shows that Turkey's interests lay toward a certain choice, then Turkey should make this choice," Bağış said.

Last week, at the same press conference with Erdoğan, Karamanlis said having the Patriarchate based in Turkey was "an EU passport" for Turkey. Turkey's current position puts it at odds with the EU, with which it is involved in accession negotiations, as both the EU and Washington consider the status of the patriarch a matter of religious freedom.

Similar remarks came from Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, who accompanied Karamanlis during the visit which ended on Friday, when she assessed the outcome of Karamanlis' visit.

"I believe that Turkey should become aware that the best ambassador for a European Turkey is İstanbul's Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate. The ecumenical patriarch is a Turkish citizen and he is a fierce supporter of Turkey's EU membership. Turkey should make sure this ecumenical Patriarchate institution is maintained. This means reopening the seminary on the island of Heybeliada, training of new generation priests and accepting religious freedom. I believe that the intention [of the Turkish government] is there. We can find a way through if there is intention," Bakoyannis was quoted as saying in remarks aired on the Web site of the BBC Turkish service on Saturday.

Turkey has also been resisting EU pressure to reopen the Halki seminary on the island of Heybeliada near İstanbul which was closed to new students in 1971 under a law that put religious and military training under state control. The theological school once trained generations of Greek Orthodox leaders, including the current patriarch. The seminary remained open until 1985, when the last five students graduated.

An ethnic Greek but a Turkish citizen, Bartholomew says the dwindling Orthodox community could soon die out in Turkey if the seminary is not reopened.

Babacan, speaking with reporters over the weekend in Davos where he participated in a summit of the World Economic Forum, said the government has been working on reopening the seminary via ongoing studies at the Education Ministry as well as at the Higher Education Board (YÖK), the Hürriyet daily reported yesterday, noting that the minister did not elaborate further.


28.01.2008
News
EMİNE KART

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words - Enough Said

(Hat tip to GetReligion.Org.)

Memory Eternal - Sayidna Christodoulos falls asleep

News reports this morning announce that the Archbishop of Athens Christodoulos has fallen asleep in the Lord at 69 years of age.

May his memory be eternal!

In other Patriarchal News...

From Interfax.

The Moscow Patriarchate criticizes ‘politically correct’ Christianity

Vienna, January 22, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church's representative to the European International Institutions believes it important to preserve Christian traditions in today’s liberal world.

‘Christianity, empty inside, lacking inner power, Christianity that has renounced itself, will not be able to oppose challenges of the modern world,’ Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria said at a meeting organized by the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Austria dedicated to its 50th anniversary.

The Russian Church’s representative stressed that ‘we should be afraid of giving up spiritual and moral teaching accumulated by the Christian Church for centuries and surrender to the influence of liberal ideas and secular moral standards.’

‘When some Christian communities start revising theological or moral teaching of Christianity in order to ‘update’ it or to make it more ‘politically correct’, it is a direct way to spiritual collapse,’ the bishop added.

According to him, ‘Christians are powerful only when they follow the testament of Christ rather than when they start building their life by the rules of secular world.’

Memory Eternal

Archbishop Elias Zoghby
1912-2008

I am the Life and the Resurrection.

His Beatitude, Patriarch Gregorios III, the Bishops of the Holy Synod of the Melkite Catholic Church, His Grace, Elias Rahal, Archbishop of Baalbeck, the Clergy and Faithful of the Eparchy of Baalbeck, His Grace, Bishop Youssef Joel Zraiy, Patriarchal Vicar of Egypt and Sudan, the Clergy and Faithful of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, the Zoghby Family and their relatives here and abroad, regret to inform you of the passing to the Lord of His Grace, Archbishop Elias Zoghby, on Wednesday, 16 January 2008.

Archbishop Zoghby was Dean of the Holy Synod of Melkite Bishops, Patriarchal Vicar Emeritus of Egypt and Sudan, and Archbishop Emeritus of Baalbeck.

Archbishop Zoghby’s Funeral will take place at St. Paul Basilica in Harissa, on Saturday, 19 January 2008, at 3:00 P.M. Sympathies will be accepted before and after the funeral service at St. Paul Convent in Harissa and on Sunday, 20 January 2008 at the Patriarchal Residence in Rabweh from 11:00 A.M to 6:00 P.M.

O Christ God, with the Saints grant rest to the soul of your High Priest Elias in a place where there is no pain, no grief, no sighing, but everlasting life.

Needless to say, we will join with all the Melkite priests and other admirers of this great and holy son of the Church in offering this Sunday's Liturgy in his memory.

Sayidna Elias was instrumental in pushing forward the dialogue within the divided Patriarchate of Antioch (between the Antiochian Orthodox Patriarchate and the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch). See Bishop Nicholas Samra's report on the historic initiative Sayidna Elias fostered here.

Several Articles Worthy of Your Time

The past few days have been rather busy, but I have noted several important articles that deserve attention and reflection.

First, Sandro Magister reports on the upcoming meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and a number of Muslim scholars. The report includes comments by Jean-Louis Cardinal Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the text of a letter from Cardinal Bertone, a commentary on it by Samir Khalil Samir, a reply to it by prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan. Read it here.

Next up, Fr Richard John Neuhaus of First Things has an On the Square commentary entitled: The Future of Sex and Marriage.

Over at MercatorNet, Susan Reibel Moore has contributed a timely and astute discussion of children's literature and some of the "dark materials" contributing to the destruction of culture. I find her perspective fascinating, particularly as she cannot be vilified as just another Christian apologist. Read it here.

Catholic World News reports on Orthodox Russian Theologians meeting to discuss the question of Papal primacy. Read here.

And finally, while it's been available for a while, if you haven't read it yet, go to it, print it, and read it carefully. Spe Salvi, the second Encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI is a must read epic (no, I don't believe I'm exaggerating). Find it at the Vatican website, here.

A few interesting articles...

Below are links to a few interesting articles worth reading and pondering.

From MercatorNet, an article on unwed mothers.

From the same source, an article on the myth of the teenage brain.

First Things' On the Square has a nice piece on Icons.

Chiesa features a review of the recent Vatican document on Evangelisation.

Interfax has a few interesting articles here, and here, and here, and here, and finally here revealing the mind of the Russian Orthodox Church.

From the International Herald Tribune the news that Israel has finally given official recognition to the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem.

And finally, the Catholic News Agency reports on the continued exodus for Christians from the holy lands.

More on Young People and Sex

Previously, I posted links to articles that among other things suggested young people today have a growing awareness that sex and love are not one and the same thing. From the Detroit News comes another piece affirming the vacuousness of valueless culture.

By now everyone's heard of the hook-up culture prevalent on college campuses and, increasingly, in high schools and even middle schools. Kids don't date; they just do it (or something close to "it," an activity that a recent president asserted was not actual sex), and then figure out what comes next. If anything.
...
Speaking to a packed room of mostly women, Grossman noted that while some in the audience had attended college during the free-love days, the world is far more dangerous now. Today there are more than two-dozen sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) -- 15 million new cases each year -- some of which are incurable.
...
At Duke University recently, Stepp asked how many in her audience of about 250 would like to bring back dating. Four out of every five raised their hands.

For the entire article, click here.

Ancient Church Faces Competition from Evangelicals

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — As Ethiopia enters its third millennium, so does its Orthodox church, a venerable state-backed institution whose dominance is increasingly threatened by a myriad of evangelical faiths.

Patriarch Paulos, the current head of the 40-million-strong Ethiopian Orthodox Church, downplays any rivalry and stresses, as one of the presidents of the World Council of Churches, he has invited the leaders of other denominations on numerous occasions.
...

Millennium celebrations put the spotlight on the church and believers turned out in larger than usual numbers for a September 27 procession celebrating a "Finding of the Cross" festival.

But the church's ages-old stranglehold on Christianity here is now challenged by a growing number of evangelical denominations that have mushroomed all over the continent.

"A lot of people are coming," said David Ibiobamimo, an Addis Ababa-based pastor for one of these churches, the Winners' Chapel International. "Sometimes our new arrivals number 300 a week, most of whom are from the younger generation."

The 40-year-old said that the traditional customs of the Orthodox church -- sometimes perceived as archaic -- were among the reasons why evangelical institutions were seeing a surge in the number of young converts.

"The power of the Orthodox church is breaking, people are seeing the light," he said. "People are questing for new knowledge. They are getting fed up with the old and traditional settings, they are seeking new experiences."
...

Ethiopian church followers are expected to observe strict practices such as lengthy fasting periods -- practices younger people find out-of-date.

"They are very old traditions. I don't believe that God can be served this way in the 21st century," said 27-year-old Rahel, who gave only her first name.

Note the pejorative term "stranglehold". Of course, the fact that Protestants (mainly backed by Americans) come with money, setting up schools and hospitals while actively proselytising the local Christian population, has nothing to do with the rise of Evangelicalism. The quotes from the Evangelical pastor and the young person color the reporter's perspective. "Ethiopian church followers are expected to observe strict practices such as lengthy fasting periods -- practices younger people find out-of-date." The reporter makes a blanket statement about the views of young people rather than clarifying that it is the Evangelical young people who find fasting "out-of-date". C'est la vie!

For the entire story, click here.

Holy Father Promise Cooperation to New Patriarch

Pope Promises Catholic Help for New Patriarch
Romanian Orthodox Leader Enthroned

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 2, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI told the newly enthroned patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church that he can count on collaboration from Catholics.

The Pope sent a delegation to Bucharest on Sunday to participate in the solemn enthronement celebrations of Patriarch Daniel Ciobotea, the new leader of 19 million Romanian Orthodox.

The Vatican delegation was led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and included Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the same dicastery, and Archbishop Jean-Claude Périsset, apostolic nuncio to Romania.

As a "pledge to search for full communion," Cardinal Kasper gave the patriarch a chalice in the Pope’s name. He also delivered a letter from the Holy Father, written in French, which told the patriarch that "Catholics are standing with their Orthodox brethren, with prayer and availability, to offer useful collaboration."

"The one and only Gospel waits to be proclaimed by everyone together, in love and reciprocal esteem," wrote Benedict XVI.

The message recalls the good relations established by Pope John Paul II and the then Patriarch Teoctist.

For the full article, click here.