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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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May. 2, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A group of Orthodox theologians has called for the revision of liturgical texts, to remove what they see as anti-Semitic language, a Russian news agency reports.
Credo, a Christian news agency operating on the internet, reports that 12 Orthodox theologians issued a statement favoring liturgical changes during an April visit to Israel. The group found anti-Semitic passages particularly in the liturgical texts of the Orthodox Easter season.
The statement was endorsed by theologians of the Russian, Greek, Ukrainian, and Georgian Orthodox traditions.
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In his message, published in English and Italian, the Pope makes it clear that, according to "the principle of the universal destination of all the goods of creation, ... everything that the earth produces and all that man transforms and manufactures, all his knowledge and technology, is meant to serve the material and spiritual development and fulfillment of the human family and all its members."
The Holy Father goes on to identify "three specific challenges facing our world, challenges which I believe can only be met through a firm commitment to that greater justice which is inspired by charity.
"The first," he adds, "concerns the environment and sustainable development. The international community recognizes that the world's resources are limited and that it is the duty of all peoples to implement policies to protect the environment in order to prevent the destruction of that natural capital whose fruits are necessary for the well-being of humanity. ... Also needed is a capacity to assess and forecast, to monitor the dynamics of environmental change and sustainable growth, and to draw up and apply solutions at an international level."
"Indeed, if development were limited to the technical-economic aspect, obscuring the moral-religious dimension, it would not be an integral human development, but a one-sided distortion which would end up by unleashing man's destructive capacities."
The second challenge "involves our conception of the human person and consequently our relationships with one other. If human beings are not seen as persons, male and female, created in God's image and endowed with an inviolable dignity, it will be very difficult to achieve full justice in the world. Despite the recognition of the rights of the person in international declarations and legal instruments, much progress needs to be made in bringing this recognition to bear upon such global problems as the growing gap between rich and poor countries."
The third challenge "relates to the values of the spirit." Benedict XVI explains that, "unlike material goods, those spiritual goods which are properly human expand and multiply when communicated. Unlike divisible goods, spiritual goods such as knowledge and education are indivisible."
Having emphasized the urgent need for "a just equality of opportunity, especially in the field of education and the transmission of knowledge," the Pope laments the fact that "education, especially at the primary level, remains dramatically insufficient in many parts of the world.
"To meet these challenges," he concludes, "only love for neighbor can inspire within us justice at the service of life and the promotion of human dignity. Only love within the family, founded on a man and a woman, who are created in the image of God, can assure that inter-generational solidarity which transmits love and justice to future generations. Only charity can encourage us to place the human person once more at the center of life in society and at the center of a globalized world governed by justice."
MESS/CHARITY:JUSTICE/GLENDONVIS 070502 (560)
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VATICAN CITY, MAY 2, 2007 (VIS) - During his general audience this morning, the Pope returned to consider the figure of Origen, the famous third century historian. Last week the Holy Father had focussed on the life of this Father of the Church and on his literary works, this week he turned to Origen's teachings on prayer and the Church.
Origen, the Pope told the 30,000 people gathered in a rain-swept St. Peter's Square, "constantly intertwines his exegetical and theological works with experiences and suggestions concerning prayer."
"The highest level of knowledge of God flows from love," said the Pope. To demonstrate this, Origen "bases himself upon a meaning sometimes given to the verb 'to know' in Hebrew: when it is used to express the act of human love. ... Just as man and woman are 'two in one flesh,' so God and the believer become 'two in one spirit'."
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Moscow, May. 1, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Officials of the Russian Orthodox Church have angrily denied rumors that Patriarch Alexei II is seriously ill.
The Russian patriarch returned to Moscow on May 1 after a brief trip to Switzerland, where he had undergone a physical examination and evidently received some medical treatment. But spokesmen for the patriarchate stressed that the visit had been previously arranged, and Alexei's medical condition is not a matter of any urgency.
Rumors about the patriarch's health had begun to swirl when he failed to attend the April 25 funeral of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin. The revelation that he had checked into a Swiss medical clinic was soon followed by reports that he was gravely ill, and some internet reports claimed that Alexei had died.
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, a spokesman for the Moscow patriarchate, charged that the rumors were started by a powerful Russian individual who unable to arrange a private meeting with the patriarch.
Patriarch Alexei is healthy and will resume his normal working schedule, the Moscow patriarchate announced. The patriarch is due to preside at the Divine Liturgy at a convent in Moscow on May 2.
The Russian prelate, who is 78 years old, suffered a heart attack in 2002, and since that time his health has been the subject of many rumors. He has served as leader of the Russian Orthodox church since June 1990.
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01.05.2007, [16:57] // UGCC // risu.org.ua
Poland – On 29 April 2007, the 60th anniversary of Operation Vistula, the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) in Poland, Archbishop Ivan (Jan) Martyniak of Przemysl and Warsaw and Bishop Wolodymyr Juszczak of Wroclaw and Gdansk released an address to the faithful of the UGCC in which they mention the great losses for the UGCC caused by Operation Vistula.
The text of the address notes that “the primary goal of Operation Vistula was to solve the ‘Ukrainian issue’ in post-war Poland, i.e., the total assimilation of the Ukrainian population in its new place of residence.” Also, the document states that “for many long years, Soviet propaganda claimed that the key reason for the action of the expulsion of Ukrainians from their native land was the murder of General Karol Swierczewski and the struggle against units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Available documents prove that this was just a shameful pretext, since the need for the resettlement of Ukrainians was discussed by the Ministry of State Defense back in 1946 before Swierczewski’s death on 27 March 1947.”
RISU note: During Operation Vistula, conducted by the Soviet and Communist Polish governments at the end of World War II, thousands of Poles and Ukrainians were forcibly removed from their native territories. Generally, Poles were removed from what was then Soviet Ukraine and taken to the territory of post-World War II Poland and Ukrainians were taken from Poland to Soviet Ukraine.
Source and previous related RISU news:
• http://www.risu.org.ua/eng/news/article;15402/
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Killings and Persecution Continue
By Father John FlynnROME, APRIL 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The blood of martyrs continues to be shed in Turkey. The April 18 killing of two Turks and a German at a Christian publishing house in Malatya, in eastern Turkey, renewed concerns over the fate of Christians in the country. The three victims were found with their hands and legs bound and their throats slit.
The three men worked at the Zirve publishing house, which had previously been the object of protests for allegedly distributing Bibles and proselytizing, reported the London-based Times newspaper April 19.
The same day the BBC reported that 10 people were arrested in connection with the murders. The BBC added that many commentators noted the similarity of the latest killings to the murder of a Catholic priest by a teenage gunman last year and the shooting of the Armenian journalist, also a Christian, in January. In each case the killers were young, apparently Islamist ultra-nationalists.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said the killings were "an attack against Turkey's stability, peace and tradition of tolerance," according to the BBC.
In February, the Pope's vicar for the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, visited Turkey to commemorate the anniversary of the murder of Father Andrea Santoro. The Italian missionary was shot dead Feb. 5, 2006, in St. Mary's Catholic Church in Trabzon, northeast Turkey.
Cardinal Ruini said during his homily Feb. 5 in the church where the priest had been murdered: "We have come to help promote peace among peoples and religions, respect for the beliefs of each person and love for the brother or sister present in every human person created in the image and likeness of God," reported the Fides news agency the same day.
"We have come to promote religious freedom everywhere in the world, and to ask God to illuminate all minds and hearts to understand that only in freedom and love of neighbor can God be truly adored," the cardinal added.
Islamic extremists
Malatya, like Trabzon, is an Islamic stronghold, observed Mechthild Brockamp in an April 19 commentary published by the German agency Deutsche Welle. He noted that journalist Hrant Dink was also killed in Malatya earlier this year, and underlined the Islamic element in the shooting of Father Santoro, which took place during fevered protests against the caricatures of Mohammed.
Each time one of these attacks occurs authorities call it an exceptional case, said Brockamp. But the number of such cases means that it is more a pattern than an exception, he observed. Brockamp called upon the government to resolve the underlying issue of religious freedom and to ensure that the Christian minority is able to practice its faith without putting their lives at risk.
These are sentiments shared by the German magazine Der Spiegel, in an article published online April 23. The latest murders reveal a deep-seated problem, the magazine argued. The article quoted Ertugrul Ozkok, editor-in-chief of the leading secular Turkish daily Hurriyet, who noted that in Germany, Turks residing there have opened up more than 3,000 mosques. He asked in an editorial: "If in our country we cannot abide even by a few churches, or a handful of missionaries, where is our civilization?"
An article published April 25 by the Christian Science Monitor cited Christian missionaries in Turkey as saying that they now have more freedom to carry out their work due to reforms enacted as part of the country's attempt to enter into the European Union. At the same time violent attacks against Christian targets are becoming more frequent.
Last year, the article noted, several evangelical churches were firebombed, and a Protestant church leader in the city of Adana was severely beaten by a group of assailants.
The report also opined that while there is a religious dimension to the recent murders of Christians, some experts also attribute them to the influence of extreme nationalism and anti-Western xenophobia that are on the rise in Turkey.
Nevertheless, other news reports testify to the considerable difficulties Christians face when they try to practice their faith. Both Christians and intellectuals are frequent targets of legal action taken under article 301 of the penal code. The article allows people to be charged for denigrating "Turkish identity," explained a report by Compass Direct News last Nov. 27.
Compass Direct is a Christian news service based in California, reporting on religious persecution. The report presented the case of Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal, who appeared Nov. 23 before the Silivri Criminal Court, located in northwestern Turkey.
As Muslims converted to Christianity, they were accused not only of denigrating Turkish identity, but also of reviling Islam. "We don't use force to tell anyone about Christianity," Tastan said to the media outside the courtroom according to Compass Direct. "But we are Christians, and if the Lord permits, we will continue to proclaim this," he added.
Christians likened to terrorists
Compass Direct also reported that attorney Kemal Kerincsiz, who intervened for the prosecution, is notorious for his actions against intellectuals using article 301. "Christian missionaries working almost like terrorist groups are able to enter into high schools and among primary school students," Kerincsiz told reporters. The court case against the two Christians is still underway.
Further difficulties were reported in an article published by the Boston Globe last Dec. 9. The newspaper referred to the difficulties faced by Metropolitan Apostolos, a Greek Orthodox bishop.
In 1971, the government shut down the Halki theological seminary on Heybeliada, an island in the Sea of Marmara. The school had trained generations of Orthodox leaders, but authorities closed it, along with other private religious schools. In the meantime the Greek Orthodox community in Turkey has dwindled to 3,000, from 180,000 in 1923.
In general, noted the Boston Globe, Turkey's religious minorities including about 68,000 Armenian Orthodox, 20,000 Catholics, 23,000 Jews, and 3,000 Greek Orthodox face numerous legal restrictions.
Catholics, for example, encounter considerable difficulties when it comes to obtaining legal rights over property and work permits for clergy and nuns, explained Otmar Oehring, in an article written for the Forum 18 news service Jan. 18. The Norwegian-based Forum 18 reports on issues related to religious freedom.
Places of worship of minority communities which are allowed to maintain legally-recognized community foundations -- such as the Greek Orthodox, the Armenians, the Syrian Orthodox and the Jews -- are owned by these foundations, commented Oehring.
But Catholics and Protestants are not allowed to set up such foundations. Consequently, title deeds indicate that the congregations or church communities themselves own the buildings. Yet the state often refuses to recognize this. Additional legal obstacles include problems in setting up bank accounts and in publishing religious books and magazine.
At the time of Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey at the end of last year, Vatican representatives and government officials discussed the possibility of establishing a mixed working group to resolve the Catholic Church's problems in Turkey, according to Oehring. There has been little or no progress on the matter, however.
During his visit, the Pope held a meeting with the president of the government's religious affairs directorate. In his address, given Nov. 28, the Pontiff called for an "authentic dialogue between Christians and Muslims, based on truth and inspired by a sincere wish to know one another better, respecting differences and recognizing what we have in common."
The Pope also called for freedom of religion, "institutionally guaranteed and effectively respected in practice." A call that takes on greater urgency after the recent attacks.