The New Pope and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church: From the “Economist”… Not Spot-On at All, but it’s a “Read n’ Heed”

This is a typical Galician Uniate nutter… can you truly take such sorts seriously? After all, they DID collaborate quite willingly with the Nazis…

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Editor’s Foreword:

Here’s another piece to read n’ heed… its wrong, but it tells you the viewpoint of the papists and the Anglosphere élite, and that’s a good thing to know. Caveat lector…

BMD

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Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Volokolamsk, a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, recently expressed hope that the new pope, Francisco Bergoglio, will continue the policy of rapprochement with the Orthodox Church and that he won’t support, what [Hilarion] calls the expansion of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics, saying, “The Unia is the most painful topic in the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, in relations between the Orthodox and the Catholics. If the pope supports the Unia, then, of course, it’d bring no good”. The metropolitan is worried… it’s said that the new pope has an affinity for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC). So much so, that one Russian commentator claimed that in Francisco, “we have a Ukrainian pope”. This may worsen relations between Orthodox and Catholics.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church confuses most outsiders; it’s an Eastern rite church in communion with the Vatican. Drawing on the Christian legacy of medieval Kievan-Rus‘, it was officially founded through the 1596 Union of Brest (hence, the church’s other widespread name, Uniate). “Greek” was added later to distinguish it from the Roman Catholic Church. Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the UGCC, said that Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the new pope, had a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest as his mentor, and is familiar with the Church’s rites, says . Previously, Major Archbishop Shevchuk served in Buenos Aires and got to know the future pope there. Many in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church hope that Francisco would elevate it to a patriarchate, from its status as a Major Archiepiscopate. Today, Greek Catholics make up about 15 percent of the Ukrainian population. Most of them live in the west of the country, including the city of Lvov, and they have a strong presence in the Ukrainian diaspora. After almost half a century of persecution under Soviet rule, the Church resurfaced as one of the pillars of national identity in the Western Ukraine. It’s an influential force here, although it has kept its distance from politics.

Someone once quipped, “In the rest of the Ukraine, religious people go to church; in Lvov, everyone goes to church”. The city is famous for its panoply of churches, most of them now Greek Catholic, although it still has both a Roman Catholic and an Armenian cathedral. Up until 1941, Lvov was also an important centre of the Jewish religion. In the mornings, the sound of the liturgy, sung in Ukrainian, spills out into the cobbled streets. Lvov Business School, part of the Ukrainian Catholic University, affiliated with the [Ukrainian Greek Catholic] Church, combines business education with ethics. Sophia Opatska, the School’s chief executive, said that they try to encourage “trust, openness, and ethics” in the new generation of business leaders, to help change negative trends in the Ukraine. She added that this is especially important in the Ukraine, where “business often takes on social and economic responsibilities that belong to government in democratic countries”.

On 7 April, crowds of Greek Catholics joined a procession through Lvov representing the Way of the Cross, slowing down  traffic. The Church’s leaders have already invited Pope Francisco to visit the Ukraine. The new pope himself has made no special mention of the Ukraine since his election as the Ukrainian media pointed up. All the same, many of Ukraine’s Greek Catholics eagerly await the visit of Pope Francisco, the closest they’ve had to a Ukrainian pope.

12 April 2013

The Economist

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2013/04/ukraines-greek-catholic-church

Editor’s Afterword:

The Galician Uniates are the Great White Hope of not only the papists, but of the American rightwing. Indeed, they wish to separate Orthodox in the Ukraine from the MP and entice them into the Western-dominated Unia. Such is their project; it’s clear to all concerned. I’ll predict that its only result will be a strengthening of Orthodoxy and a rededication to our opposition of the Unia and all its works. The Westerners and righties will regret having stirred up this pot… they’ll have woken up a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve. Thus always to tyrants and their machinations…

Oh, one last thing… do note the deafening silence by the author on the Orthodox clergy killed and the churches stolen or destroyed by Western-financed Uniate mobs… in the West’s eyes, some people ARE “more  human” than others are. None dare call it what it is… after all, the West doesn’t engage in such things, dontcha know (their media tells us so daily, doesn’t it?)…

BMD 

20 April 2013. Usual BS from Paul Goble on Pope Francisco… Crank Stuff, But Read n’ Heed… Ya Gotta Know What’s Out There

The Rejection of the Sermon of the Uniate Kuntsevich in Byelorussia

Ilya Repin

1893

This is what happened in the 17th century when the papists attempted to ram the “Unia” down our throats. It hasn’t changed one little bit. Beware of those who call themselves “Orthodox in Union with Rome”… they’re not of us… they never were, they aren’t, and they never will be. Crank world, ain’t it?

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Editor’s Foreword:

Usual shit from Paul Goble… but you MUST know what he says. After all, SVS and the konvertsy go gaga over idiots like him… they do NOT share the healthy instincts of REAL Orthodox Christians. They HATE the Orthosphere and its peoples… NEVER forget that… they’ve sold out to the Godless West.

BMD

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Having watched as the Polish pope, John Paul II Wojtyła, helped end the communist empire (sic) in Europe, Moscow must now cope with a new reality, a Russian commentator says, it must recognise that in Pope Francisco Bergoglio, “we have a Ukrainian pope”, someone whose ideas could threaten Russian interests in a new way. According to commentary on the Boardnews.ru portal, many Ukrainians hope, and many Russian Orthodox hierarchs fear that the new pope, precisely because of his experiences with and sympathy for Ukrainian Christians, will give the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church… the Uniates… a patriarch. This unsigned commentary provides a wealth of evidence for both these hopes and fears. It begins by noting that Francisco has shown himself committed to interreligious dialogue, and it notes that “for the first time” since the 1054 split between Orthodoxy and Catholics, Patriarch Bartholomew Archontonis of Constantinople, the universal patriarch (sic), attended a papal enthronement.

It cited the words of Father Orest-Dmitry Vilchinsky who said that the new pope’s “personality was formed in a multi-ethnic and poly-confessional society” and that Francisco is thus is inclined to and fully capable of opening a dialogue with representatives of all other religious denominations and faiths. However, the commentary continued, the Ukraine occupies a special place in the new pope’s heart. He was a student of Stepan Czmil, a Greek Catholic priest who is “one of the three” Uniate leaders whom Patriarch (sic) Josyf Slipyj {how could a Cardinal be a “Patriarch?”: editor} “secretly” consecrated so that they could “in case of necessity” enter “the territory of the USSR” and elevate new bishops for that church.

The new pope apparently knows the Byzantine Ukrainian rite and felt close enough to its leaders to provide testimony for the beatification of Slipyi. According to another Ukrainian émigré churchman who occasionally met with the future pope, Francisco has a “sentimental” soft spot for Ukrainians. The new pope also had significant experience in working with the Ukrainian church as an institution. While Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he served as the protector of Eastern Rite Christians who “did not have their own bishopric in Argentina”, including clergy and laity of the Uniate Church. The Blessed Svyatoslav {that’s a bit much… but par for the course for Goble… he’s WORSE than Weigel is, believe it or not: editor}, the head of that church, worked “under the direct leadership” of the Argentinean cardinal, and following the election of Francisco as pope expressed the hope that the latter would support a patriarchate for the Uniates, something they have long wanted because of the standing it would give them.

Russian concerns about the new pope’s probable course of action with respect to the Uniates are exacerbated, the Boardnews.ru commentary said, because Francisco is the first Jesuit pope. The Jesuits trained many Ukrainian churchmen, and the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian state long viewed their activities with suspicion. Moreover, the leadership of the Moscow Patriarchate issued a clear warning to the pope about the consequences of involvement with the Uniates. Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Volokolamsk, the head of the Russian church’s powerful department of external church relations {that shows the depth of Goble’s dumb-as-dirt ignorance… HH CUT the DECR by two-thirds and made the Blunder SMILE: editor}, said that such contacts “won’t lead” to anything good, saying that Uniatism is “the most sensitive issue in Orthodox-Catholic dialogue and in relations between the Orthodox and the Catholics as the Orthodox Church has always been sharply against Uniatism as such, as we view it as a deceptive attempt to force Orthodox into entering community with Rome”.

Not only did the Uniate church injure Orthodoxy by its work to revive its organisation in the Western Ukraine in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hilarion continued, it created a situation in which “Uniates even mask themselves as Orthodox and don’t say that they’re Catholics, but call themselves Orthodox”, thus creating serious problems for the Moscow Patriarchate. In addition, the metropolitan touched on the Jesuit roots of Pope Francisco. The Russian churchman noted, “It isn’t accidental that the word ‘Jesuit’ acquired a negative connotation in the Russian language. A Jesuit is someone who appears to be one thing, but is another, who says one thing, but thinks another”. Given the sensitivity of the Uniate issue for the Moscow Patriarchate, Hilarion’s observation suggests that the Russian Church, however much it may hope for better relations with the Vatican in order to promote traditional values, will view the actions of a man whom some are calling “the Ukrainian pope” with deep suspicion.

24 March 2013

Paul Goble

Estonian World Review

http://www.eesti.ca/moscow-now-must-deal-with-ukrainian-pope-commentator-says/article39003

Editor’s Note:

This makes Francisco an interesting mixed bag… he’s leftist on social justice, pro-Argentinean on the Malvinas, but pro-Uniate to the max. That’s going to bugger relations with the MP… The MP shares the first two positions (along with a generally-traditional stance on morality), but the pro-Uniatism throws it all away. That is, it’s a deal-breaker. Neither side is going to give on the issue, so, that’s that. We should concentrate on friendly personal relations with individual Roman Catholics, clergy, and parishes… that’s all that’s attainable at present.

People like SVS, who’re inviting the papist Acton Institute to participate in a seminar, are plunging a knife into the back of their coreligionists… they don’t bloody care. That says much about SVS’ character (or, rather, the lack of it), doesn’t it? Note well that SVS and the konvertsy kiss the naked bums of the Uniates (and of the Old Ritualists, too). Kaufft nicht bei Chad Hatfield… or, you’ll be sorry…

BMD  

Moscow Patriarchate Cools the Vatican: “New Greek-Catholic Challenges” in the Ukraine

Uniates slobber over this… you can see why they’re enemies of Christ’s Church…

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The MP denied the words of the nuncio in the Russian Federation, according to whom relations between Orthodox and Uniates have improved. Archpriest Dmitri Sizonenko denounced expansionism and support for schismatics.

The question of Greek-Catholics in the Ukraine (Uniates) continues to hinder ecumenical dialogue between Rome and Moscow. Archpriest Dmitri Sizonenko, MP Secretary for Inter-Christian relations, reiterated this in speaking to Interfax-Religion. He commented on the optimistic declarations about the improved relations between Orthodox and [so-called] Ukrainian Catholics (who recognise the authority of the Pope of Rome), made by the Apostolic Nuncio in the Russian Federation, Monsignor Ivan Yurkovich. The latter, interviewed by NG-Religii, stated, “The difficulties of the early 90s have been overcome in many ways, and, today, there are many points of contact between the two Churches, especially of an informal nature”. Rev Sizonenko agreed that some problems were solved, but warned that, today, “there are new challenges”. He related that the First Hierarch of the UOC/MP expressed “concern” about attempts by Uniates “to establish and develop structures in regions with an Orthodox majority”.

Sizonenko also added that the Greek-Catholics said that they work for the unity of the Orthodox in Ukraine, but then “do the opposite”. As an example, he recalled the fact that the Major Archbishop of Kiev, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the Uniate leader, recently declared that he accepts baptisms done in the churches of the “Patriarchate of Kiev”, which is unrecognised throughout the Orthodox world. Fr Dmitri pointed up, “In the context of the current situation in the Ukraine, this sounds like proof of an interest to strengthen the position of the schismatics”. After the end of the USSR and the independence of the Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has faced strong divisions that led to the coexistence of three Orthodox Churches with parallel hierarchies:

• UOC/MP, under the Patriarchate of Moscow and all the Russias (albeit with wide autonomy, the only one recognised by the other Orthodox Local Churches)
• “Patriarchate of Kiev and all the Ukraine” (formed around the figure of Philaret, a defrocked MP cleric)
• Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (strongly nationalistic)

11 February 2013

Nina Achmatova

AsiaNews

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Moscow-Patriarchate-cools-the-Vatican:-new-Greek-catholic-challenges-in-Ukraine-27101.html

Editor’s Note:

Discount the Blunder’s cooing to the papists. This is the real deal. As a Cabinet member told me:

Do NOT forget Benny Ratz’s support for “canonising” the monster Cardinal Alojzije Viktor Stepinac of Zagreb, the “Josaphat Kontsevich” of the 20th Century. The Local Churches of Serbia, Bulgaria, Moscow, and even the submissive Phanar are outraged over this insult and blasphemy. Still, our “professional” Orthodox and half-converted “experts” continue to indulge in heavy petting with Catholics.

Quite. The Uniates aren’t our friends. There are all too many priests and faithful killed and injured by American-financed Uniate mobs… all too many Orthodox churches stolen by the Uniates. That’s why you should never take anything on the website Byzantine Texas as truth… and do spam anyone signing themselves as “Josephus Flavius” in your commboxes… he’s a nasty Uniate who just wants to argue and cause upset amongst Real Orthodox. Oh, yes… his website is a fave amongst konvertsy… which is proof that the konvertsy have NEVER converted in their heart-of-hearts and that we should never ordain them (especially, not former clergy). It’s not “nice” out there, but it’s “what is”… and we ignore reality at our own peril.

BMD

Church and State Collide in the Ukraine: Calls for Clergy to Stay Out of Politics Go Largely Ignored

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Sometimes, the separation of church and state is not as simple as it sounds, particularly in a country as religious as the Ukraine. Despite calls from church leaders for congregations to stay out of upcoming elections, such a scenario seems unlikely. Recent polls conducted by the Razumkov sociological centre indicate about 71 percent of Ukrainians are religious, with almost 52 percent associated with the Orthodox Church and about 11 percent Greek Catholic. Recently, both churches issued statements forbidding clergy to campaign for any candidates.

The statement issued by the Holy Synod of the UOC/MP read, “The church must unite people with different political views; therefore, political campaigns must stay outside of the church”. The Greek Catholic Church took a similar position, “A priest has no right to praise anyone but God”. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich also chimed in, “We have to agree for it not to happen, for the church not to participate in the political process. It’ll only work to split society”. Still, in a country where religion is so intertwined with politics, largely, most people ignore such calls.

Taras Antoshevsky, head of the Religious Information Service of the Ukraine, said, “It’s a tradition in the Ukraine for the church to be involved in the political life of the country in one way or another. Nowadays, the church is dependent on politics, and politicians often use the church for their own purposes”. So far, clergymen from both major groups have been actively involved in countless political campaigns. Yanukovich said the reason is simple, “Politicians have one of the lowest rates of trust in society, while the church has one of the highest”.

The Ukrainian media highlighted instances of priests actively campaigning for politicians. Recently, three deans from different deaneries along with several priests attended a meeting of voters to show their support for a candidate. When asked to explain why, the press secretary of the local diocese said the clergymen weren’t in fact supporting the candidate as a political figure, but simply thanking him for his patronage. Another candidate used the same tactic when he had Greek Catholic, UOC/MP, and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox representatives speak at a rally.

In a village in the Western Ukraine, a priest campaigned for a candidate during a church service, saying, “You all know that [he] helps your community. The church doesn’t take part in state affairs, but you see there are people who actually do help the church and everybody else, too. So, give your vote to good people”. Fr Grigori Bolshakov, a dean of a Kiev church and a local candidate, has gone so far as to use his position to campaign for himself. A banner hangs on his church with his picture which reads, “Vote with your heart, vote with your soul!” According to church rules, a clergyman can only be involved in politics with a blessing from the head of the church. According to a UOC/MP archbishop, the church has granted no priest such permission, saying, “If you want to be a Rada deputy, quit the church, and stand for election as a private person”.

Still, Antoshevsky said that the church rarely punishes priests who do get involved in politics, noting, “There’s no specific punishment for such actions”. He added, however, that he thinks the importance of the church in politics is overstated, observing, “I don’t believe that church influences elections that much. We have so many religious people, yet such a high rate of corruption. Well, where are all the religious people then?”

24 October 2012

Anna Shamanska

Prague Post

http://www.praguepost.com/news/14623-region-church-and-state-collide-in-ukraine.html

 

22 September 2012. A Point to Ponder. Is He a Saint… The Church Says “Yes”… The Uniates Say “No”

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Those who honour St Maksim’s podvig LOVE Christ and His Church… what does that tell us about those who minimise or deny that podvig? That’s why we have nothing in common with Uniates… they deny such manifest holiness and reality. Don’t hate them… but pay no heed to their lying propaganda of an “Eastern Church”… it does NOT exist. St Maksim died because he refused to dilute the Unity of Christ’s Church. We should do likewise. We forget tserkovnost (“churchmindedness” is a very pale translation of this central Orthodox concept) at our own peril.

BMD

Our Father Amongst the Saints Hieromartyr Maksim Sandovich (+1914), Murdered by the Papist Hapsburgs

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St Maksim Sandovich was born in 1882 in the village of Żdynia in Carpatho-Russia (Ruthenia). At present, this area is located near the Polish-Ukrainian border, but it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time. From an early age, St Maksim evidenced extraordinary piety. When he was a schoolboy, he’d get up early in the morning to read his prayers and sing hymns. He wanted to become a monk or a priest, so, after he completed his schooling, he became a novice in one of the Uniate monasteries. However, in short order, the life there disappointed him, and, after three months, he went from there to the Pochaev Monastery, famous for its rigour, the spiritual life of its brotherhood, and its adherence to Orthodoxy.

When Maksim was still a novice, Metropolitan Antony Khrapovitsky (1863-1936) of Kiev visited the monastery. He asked the abbot to release one of the novices to study in seminary, to be ordained to serve in Carpatho-Russia, where many Ukrainian Uniates had returned to the bosom of the Orthodox Church. The abbot chose to send Maksim. He left behind his dreams of a monastic life, and he followed Metropolitan Antony. After finishing seminary in Zhitomir, Maksim married a Byelorussian girl and accepted ordination to the priesthood in 1911. Metropolitan Anthony offered him the opportunity to stay with him in Kiev, but Fr Maksim refused, and he returned to his homeland.

He began his pastoral service in Grabe, near his native village. In this place, he celebrated the Orthodox Divine Liturgy for the first time after the imposition of the Unia on Carpatho-Russia in the 18th century. During a personal call on his relatives, the authorities arrested him and gave him a substantial fine and an eight-day gaol-sentence. Despite this, Fr Maksim continued to serve in neighbouring villages, which led to new measures against him and the Orthodox Christians who aided him in his mission.

In March 1912, the Hapsburg authorities imprisoned him in Lvov. Two years later, he was in court again, this time facing charges of spreading the Orthodox faith, the use of liturgical books in Church Slavonic, and collaboration with Russia, which was an opponent of Austria-Hungary. On all the charges, the saint replied, “My only politics is the Holy Gospel“. Despite numerous perjuries against him, abuse, isolation, and all kinds of suffering, in June 1914, the court acquitted St Maksim, along with his associates, so, they returned to their native places.

However, in August 1914, upon the outbreak of the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian authorities arrested Fr Maksim again, along with his wife, who was pregnant, his father, and several Orthodox villagers. They put them in gaol in Gorlice. On 6 September 1914, without a trial before a judge, Fr Maksim received an extrajudicial death sentence. They dragged him from his cell and shot him in the prison yard, in front of all the arrested Orthodox. Falling to the ground, the Holy Hieromartyr of Christ said, “Long live Holy Orthodoxy!” Then, enraged, one of the executioners rushed at him and stabbed him with a dagger.

Only in 1922 were the remains of the saint transferred to his native village of Żdynia, where the Orthodox believers buried him next to the church. Since then, many pilgrims have gone on otpust to his tomb. The veneration of Holy Hieromartyr Maksim Sandovich spread among Carpatho-Russian Orthodox, it persisted even after the Hapsburg authorities deported many of them to the Talerhof concentration camp; St Maksim became a symbol of their national and religious identity. The Local Church of Warsaw and all Poland glorified St Maksim in 1994… it was the first saint glorified by this Local Church after its autocephaly in 1924. His memory isn’t included in the current edition of the Mineya of the Local Church of Moscow and all the Russias.

19 September 2012

Hieromonk Makarios of Simonopetra Monastery (Mount Athos)

Pravoslavie.ru

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/put/56146.htm

From Synaxarion: Lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church, published by Sretensky Monastery in Moscow

Editor’s Note:

Let’s keep it simple. Freddie M-G, Dreher, Fathausen, and all the rest of the konvertsy cavalcade schmooze up to and pander to Uniates. I’d observe that the Uniates colluded in the murder of St Maksim and that they refuse to recognise him as a saint to this day. You can stand with the konvertsy indifferentists or you can stand with the REAL Church, which honours St Maksim. Any questions? Yet, they lecture us, and call us “nominal” and “lax”… I’ll retire to Bedlam with Mr Scrooge…

This Sunday is the closest Sunday to St Maksim’s feastday on the Orthodox calendar. Don’t forget him… and those who came after him, too. Unfortunately, the Uniate clergy and leadership were (and are) busy beavers in their service of the Pope of Rome… they continue their attacks on Christ’s Church and its true ministers and believers to this day. You must trust NOTHING from Uniate sources (such as the website Byzantine Texas)… either it’s outright lies or it’s “castrated truth”… truth with vital parts cut out. Caveat lector…

Nothing is forgotten… no one is forgotten. Lest we forget…

BMD