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Last Updated: 15 March 2016

CWN - The cremation of the dead recently became legal in Greece despite opposition from the Greek Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church of Crete.

Prelates of the Orthodox Church of Crete gathered in Heraklion on March 3 and affirmed that burial is part of Orthodox “culture and identity” and expresses “respect for the sanctity of the human body,” according to Orthodoxie.com.

References:

• Réunion du Saint-Synode de l’Église orthodoxe de Crète (Orthodoxie.com)
• Cremation Is Now Legal in Greece (Greek Reporter)

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Last Updated: 11 March 2016

risu.org.ua - UOC KP shares the grief of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics over the suffering and loss that they had survived through as a result of Lviv Pseudo-Synod and the repression by the totalitarian system. The Kyiv Patriarchate compares Lviv Pseudo-Synod of 1946 to Kharkiv Synod of 1992. This is said in the statement of the UOC-KP press-center.

We present the full text of the document:

These days marks 70 years since the so-called Lviv Council, which proclaimed the “elimination of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.” It also announced the “reunification of the UGCC with the Russian Orthodox Church” - the one to which the Ukrainian Greek Catholics had never belonged.

Insidiously using the idea of the unity of Orthodoxy that were objectively widespread among the clergy and laity of the UGCC, the Stalinist regime organized the Synod Council in 1946 for a political purpose. This event was used as the basis for a formal criminal prohibition of UGCC activity in the Soviet Union, further repression against the bishops, clergy and faithful of this Church.

With the blessing of Patriarch Filaret of Kyiv and All Rus-Ukraine, the Kyiv Patriarchate’s Press Center confirms that the Kyiv Patriarchate deems the so-called Lviv Synod not a manifestation of the collegial will, but the result of oppression of the freedom of religion. It is clear that the gathering of separate church leaders, encouraged and conducted by secular authorities to force the Church to adopt the state-induced resolutions, cannot be considered a true Council.

In Soviet times the Orthodox Church in Ukraine was repeatedly subjected to a powerful pressure by similar methods. In the late 1920s - early 1930s as a result of Bolshevik terror and repression, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (established in 1921) was almost completely destroyed. Because of the danger of Soviet power the majority of bishops and clergymen of UAOC (established in 1942) were forced to emigrate to the West. The rest were either persecuted or forced to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. The Ukrainian Exarchate of the ROC was also subject to persecution and pressure - just like other religious organizations permitted to legally exist in the USSR: the Roman Catholic Church, the Georgian Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, the Lutheran Church, Jewish and Muslim associations etc.

Therefore, the Kyiv Patriarchate not only shares the grief of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics because of the suffering and loss that they had survived through as a result of Soviet repression. In the light of our own historical experience of persecution from hostile political authorities, including with the engagement of certain religious leaders in persecution, we understand the pain of our brothers.

We compare the so-called Lviv Synod to the so-called Kharkiv Council. At the former the Church Primate was not present and the attending bishops and priests were subjected to pressure from the Soviet government. At the latter the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was not in attendance, and the bishops were acting secretly from the clergy and faithful, contrary to the church rules and being under the influence of the secular power. Therefore, in our opinion, it is justified to deem both the so-called Lviv Council of 1946 and the so-called Kharkiv Council in 1992 non-canonical and invalid from the ecclesiastical perspective.

We believe that the tragic events that befell to Ukrainian Church in the twentieth century as well as in previous times, bitter page of relations between the Orthodox and Greek Catholics, are a major cause of the lack of our own, independent Ukrainian state. Taking advantage of this, the remote capitals and thrones resolved their matters, fought for the expansion of influence at the expense of the Ukrainian people and the Church of Kyiv. Consequently, the conflicts were sparked and fuelled within the Ukrainian nation, fratricidal confrontation was fomented.

We see that similar attempts are made in our time. Therefore, all of us - those who belong to the Kyiv Patriarchate and those who belong to the UGCC should exercise wisdom and prudence, draw conclusions from the events of the past, not succumb to provocations and attempts to incite hatred between us. Our first common task now is jointly helping the Ukrainian people to defend national independence, to restore peace and promote public understanding.

In the future, we will also face another difficult task - make the dialogue of understanding and reconciliation bring fruitful results. Both sides must provide adequate moral assessment of the controversial pages of relations between the two churches - the events of the end of the XVI century and the events of the late twentieth century.

Unfortunately, these more than four centuries of history are full of deplorable events, actions for which the Orthodox and Greek Catholics should ask each other's forgiveness.

We cannot and must not forget the dark pages of our common past, but we have no right to go on all the way looking back. Therefore, we hope that the formula of reconciliation "We forgive and ask for forgiveness," which at the time after World War II gave good fruit in the relations between several European nations, including between the Ukrainian and Polish peoples - will be fruitful for reconciliation between Rus and Rus - the Ukrainian Orthodox and  the Ukrainian Greek Catholics. May the Lord help us in this good deed!

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Last Updated: 11 March 2016

risu.org.ua - In the framework of the official visit to Turkey, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko had a meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, Embassy of Ukraine to the Holy See informs.

The President expressed gratitude for a “great assistance the Ukrainian people receive from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I”.

“I am grateful to the Patriarch for his constant care and prayer for Ukraine, its prosperity, peace on the Ukrainian land, constant assistance of the Mother Church to Ukraine,” the Head of State said at the briefing following the meeting.

“Of course, we were talking about the future of Ukraine, about peace, about single national Orthodox Church awaited by the Ukrainian nation,” Petro Poroshenko emphasized.

“We are confident that God will hear the prayers of the church. We are confident that peace and prosperity will come to Ukraine. I am grateful to His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew I for a very important dialogue on the future of Ukraine,” Petro Poroshenko said.

In his turn, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I emphasized the importance of the Ukrainian President’s visit for mutual relations and expressed support for unity and peace in the whole world. “I would like to expressed content and gratitude to the President for his visit. You know that the Church of Constantinople is the Mother Church of the Ukrainian nation. We feel a spiritual bond between the Church of Constantinople and Ukraine,” he noted.
“It is our duty to pray for peace and unity in Ukraine, Europe and the whole world,” the Patriarch noted.

The meeting took place in the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul.

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Last Updated: 11 March 2016

CWN - Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego said that “the most massive failure of the Catholic community at all levels in the past 20 years has been to address the question of our ongoing involvement in the Middle East.”

The prelate made his remarks at a forum sponsored by Commonweal.

“What is particularly fascinating and troubling is all three recent popes were clearly opposed to the wars, yet at no level in the Catholic community was there any major opposition or sustained witness,” he added, according to a Catholic News Service report. “It’s like the dog that didn't bark.”

Describing attacks on Muslims as a “great outrage,” Bishop McElroy said that “the Muslim question is an alarm bell about authoritarianism in society. That's not just a disagreement. It's an alarm bell that goes to the core of who we are as a nation and absolutely needs to be repudiated in the strongest possible way by everybody.”

References:

• Prophecy without Contempt (Livestream, Commonweal)
• Catholic silence on involvement in Middle East called 'massive failure' (CNS)

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Last Updated: 10 March 2016

CWN - A bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church argues that the Vatican does not understand the perspective of the Byzantine Catholic community.

Explaining the unhappiness of many Ukrainian Catholics over the joint statement issued by Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, Bishop Hlib Lonchyna said that "there seem to be problems in how Rome understands the world."

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Last Updated: 08 March 2016

It is urgent for Orthodox Christians to recognize the terrible truth of March 10, 1946

Bohdan Bociurkiw, who was a professor of history at Carleton University in Ottawa, wrote a comprehensive survey on this matter and it has never been contradicted. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of it in 2006, referring to it as a “pseudo-synod” which “seriously harmed Church unity”. Nicolas Lossky, a French Orthodox theologian who is a member of the Patriarchate of Moscow, also recognized that this was a false synod. Because of its suppression in 1946 and until 1989, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which counted more than 5 million adherents, became, in fact, both the principle victim and the principle force of opposition, within the borders of the USSR, to the Soviet regime. Thus we make an appeal to the present day Orthodox authorities in Russia and Ukraine and elsewhere, to recognize the invalidity of the tragic decisions of the council of Lviv.The Orthodox Church of Russia as a whole cannot be held responsible for decisions taken by ecclesiastical authorities who were manipulated or terrorized by the NKVD-KGB. However we, as Orthodox Christians, living 70 years after the events, feel responsible for the culpable silence surrounding the destruction of this Church by the Soviet regime with the participation of the Patriarchate of Moscow.

We know that millions of Orthodox Christians in the world firmly condemn the anti-religious persecutions of the Soviet government and of Joseph Djougachvili in particular. Thus, on this commemorative day of March 10 1946 and on the eve of Sunday, March 13 2016, Sunday of the Great Pardon in the Orthodox liturgical calendar, we assure the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of our solidarity, of our prayers for all the innocent victims of this Church who were imprisoned, tortured, deported and assassinated by the Soviet government with the complicity of the Patriarchate of Moscow. We humbly ask their pardon for all the injustices they have suffered under the cover of the Orthodox Church and we bow down before the martyrs of this Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

• Antoine Arjakovsky, Orthodox Christian, Paris
• Andrey Chernyak, Orthodox Christian, Moscow
• Taras Dmytryk, Orthodox Christian, Lviv
• Jim Forest, Orthodox Christian, Amsterdam
• Fr. George Kovalenko, Orthodox Christian, Kiev
• Inga Leonova, Orthodox Christian, New York
• Fr. Christophe Levalois, Orthodox Christian, Paris
• Fr. Michael Plekon, Orthodox Christian, New York
• Olga Sedakova, Orthodox Christian, Moscow
• Constantin Sigov, Orthodox Christian, Kiev
• Cyrille Sollogoub, Orthodox Christian, Paris
• Daniel Struve, Orthodox Christian, Paris
• Natallia Vasilevich, Orthodox Christian, Minsk
• Bertrand Vergely, Orthodox Christian, Paris
• Andri Yurash, Orthodox Christian, Kyiv