Per Christum

Read more about his recent visit to Assisi (from the Telegraph)

I met a gentlemen on Paltalk last night who said he was an Iraqi Christian who was now living in the US. He sent me a link to this video being hosted by the Religious Freedom Coalition (a group I know nothing about) that they say was produced by the Chaldean Church in Beirut, Lebanon. I told the gentleman I would watch it and then post a link to it here on Per Christum.

I often suffer from “compassion fatigue” due to the 24-hour news coverage and discussion in the blogosphere of all the violence and atrocities in our world. The senselessness and cruelty of events like the tragic kidnapping and death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho and persecution of our brothers and sisters have left me feeling sort of numb and distant. Watching the stories of the families in this video has helped break through some of that fog.

The man who gave me the link said he still has family in Iraq who are in harms way because they name the name of Christ. Please pray for them.

The Russian Orthodox Church in Communion with Rome was a rather small body that existed openly for only a few decades just before and after the Bloshevik Revolution. Totally drive underground, there are today just a handful of Russian Orthodox parishes that have made their desire for communion with Rome known, and gone under the omophor of the Latin ordinaries in Russia.

I for one would very much like to see the restoration of an exarch (bishop) for them, but at this time the Vaticak Ostpolitik is such that appeasing the Patriarch of Moscow is the order of the day. The Patriarch who rails against the presence of Latin bishops who serve diocese that serve the 600,000 Latin Catholics who are descendents of the 3 million Catholics found in the Russian empire before the Revolution.

(My thoughts on +++ALEKSY II another day - for now it will suffice to say he would do well to remember who built St. Catherines RC Church in Moscow…)

Blessed Leonid, pray for us.

Am I alone in noticing the remarkably low key and casual approach to yesterday’s visit of the PoC and the Pope? As a matter of fact, I would not be the least bit surprised if the majority of our readership was totally unaware that the Patriarch of Constantinople was in Rome yesterday for the 90th anniversary of his Roman alma mater (yes, the Patriarch like many Orthodox clergy studied in Rome!) and while there “stopped in” to see the Pope.

In my imagination it went something like this…

“Hey Ben!”“Bart! What are you doing in town?!?!”

“Goin’ to my reunion… how’s life?”

“Great… just working on this encyclical… was getting ready to take a Fanta break - want one?”

“Trying to cut back! Thanks though… Wanna hit the chapel?”

“Let’s do!”

I am not sure what to make of it - if it represents a significant thaw in relations or if it represents a friendship and closeness that is very casual anymore or a sign of something altogether different.

Either way, it used to be the case that such visits were talked about for months or weeks in advance with a lot of photo ops and plans made for joint celebration of prayer services…

This was all very downplayed - made the news a day or two before the event, and not much details except that they prayed together in Latin - the Ecumenical Patriarch initiating the Ave.

Very interesting.

More interesting still? “Bartholomew invited by the pope to participate in the synod of bishops“

From an entry today over at Clerical Whispers entitled Russian Orthodox Church attacks Stalin nostalgia

In a recent documentary on Stalin aired in Russia….

The series also portrayed Stalin as secret Christian, who returned to the faith of his youth at the end of his life. “According to the information that we have, Stalin in the last months of his life came to repentance. He rethought his life from the position of a man of faith,” Lyubomirov told the Moscow News, citing interviews with Stalin’s bodyguards to support his claim. (READ ALL)

A secret Christian, eh? For the sake of his immortal soul, let’s hope the ex-seminarian did experience repentance! Let’s also hope no one construes that as grounds for finding him to be a hero.

Assyrians elect to enter into full commnunion w/ Catholic Church

On Thursday; January 17, 2008, the “Day of Thanksgiving” of the Rogation of the Ninevites, for which day the Gospel says, “On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you” (John 16:23), the Clergy Conference of the Assyrian Catholic Apostolic Diocese (ACAD) met in Dublin, California, to discuss the current situation and consider future plans for reestablishing communion with other Christians, in order to end their ecclesial isolation.

After praying to the Father and reflecting on the Scriptures and Tradition, the attendees unanimously adopted a “Declaration of Intention” in which they state their resolution “to enter full communion with the Catholic Church” and “to resume church unity with the Chaldean Catholic Church.” As a result, they foresee that this declaration will initiate a process of negotiation with respective Church authorities to define a concrete model of this union, in which the particularity of our apostolic tradition is preserved.

Present at this Clergy Conference were H.G. Bishop Mar Bawai Soro, four priests and sixteen deacons. Two more priests and fourteen other deacons of ACAD have also sent in advance their signed proxies in support of this Declaration. The gathered members ask all their brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for this noble intention so that each and every effort will contribute to the glory of God and the fulfillment of Christ’s prayer for His Holy Church “That they all may be one”. (John 17:21)
Read All

Also worth taking a look at, http://www.marbawai.com/, the blogspot of His Grace Mar Bawai Soro where the press release and some of his writings can be found.

Additionally, Zenit reports have offered some small amount of news on Roman efforts to regularize and make canonical the situation of a group of Traditionalist Catholics who have sought to repair their fractured with the Holy See. No details have been released.

Plans to further work with Traditional Anglican Communion, it has also been whispered are in fact proceeding in Rome as well. No details have been released.

Please pray for all those listed above and for all the folks who are working to promote Catholic unity.

Over in the blog English-Speaking Christianity in the com box of the entry “The Point of the English Reformation” The following was offered:

“I am always puzzled that Orthodoxy and Rome always seem to be judged by their defined dogmas and canons, not by their all too often rotten fruit (e.g., Orthodoxy has been a hotbed of “phyletism” — euphemism for racism — for several centuries now, both in the New and Old Worlds, and Rome has recently and finally been inescapably exposed as the largest sex-crime syndicate ever), but that Anglicanism is always judged by the views of one or more disloyal, internal movements and never by its own, equally-clear, constitutive formularies.”

What think ye, few but faithful followers?

1. Is Anglicanism always judged by the views of one or more disloyal, internal movements? (and…)
2. Never by its own, equally-clear, constitutive formularies?
3. Are those formularies equally clear?
4. By accident (or perhaps Providence?) the Catholic Church in the US has become the largest single body of faithful in the US. If the largest church has even the smallest percentage of those so much as even accused, (less than 1.8%, lower still if deacons - true clergy also - are included) does that make it the largest sex-crime syndicate ever?

This is the Byzantine icon for the Feast of the Conception of the Saint Anne. Popular as a gift for newlyweds, it commemorates the Virgin Mother’s conception. Note the furniture in the background.

Some Catholic theologians have also found Scriptural evidence for the Immaculate Conception in the angel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary at the Annunciation, (Luke 1:28). The English translation, “Hail, Full of Grace,” or “Hail, Favored One,” is based on the Greek of Luke 1:28, “Χαίρε, Κεχαριτωμένη”, Chaire kecharitomene, a phrase which can most literally be translated: “Rejoice, you who have been graced”. The latter word, kecharitomene, is the Passive voice, Present Perfect participle of the verb “to grace” in the feminine gender, vocative case; therefore the Greek syntax indicates that the action of the verb has been fully completed in the past, with results continuing into the future. Put another way, it means that the subject (Mary) was graced fully and completely at some time in the past, and continued in that fully graced state. The angel’s
salutation does not refer to the Incarnation of Christ in Mary’s womb, as he proceeds to say: “thou shalt conceive in thy
womb…” (Luke 1:31).

Dr. Alexander Roman writes well about this in the following article.

But for thos inclined to spend a few minutes, I commend to you the exceptional work of fellow Greek Catholic Joseph Daniel Barton A Byzantine Defense of the Immaculate Conception

Worth listening to, you Latins (hehe): On the Miraculous Medal

Ok so it’s an awkward title, but the veritable forest of olive branches that il Papa has been extending in so many directions has given me the impression of a pope laboring to draw together once again the broken church of history perhaps in a conscious effort to prepare us for the ultimate re-gathering that only Christ himself can achieve. Besides, it’s Advent and things apocalyptic fill the Catholic spirit and mind.

Spes Salvi is masterful in so many ways, it is difficult to appreciate it all just now. But many facets of this magisterial document are coming into focus. Its lack of all reference to the Second Vatican Council is perhaps a strong indication that we are now past the post-conciliar age and entering a wholly new epoch in the life of the Church. This is an invitation, even an insistence that we look wide eyed at the present state of affairs and plan for the future. And the future which Benedict is preparing for us in various acts this year is a brave one indeed.

 

• The allusion to a new conception of Purgatory as a purification at the moment of Judgment, Christ’s divine and holy love burning away one’s imperfections due to sin, is clearly Eastern in spirit. Western conceptions of purgatory form just one item on the laundry list of Eastern complaints against the West, but an important one. Taken together with the considerable achievements of the recent Ravenna Document, the turn to the East is advanced now again one step with this generous olive branch. Eastern complaints of Latinization are met with a small but significant dose of Western Hellenization. If only by a toe, the once firm frontier is crossed.

   

   

• In Liberation Theologized South America, evangelical Christians and Pentecostals are having a field day. One of their most potent charges is that the Catholic Church has abandoned the pursuit of Heaven. Not only the Bible but salvation itself they can claim as their proper domain when the popular perception prevails that Catholic clergy only talk about social analysis and the transformation of sinful political and economic structures. While not abandoning the demands of Christian charity and justice, in Spes Salvi we find the clearest articulation of the Church’s fundamental orientation toward Salvation through Christ since before the Council. As articulated in Antonio Socci’s commentary partially translated on the Catholic blog, Rorate Caeli, Spes Salvi may be seen as a correction to Gaudim et Spes’s more earthbound image of God’s Kingdom. One may hear in Benedict’s words a call to ex-Catholic evangelicals and pentecostals to be reconciled to the Church whose aim is the Heavenly Jerusalem.

   

• Catholic traditionalists have certainly had their share of olive branches this year. Summorum Pontificum was perhaps the first of several gifts which may lead to a reg-athering of that corner of the Church.

   

• The 400,000 members of the world wide Traditional Anglican Communion, an Anglican splinter group formed in protest to the ordination of women, were given hope of reunion en masse with Rome this fall when their petition written with the reported assistance of Vatican officials was formally submitted and received.

   

• The Church’s Chinese mission was advanced earlier this year with the long awaited letter to the Chinese Church which was full of conciliatory sentiment and affirmed that for the Church to be herself she must be fully Chinese and fully Catholic. The first fruit of this olive branch was the appointment by the Chinese government of a new bishop of Beijing acceptable to Rome. A formidable achievement, détente is in the air.

   

Pope Benedict has clearly been working overtime in 2007. May all his efforts be blessed.

Over at A Conservative Blog for Peace, an interesting discussion has been in process. Namely, on the recent phenomena of the Orthodox “Western Rite“. The combox discussion can be found here.

The Western Rite Orthodox concept has been around for about 100 years. Not to be confused with the Eastern notion that the west “used to be” Orthodox prior to 1054 (but no longer is) when I speak of WRO, I mean to discuss the movement to create parishes worshipping according to traditional western styles under Eastern Orthodox bishops.

Like Eastern Catholics who are Easterners in communion with the Roman See, the broad idea here was that these folks would be Latins in communion with Orthodoxy. The main reason and focus for this sort of effort has often been to accommodate Anglicans and Ultrajectines and Catholics.

The history of WRO has been an interesting one. A good deal of the finer points of its creation and authorization have been hotly disputed by the concept’s defenders and detractors. Opinions vary on the wisdom. indeed the very “Orthodoxy” of this movement both by non-Orthodox and Orthodox, Easterners and Westerners alike…

Debates have raged over whether their should be any attempt at a Western rite, (some feeling it is devisive in creating an additional subset in the west among Orthodox who are already divided by jurisdictionalism, others feeling it is a legitimate way to “grow Orthodoxy”. Others have raised issue with the most commonly celebrated liturgy - a version of Cramner’s BCP….

In the past decade there has been a rise in interest in the idea of WRO - especially among Anglicans, Continuing Anglicans and some ex-CEC folks. Some have decided to pursue Orthodoxy through the Western Rite…

My thinking on the matter?

Some speak emphatically of “The Church has said the Western rite is Orthodox” as though a universally accepted mechanism is in place to validate, promulgate and receive this modern expression. I ask, how does one feel comfortable asserting “the church” has roundly endorsed this liturgical expression as being fully Orthodox?

That a few bishops in a few jurisdictions have recieved a few rather small parishes practicing different particular variations of western-style liturgies.. Can that be said to constitute evidence that “The Church has said the Western rite is Orthodox”? On this last question I am prone to believe the answer is “no” and I do so for a number of reasons:

1) I am not sure that the majority of Orthodox bishops in the majority of Orthodox Churches have ever dealt with this let alone studied the question. Have the bishops of Romania, Greece, Ukraine, Byelorussia, taken to study of the issue to make pronouncement? Even here in the US, short of most of the very busy bishops being directly confronted with the matter, I don’t know how many have taken to studying it to make any pronouncement. Has SCOBA - for example - issued a pan-jurisdictional statement on the matter of Metropolitan Phillip’s authorization and support of thee rites? There seems to be mostly official silence leading me to then wonder…

2) Does silence assume assent? But then again there was one Greek Orthodox bishop who was rather critical of the WR going so far as to disallow his priests to have any involvement or concelebration So it can be established that at least some in the dignity of the episcopate have not been favorable. Which leads me to wonder…

3) How are the faithful to decide between the competing claims of hierarchs? It could be offered by some perhaps that the faithful are to generally defer to the decision of their own hierarch, because this will allow for will allow for greater obedience but that sort of also allows for a sort of parochialism in that could cause some amount of disunity among the entire faithful. Two Orthodox neighbors living side by side take two different positions on the Orthodoxy of a Eucharistic expression by virtue of who their bishop is? I guess this begs my last and most strenuous concearn:

4) As I can’t imagine it being accepted that a local hierarch, or a single hiearchichal structure of a jurisdiction would be accepted to be authorized to radically change the Divine Liturgy unilaterally, I simply cannot see how it is accepted that they may introduce these innovations, pronounce them orthodox motu proprio :), and have it be accepted that world Orthodoxy stands behind them. Looking back on the decisions to adopt the Gregorian Calendar or Nikonian rites, (Not half the leap of faith!) I am left scratching my head how it can be asserted that the introduction of these various rites, can be seen as Orthodox …

I wish these folks well in their struggle to work out their salvation in fear and trembling in this context. But my misgivings and concerns about this movement remain.

Despite the very vocal and near-omnipresent internet presence of its most erstwhile supporters, I see much evidence that it is an inorganic, much isolated movement that may not be sustainable and is certainly prone to the manipulations of persons with strong agendas.

The beauty of Orthodoxy as a place to find holiness that made it so very different from different non-Catholic western traditions was and is its organic reality of prayer, fasting, and the reality of local living parishes practicing a living tradition handed down to them with a level of continuity.

The faith of the people - the babbas, the yayas, the peasants, the czar and the shipping magnate, the restraunteur - is/was simple yet complex, unchanged but evolving, and if not uniform down to the last local expression, at least recognized as sharing a singular patrimony in Byzantium.

This neo-Anglicanism under local Orthodox patronage, I just don’t see it.