[CS-FSLUG] NI (TD): Russian Orthodox bishop appeals for Catholic-Orthodox alliance

Tue Oct 4 13:12:44 CDT 2005

On Oct 4, 2005, at 7:06 AM, dmc wrote:

> Given the history of Roman Catholic and Orthodox abuse of government
> power to violently repress other denominations, and recent history of
> the Orthodox church doing (or attempting) precisely that in Russia and
> other former Soviet client States, this is not necessarily good news.

During most of the 2000 year history of Christianity and Christendom,  
whenever break-away religious movements/groups arose, their efforts  
were nearly always coupled to social revolutions that involved  
violence, loss of lives, destruction of property, economic upheavel,  
etc. (By the way, I'm not referring to the Reformation so much as to  
events between A.D. 300 and 1400). It might be romantic to imagine  
these historical events vis-a-vis the Tinanmen Square Massacre --  
there is a popular pseudo-historical work called "The Trail of Blood"  
that comes to mind -- but that's simply not accurate. The reaction of  
secular and church figures and authorities has to be considered in  
the full context of the social upheaval they were trying to deal  
with. That's not to say that sometimes the actions of various church  
and secular leaders weren't sinful; within the "bigger picture" of  
such events there were heroes, saints, stooges and villans -- won't  
that always be the case with human history?

The history of Christianity, the Church, and Christendom (Christendom  
being the societies in the West and East that developed under the  
governance of Christian institutions) is so important, and so many  
Christians are generally uneducated or misinformed in this area, that  
I make it a point to call all my brothers and sisters in Christ to  
start or re-start their learning in this area. Here is a list of  
books (put together by a Christian historian named Matthew Bunson)  
that I've found helpful:
"H. Jedin and J. Dolan’s Handbook of Church History, 2 vols., and  
their History of the Church; L. Rogier’s The Christian Centuries, 2  
Vols. (also his Nouvelle histoire de l'Eglise); The Pelican History  
of the Church, published by Penguin; and the appropriate volumes of  
the Cambridge Modern History; if German is one of your languages, I  
would certainly recommend Ludwig von Pastor’s monumental History of  
the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages (40 vols.); the History  
of Christianity by Kenneth Scott Latourette; the Oxford History of  
the Christian Church; the superb series by Dr. Warren Carroll; Dr.  
Alan Schreck’s Compact History of the Catholic Church and Catholic  
and Christian: An Explanation of Commonly Misunderstood Catholic  
Beliefs; Triumph, by H.W. Crocker III; and Church History by Fr. John  
Laux. If you are looking for an encyclopedia on the subject, I would  
offer my [Bunson's] own revised, updated edition of the Encyclopedia  
of Catholic History by Our Sunday Visitor; also there is the Oxford  
Dictionary of the Christian Church."

As to the Russian Orthodox Church's present reactionary stance  
towards the presence and evangelization efforts of non-Orthodox  
Christian groups (including Roman and Eastern Catholics) . . . well,  
even if I don't think it's a good thing, I'm willing to be patient  
with them. Consider that for much of the 20th Century, the clergy and  
faithful of the Russian Orthodox Church were persecuted, repressed  
and abused by the atheist Communist government. This greatly weakened  
the ROC, and seriously disrupted the transmission of the Orthodox  
Faith through several generations.  With the end of Communism came  
new opportunities and freedom for the ROC. At the same time, many non- 
Orthodox "sects" (as the ROC perceives them) began to arrive and to  
pull many spiritually-starved persons towards expressions of  
Christianity that are all too often hostile to the ROC. Though I  
don't think it's right, the reaction of the ROC hierarchy (and many  
of the lay faithful as well) has been to try and guard their  
"sandbox" by leveraging the power of the government to restrict the  
influx and activity of the non-ROC groups.

It's not a strictly analogous situation, but let me point out  
something from my own geographic locale that is similar. My area  
(northeast TN) has seen a huge influx of Hispanic migrant workers in  
the last decade. Many of these men and women have a Catholic  
background, but often times their formation in the Faith did not  
progress beyond early childhood. The local Catholic churches have  
been trying hard to minister to them, but the "numbers," distances,  
and language barrier involved in reaching these groups have made such  
efforts extremely challenging.

However, dozens of local Pentecostal and non-denominational churches  
regularly descend into the immigrants' midst to conduct person-to- 
person and home-to-home evangelization efforts. Now, I have no  
problem with Christians of whatever denomination reaching out to  
offer spiritual and material support to their poor brothers and  
sisters. But many times these groups use some nasty tactics to draw  
in children and adults. Not uncommon are vans with "Our Lady of  
Guadalupe" painted on the side -- the drivers offer to take the  
children and adults to "church" with the implication being that the  
destination is a Catholic parish or mission. Instead, the drivers  
take them to whatever church they themselves belong to (not  
Catholic), and proceed to "de-catholicise" these persons who are  
simply not prepared to defend the Faith and the Church against all  
sorts of wacky and misleading claims. All too often, the new converts  
become intensely anti-Catholic, and there are painful subsequent  
divisions within Hispanic families and communities. Of course, the  
local Catholic churches can't and don't appeal to government  
authorities to stop this kind of thing. But I hope you can sympathize  
with the priests, religious and lay people who develop some serious  
frustrations with, if not anger towards, these particular non- 
Catholic groups.

> > ... "alliance to negotiate with European institutions and members
> > of other faiths on behalf of "traditional Christianity."
>
> Sounds like code words for re-establishing the unholy church-state
> alliance wherein which legalist tradtionalism is forced upon all.

No, I think you may be missing the point. The hope is to foster unity  
according to the express prayer or Our Lord the night before He gave  
His life for us, "that they may all be one . . ." (John 17:21)

The tremendous witness that increased, and hopefully one day full,  
Christian unity can give to the world is worth the effort to discuss  
and work through the differences and divisions that have arisen  
through the centuries. This effort takes on a special urgency in  
light of the fact that Europe is rapidly descending into a neo-pagan  
darkness. If Christians don't work together, then paganism and Islam  
_will_ fill the void spiritual void that is rapidly engulfing Western  
culture.

By emphasizing "traditional Christianity," I think the good bishop is  
referring to the fact that progress towards unity
is more easily accomplished among churches whose histories,  
theologies, spiritualities, liturgies, etc. stretch back to the early  
centuries of Christianity. Why? Because they tend to have much more  
in common than the Reformation and post-Reformation groups have with  
the Orthodox and Catholic churches. I don't point that out to  
belittle or pass judgment on my non-Catholic/non-Orthodox brothers  
and sisters, but just as matter of practical observation.

> The non-Biblical Crusades are just one result of unaccountable
> leadership confused by the unholy mixture of church and state,
> a mixture that always results in bad consequences for Biblical
> Christianity.

You might enjoy reading a short informative work, "The Real History  
of the Crusades" by Thomas Madden:

          http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=4461

Another good site is:

          The Church in History

          http://www.church-in-history.org/

May Our Lord bless you and keep you.

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary,

Michael Bradley, Jr.

--
[Jesus said] Tell aching mankind to snuggle close
to My merciful Heart, and I will fill it with peace.
+ Diary of Saint Faustina #1074 +

My home on the Net ::
    http://homepage.mac.com/michaelsbradleyjr/

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