Wednesday, February 1, A.D. 2012

Western Mass

The Bovina Bloviator posted a disturbing video last summer of a Western themed mass in Austria—Western as in cowboys and barbeques: “The Catholic Church in Austria: Defining Deviancy Downward” Here is the Gloria.TV coverage of the event and of the controversy:

Cardinal Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, evidently supported the event which occurred previous years despite protests to the Cardinal. Here is Gloria.TV’s coverage of the “mass” in A.D. 2010. From what I have been able to find online, the protests finally worked to get the mass cancelled last summer. One wonders, however, why such an abomination was ever considered or allowed.

Posted by Joseph on Wednesday, February 1, A.D. 2012
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Friday, January 27, A.D. 2012

The Pro-Life Cause, Orthodoxy, and Hope

Following the prolife theme of this week’s posts, I recommend that you read Matushka Frederica Mathewes-Green’s address, “The Pro-Life Cause, Orthodoxy, and Hope.” Matushka Frederica speaks of her own transformation from an abortion rights supporting feminist to a supporter of the prolife movement, and she lists some interesting selections from the fathers concerning abortion. Here are segments of her speech:

You may be surprised to learn that abortion was common in the ancient Roman Empire. The methods were more dangerous than today (I should say, more dangerous to the mother; every abortion is lethally dangerous to the child). But those methods were nevertheless used by women who wanted to conceal sexual activity, or who were forced to have abortions by their husbands and lovers.

The ancient, pagan world was a harsh one. Not only were children aborted before birth, but a newborn child was not officially received into a family until its father picked it up and held it. If the father didn’t want the child he simply refused to take it up, and the child was legally abandoned. This was called “exposing” an infant; it would be placed in some public place, and the social fiction was that someone else might pick it up and care for it. Sometimes people did take in these babies, and rear them to be sold as slaves or put on the street as prostitutes. But, often enough, no one took the child before it was found by dogs or other animals, or died of exposure and starvation.

And this was legal. It was a harsh world. Christians stood out as different, in that world. They were different in seeing every human being as worthy of dignity, whether free or slave, male or female, Jew or Gentile (as St. Paul said in Galatians 3:21). One of the big differences between Christians and pagans was that Christians did not have abortions. From the earliest years, the Church Fathers spoke against abortion. Let me read you some of their statements.

This is from the Didache, a work which was written about the same time as the Gospels: “You shall not murder a child by abortion.”

The Letter of Barnabas, written about the same time, repeats those words. “You shall love your neighbor more than your own life. You shall not murder a child by abortion.” Note the connection he makes there. This is not about sexual morality, it’s about loving your neighbor, who in this case is a helpless child.

The Letter to Diognetus, probably written around 125, describes to a nonbeliever what Christians are like. He writes, “They marry, as do all others; they beget children, but they do not abort fetuses.”

The Apocalypse of Peter says that, in heaven, aborted children are cared for by an angel named Temlakos. He writes, “The children shall be given over to the caretaking angel Temlakos, and those who slew the children will be punished forever, for this is God’s will.”

Matushka Frederica continues:

Yet, even though the early Christians refused to participate in abortion, a terrible rumor circulated about them in those days. You know that, in the centuries when Christianity was illegal, some parts of our faith were kept secret and not shared outside the community of believers. For example, the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist was something only baptized Christians knew about, and it was never spoken about to nonbelievers. We still say, in the pre-communion prayer of St. John Chrysostom, “I will not speak of your mystery to your enemies.”

Yet rumors started to circulate that Christians were cannibals. There was a story going around that in Christian worship a baby was put inside a sack of flour and beaten to death, and then eaten. Well, if you thought people in your neighborhood were doing that as part of a religious ritual, you’d want to see them executed too. And you can see how the rumor is a mixed-up version of our belief that Christ came to earth as a child, and that he gives us his Body and Blood in the Eucharist. So, many of the early Christians were martyred because they were thought to be child-killers and cannibals, and some early writers protest it’s a lie, Christians do no such thing, while it’s pagans who commit abortion and expose newborns.

Minucius Felix wrote, around 200 AD, “I would like to meet the person who says …that we [Christians] are brought into the faith by means of the slaughter and blood of an infant. Do you think that it can be possible for such a tender little body to receive such fatal wounds? Is it possible for anyone to pour forth the new blood of a little child, scarcely come into existence? Nobody is capable of believing this—except the person who would do it. Yes, I see that you expose your newborn children to wild beasts and to birds, and at other times crush them to death. There are some women who drink medicines that extinguish the life of a child while it is still inside their body, and thus murder their own relative before they bring it forth.”

Tertulllian says that for Christians, “Since murder has been once and for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb. …To interfere with a birth is merely an earlier way of killing a person. It doesn’t matter whether you take away a life that has been born, or destroy one that is coming to birth.” (Apology 9:8) Elsewhere he wrote, “We hold that life begins with conception, and that the soul also begins at conception; life has its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does.” (Apology 27)

St. John Chrysostom wrote, “Do you condemn the gifts of God, and fight against His laws? Childlessness is seen as a curse, but you seek it as though it were a blessing. Do you make the chamber of birth a place of slaughter? Do you teach the woman who is formed to give life to perpetuate killing instead?” (Homilies on Romans 24)

St. Basil puts medicines that cause abortion in the same category as other kinds of killing. He writes, “The man or woman is a murderer who gives a potion, if the person that takes it dies from it. So also are they who uses a medicine to procure abortion; and so are those robbers who kill on the highway.”

Matushka further shows how our Orthodox appreciation for pre-natal life has scriptural and festal sources. She quotes the story of the Visitation in the Gospel of Luke, wherein Elizabeth exclaims at Mary’s visit,  “Why do I deserve such honor, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? For when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy.”

Moreover, we celebrate not only the birthdays of Mary, John, and Jesus—September 8, June 24, and December 25, respectively—but also their conceptions—December 9 (a day later than the December 8 celebration for the Latins), September 23, and March 25, respectively. Christians have always been a people of and for life . . . and life more abundant.

Posted by Joseph on Friday, January 27, A.D. 2012
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Monday, January 23, A.D. 2012

The Future of the Church

Today in Washington, D.C., thousands of American citizens will attend the thirty-ninth March for Life. I wish everyone a safe journey to and from the city. Hopefully, it will not rain too much on our parade. If you are interested but not near D.C., EWTN broadcasts the march.

Fitting for the day, I offer you a charming picture that I saw on Interfax:

It is Saint Sergius in Stockholm, a parish of the Moscow Patriarchate in Sweden. Let us hope that more Russkies in the Motherland follow the same path and that the Swedes themselves wake from their nightmare and begin to replenish their nation, as well, instead of emasculating their men, destroying the souls of their voluntarily barren women, and importing the Third World to replace the indigenous population. A revival of Christianity would assure both desired outcomes; such is evident in the former but not in the latter. Let us remember to pray for the lost peoples of the West. In Washington, D.C., at least today, we shall stand against the “culture of death.”

Posted by Joseph on Monday, January 23, A.D. 2012
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Friday, January 20, A.D. 2012

Herchurch

I wish everyone a safe journey who will travel to Washington over the next few days for the March for Life on Monday.

And now for something completely different—Herchurch:

This next video is of higher quality but lacks the tribal authenticity of the first one that really helped me to connect with Gaia:

“Herchurch” used to be Ebenezer Lutheran Church in San Francisco. At some point since Western society lost its mind, this E.L.C.A. congregation morphed into something resembling a neopaganized, leftist, Protestant lesbian’s personal fantasy. The congregation’s web site is really something to behold; it is endlessly quotable. For instance, it teaches us:

DEFINITION OF CRONE: Crone is…the power, passion, and purpose of ancient female wisdom…the crowning triple phase of the ancient Triple Goddess: Maiden/Mother/Crone. Joyous, outrageous, real, and at ease, living from the inside out. The Crone’s title was related to the word crown and she represented the power of the ancient tribal matriarch who made the moral and legal decisions for her subjects and descendants. It was the medieval metamorphosis of the wise woman into the witch that changed the word Crone from a compliment to an insult and established the stereotype of malevolent old womanhood that continues to haunt elder women today.—Barbara Walker, The Crone (Women of Age, Wisdom and Power)

Verily, every other word on the site makes the femoronic bullometer buzz wildly. I learnt a new word—thealogian! And you may even order a “goddess rosary” from the organization’s gift shop. Do not forget to look at the pictures from Megan Rohrer’s “ordination.”

By the way, “Herchurch” is the embraced name of this particular community. It is not a slur by outsiders.

There is an endless stream of snarky commentary that one can make about these folks, but I wish to note only that narcissism, self absorption, self adulation, the obsession with the trivial—these must be natural vices for women. In sane societies, human beings recognize these shortcomings and seek to undermine such tendencies. In our culture, however, we encourage people to embrace the worst parts of their personalities and to celebrate them. And they do so, going so far as to fashion idols of their passions. There thereby worship themselves without realizing it as they dress up their demonic confusion with respectable words dignified by academic journals and conferences. It is nothing short of an abomination. What would Anne Bradstreet think of the lost souls at “Herchurch”?

Posted by Joseph on Friday, January 20, A.D. 2012
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Monday, January 2, A.D. 2012

Church Design Competition

I wish you well in the new civil year. May A.D. 2012 be a good year for you.

The Art Newspaper has a story about the Moscow Patriarchate’s project to solicit architectural and artistic designs for two hundred churches that are to be built in Moscow’s suburbs: “Competition launched to decorate Moscow churches.” At the beginning of the film version of The Return of the King, Treebeard proclaims that the filth of Saruman is washing away (based on a line near the end of The Two Towers: “. . . it will be foul water for a while, until all the filth of Saruman is washed away.”) I think that such is true in Russia, as well. The mire of Soviet theomachy is slowly disappearing. The effects of the revolution remain and will remain for ages. However, the Russian land and its people are slowly healing thanks to God’s mercy.

Posted by Joseph on Monday, January 2, A.D. 2012
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Friday, December 23, A.D. 2011

Nichols on the Orthodox

For Christians who follow the new calendar, I wish you a Merry Christmas this upcoming weekend. Enjoy the feast.

Last week, I came across a sixteen year old short article by Dominican scholar Aidan Nichols on the mutual need of the other by Rome and the Orthodox: “A Catholic View of Orthodoxy.” Having already read some of his works, I knew of and respected Fr. Aidan. He is my kind of papist, meaning that he has a firm grounding in Eastern patristic theology and appears to conceive of religion in ways that make sense to me. He is not the secularized, horizontal, politically focused Latin whom Ivan Fyodorovich’s Grand Inquisitor represents. Rather, the brilliant Dominican is a traditional Christian, though one with intellectual commitments to Rome’s unfortunate ways.

In the article, written shortly after the liberation of Orthodox Europe, Fr. Aidan lists various benefits that engagement and communion with the Orthodox would bring to Rome. He ends by mentioning how submission to the Roman papacy is necessary for the Orthodox. In this, he criticizes the cultural and national connections in Orthodox Christendom. I agree that Roman administrative order might be useful in some ways for the Orthodox. The lack of central direction has obvious disadvantages for resolving certain canonical issues. The decentralized episcopal authority of Orthodoxy, however, has concomitant advantages that can be seen in confederal secular arrangements. Local infections of disorder or confusion might take longer to heal, but they are less likely to spread in the current Orthodox model. In the absence of a supervening external power, provincial problems might linger, but their resolution is more likely to come about organically and slowly in the least disruptive way. Time and concession to facts, not meddlesome prelates from afar, arbitrate where curial bureaucrats are not to be found. Most importantly, convention, which in an ecclesial context is chiefly the apostolic and patristic tradition, rules when men have little authority over other men. The Athenian Stranger in the Laws argues that ancient law once governed the Athenians, but then those Greeks lusted after unbridled freedom and devolved into a society wherein the mob rules. Human will, often a beast of caprice, thus trumped the settled principles of the forefathers. Liberals discount such convention because they notice some aspects to be false or inadequate. What they fail to realize is that the fleeting whims of contemporary powers are much less stable and wise. With respect to the Church, convention is not simply the accumulated wisdom of past ages; rather it is the teaching of Christ, passed down through his apostles and the fathers. It is shameful hubris to trade such direction for the faddish yearnings of an immature and foolish generation that has drowned in the confusion of so many apostate teachers. The Latin response is that their magisterium is like the true philosopher who can see the really real; their pope is the philosopher king who stands above tradition with its necessarily inflexible limitations. I agree that it would be better to live in the Golden Age of the Republic, when men were ruled by gods, but such is not an option. The bishops might be vicars of Christ, but they are not infallible representatives. The Latins are simply wrong. Episcopal synods may err, and it is better to have a Christian people that is aware of such a possibility. It is also preferable that their errors and the subsequent madness that follows are limited in scope. A global episcopal monarchy, as has developed in the Roman Church, multiplies those dangers. We Orthodox are wise to reject the papal deal; the cost is too great for the benefits gained.

Furthermore, I disagree with Fr. Aidan’s criticism of the Orthodox tendency to identify culture and religion. Indeed, I do not understand the frequent complaints of Orthodox phyletism. Where are these heretical phyletists? The examples offered all seem proper to me. Fr. Aidan criticizes the Serbs for a movement that believes that Serbs have suffered collectively for providential reasons. Why may that not be so? Once, before modernism infected the Latins and fragmented their souls, the English believed that their land was a dowry for the Virgin Mother and the French believed that they were the Eldest Daughter of the Church. The Irish held that the Lord used them as a faithful remnant during the dark heathen times. Why are these claims wrong? A cursory reading of scripture or casual review of history shows that God employs men individually and collectively to advance the salvation of men. It is the modern Western soul, fraught with secularism, dualism, and individualism, that no longer understands the whole man and his place in a healthy community. Contemporary Latins often pay lip service to “inculturation,” “engaging the culture,” and “social solidarity,” and yet they criticize the Orthodox when we manifest those traits in unmodern ways that offend their perhaps unconscious “Enlightenment” liberal principles. Then, such Westerners turn from being open engagers of culture to latter day Tertullians who dismiss worldly wisdom and stress that Christians are to be a special people apart from the world.

Posted by Joseph on Friday, December 23, A.D. 2011
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Monday, December 19, A.D. 2011

How to Deal with Heretics

To those on the real old calendar, happy feast of Saint Nicholas!

Saint Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church in Springdale, Arkansas has a brief summary of Nicholas’ life and work. Among the items listed is the famous episode at the Council of Nicea where Nicholas struck Arius for his blasphemy. Marc from Bad Catholic offers some amusing commentary “On the St. Nick Punch.” Though it is in indisputably bad taste, I enjoyed his caption for the painting of Nicholas’ strike: “BOOM! YOU JUST GOT KRIS KRINGLED SON!”

Three years ago when I wished everyone a “Happy Feast of Saint Nicholas,” I mentioned a movie about Nicholas that was due out the following year. Production has evidently stalled; the movie has not yet been released. Maybe the delay is due to funding or to the poor economy. However, Nicholas of Myra should eventually be released.

С праздником!

Posted by Joseph on Monday, December 19, A.D. 2011
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Monday, December 12, A.D. 2011

ROCOR Hosts OCA

This past Saturday, Metropolitan Hilarion and several bishops from the Russian Church Abroad hosted and celebrated with Metropolitan Jonah and bishops from the Orthodox Church in America. The O.C.A. site has several photographs of the liturgy at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign. You may read the story on the O.C.A. page as well as the fire dousing statement on the R.O.C.O.R. site:

ROCOR remains committed to its conservative, traditional positions, and so does the Moscow Patriarchate. Therefore we are not compromising any principles by normalizing relations with the rest of the Orthodox Church.

The Church Abroad was formed for the purpose of uniting the Russian communities outside of Russia, who desired to remain faithful members of the Orthodox Church of Russia, awaiting its revival, and from the beginning also carried on the missionary function of spreading the Orthodox faith among non-Russians, wherever possible. These roles remain unchanged.

I am heartened that the Synod cares enough about its cautious flock to reassure them with such statements. Count me among the wary sheep. However, I am also pleased that our bishops are showing support for the O.C.A. primate in his efforts to maintain orthodoxy and orthopraxis in his jurisdiction, especially when he appears to get so little encouragement from his own synod. What should we expect from an atmosphere where, just years ago, the faithful of the Russian Church Abroad were customarily villified as backward sectarians and schismatics? Verily, verily, we are building bridges and moving on in Christian charity, though I am reminded of Basil Fawlty’s commentary from “The Germans”: “Yes, well, forgive and forget, Major . . . God knows how—the bastards!” Trust will take much time.

Update: The Synod’s site now features a proper news article about the concelebration, which includes many other photographs: “The Primates and Synod Members of the Russian Church Abroad and the Orthodox Church in America Concelebrate for the First Time.”

Posted by Joseph on Monday, December 12, A.D. 2011
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Friday, November 25, A.D. 2011

Outpost

I hope that everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Let us remember to count our many blessings.

George Michalopulos recently linked to a moving documentary, “Форпост,” about the Holy Ascension Monastery in the Ukraine, where the monks have taken on the duties of caring for orphans. A neighboring convent also assists in providing the children with maternal love. It is worth watching even if you do not understand the language; it is still easy to follow:

The Fund for Assistance of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia has a page on how you can help these monastics and their wards, many of whom have disabilities and diseases that further disadvantage them:

A New Jersey resident who wished to remain anonymous designated a gift of $50,000 to a worthy project—support of a remarkable orphanage in a small village of Bancheny, Ukraine, near Chernivtsi. The orphanage is affiliated with the Holy Ascension Monastery and provides care for 220 children, 40 of whom have HIV, 41 are handicapped, and 27 suffer from epilepsy.

90 monks and 65 nuns from the Holy Ascension Monastery and Boyanski Convent take care of the children.

According to Archimandrite Longin (Zhar), abbot of the monastery, and founder and head of the orphanage, the money will be used to buy medication, food, clothes and other daily essentials.

Born near Chernivtsi in 1965, archimandrite Longin (then Mikhail Zhar) founded the orphanage in 1992 after adopting a six-month old AIDS orphan. After becoming tonsured in 1997, he became the abbot of the Holy Ascension male monastery (Moscow Patriarchate).

In 2008 he was named “Hero of Ukraine” by president Victor Yuschenko and received two medals for his work with orphans.

There are many types of recruits for the Lord of Sabaoth.

Posted by Joseph on Friday, November 25, A.D. 2011
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Friday, November 18, A.D. 2011

The Cult of the Saints and the Cato Institute

A few weeks ago, I lost a small screw while helping someone fix his glasses. This screw was tiny even for frames. I accidentally dropped the screw, and then our not so merry crew began to search for the humble hardware. We looked in vain for about twenty minutes, and I was starting to lose hope. I then suggested that we pray to Saint Anthony. I began the prayer, and as soon as I got to the word, “find,” one of the seekers exclaimed, “Found it!” The Lutheran fellow who owned the glasses joked that he should convert to Catholicism.

The episode occasioned thoughts about the cult of the saints. I wondered why Protestants resisted it so strongly. Protestants frequently bring up the “middleman” objection—why not simply pray to God directly? This is a strawman argument, as there has never been a Christian who did not pray to God directly. It then occurred to me that Protestantism—the spiritual side of modernity—is intensely individualistic, and perhaps that individualism is behind the Protestant inability to appreciate the Church Triumphant.

Protestants might ask why God would “assign” saints to assist the faithful. After all, the Lord is omniscient and omnipotent; he does not need an army of prayer listeners in heaven’s call center. However, we might just as well ask why God expects us to walk as children of light. We Christians are God’s invasion force that brings the gospel to the world. God works through us, not because he needs us, but because such is the fulfillment of our purpose and of our nature. We are to be gloves for the divine hands. I do not see why that role would change upon earthly death. If the saints are involved in intercessions and miracles, it is because God allows them to continue to serve their fellow men because that is their nature. God’s economy allows human beings to be his intermediaries; such is his gift to us. It is not an indication of any sort of weakness in God.

For this to make sense, however, one must see mankind corporately. We exist for one another and are accountable to one another. Our destiny is not simply as an individual; the highest thing is not between “me and God,” as one so often hears Protestants proclaim (and note the order of importance shown in the common saying). Rather, human life is social, even in its salvation. The Church teaches that it remains so even in heaven.

Posted by Joseph on Friday, November 18, A.D. 2011
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