Pope of Rome said that All Papal Representatives Everywhere Should Reject the Bourgeois Lifestyle

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On Friday, Italian media sources reported that Francisco Bergoglio, the Pope of Rome, urged Vatican representatives to turn away from the bourgeois way of life to avoid looking foolish, saying, “There’s always a risk in embracing a bourgeois state of mind and lifestyle, which leads to slackness, to a cosy and passive life. When we embrace such a state of mind, it makes us foolish. Perhaps, some might flatter us, but watch out for those who praise us to our faces and criticise us behind our backs”. The media noted that the Pope, for the first time during his reign, gathered papal representatives from around the world, reminding them, once again, of their role in the appointment of local bishops. He said, “Make sure that the candidates are close to the people, that they’re humble, patient, and compassionate. Make sure that they believe in poverty and lead a simple and austere life”.

21 June 2013

Interfax-Religion

http://interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=51656

Editor’s Note:

The above isn’t good news for the First Things and Acton Institute crowds (Timothy Dolan should take note as well). You see, they want to ally the Catholic Church with the American rightwing and its love of money and its global hegemonic vision. For Orthodox people, it means that Hannes Jacobses must cut all ties with the Acton Institute, as it spits on Pope Francisco’s teaching, by embracing and defending the bourgeois way of life. However, do note that the konvertsy won’t do such… their political notions are more important to them than Christ and His Church are. It doesn’t matter what the Fathers say… it doesn’t matter what our REAL leaders say (poseurs such as Fathausen and Potapov don’t count)… it only matters to them what the Republican Party says.

Bear in mind that both HH and Pope Francisco oppose the “Me First” crapitalist system and have said so explicitly. That means that all Orthodox clergy and laity attempting to ally the Church with godless rightwing forces aren’t only mistaken, they’re in league with evil, full stop. Mind you, most are unaware that they’ve taken Satan’s shilling (the Potapovs, Drehers, Paffhausens, and Berzanskys are rare, thank God). Is Hannes Jacobses a dupe, or, is he a fully aware rebel? God alone knows… until it’s clearer, we should give him the benefit of the doubt. However, that means that we should watch him even more carefully… that’s the only way to find the underlying cause of it.

For now, simply don’t attend to anything issuing forth from Potapov, Paffhausen, Reardon, Whiteford, Freeman, or Dreher… they’re all soldiers in the wrong cause. If you want a sane voice on American politics, I’d recommend Val Zorin of VOR. Click here for my translations of his “A View from Moscow”… it’s a continuing effort, new ones keep coming out. Valentin Sergeyevich has over fifty years of experience in covering the American scene… certainly, he’s a more sure source than ignoranuses (no misspelling) such as Josiah Trenham and Alexander Webster.

Have a care… there be cowpats out there in that there field…

BMD 

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Poll Reveals that Almost No Russians Advocate a Total Abortion Ban

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A Levada Centre poll revealed that a majority of Russians (59 percent) are opposed to the introduction of new restrictions on abortion, whereas 26 percent support such an initiative. In the June poll, 54 percent thought that abortion should be solely at the discretion of the woman involved. Another 32 percent would allow abortion only under certain circumstances. Only 4 percent of the respondents were for a complete ban on the procedure. Of those surveyed, 67 percent think that the government should stay out of the debate, leaving it up to the people. At the same time, one in five (21 percent) recognise the need for government action to restrict abortions, but 12 percent were undecided on this point. Most Russians (78 percent) would like to see the authorities implement educational programmes and develop social aid schemes in order to prevent abortions. Only 17 percent believe that the state should use criminal prosecution to combat abortion.

The poll also surveyed respondents’ views on other issues of family policy. The idea of an extra tax upon divorce went down to overwhelming defeat (70 percent opposed it, 21 percent supported it). Schemes to encourage at least three children (on average) per family won the support of 73 percent, whilst only 20 opposed it. On 29 May, experts of the Coordination Council of the RF Presidential Council for the Implementation of the National Strategy of Action for Children 2012-17 proposed measures for the prevention of abortion and the strengthening of the role of the Church and other religious organisations in family policy. The draft Concept of State Family Policy for 2025, states, in particular, the need for greater accountability for violations of the abortion law and the establishment of socio-psychological services aimed at the prevention of abortion and allowing women to bring their babies to term in all hospitals.

3 July 2013

Interfax-Religion

http://interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=51813

Editor’s Note:

You’d find the same situation here in diaspora Orthodoxy as you’d find in the Rodina. Very few (mostly fanatic “religious hobbyists”) are for a total ban on the procedure. Most would favour sensible restrictions on it… realising that’s the best deal that we can get in a pluralistic society. Indeed, we have no right to force our beliefs down someone else’s throat using the police power of the state… after all, we’re NOT papists, who DO believe that. Like it or not, the total abolitionist stance is crackbrained and doomed to failure. I stand for a true Pro-Life programme… generous aid to single mothers, the provision of contraceptives to all who wish them (the Church allows such… another area where we disagree with the papists), and an equitable tax system that makes all layers of society pay their fair share (unlike the present arrangement where the affluent effluent have a MUCH lower responsibility… the legacy of Slobberin’ Ronnie and George the Fool).

I WILL link hands with those who are so-called “Pro-Choice” if it means that the goal of a Fair and Equitable Society for All is advanced (a VERY Christ-like goal, if I may say so). I don’t have to agree with someone completely to see that they’re on the right road. Your real choice is between a Fair “One for All and All for One” Society and a Thieving “Me First” Society… there’s no other choice out there. If you support the so-called Free Market, you support an ideology that’s profoundly and essentially anti-Christian… after all, HH calls it a “fraud”… and Pope Francisco agrees with him. Ponder that, if you will…

BMD

 

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin sez that Priests Shouldn’t be Affluent… but They Shouldn’t Live in Poverty Either

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Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the MP Department for Coordinating Church and Society (ОВЦО/OVTsO), warned that well-heeled affluence (мажорства) and miserable poverty amongst the clergy were equal dangers, saying at a Moscow panel discussion on the public perception of the Church’s image, “Of course, most emphatically, the clergy mustn’t succumb to the consumerist notion that we see today… affluence and access to material goods can cause stratification within the clergy, dividing them into rich and poor. This is very bad”.

He went on to say that ordinary people “internally rebel when they see an affluent clergyman”, yet, equally, he doesn’t believe that “it’s beneficial to the Church if the clergy become marginalised outcasts”. He said that there’s a “diminution of the clergy’s status” amongst Catholics and Protestants in the West, which is due to the fact that “secular forces squeezed them out and made them social outcasts. The same thing could happen with us… it’ll drive priests crazy or force them into the labour market if we allow the notion that clergy should live in miserable poverty to settle amongst us. In Russia and Greece, indeed, in all Orthodox lands, the priests usually had a living standard a little bit better than the average working-class family”.

According to Fr Vsevolod, if there’s wealthy people in his parish (or, at least, the comfortably well-off), if the priest lives in want, if he must constantly beg on his knees for his livelihood, “it’s a shame upon the flock, upon that church community, upon all those who frequent the place where that priest serves”. Fr Vsevolod concluded, “Don’t attend to people who imply that a priest shouldn’t live in dignity, with enough material goods”.

5 July 2013

Interfax-Religion

http://interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=51853

Editor’s Note:

Many priests are at the mercy of obscurantist parish boards… let’s not be coy about it. That’s wrong. It’s forced priests into the labour market, and, as Fr Vsevolod points up, it’s warped them. It has created a two-tier priesthood here in the Orthodox diaspora… and it’s toxic in all respects. On the one hand, you have affluent priests like Potapov or Warnecke, who’re more bureaucrats or managers than clergy… on the other hand, you have priests on food stamps. That’s wicked. It also means that affluent priests have more effectual power than the bishops do, for “money talks and bullshit walks”.

We’re in the deep kimchi… and the sooner that we realise it, the better off we’ll all be. However, shall we?

BMD  

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin Urges Orthodox to Change the World… not to Bow Down to It

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Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the MP Department for Coordinating Church and Society (ОВЦО/OVTsO), noted that Christians are called to change the world, rather than to follow ephemeral secular notions, saying at a Moscow panel discussion on the public perception of the Church’s image, “The role of the Church in society is to change it… not to adapt to it, not to follow it, not to be its willing lapdog… to act as the Lord taught us in the Gospel“. In his view, today, some in the Church are trying to argue that standards vary, based on real or perceived public sentiment, whilst the Lord “submits that we should remake the world, that’s what ​​the Apostles did, even though society was opposed to it”.

Fr Vsevolod believes that the mission of the Church is to speak uncomfortable truths, for which one could face crucifixion, death, or, at least, ridicule; the logic of the historical existence of the Church shows that “if you face criticism for the sake of what’s written in the Gospel, you’re right, you’re part of [the Church’s] mission. Orthodoxy isn’t just some sort of personal faith, without a public dimension. When I hear those who speak like that, I remember the Soviet times, and that the modern West is just like that, where Christian or post-Christian elements are docile and house-broken, trained to behave in an always-apologetic manner”.

According to his lights, the Christian ideal of an optimum society is one modelled along the lines of the Kingdom of Heaven, not ravaged by supposedly inevitable contradictions; a harmonious society in which there should be not only symphonia between the State and the Church, but also between the different layers of society, between the People and Power. Fr Vsevolod also pointed up that the Church as a gathered community of believers has the most dynamic authority in this world, because it gives Christians the Lord, which gives it much greater clout than the power found in the state, public organisations, money, the media, or human intelligence. He reminded us that the Lord entrusted the power to pronounce judgement on mankind’s sin and virtue to the Church, “and the judgement of the gathered Church on issues of human life and death affect our eternal destiny”.

5 July 2013

Interfax-Religion

http://interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=51854

Editor’s Note:

Fr Vsevolod speaks the Truth. That being said, the Church has a nuanced position on many issues… and always shall. For instance, the Church is opposed to homosexual propaganda and homosexual clergy and monastics… but it’s also against the Know Nothing ignorance of the Ancient Faith Radio crowd and the konvertsy gathered about James Paffhausen (and others). Remember Nikon Mironov… the last two patriarchs gave him high Church awards for his steadfast confession of Christ’s Truth (no one who burned Schmemann’s and Meyendorff’s books on a public bonfire can be all bad).

For instance, one of the Cabinet told me how some terminally-dumb konvertsy were making the life of a priest (traditional, not an unprincipled SVSnik) miserable because he gave communion to a lesbian couple. They don’t march in parades… they’re known quantities in their (genuine) small town… and the Church doesn’t excommunicate lay homosexuals. In other words, in another case, Fr Ted Bobosh can give communion to Mark Stokoe (after all, Archbishop Job Osacky knew of and blessed this action)… if you have a problem with that, as one priest said in a similar case (with heavy Russian accent), “You can go to bishop if you have problem!” Need I say that the person involved didn’t dare go to the bishop (it was an Old School ROCOR priest, not some SVS or Angliochian floozy).

The Church DOES stand for the Right and it doesn’t compromise. Nevertheless, the Church DOES wield oikonomia as a divine tool of housebuilding… oikonomia never cancels out a principle… it only says that we CAN make individual allowances in discrete and isolated cases. Furthermore, the Church DOESN’T crusade… that’s more a papist or Proddie concept, isn’t it? Remember… there are sins much worse than homosexuality is… such as the love of money, which the Scripture tells us is “the root of all evil”. Certainly, it puts a new face on the konvertsy infatuation with the greedy and warmongering rightwing, no? Think on it…

BMD