Pope Francisco Spoke Against Encroachments on Integrity of Russian Church

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On Thursday, Pope Francisco Bergoglio said at a meeting with a group of Russian clergy that the Roman Catholic Church is in favour of the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church in the wake of Ukrainian President P A Poroshenko’s plan to institute an independent local [national] Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Ilarion Alfeyev, the chief of the MP OVTsS, led the group visiting the Vatican. The Pope of Rome said:

I want to confirm most of all in front of you, dear brother, and before you, that the Catholic Church will never allow an attitude of division to be born on its own. We’ll never allow it; we don’t want it. In Russia, there is only one Patriarch, yours. We won’t have another. Unification as a method isn’t acceptable in relations between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians at the current stage and only a sisterly dialogue between these two denominations of Christianity is possible. The Catholic Church, the Catholic Churches, shouldn’t interfere in the internal affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, not even in political matters. This is my position and the position of the Holy See today. Those who meddle don’t obey the Holy See.

At the end of April, the Verkhovnaya Rada supported President Poroshenko’s appeal to Patriarch Bartholomew Archontonis of Constantinople, who has the titular status of “first amongst equals” in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. He asked Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to grant autocephaly to a “united” Orthodox Church in the Ukraine. The global Orthodox Christian community recognises only one canonical Orthodox community in the Ukraine… the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of to Moscow Patriarchate. Operating simultaneously are another two bodies, unrecognised by global Orthodoxy… the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of to the so-called Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.

In the meantime, experts and analysts say that Poroshenko’s aspirations received substantial backing from the so-called Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (Eastern Catholic Church of the Byzantine Rite), which is under the Vatican. Earlier this month, Metropolitan Ilarion told NTV that Archbishop (sic) Svyatoslav Shevchuk, the leader of the Ukrainian Uniates “repeatedly stated his support of the project for a unified Local Ukrainian Orthodox Church, while saying that the unity of this Church should be built on the successor of St Peter, that is, the Pope of Rome”.

31 May 2018

TASS

http://tass.com/society/1007457

Editor:

Francisco is telling the Uniates to cool it. However, they’re refusing to obey him. They’ve taken the CIA’s shilling for years; they more listen to Washington than to Rome. The Uniates don’t care what Francisco wants… their leadership are fanatics, as is the leadership of the so-called “Ukrainian Orthodox”. Ukrainian nationalists are evil… they push an agenda mired in falsehood and lies. The Habsburgs sicced these nutters on the world… the Austro-Hungarians have the blame for starting this kerfuffle (they wanted to weaken Russia… it led to their death camp at Thalerhof). Don’t forget, the Uniates blessed the SS, as did the so-called “Ukrainian Orthodox”. They’re unrepentant of that… hell, they’re proud of it! Ponder that… ponder it well…

BMD

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Pope Francisco Rips “Bloodsucking” Bosses and Prosperity Theology

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On Thursday, 19 May, Pope Francisco blasted employers who don’t provide health care as bloodsucking leeches, and he took aim at the popular “theology of prosperity” in a pointed sermon on the dangers of wealth. Referring to businesses that hire employees on part-time contracts so they don’t have to provide health and pension benefits, the pontiff said at morning Mass in the chapel of the Vatican guesthouse where he lives:

This is akin to sucking the blood from their workers’ veins, leaving them to eat air. Those who do that are true leeches; they live by spilling the blood of the people who they make slaves of labour.

Cutting staff during the summer months to avoid providing benefits is a phenomenon in Italy, but the pope said this type of mistreatment and enslavement of workers is happening all over the world:

We thought that slaves don’t exist anymore… they exist. True, people don’t go and get them from Africa to sell them in America anymore, no. However, they exist in our cities. There are traffickers, those who use people through work without justice.

From trafficking sex workers to failing to grant vacation to employees, Francisco criticised those who seek profit at any price:

(They’re) living on the blood of the people. This is a mortal sin. This is a mortal sin. This demands a great deal of penance, a great deal of restitution, to convert oneself from this sin.

Francis also focused attention on the “prosperity theology”, which, as the pope explained, says, “God shows that you’re good by giving you great wealth”. The so-called prosperity gospel is popular in the USA, where its preachers are often on cable television, and it’s a common phenomenon in Latin America, where the Argentine pope is from, and in Africa and Asia. Francisco said in his homily on Thursday:

The problem is that you can’t serve both God and riches because the love of money becomes a chain that makes it impossible to follow Jesus.

Francis took his cue from one of the day’s readings for Mass, a fiery passage from the Epistle General of St James about the punishments the rich will suffer for having exploited the poor. The pontiff summarised the broad meaning of homily with a simple image:

A glass of water in the name of Christ is more important than all the riches accumulated through exploiting people.

The Argentine pope’s comments continue a theme of his papacy, during which he has tried to create a “poor church” that rejects the idolatry of money. Francisco isn’t only critical of the global financial system; he’s also critical of the greed and the power-hunger of Catholic leaders themselves.

19 May 2016

RNS Religious News Service

http://religionnews.com/2016/05/19/pope-francis-rips-bloodsucking-bosses-and-prosperity-theology/

Editor:

I should note that His Holiness mostly agrees with the Pope of Rome on social issues. That is, all the loudmouthed rightwing caterwauling by the konvertsy isn’t only ignorant, it’s Antichristian and Anti-Churchly (I’m thinking about the Russian concept of protivotserkovnost and of theomachy). In short, instead of glorifying Our Lord Christ, they pervert His teachings into an unseemly Black Mass honouring the Evil One. One either internalises “lived Orthodoxy” or one has nothing at all, no matter how often one attends services. I think that Our Lord Christ called such “whited sepulchres”. We should attend to the social teaching of the Church, or we have no faith at all, we’re not real believers. That sounds harsh, but it’s true…

BMD

Patriarch Kirill Believes It Premature To Speculate on Any Meeting with the Pope of Rome

Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev (1946- ) of Moscow and all the Russias at the memorial cross at Katyń.

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Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias said that it’s premature to speak of any meeting between him and the Pope of Rome. In an interview with the Polish media on the eve of his visit to Poland, he said, “At some point, it’s quite possible. It’s much too early to name a time”. His visit, which is due for 16-19 August, is at the invitation of Metropolitan Sawa Hrycuniak of Warsaw and all Poland, the First Hierarch of the Church of Poland. The previous, now deceased, Pope, John Paul II Wojtyła was born in Poland. Patriarch Kirill emphasised, “Today, we can see a radical reformatting of the spiritual life of the entire planet. In upholding Christian values ​​in European society, and in supporting Christian culture both in Europe and throughout the world, Orthodox and Catholics are associates and like-minded”.

16 August 2012

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=47026

Editor’s Note:

One should note that the Orthodox konvertsy who suck up to the Catholics are entirely in the wrong. We do NOT agree with the Catholics on all points of moral theology (birth control and marriage are two salient points). That being said, we’re closer to the Catholics than we are to Reformation Proddies (although we’re closer to the Oriental Orthodox than to the Catholics)… not to mention the fact that we’re not close at all to American Radical Sectarians (Mormons, JWs, Pentecostalists, and many “Evangelicals”), who aren’t even Christian, in the fullest sense of the term. Indeed, any of the groups stemming from the so-called Second Great Awakening have scant relation to historical Christianity. One could put the hierarchy of “proximity” as follows:

1. Oriental Orthodox
2. Catholics
3. Liturgical Reformation Protestants (Lutheran (the TRUE Evangelicals), Reformed, and Anglican)
4. Radical Reformation Protestants (Mennonite, real Baptists (not Southern Baptist ))
5. American Radical Sectarians

To refine the above list, the first four groups are far closer to one another than the last group is to the rest. That is, a Mennonite is FAR closer to us than a Southern Baptist, Pentecostalist, or Mormon is.

Be careful of anyone who’s too vocal in their support of the Church of Rome’s moral theology… we do NOT share it in all particulars (many of these sorts are quasi-Uniates, sadly enough… do see Freddie M-G). However, don’t go to the other extreme and shun them… that’s not Christian. It’s a careful balance… but do have a care for and be wary of extremists of both stripes… neither are Orthodox nor god-pleasing.

BMD