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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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CWN - Pope Francis received a leading Russian Orthodox official, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, in audience on December 10.
The prelate serves as president of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Holy See Press Office did not release details about the content of the discussion.
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CWN - The Christian refugees who have fled from violence in Syria and Iraq are not likely to return under current conditions, according to the apostolic administrator of the Jerusalem patriarchate.
“No one knows what the future holds,” said Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa. “They left and it is unlikely they will return.”
“The situation is tragic” in Syria, the Franciscan prelate said. “It is a country that has ceased to exist; it is destroyed.”
The apostolic administrator—who previously headed the Franciscan custody of the Holy Land, said that the radicalization of Muslim youth has caused enormous problems for the region. He said that the conflict sweeping the Middle East should be understood primarily as a “war between Muslims,” but Christians are experiencing the brutal consequences. The problem is also spreading, he reported; the radical Islamic ideologies are now reaching into Jordan as well as Syria and Iraq.
Regarding the prospects for a peace agreement that might curb the tensions between Israel and Palestine, Archbishop Pizzabella answered simply: “I have to be honest; there’s nothing at the moment.”
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CWN - The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against a Romanian Greek Catholic parish that sought the return of its property from the Romanian Orthodox Church.
In 1948, Romania’s Communist regime violently suppressed the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Holy See, and turned over its properties to the Romanian Orthodox Church. In 1990, following the fall of Communism, Romania granted legal recognition to the Romanian Greek Catholic Church.
Since 1996, the Romanian Greek Catholic parish in Lupeni has sought the return of its property. After exhausting all appeals at the domestic level, the local diocese turned to the European Court of Human Rights.
The court ruled that Romania violated two principles of the European Convention on Human Rights—“the breach of the principle of legal certainty” and “the length of the proceedings”—and awarded 17,821 euro ($19,191) in damages.
However, the European court upheld a Romanian court’s key ruling that
the church building being claimed and two parsonages in Lupeni had been constructed between 1906 and 1920 by Eastern-rite Orthodox and Greek Catholic worshippers and that, after its construction, the church building had been used alternately for services by both denominations …
[A]ccording to the most recent census, there were 24,968 Orthodox worshippers and 509 Greek Catholic worshippers in Lupeni ...[The disposition of property] must be determined taking account of the wishes of the worshippers in the community that is in possession of the properties.
In a dissenting opinion, four European court judges wrote that
the protection of minorities is almost always unpopular and the protection of religious minorities is even more so. Europe has a long history of religious majorities disregarding the rights of religious minorities. This is an area where present-day democratic standards oblige a majority to show restraint, for the sake of respecting minorities. Unfortunately this case shows that States are often reluctant to undo the injustice committed to religious minorities when the interest of the religious majority is at stake.
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CWN - Two Syrian Orthodox prelates were denied permission to enter the United Kingdom to participate in the dedication of a new cathedral.
Archbishops Nicodemus Daoud Sharaf and Timothy Mosa Alshamany had planned to join in the dedication of St. Thomas cathedral, the first Syrian Orthodox cathedral in London, on November 24. But they were unable to obtain visas.
Government officials said that the Orthodox prelates—whose archdioceses have been ravaged by the Islamic State, and who are now living in Kurdistan—could not demonstrate that they had sufficient financial resources to support themselves on their visit to London, and might have filed for asylum.
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Sunday, 4 December 2016
His Beatitude visited the Melkite parish in London, where he served the Divine Liturgy. Concelebrating were the parish priest, Father Shafiq Abouzayd, the assistant priest Father Robert Gibbons, together with Deacon Richard Downer.
His Beatitude preached on the need to remain faithful to the Eastern Christian heritage, as light comes from the East. He also congratulated clergy of the Melkite Church and members of the congregation whose name day falls on this day or in succeeding days: so all those named for St John of Damascus, St Barbara and St Nicholas.
At the close of the Liturgy, His Beatitude presented the patriarchal Cross of Jerusalem to Father Robert, in recognition of his service to the Melkite Church as Ecumenical Canon for the Diocese of Edmonton, Canada and for his work in Oxford and London at various institutes of learning.
Also receiving the patriarchal Cross during this visit was Valerie Chamberlain, who has worked for some years translating and editing His Beatitude’s writings, such as appeals, reports on relief work, pastoral letters and so forth.
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CWN - Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has voiced his admiration for Amoris Laetitia, in a column published in the Vatican newspaper, L‘Osservatore Romano.
The Orthodox leader expresses his appreciation for the emphasis that Pope Francis places on taking into account the particular circumstances of every marriage:
What has undoubtedly smothered and hampered people in the past is the fear that a “heavenly father” somehow dictates human conduct and prescribes human custom. The truth is quite the opposite, and religious leaders are called themselves to remember and in turn to remind that God is life and love and light.
In Orthodox communions, the faithful can divorce and remarry with the approval of their priests.
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