Patriarch Kirill to Serve Liturgy at the Butovo Poligon

St Seraphim Chicagov, Metropolitan of Leningrad and Gdovsk (1853-1937), Protomartyr of the Assembly of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Butovo Poligon

On 1 May, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias will serve liturgy in the memorial church at the Butovo Poligon in the Moscow outskirts to mark the day of the Assembly of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Butovo Poligon. For the convenience of pilgrims, there will be increased service, with more frequent departures, on Autobus Route 18 from the Бульвар Дмитрия Донского (Bulvar Dmitriya Donskogo) Metro station {the southern terminus of the Serpukhovsko–Timiryazevskaya Line (“Grey Line”), a relatively new segment of the system, it was only completed in 2002: editor} to the Butovo site, according to the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate. The hierarchical liturgy will begin at 09.30 MSK (05.30 UTC 01.30 EDT 22.30 PDT 30 April). As a point of order, the patriarch celebrates Liturgy at the memorial church on the feastday of the Assembly of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Butovo Poligon, which is the fourth Saturday after Easter. In what has become an annual tradition, the patriarch celebrates liturgy in the open air in commemoration of the believers killed in the Bolshevik repressions.

Those known to have been martyred on 4/17 February

This has particular meaning, as the NKVD buried thousands of victims on the Butovo Poligon. Indeed, the Butovo Poligon is one of the most well known burial sites of those shot by the NKVD during the repression of the 1930s to 50s. During the period of the so-called Great Terror alone, from August 1937 to October 1938, the NKVD executed 20,765 people, mainly Muscovites and residents of Moscow Oblast. To date, the Church has identified about a thousand of the clergy and laity executed at Butovo, and it has canonised several hundred of them. In 1997, the first MP Archpastoral Council canonised New Martyr and Confessor St Seraphim, Metropolitan of Leningrad and Gdovsk, who is the protomartyr of the Assembly of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Butovo Poligon. The Butovo Poligon has the distinction of being the only place in Russia where the relics of so many saints rest in one place.

Those known to have been martyred on 8/21 October 1937

In 2001, the Moscow Oblast administration declared the area a historical monument. In 2004, [Patriarch Aleksei Rediger of Moscow and all the Russias and Metropolitan Laurus Skurla, the First Hierarch of the ROCOR,] laid the cornerstone of the memorial church in honour of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia on the Butovo Poligon, and it was completed in the spring of 2007. Both Patriarch Aleksei and Metropolitan Laurus attended its consecration. In August 2007, a cross that was blessed at the Solovetsky Monastery was placed at the site. It was delivered via the White Sea Canal, Lake Onega, the Volga River, and the Moscow Canal. Arriving in the capital, the vessel with the cross went past the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and the Novospassky Monastery to the southern river port, thus, symbolically linking the two “Russian Golgothas” the Butovo Poligon and Solovki.

30 April 2010

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=35396

Those known to have been martyred on 27 November/10 December 1937

Editor’s Note:

All honour to those who died for Christ’s sake! No more need be said.

I must add a note here. There are lies circulated by SVS and St Herman’s Press (originating with the renegade Gleb Podmoshensky and repeated by John Matusiak) that Pavel Florensky is one of the New Martyrs. That is NOT so. No grounded ROCOR or MP source says so… one finds such only amongst ungrounded konvertsy or the Renovationists at SVS (they published at least one of his books, after all). Florensky was a heretic of the worst order, his Столп и утверждение истины (The Pillar and Ground of the Truth) taught the heresy of Sophiology (do read St John Maksimovich’s condemnation of it… it’s a bracing read with no BS in it… Florensky is nothing but an Orthodox analogue of the nutter Teilhard de Chardin). I cannot go into detail here (I shall later), Podmoshensky lied about this as early as 1981 (before his departure from canonical Orthodoxy). Reflect on the fact that Jonas Paffhausen has always had a close relationship with GP (and he refuses to come clean on it, by the way), who is nothing but a lying and immoral heretic (per pokrov.org, there are credible reports that GP supposedly buggered adolescents). As for JP and all his minions… Caveat emptor.

Oh, yes… Rod Dreher defends all of this… it puts a new spin on his “outrage”, does it not? Mark Shea… Agent 99… give this poseur no quarter… he defends people who did FAR worse than what any of the clerical miscreants amongst the papal confession did. As for me… I believe that we should string up both groups of abusers from sour apple trees and leave their bodies to rot as a salutary example to all clergy. No doubt, I shall be called a “hater” for saying such… but that is how healthy societies deal with those who pervert children. I would say a prayer for their immortal souls as I placed the rope about their necks and sprung the trap… THAT is what a Christian does, after all.

BMD

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Belgium is the First Country in Europe to Ban the Wearing of the Burqa in Public Places

Here is what the Belgian law forbids; no one shall wear clothing that obscures the face.

The Belgian Parliament almost unanimously approved a ban on the wearing of veils in public places. This decision by the Belgian legislators is the first of its kind in Europe. In this case, the law does not mention Islamic female attire; according to the literal text, the prohibition extends to coverings (including certain caps) that hide most of the face. Thus, the hijab does not fall under the law’s proscription. Anyone who appears in public with their face covered faces a fine of 15 to 25 euros (583.38 to 972.31 Roubles. 19.94 to 33.23 USD. 13.07 to 21.78 UK Pounds) and/or confinement in gaol for up to seven days. If local authorities give their consent, the law allows for exceptional easements for holidays, carnivals, and other cultural events.

The hijab is legal under the new law, for it does NOT hide the wearer’s face (a chador would be legal as it leaves the face uncovered), thus, there is no disrespect to Islam, Muslim believers, or their customs per se… also, the exception in the law covers the Roman Catholic “third orders” that parade with covered faces.

In response to a personal request of President Nicolas Sarkozy, French legislators are now working on similar legislation. The public authorities in both countries insist that the law does not focus on believers in a particular religion; rather, its raison d’être comes from concerns about public safety, so that police can more effectively determine a person’s identity. However, Muslim organisations, European leftist groups, and human rights activists called the ban on the wearing of the veil a violation of personal freedom. They point up that its implementation would be difficult and that only a small percentage of European Muslim women wear clothing that completely hides the face. In reply, the proponents of the law argue that people who voluntarily choose a certain country as their place of permanent residence should integrate themselves into the local society and respect its customs.

30 April 2010

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=35391

More than Half of the Residents of EU Countries are Against Islamic Headgear But Support Crucifixes in Schools

Crucifix in Italian public school classroom

Over half of the people in 12 European Union countries (52.6 percent) are opposed to women wearing Islamic headgear in schools, according to data of a survey conducted by the research division of the Spanish bank BBVA. The largest support for such a ban was in Bulgaria (84.3 percent) and France (68.7 percent), and the lowest support was in Denmark (28.1 percent) and Poland (25.6 percent). At the same time, 54.4 percent were in favour of crucifixes in the classroom, according to the website Canada.com referring to a report from AFP. Pollsters found that in Spain and Italy, two countries with a predominantly Catholic population, the support for the presence of crucifixes in the classroom was 69.9 percent and 49.3 percent respectively. Surprisingly, more supporters of the placement of crucifixes in classrooms were found in Britain (77.0 percent) and Denmark (78.8 percent). The survey polled 1,500 people living in Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

29 April 2010

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=35376

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin Called for an International Ban on Religious Extremism

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin (1968- ), the head of the MP Synodal Division for Church and Public Relations

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the MP Synodal Division for Church and Public Relations, said that the Orthodox Church believes that Nazism and religious extremism are phenomena of the same order and insisted that we ban both on the level of international law. “I am convinced that Russia, through its participation in international organisations such as the Council of Europe and OSCE, must ensure that we proscribe the ideology of pseudo-religious extremism, for it is the same as a prohibition against Nazism”, Fr Vsevolod said Thursday at a press conference at the Interfax offices in Moscow. In his view, we should embody such a ban within the European system of international law. In this matter, he believes that Russia has many allies amongst other states, for example, Poland and Italy. “Nazism and pseudo-religious extremism are phenomena of the same order. Since many countries, including Russia, ban Nazi propaganda and Nazi symbols, the same should also apply to pseudo-religious extremists, if they advocate violent revolution against the government and public authorities, or, even more so, the murder of innocent people”, Fr Vsevolod said. He went on to point up that, today, the Church insists that the state must punish “ideologues whose beliefs call for the murder of innocent people or justify such killing”. In this case, he said, “We should exclude such extremists from all public spaces, the media, the Internet, or any other mass event”. Fr Vsevolod noted, “Society can and should check the spread of certain ideologies that justify the killing of innocent people. We know that there are those who attempt to articulate such a justification. They say that terrorist acts are justified. This is nothing but separatism, extremism, pseudo-religiosity, and aggressive nationalism. I am convinced that we should prevent the spread of such ideologies”.

29 April 2010

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=35372