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 

13 September 2012. One of the Cabinet Sent This On…

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I got this from a dear friend:

I found these words in today’s Matins Service for the Beheading of St John Baptist (also 9/11!) and was quite struck by them. I thought I’d share them with you…

Draw Thy bow, prosper and reign, O Son of the Mother of God, subduing the Muslims who wage war against us and granting victory to our Orthodox hierarchs over all heresies, through the entreaties of her who gaveth birth to Thee, O Word of God.

Bogorodichen of the first Canon of the Feast, Ode IX

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“Muslims” in this sense isn’t “Followers of Islam”… it’s “Opponents of Christ’s Church”. That makes the second part of the trope, granting victory to our Orthodox hierarchs over all heresies, sensible and applicable. That is, “Subdue the godless who rail against us, granting victory to our Orthodox hierarchs over all heresies”. In short, we must oppose and fight all those who try to ally us to heresies such as “evangelicalism” and to schisms such as the Unia. This is NOT in reference to contemporary Muslims… most of whom aren’t our enemies. It IS in reference to those within our ranks who are Quislings and fifth-columnists.

There IS such a thing as “tserkovnost”…

BMD

25 August 2012. Uniate Chieftain Issues Unctuous Missive on “Reconciliation” with Orthodox

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The major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church said he hopes to follow up a Polish-Russian joint message by pursuing a similar reconciliation process with Russian Orthodox leaders. Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Galych, said at a mid-August news conference in Kolomyya, “We should also take such a path of reconciliation… without this, it’ll be impossible to stop Russification in the Ukraine and Ukrainophobia in Russia. If we somehow try to settle painful questions of the past as Christians in light of the Gospel and to heal our memory solely by means of reconciliation, then we can build something constructive”.

On 17 August, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church (sic) and the president of the Polish Episcopal Conference signed a joint message urging Poles and Russians to set aside centuries of anger and prejudice, and work together to maintain their countries’ Christian identities. Shevchuk said the declaration didn’t specift “what Poles forgive the Russians for, and what the Orthodox Church intends to apologise to the Latin church in Poland for”, but he said the text had provided “a very powerful example”.

Eastern and Latin Catholics make up 10 percent of the Ukrainian population of 50 million, compared to around a third belonging to the country’s three rival Orthodox denominations {this is wrong, but do consider the source… it’s a papist undercount of us and an overcount of Uniates: editor}. Church ties in the Ukraine have long been tense over Orthodox complaints of Catholic proselytism, as well as over the reclaiming of churches by Eastern Catholics. Shevchuk said Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Kirill of Moscow seemed ready to communicate “not only with the head of the whole Catholic Church, but also with the head of a national church”. He noted that most Russian Orthodox conversations about Ukrainian Catholics were at the Vatican, “almost always without us”.

24 August 2012

Catholic News Service

As quoted by the National Catholic Reporter

http://ncronline.org/news/global/ukrainian-catholic-leader-hopes-mend-ties-russian-orthodox

Editor’s Note:

Firstly, Shevchuk is not “Archbishop of Kiev” in real terms… there are very few Uniates outside of formerly-Hapsburg Galicia. He’s the “Archbishop of Lvov”; he has NO sizeable national following (that’s why the construction of a Uniate Cathedral in Kiev is nothing but a Vatican provocation), only a regional one.

As even children know, Orthodoxy has no problems with the Latin Catholics… they are what they are. Yes, we’re not in communion, but there’s no “heat” in it… save in borderlands, where there’s been historic friction between us. However, on the other hand, the Uniates are seen as the Vatican’s knife poised at our backs. The Uniates have the goddamned gall to call themselves “Orthodox in union with the See of Rome”… when they’re nothing of the sort. The only Orthodox out there are those in communion with the recognised Eastern or Oriental Orthodox Local Churches. In any case, the Uniates don’t recognise the New Martyrs of the Hapsburg Yoke… St Maksim Sandovich and the Martyrs of Talerhof and Terezín. In fact, the Uniates were willing and eager collaborators of the Hapsburgs (in like manner, they were willing collaborators with the Nazis) and they’re completely unrepentant. NOTHING can happen until the Uniates admit their total guilt and repentance in this… and that’s not going to happen.

There’s no such thing as an “Eastern Church”… that’s a Vatican lie. There’s NO union between Uniates and Orthodox (the former are not discrete “churches”… they’re papists with a funny ritus). Quite obviously, if individual Uniates wish to join themselves to the Church, to come “back home”, we should greet them and make them welcome (that’s what happened with Nathaniel Popp… he abjured the error of Uniatism to join himself to Christ’s Church).

Individual Uniates are NOT to blame for what their Vatican-lickspittle hierarchy do… NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST. Anyone who attacks individual Uniates is of the devil, not of Christ’s Church. That being said, one must differentiate between guiltless individuals and traitorous organisations. The former MUST be treated with charity and forbearance; the latter MUST be opposed with all our powers.

Deus vult… God wills it…

BMD

Changes in Law will Forbid Foreign and Domestic Extremist Presence in Russian Religious Organisations

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On its official website, the RF Ministry of Justice announced draft amendments to the law “On Freedom of Conscience”, according to which religious organisations can’t employ foreigners who are persona non grata in the RF, as well as Russians suspected of extremism. The changes relate to Article 9 of the law, and according to the draft amendment, “A foreigner or a stateless person declared persona non grata under RF legislation can’t be legal representatives (or participants, or members) of a religious organisation”. The measure also applies to persons engaging in actions ruled as extremist by proper judicial authority, including the statues concerning money laundering and terrorist financing.

8 August 2012

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=46921

Editor’s Note:

This plugs a loophole in existing Russian legislation. Langley often uses “Evangelical”, Pentecostalist, Mormon, Uniate, and schismatic Orthodox bodies as cover for its operations (sadly enough, the ROCOR was such a stooge in the ‘90s under Vitaly Ustinov). This allows the white hats (both in the religious and lay senses of the term, both “good guys” and “metropolitans”) to root out the plug-uglies and boot their gnarly arses out of the country. Good riddance to bad rubbish… in both the secular and ecclesiastical spheres… Russia doesn’t need malicious foreigners hiding behind a “religious” façade on its soil.

BMD

Major Jesuit Scholar Harshly Criticised the Liturgical Tradition of Catholicism in the Period between the Council of Trent and the Second Vatican Council

THIS is what Taft’s criticising and calling “frozen”… he doesn’t know his arse from a hole in the ground. As for me, give me this humble Québécois Catholic believer at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré over that bloviating and windy Jebbie…

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Editor’s Foreword:

This Russian post illustrates how unrepentant the ‘60s generation is towards Tradition. It’s sad to relate, but the unhinged ivory tower types at SVS and Jordanville (through Vassa Larina and Andrei Psyarov) go ape-shit over this idiot. Caveat lector! More-traditional RC types will enjoy the little zingers about this turkey inserted by the anonymous author at Sedmitza.

BMD

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In an interview with CNS, which CWN also quoted, Robert Taft SJ, a world-famous scholar of the Byzantine (sic) liturgical tradition and former professor (1970-2002) and vice-rector (1995-2001) of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, said that religious leaders “froze the liturgy after the Council of Trent, so, when the Second Vatican Council opened the freezer door, it just crumbled. However, the Second Vatican Council didn’t make any abuses; they were a reaction to centuries of rigidity in the liturgy. The liturgy became a play without an audience. We were all actors. The prayer wasn’t for God. Of course, God already knew it was all playacting”. Taft continued his bizarre reasoning by speaking of Latin in the liturgy, adding, “Language is meant for us [to understand], and if you don’t understand the language, then, you have a problem”. About the documents of the Catholic Church on Catholicism of the Eastern Rite, he said, “It’s better to be a part of the process than to stand on the sidelines and criticise, but I’m critical, as well. My attitude has always been that I prefer to make these decisions myself than to let others of lesser intelligence make them for me”. Taft, in all modesty, described himself as a man who “reached the summits” in the study of the Byzantine (sic) liturgy. “One of the advantages of old age, what the Byzantine (sic) liturgy calls ‘the terrible tribunal tribunal of Christ’, is that you’ll feel a fear of God more keenly, you’ll pray more often. It’s already had an impact on my spiritual life”, the 79-year-old Jesuit {a waggish RC priest-friend of mine calls them “the Society of Jerks…. if there’s something fishy, there’s a Jesuit behind it”: editor} reflected in conclusion.

19 December 2011

Sedmitza.ru

http://www.sedmitza.ru/news/2677579.html

Editor’s Note:

He’s an arrogant SOB, isn’t he? He hates the Tridentine Liturgy, and he hates Mount Athos… he pisses on both RCs and Orthodox equally… he’s an “equal opportunity mudslinger”. Vassa Larina goes ga-ga over this schmidiot… SVS adores him… and Andrei Psyarov holds him up as an exemplar to seminarists at Jordanville. Birds of a feather DO flock together. If Taft’s a fatuous airhead (full of windy scholarly verbiage, to be sure), what does that tell you about Vassa Larina, Andrei Psyarov, and SVS? Taft’s an impenitent and shameless “angry young man” who’s become an unseemly and slobbering “angry old man”… and out of step with the Pope of Rome. People are never boring are they? This is the latest proof that logic and consistency aren’t necessary attributes for advancement… just have the right kind and the right quantity of bullshit, and you’ll go far. My condolences to my RC friends… you’re as infested with pseudo-academic crazies and crackpots as we are. What’s my solution to the problem? I’d put ‘em all on a remote island (Tristan da Cunha or Bouvet Island would fill the bill, I’m sure)… they could argue to their heart’s content without bothering normal people. Now, just if Kirill and Benedict would do such (wouldn’t Kochetkov and Taft make perfect housemates?)…

Oh… don’t forget… Thomas Hopko was formed by Jesuit jerks at Fordham… and it shows! Pity the poor students at SVS who picked up his risorgimento BS.

BMD

No Stems, No Seeds That You Don’t Need… The Renovationists are Smokin’ Badass Weed

Take a look at this. I looked at oca.org, and, sure enough, they didn’t ‘fess up to their shenanigans. This is utter horseshit from stem to stern… I smell Lyonyo Kishkovsky and Vanya Behr (with Vassa Larina and Andrei Psaryov applauding from the sidelines)… don’t forget J P Fathausen’s disgraceful performance at that so-called Lumen Gentium conference when he kissed the naked bums of the Uniates for all to see. Even the Wonder didn’t suck up so obsequiously. After the last ecumaniac Dixie Fry in Vienna, he said:

For the Orthodox parties, it’s obvious that, in the first millennium, the jurisdiction of the Roman bishop resided solely in the West, whereas the East was divided between the four Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. In any case, the bishop of Rome had no direct jurisdiction over the East, despite the fact that, in some cases, eastern bishops appealed to him as an arbiter in theological disputes. Such actions didn’t give rise to any systematic treatment or development, nor can we read this in any way as implying that the Bishop of Rome was seen by the East as the possessor of supreme authority throughout the Universal Church.

There it is… and that’s from the Wonder, who’s a squiffy sort! That is, we don’t accept any of the papist rubbish that’s contained in the above USCC document. We really should stop these windy and pointless gabfests. All that it does is to convince most grounded Orthodox that the papists are up to old tricks, and it impedes normal neighbourly relations. Shall I say it loudly and slowly?

WE DON’T BELIEVE THAT THE POPE OF ROME IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH… HE ISN’T INFALLIBLE… HE ISN’T CHRIST’S VICAR ON EARTH.

That isn’t going to change any time soon or any time later, despite what some may hear from unrepresentative jerks from SVS or New Skete, and from zhlubtsy such as Reardon, Erickson, Matthewes-Green, Honeycutt, Zizioulas, and the Wonder; these paladins of appeasement don’t speak for all Orthodox… don’t forget, we’re NOT a top-down bunch like the RCs! We’re a raucous and loud bunch of free men and women in the agora, and we don’t buy any of this crapola. Why do they persist in this? All it does is to confuse and bewilder our RC interlocutors. When they speak to the pseudo-intellectuals, they think that they’re winning… when they talk to real Orthodox… boy, are they surprised and taken aback! There’s a basic and essential difference between Orthodox and papal ecclesiology, and it isn’t bridgeable. One or the other is correct. We aren’t going to adopt the papal model, no matter what some egghead or other says… we’re willing to be friends and good neighbours, why aren’t they satisfied with that? It’s God-pleasing, isn’t it? Let’s share our joys and our griefs… unity? That’s never going to be, so, just knock it off, willya? As for the Orthodox Renovationists… they have less connection to reality than the average stoner does, and that’s no lie.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Albany NY