![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/glykophilousa.jpg\" "\\"glykophilousa\\"")
<\/a>The Sweet Kiss icon<\/p><\/div>\n
By John Couretas<\/strong><\/p>\n Reading Andrew Estocin’s fine essay, “Constantinople’s Moral Oversight,”<\/a> I was reminded once again of the long running institutional silence — a scandal really — from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese on sanctity of life issues. But that attitude of indifference comes down from the top — the Phanar.<\/p>\n Here is a direct quotation from a July 20, 1990, article, “SF Shows Off Its Ecumenical Spirit,” in the San Francisco Chronicle. Metropolitan Bartholomais of Chalcedon<\/a> is the current Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.<\/p>\n Asked the Orthodox church’s position on abortion, Bartholomais described a stand more liberal than that of the Roman Catholic Church, which condemns abortion in all cases and whose clergy have, in some cities, excommunicated leading pro-choice Catholics.<\/p>\n Although the Orthodox church believes the soul enters the body at conception and, ”generally speaking, respects human life and the continuation of pregnancy,” Bartholomais said, the church also ”respects the liberty and freedom of all human persons and all Christian couples.”<\/p>\n ”We are not allowed to enter the bedrooms of the Christian couples,” he said. ”We cannot generalize. There are many reasons for a couple to go toward abortion.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n On the issues of sanctity of life and sexual morality it appears that this patriarch is something of a libertarian. Keep the government (and the priests) out of our bedrooms!<\/em> On the environment, however, the patriarch is decidedly a believer in grand super-governmental, trans-national solutions, a la the United Nations. Why do greenhouse gas emissions<\/a> elicit so much moral outrage, but the fate of the unborn meets with silence or evasions?<\/p>\n The quote from the 1990 San Francisco Chronicle story, reproduced below in its entirety with an associated Internet forum discussion, cannot be dismissed as an off-hand comment, a misquote, or a twisting of the patriarch’s true sentiments. He said much the same thing in “Conversations With Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I<\/a>,” a book by Olivier Clement published in 1997 by St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press. This is from a section titled “Love and the Church” (p. 128-129):<\/p>\n Love is not justified by the bearing of children, but the child is the normal consequence of the superabundance of love. Do not expect from a patriarch orders or prohibitions about how to love each other! As both Bartholomew and his predecessor, Athenagoras, have stated: if a man and a woman truly love one another, I have no business in their bedroom!<\/strong> Regarding birth control methods, they have their own consciences, their physician, their spiritual father to guide them. It is not my business.<\/p>\n As for abortion, this is always profoundly dramatic for a woman and deeply injures her femininity.<\/strong> For this reason, abortion for the sake of convenience is, we cannot deny it, extremely serious and must be strongly discouraged. But there are situations of extreme distress when abortion can be a lesser evil, as, for example, when the life of the future mother is in danger. In a number of cases, the woman is less responsible that the man, who either commits rape or simply abandons her; or she is less responsible than a society<\/strong> in which the children of the poor are massacred or mutilated to harvest their organs, as happens in many places. The woman needs help, needs reconciliation, needs the healing of her body, of course, but also of her soul. And, when there is yet time, she, together with her child must be offered assistance — this is the duty of the Church, of the Churches.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Certainly, the patriarch is right in identifying the man who pressures a woman for an abortion as culpable. But note what is missing in both of these quotes: An absolute silence about the fate of the unborn. Yes, abortion is surely “dramatic” for the life terminated in the womb, isn’t it? But where is the “reconciliation” for the life destroyed? It is also an inexcusable dodge to shift the personal responsibility for this grave sin to “society.” What, or who, is that? Does “society” drive the pregnant woman and the father of an unborn child to an abortion clinic?<\/p>\n Even more equivocations and confusion-making in Bartholomew’s 2008 book, “Encountering the Mystery: Understanding Orthodox Christianity Today”<\/a> (p. 150):<\/p>\n I also encounter many and diverse issues related to the sanctity of life from birth through death. Those issues range from sensitive matters of sexuality to highly controversial questions like the death penalty. In all such social and moral issues, it is not one or another position that the Orthodox Church seeks to promote in a defensive spirit. Indeed, we would normally refrain from expounding a single rigidly defined dogma on social and moral challenges.<\/strong> Rather, it is the sacredness of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God, that the Church at all times seeks to underline.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Did Bartholomew anywhere here make a positive statement about the moral teachings? God forbid that Orthodox Christians should adopt a “defensive spirit” on moral questions. But who will defend the defenseless if the Church does not? If a clear teaching on the sanctity of life and, more importantly, actualizing that teaching in our witness to American society, is dismissed as morally “rigid,” then we are simply lost as a Church. <\/p>\n This is not merely an interesting philosophical or theological problem. The Phanar’s moral failure on witnessing to life issues has a concrete effect on the lives our our faithful and especially our youth in the largest Orthodox Church in America. The youth have been cut adrift. The “spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians” is telling our youth that the Orthodox Church “refrains” from clear teachings on social and moral questions. And little wonder that so many Orthodox Christian young people have absolutely no idea what the Church’s teachings are on marriage, sexuality, abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cells and other important life issues.<\/p>\n Is Bartholomew aware that questions about abortion funding and conscience rights are at issue in the current U.S. health care debate? Perhaps, but when the patriarch and GOA leaders meet with President Obama in the days ahead, and when they break bread with Biden, Pelosi, Reid, Clinton and other progressive elites, you can be sure that there won’t be any difficult and “rigid” moral questions on the agenda. After the patriarch blesses the table, the polite conversation will once again turn to Greek “national issues.” Perhaps the patriarch, or some promising young archimandrite from the Phanariote retinue, will demand with the proper measure of moral outrage that Washington force the Macedonians to stop calling their country Macedonia<\/a>. Or perhaps, over brandy and cigars, one of the GOA bishops will say, wistfully, “You know, that President Obama really reminds me of Alexander the Great<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Now, listen to a faithful Orthodox Christian who has labored on the front lines of the great struggle to protect the sanctity of life. This link (select the Real Video option<\/a>) will take you to the presentation offered by Paula Kappos of Zoe for Life!<\/a>, to the bishops at the 2006 SCOBA conference in Chicago. Watch the video. It will break your heart.<\/p>\n Kappos related a story about calling a local crisis pregnancy center and telling them that she represented an Orthodox Christian pro-life organization:<\/p>\n When we spoke with them on the phone, they nearly jumped through the phone line in their excitement to talk to us. And we couldn’t understand why and we asked them.<\/p>\n They told us that our [Orthodox] abortion numbers are higher than the national norm, as reported in the media. Well, frankly, we didn’t believe them. And we asked them why.<\/p>\n They said we have two major strikes against us as strong ethnic communities and strong religious communities. And that our children would seek abortion as a means to escape the eye of their parents and grandparents and the embarrassment that it would bring to their families.<\/p>\n Well, I have to tell you, I didn’t believe them. I went back to Fr. Stephen and I asked him, “have you heard about women in crisis pregnancies?” and he said, “Yes, all the time. But in confession, after the abortion had been committed and the child had been lost.”<\/p>\n Well obviously, this galvanized all of us into action and we began to meet to see where we could make a difference.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Kappos told the bishops that, “there are at least two victims in every abortion. The child and his mother. Because she truly feels she has no other option. Zoe was founded to offer her life saving options.”<\/p>\n She also gave the bishops some advice:<\/p>\n If we don’t talk to our children and give them the Orthodox view of pure living, what God wants from each of us, regardless of our marital status, there is no way that they can have any sense of balance or what they’re supposed to do. We have to talk to our children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Then Kappos ended her talk with a quote from Abba Theodorus, a Church Father who would probably take a dim view of any bishop who offered double-talk instead of clarity on grave moral questions:<\/p>\n It is up to us now either to bury our conscience under the ground or to have it shine forth and illuminate as if we obey it. When our conscience says to us, “do this,” and we treat it with contempt, or it says it again and we refuse, then we are trampling it down, burying it underground. Thus it cannot speak to us clearly because of the weight upon it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n —————————– The San Francisco Chronicle SF Shows Off Its Ecumenical Spirit Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer<\/p>\n Pope Leo IX (1048-54) and Patriarch Michael I (1043-58) would be shocked.<\/p>\n There was Roman Catholic Archbishop John Quinn kneeling down to kiss the ring of Orthodox Patriarch Dimitrios I — only 936 years after leaders of the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople excommunicated each other in the Great Schism of 1054.<\/p>\n Quinn, the archbishop of San Francisco, made his gesture yesterday at an extraordinary ecumenical meeting between Dimitrios, the archbishop of Constantinople and world leader of Orthodox Christianity, and a dozen Bay Area religious leaders.<\/p>\n Actually, the 11th century ecclesiastical curses that flew between Rome and Constantinople, which refused to acknowledge the primacy of the Roman pope, were formally lifted in 1965.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, the two largest and most ancient branches of Christianity remain separate — a division religious leaders in San Francisco are trying to heal in their own small way.<\/p>\n Quinn said it is ”quite extraordinary” that the Orthodox Patriarchate has invited him to preach with Dimitrios at a 10 a.m. worship service tomorrow at Davies Symphony Hall.<\/p>\n ”His Holiness’ visit heightens the consciousness of all of us to pursue the road of deeper Christian unity,” Quinn said in an interview.<\/p>\n Episcopal Bishop William Swing, in formal remarks yesterday to Dimitrios at the Greek Orthodox Diocesan House in St. Francis Wood, said he hopes the patriarch will ”feel the ecumenical spirit that abides in the Bay Area.”<\/p>\n United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert of San Francisco, a leading force in the National Council of Churches, said the presence of the Orthodox churches in that group helps provide ”balance” to the ecumenical movement. The Roman Catholic Church does not belong to the National Council of Churches.<\/p>\n KEY DIFFERENCES<\/p>\n Talbert said Orthodox and Protestant leaders ”struggle over the role of women in the church,” but he said working together is a way to ”learn how to get along with other people in the world.” Most Protestant denominations, unlike the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, allow the ordination of women.<\/p>\n Dimitrios said his visit has helped him understand the unique ”social and spiritual environment in which you are called to do your work.”<\/p>\n ”But at the same time it must be confessed that contemporary societies, with their material comforts and advanced technology, also offer, unfortunately, the means of greater barrenness and erosion of the spirit,” said Dimitrios, speaking through a translator at the breakfast meeting. ”This explains why the occupations of psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and the like are flourishing.”<\/p>\n Dimitrios, 75, has given no news conferences or media interviews since his July 2 arrival in the United States, although the man described by church sources as his ”heir apparent” did meet the press yesterday.<\/p>\n ‘NO HYPOCRISY’<\/p>\n ”His All Holiness has been impressed with the simplicity and openness of the American people and with their deep Christian faith,” said Metropolitan Bartholomais of Chalcedon, the patriarch’s closest aide. ”There is no hypocrisy. There is a sincereness and simplicity that must be proper to all Christians.”<\/p>\n Asked the Orthodox church’s position on abortion, Bartholomais described a stand more liberal than that of the Roman Catholic Church, which condemns abortion in all cases and whose clergy have, in some cities, excommunicated leading pro-choice Catholics.<\/p>\n Although the Orthodox church believes the soul enters the body at conception and, ”generally speaking, respects human life and the continuation of pregnancy,” Bartholomais said, the church also ”respects the liberty and freedom of all human persons and all Christian couples.”<\/p>\n ”We are not allowed to enter the bedrooms of the Christian couples,” he said. ”We cannot generalize. There are many reasons for a couple to go toward abortion.”<\/p>\n Also joining Dimitrios at yesterday’s ecumenical gathering were Bishop Lyle Miller of the Evangelical Lutheran Church; Rabbi Malcolm Sparer, president of the Northern California Board of Rabbis; and officials representing the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Society of Friends, San Francisco Evangelical Association, the Reform Church of America, the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church and the Moscow Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.<\/p>\n After the meeting, Dimitrios, who is considered the ”first among equals” of Orthodox Patriarchs representing 200 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, headed for Stockton for a parish visit.<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.orthodoxchristianity.net\/forum\/index.php?topic=3282.45<\/p>\n While he is in the neighborhood, will Patriarch Bartholomew answer the question posed to him by Father Edward Pehanich in the quoted post below?<\/p>\n (This came to my attention by this post in Orthodox-Forum)<\/p>\n “Dear Constantine,<\/p>\n If the Patriarch’s allowance of abortion concerned such Abnormalities as ectopic pregnancies, then nobody would think twice about it. But the Patriarch has given his carte blanche blessing for couples to make the decision to abort perfectly healthy babies in the womb.<\/p>\n Here are his words:<\/p>\n “Although the Orthodox Church believes the soul I understand that Fr Dr Edward Pehanich (ACROD, founder of Orthodox Christians For Life) who reported all this in an article in oclife.org http:\/\/www.oclife.org\/vnine.pdf has sought clarification or retraction from His Divine All-Holiness.<\/p>\n As for those who doubt that the Patriarch was honestly reported, why would Fr Edward Pehanich who holds a prominent position in ACROD highlight these remarks in the Orthodox Christians for Life magazine if they were unreliable, thereby antagonising his supreme spiritual authority in the Phanar. I’d say he’s a brave and honest priest. And Fr Anthony Nelson, a prominent ROCA priest in the Right to Life We at Oklahoma Orthodox Christians for Life also wrote both to the Fr. Anthony<\/p>\n * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * http:\/\/www.orthodoxchristianity.net\/forum\/index.php?topic=23615.0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By John Couretas Reading Andrew Estocin’s fine essay, “Constantinople’s Moral Oversight,” I was reminded once again of the long running institutional silence — a scandal really — from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese on sanctity of life issues. But that attitude of indifference comes down from the top — the Phanar. Here is a direct quotation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1784],"tags":[82,45,256,847,160,296,8,280],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4107"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4107"}],"version-history":[{"count":56,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12725,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4107\/revisions\/12725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBackground:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nJULY 20, 1990, FRIDAY, FINAL EDITION
\nSECTION: NEWS; Pg. A1<\/p>\n
\nChurch leaders welcome head of Orthodox Christianity<\/p>\n
\nenters the body at conception and, generally
\nspeaking, respects human life and the continuation
\nof the pregnancy,” Bartholomew said, the church
\nalso “respects the liberty and freedom of all human
\npersons and all Christian couples. . . .We are not
\nallowed to enter the bedrooms of the Christian
\ncouples,” he also said. “We cannot generalize.
\nThere are many reasons for a couple to go toward
\nabortion.”<\/p>\n
\n—<\/p>\n
\nMovement, has written:<\/p>\n
\nPatriarchate and the GOA requesting comments\/clarification of the comments At the time. Our requests went unanswered.<\/p>\n
\nProtopriest Anthony Nelson
\nSt. Benedict Russian Orthodox Church
\nOklahoma City, OK USA 405-672-1441
\nSource:https:\/\/listserv.indiana.edu\/cgi-bin\/wa-iub.exe?A2=ind0701D&L=ORTHODOX&D=0&m=998\\
\n15&P=6149<\/p>\n