Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol… confessor of the Orthodox Faith. Eis polla, eti despota!
In an interview published today, 23 May 2010, in the Cypriot newspaper Phileleftheros, Metropolitan Athanasios distanced himself from the Archbishop’s decision to host the Pope in Cyprus. The following are excerpts from the interview:
For us Orthodox, the Pope is a heretic, outside of the Church, and, hence, not even a bishop…
He [the Pope] has been outside of the Church for ten centuries now, he is not a canonical bishop, and he has no relation whatsoever to the reality of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Christ. It is one thing to receive him as a canonical bishop and quite another to speak to him as [being] a heterodox in order to reveal to him the truth of the Orthodox Faith and Tradition…
Dialogue is not a bad thing when it is carried out based on correct presuppositions. However, it is wrong to say to these people that we recognise them as a Church, that we recognise the Pope as a Bishop, as our brother in Christ in the priesthood and in [the] faith. I cannot accept this, because we are lying [when we say this], since all of the Holy Fathers teach exactly the opposite. Papism is a heresy and the source of many other heresies that trouble the entire world today. A contemporary Saint of the Church, St Justin Popović, said that there have been three tragic falls in the history of the human race:
- of the first-formed Adam
- of the disciple of Christ, Judas
- of the Pope, who, when he was the first Bishop of the Church, fell from the apostolic faith
[He] was cut off from the canonical Church, and he lured away a host of people with him. God is one and the Church of God is one, and that is why we say in the Symbol of Faith [that we believe] ‘in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church’. This is the Orthodox Church, there do not exist many Churches…
When I say to the other that it doesn’t matter that you are Catholic and that we all belong to the same Church, I am playing with him [or mocking him], since all of the Holy Fathers teach that the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Christ is one…
The Orthodox Church preserves the faith of the Apostles and the experience of the prophets unshakeable up until our own days. The Papists, unfortunately, from the time when they were cut off from the Church, added many heretical dogmas to their [confession of] faith, changed the Symbol of Faith [the Nicene Creed], and, above all, elevated the Pope to the level of being the eminent and unique representative of God on earth…
When you add things to the Symbol of Faith that the Holy Fathers did not write, and many other false teachings, this is heresy. This is the reality of things…
******
Phileleftheros
How does the Orthodox Church encounter/deal with heretics?
Metropolitan Athanasios
With much love. We love the Pope, we love the papists just as we love every person; we do not despise them, we do not reject them as persons, but we do not accept [their] heresy, we do not accept the false teachings, we do not accept [their] delusions. Because we love them we must tell them the truth.
Phileleftheros
Do you think that dialogue can produce results?
Metropolitan Athanasios
It can, if we do it properly and base it on the right presuppositions. Unfortunately, as it is carried out today, it does not produce results, and that is why they have carried on discussions for so many years without coming to any conclusions.
Frankly, and above all, I disagree with the coming of the Pope to Cyprus, and I say with my whole soul that the Pope is a heretic, he is not a bishop, he is not an Orthodox Christian, and this is what the Holy Fathers say. If I am wrong, I am ready to be corrected, but based on the Holy Fathers, not based on the mindset of globalisation. Just because I disagree does not mean that I am being disorderly and am outside the Church [as some have claimed].
The Pope always speaks in a formal manner, he says things which are customary [to his position], as he will say now that he will come to Cyprus, but he will do nothing of essence, because he is not the leader of the Church, but a political person, who cannot come into conflict with the political establishment and system. Did the Pope ever speak up for the Orthodox Church? … However, I am not going back [to a distant past]. The reasons I am reacting today are purely theological. When I was consecrated a bishop, I pledged to preserve the Orthodox Faith.
Phileleftheros
The Pope said that he wants to make a pilgrimage following the footsteps of the Apostle Paul.
Metropolitan Athanasios
With the exception that the Apostle Paul didn’t travel using a bulletproof car which cost 500,000 euros (19.584 million Roubles 627,700 USD 433,364 UK Pounds), which, I read, the Cypriot government bought for the Pope to travel around Cyprus for the two days he will be here. I was personally quite scandalised by this news and said that a bulletproof car does not fit the Vicar of Christ. For the people to have to pay such a price in the midst of an economic crisis…
Phileleftheros
The announcement from the representatives of the Pope says that he is coming to Cyprus in order to promote human and Christian values and principles, and that he wants to walk in the steps of the Apostle Paul and in a spirit of the brotherhood meet the Orthodox Church with a good disposition.
Metropolitan Athanasios
I do not doubt his good will… may it be that this is the case. May it be that he resembles the Apostle Paul and that he encounters the riches of the Orthodox Church. We pray that he return to the Orthodox Church and becomes once again an Orthodox Bishop as he was before the schism. This alone is the proper path to unity.
Phileleftheros
What do you think is the hidden agenda?
Metropolitan Athanasios
The Vatican does not take steps thoughtlessly or naïvely. Every tour of each Pope has as its aim to present him as the worldwide leader of Christianity. At this point, however, he is neither a canonical Bishop, nor Orthodox, such that he is in no place to present himself as having the first place among bishops.
Phileleftheros
Are there hidden political interests at stake here?
Metropolitan Athanasios
I don’t know; I don’t think that we [the Cypriot people] have anything to gain politically from the visit of the Pope… only a lot of expenses and great upheaval in the consciences of the faithful.
Phileleftheros
The Archbishop said that all those who disagree would place themselves outside the Church.
Metropolitan Athanasios
I am not aware of the Archbishop’s statements, but I don’t think that whoever disagrees with the coming of the Pope places himself outside the Church. I disagree, I say it boldly and frankly, and I am not outside the Church.
Editor’s Note:
Thank you to Tim Connelly for the link to this. He wrote his frank opinion of the crowd at SVS… I had it here, but Tim said YIKES… Tim, I agree with you and think it was grand what you said… but I’ll accede to your request (I think it should have stayed… they need a kick in the rear)…
This is the real deal… we don’t hate papists in the least… they are what they are, that’s all. I wish that the spurious “dialogue” would end so that good-hearted Orthodox and Catholics could cooperate in secular good works, as we can and should. I have a suggestion that I think that honest RCs would concur in… let’s take a leaky old freighter, load it up with all our pseudo-academic and loudmouthed fringe elements, sail it past the continental shelf into deep ocean, and, then, fire a torpedo into it… and sail away, leaving them to their fate (unfortunately, we can’t leave ‘em to the sharks… good and upstanding sharks have standards, after all (they wouldn’t want to have Charlie Curran or John Behr as an entrée… Yuck…). Think of the savings to the faithful… those hot air gabathons ain’t cheap, you know.
Then, we could concentrate on being good neighbours, as we should be. Guests of good-will are always welcome in the house…
BMD
23 May 2010
Pantocrator Monastery (Melissohori, Greece)
Voices from Russia 
You must be logged in to post a comment.