Pat. Bartholomew

Orthodox and Catholics Face the Same Challenges

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Making common cause against secularism and other maladies of the modern era with the Catholic Church is a wise course. The Russian Orthodox Church approves (see my articles on Catholic Online). But how will Constantinople respond?

Below is a press release where Pope Benedict sounds the same theme in a message to Pat. Bartholomew of Constantinople. It will be interesting to see what Constantinople’s response will be, if any. Apart from environmental care, they have not addressed secularism, the demographic implosion of the West (including abortion), ethical issues, and other critical problem facing Western culture in any substantive or comprehensive ways in years. Care for the environment is close to Pat. Bartholomew’s heart but even there most of the thinking remains trapped in the polemics of Progressive ideology (global warming, supporting international cap and trade legislation, embracing secular apocalyptic scenarios, and so forth), while the Vatican frames environmental care in the context of the dignity of the human person (a very Orthodox approach, ironically).

It’s a shame that Constantinople is silent on the more pressing issues. With the resources and talent available to them in America (they could borrow the expertise of educated American Orthodox from any jurisdiction), their voice could be clearer than it is. Perhaps they could contribute in ways that complement the Russian offerings and even some of the American work.

Source: Vatican Information Service

VATICAN CITY, 30 NOV 2011 (VIS) – Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, is leading a delegation sent by the Holy See to Istanbul to participate in celebrations marking the Feast of St. Andrew, patron of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Holy See and the Patriarchate exchange regular annual visits for the feast days of their respective patrons.

The Holy See delegation to this year’s celebration – which coincides with the twentieth anniversary of the election of His Holiness Bartholomew I as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople – is made up of Cardinal Koch; Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity; Fr. Andrea Palmieri, an official of the same dicastery, and Archbishop Antonio Lucibello, apostolic nuncio to Turkey. The group attended a divine liturgy celebrated by Bartholomew I in the patriarchal church of Fanar, then met with the Patriarch and the synodal commission which oversees relations with the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Koch gave Bartholomew I a gift and a message from the Holy Father. In the message, which was read out at the end of the divine liturgy, Benedict XVI recalls his most recent meeting with the Patriarch during last month’s Day of Prayer for Peace in the Italian town of Assisi. “I give thanks to the Lord for having allowed me to strengthen the bonds of sincere friendship and true brotherhood which unite us, and to bear witness before the entire world to the broad vision we share”.

The message continues: “The present cultural, social, economic, political and religious circumstances place exactly the same challenges before Catholics and Orthodox. Announcing the mystery of salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ needs to undergo deep renewal in many regions which once accepted the light but are now suffering the effects of secularisation which impoverishes man in his deepest dimension. Faced with this emergency we must show all mankind that we have achieved a maturity in the faith, that we are capable of coming together despite human tensions, thanks to our joint search for truth and with the awareness that the future of evangelisation depends upon the witness of unity and the level of charity the Church can show”.

Ⲧhe Pope concludes by asking the Lord that, through the intercession of Sts. Andrew, Peter and Paul, both Church may receive “the gift of unity which comes from on high”.

Pat. Bartholomew: 2011 Patriarchal Proclamation for Pascha

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+ B A R T H O L O M E W
By the Mercy of God
Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch
To the Plenitude of the Church Grace, Peace and Mercy
From the Savior Christ Risen in Glory

Beloved children in the Lord,Once again, in a spirit of joy and peace, we address you with the delightful and hopeful greeting: “Christ is Risen!”

The occurrences and events of our time may not seem to justify the exultation of our greeting. The natural destruction caused by seismic tremors and oceanic swells, together with the lurking devastation from possible nuclear explosion, as well as the human sacrifices resulting from military conflict and terrorist action, reveal our world to be in horrible torment and anguish from the pressure of the natural and spiritual forces of evil.

Nevertheless, the Resurrection of Christ is indeed real and grants to faithful Christians the certainty – and to all humanity the possibility – of transcending the adverse consequences of natural calamity and spiritual perversity.

Nature rebels when the arrogant human mind endeavors to tame its boundless forces endowed by the Creator it its seemingly insignificant and inactive elements. In considering from a spiritual perspective the grievous natural phenomena that plague our planet repeatedly and successively in recent times, we appreciate and acknowledge the belief that these are inseparable from the spiritual and ethical deviation of humanity. The signs of this deviation – such as greed, avarice, and an insatiable desire for material wealth, alongside an indifference toward the poverty endured by so many as a result of the imbalanced affluence of the few – may not be clearly related to the natural occurrences in the eyes of scientists. Yet, for someone examining the matter spiritually, sin disturbs the harmony of spiritual and natural relations alike. For, there is a mystical connection between moral and natural evil; if we wish to be liberated from the latter, we must reject the former.

Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, the new Adam and God, constitutes the model for the beneficial influence of a saint on the natural world. For Christ healed physical and spiritual illness, granting comfort and healing to all people, while at the same time bringing calm and peace to stormy seas, multiplying five loaves of bread to feed the five thousand, thereby combining the reconciliation of spiritual and natural harmony. If we want to exert a positive impact on the current negative natural and political conditions of our world, then we have no other alternative than faith in the Risen Christ and fulfillment of his saving commandments.

Christ has risen and given new life to the perfect ethos of humankind, which had darkened this ethos. Christ became the first-born and pioneer of the regeneration of the world and the whole of creation. The message of the Resurrection is not empty of meaning for the quality of human life and the balanced function of nature. As we completely and profoundly experience the Resurrection of Christ in the depth our heart, our existence shall favorably impact upon all humanity and the natural world. The natural sciences may not yet fully have underlined the relationship between the regeneration of humanity and the renewal of creation, but the experience of the saints – which should be the aim our own experience – confirms the experientially proven fact that, indeed, a person reborn in Christ restores the harmony of the natural world disturbed by sin. In Christ, the saint can move mountains for the good of the world, while the sinful person, who opposes the ways of God, can shake the earth and raise destructive waves.

Let us approach the sanctity of the Risen Christ in order, through His grace, to calm the natural and moral waves that trouble our world today.

May the grace of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, beloved children in the Lord. Amen.

Holy Pascha 2011
+ Bartholomew of Constantinople
Fervent supplicant for all
before the Risen Christ

Patriarch Calls on World to Reject Nuclear Power

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The Fukushima nuclear facility.

Source: H KAΘHMEPINH

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios has called on the world to reject nuclear energy, following the problems Japan has suffered with its reactors in the wake of Friday’s earthquake.

Vartholomaios, who has long campaigned for greater environmental awareness, said the world should turn to renewable energy sources.

“We propose the use of green forms of energy, which respect the environment and serve man’s needs sufficiently,” he said in a statement on Sunday.

“The Creator gave us the sun, the wind, the sea and the ocean’s waves, from which we can produce energy.”

Have GOA Metropolitans become citizens of Turkey?

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In a freewheeling interview with Hurriyet (“Turkey’s English Daily”) Pat. Bartholomew said (note last sentence):

Bartholomew drew particular attention to the seminary problem. “Our generation is gradually becoming extinct, and I have concerns for the future. Where will our ecclesiastics get their education? Moreover, it would be proper to have a Halki Seminary graduate at the top of the Patriarchate. Our ecclesiastics who studied at Halki Seminary and are currently serving abroad are all Turkish-loving people.”

Once Turkey’s principal facility for the training of Greek Orthodox clerics, the school was shuttered in 1971 in a ruling that curtailed most private higher education in Turkey. The ban has long been decried by both members of the local Greek community as well as the United States and the European Union.

Noting that the Turkish government has taken a significant step and granted the right for Fener Greek Patriarchate affiliated metropolitans serving in several countries to have Turkish citizenship as a secondary citizenship, Bartholomew said: “A substantial proportion of them have approved this. They have sent us their documents, and we have delivered them to Ankara. We are waiting for a response now.”

Read the entire interview on the Hurriyet website.

Gene Robinson joins Center for the American Progress (same outfit Pat. Bartholomew endorsed)

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The Center for the American Progress is the organization that Patriarch Bartholomew endorsed during the Green Patriarch publicity offensive late last year. This George Soros funded institution started out as Hillary Clinton’s cabinet in waiting but was converted into a full-time think tank after her loss. Soros is reportedly still the major backer.

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Gene Robinson

“Bishop Robinson will bring his well-respected perspective and experience to this fellowship, helping to discuss and analyze a wide array of policy areas in a progressive religious light,” the announcement said. The Center did not list any particular policy expertise that Robinson brought, aside from his high media profile as “the gay bishop”.

“I think Gene’s qualifications for this role probably approximate his qualifications for the role of prophet, which he has assumed in the Episcopal Church,” said William Murchison, a member of the denomination and author of Mortal Follies: Episcopalians and the Crisis of Mainline Christianity.

“Everything Gene does tends to be conditioned upon his absolute faith that he knows what he is talking about,” Murchison said. “He’s a man of some charm, but if you get beyond these somewhat basic and superficial credentials, I don’t believe there’s a whole lot of ‘there’ there.”

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