Cardinal Levada: Union with the Catholic Church is the goal of ecumenism

A summary of a recent speech from a Catholic Cardinal who argues that all ecumenical activity should lead to a reconciliation of all Churches with Rome. Read the full text of the speech. Orthodoxy is only mentioned in terms of the “Eastern Catholic” practices.
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In a lengthy address delivered in Canada on March 6, Cardinal William [...]

Greece is in trouble, but so are we

From Pat Buchanan’s colum “Pitching for America.” We are lurching into crisis.
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Congress this year will spend $1.6 trillion more than it collects in revenue, with the largest outlays in that FY 2010 budget for defense at $719 billion and Social Security at $721 billion.
Thus, if the U.S. Government on Oct. 1, 2008, had shut down [...]

More to the Ecumenical Patriarch’s recent encyclical than meets the eye

As I mentioned last week, I recently became a columnist for Catholic Online. They just posted my latest piece. (They are fast. I submitted it just this afternoon.)
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Last week Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew released an encyclical castigating what he called Orthodox “fanatics” who object to Orthodox ecumenical involvement. The encyclical was well received in [...]

The Byzantine Liturgy as Missionary

Fr. George Morelli
This article is based on the President’s Message column featured in the Society of St. John Chrysostom- Western Region (SSJC-WR) Newsletter: The Light of the East, Spring, 2010.

One of the major developments in the modern age is the marginalization and indifference toward Christianity in society.  (Jacobse, 2010; Morelli, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010). [...]

Three articles on the economic meltdown in Greece

One article is even from the Huffington Post, which (almost) invariably confuses moral posturing with clear thinking.
Send money to Greece? Have you lost your marbles? Sidney Morning Herald
Cleaning up Greece’s Augean Stable Huffington Post. Note the fourth to last paragraph about potential cooperation between Russia and Greece.
Man who broke the Bank of [...]

Patriarch of Constantinople´s New Encyclical Defends Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue

The Catholic take on +Bartholomew’s Sunday of Orthodoxy encyclical. Caveat: I am a columnist for Catholic Online.

ISTANBUL, Turkey, (CNA Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople´s newest encyclical encourages dialogue between the Orthodox Church and other Christian churches and laments those who are “unacceptably fanatical” in challenging such dialogue. He specifically condemned the false rumors spread about [...]

+Bartholomew: Sunday of Orthodoxy Encyclical

Prot. No. 213

(February 21, 2010)
† BARTHOLOMEW
By God’s Grace
Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome
and Ecumenical Patriarch
To the Fullness of the Church, Grace and Peace
From our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Our most holy Orthodox Church today commemorates its own feast day, and – from this historical and martyric See of the Ecumenical Patriarchate – the Mother Church of Constantinople [...]

Peter Kreeft: Moral exhortations

H/T: Mere Orthodoxy
Peter Kreeft is an incisive social thinker who draws from Catholic social teaching for insight into the deeper currents of American culture. The Orthodox and Catholics see eye to eye on many of his points.

Patriarch Kirill & Pope Benedict: A Tale of Two Leaders for a new Missionary Age

I’ve been asked to become an Orthodox columnist on Catholic.org and accepted. Below is my first essay. Regular readers will notice ideas we discussed on the AOI Observer.
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Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
NAPLES, FL. (Catholic Online) – Over four decades ago Pope John Paul II said that the restoration of the Russian Orthodox Church was necessary for the [...]

Archbishop of Canterbury receives honorary doctorate at St. Vladimir’s Seminary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Contact: Deborah Belonick, Advancement Information Officer
St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary
914-961-8313 ext 363 / 914-961-4507 FAX deborah@svots.edu http://www.svots.edu/

[SVS Communications / Yonkers, NY] — Dr. Rowan Williams began his New York City tour this past week with duties related to his role as Archbishop of Canterbury, but [...]

Forty years of feminism now bearing fruit

Maybe the essay below will help St. Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) understand why the conferral of a doctorate on Dr. Rowan Williams has been met with criticism from those outside the academy. For most, the issue is not whether Dr. Williams merits the honor as an academic, but that his refusal to act against the moral [...]

The DECR Chairman: “We vigorously oppose atheism perceived as a ‘common denominator’ of all religions”

We vigorously oppose atheism perceived as a ‘common denominator’ of all religions, as secular politicians sometimes try to present it, saying, ‘There are differences among religions; therefore, let us proceed from atheistic prerequisites so that no religion feels offended.’ This position is absolutely false and unacceptable to us. We state that traditional religions have much [...]

“The Pope Is the First Among the Patriarchs.” Just How Remains to Be Seen

ROME, January 25, 2010 – This evening, with vespers in the basilica of Saint Paul’s Outside the Walls, Benedict XVI is closing the week of prayer for Christian unity.
There are some who say that ecumenism has entered a phase of retreat and chill. But as soon as one that looks to the East, the facts [...]

There are more Buddhists in America today than Eastern Orthodox Christians

Kevin Allen wrote this back in 2007 (see: Can Orthodox Christianity Speak To Eastern Religions?) but it hit the Orthodox blogosphere again because it remains timely, especially as we emerge from our ethnic enclaves to engage American culture with meaning and purpose. H/T: Preachers Institute and Orrologion (both sites worth watching).
Can Orthodox Christianity [...]

Antiochian Orthodox in Australia and New Zealand support Copts

Met. Paul encourages faithful to participate in an ecumenical protest against the persecution of the Coptic Church in Egypt.
To all of our Revd. Clergy in Victoria,
Greetings in the Spirit of the Nativity of our Lord & his Baptism,
We would like to encourage you and your faithful to express vocally your dismay and condemnation about what [...]

Russian Orthodox Church opens seminary in France

H/T: Byzantine, TX
The Russian Orthodox Church has opened its first seminary outside the former Soviet Union – in a small French town outside Paris. The institution is starting modestly but has big ambitions: to serve Russia’s growing diaspora and foster closer ties between Eastern and Western Christian churches.

It is a bitterly cold afternoon, but the [...]

Lithuania defies EU to promote family values

Some European nations are resisting the secularist and statist over-reaching of the EU bureaucracy. The article mentions the Russian Orthodox Church’s criticisms of EU cultural aggression and its overtures to the Roman Catholic Church in resisting it. Article from Mecator.net.
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Sidestepping critics, Baltic nation strengthens family-friendly law on public information.
Lithuania lawmakers ended their year by amending [...]

To the anonymous priest-critic of the Manhattan Declaration

George Michalopulos answers the “Orthodox Priest” (name withheld) whose critical comments about the Manhattan Declaration were posted on The Observer (here) by Harry Katopodis:
A Response to an Orthodox Priest Regarding the Manhattan Declaration
Dec 21, 2009
Reverend Father, bless! Christ is in our midst!
As you can tell by my name, I am a layman, not a [...]

Archbishop Hilarion’s interview with Der Spiegel

Source: Moscow Patriarchate
Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations, answered questions from Der Spiegel magazine. Below is the text of the talk His Eminence Hilarion had with the magazine’s correspondents. The interview was published in Der Spiegel’s issue No. 51, 2009. (This transcript is the source of the [...]

Moscow thanks Pope for not pressing on meeting

From Interfax (2009-12-16):
Moscow — The Moscow Patriarchate is grateful to Pope Benedict XVI for understanding problems between the two Churches and not pressing on with visiting Russia and meeting with the Patriarch.
“Pope Benedict XVI perfectly understands the existing difficulties and therefore is not pressing on his meeting with the Patriarch, not to mention visiting Russia, [...]

‘Europe, spiritual homeland’

In “For Rome and Moscow, It’s Spring Again,” Sandro Magister on Chiesa looks at the book, in Italian and Russian, presented to Pope Benedict recently by Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk. It is a collection of the main speeches of Benedict, as cardinal and pope, on European culture made over the past ten years.
The title [...]

Report: 20 Orthodox bishops apply for Turkish citizenship

Writing for AsiaNews.it, Nat da Polis in Istanbul reveals “very important” news:
At the suggestion of Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, there is the possibility of granting citizenship to the metropolitans of the Turkish Diaspora. This fact satisfies the ecumenical will of Bartholomew and unlocks the door to the possibility that in future a bishop who now [...]

Pope Benedict’s message to Albanian Orthodox

From Zenit:

Christ’s Saving Message Has Borne Fruit in Your Country
VATICAN CITY, DEC. 4, 2009 — Here is the address Benedict XVI delivered today upon receiving in audience Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durres and All Albania, who is the head of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania.
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Your Beatitude,
“Grace to you and peace from God [...]

Engelhardt on the Manhattan Declaration

In a new column, published in the San Angelo (Texas) Standard-Times, Terry Mattingly talks to H. Tristram Engelhardt about the Manhattan Declaration. Englehardt is the author of “The Foundations of Bioethics” (M & M Scrivener Press, 2000).
While nothing in the Manhattan Declaration is truly new, arguments about its call for civil disobedience will help draw [...]

Kremlin, Vatican upgrade diplomatic ties

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI and visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed Thursday to upgrade Vatican-Kremlin relations to full diplomatic ties, the Vatican said.
The step forward on the diplomatic front comes at the same time as a warming in previously tense relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican.
A Vatican statement said Benedict [...]

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