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The following was posted at:
Yahoo! Groups - typikon Messages -Message 6896 of 6915
From: "Dememtri Pliatsikas" <orthodoxanalysis@e...>
Date: Tue Aug 6, 2002 10:13 am
Subject: Fw: Ravenna: A Great Scandal with unforseen consequences for the Unity of the Church: Patriarch communes Papists
Dear Friends,
I feel it my duty to bring the following to your attention.
This article by Archimandrite George of Grigoriou, a most respected Abbot of
Mount Athos, describes the sad and scandulous events which took place in Ravenna in June of this year, when the Ecumenical Patriarch imparted Holy
Communion to Roman Catholics. Many outside of Greece are unaware of this, but
slowly it is becoming known through articles such as the following. This translation now makes his assessment and critique available to the English
speaking public.
As Archimandrite George says, it is essential that we re-double your prayers
for the unity of the Church, for this may have most grave consequences and be a
threat to the peace and unity of the Orthodox Church. The whole Body of the
Church, clergy and faithful, are responsible before God for the safe-guarding
and preservation of the purity of the Holy Orthodox Faith. However, all those
in a position of responsibility and possessing knowledge of the tenets of the
Orthodox Faith are called upon to carry this out to an even greater extent. I
think I speak for many laymen when I say that we NEED TO SEE and HEAR a response to these and other innovations and deviations from those in
responsible positions. Please keep the scandalized faithful in your prayers and
in mind when considering what actions you may take on behalf of the truth and
toward the protection of the unity of the Orthodox Church.
Sincerely,
Demetri Pliatsikas
P.S. For the Greek text, go to www.orthodoxnet.gr
The Immaculate Mysteries Were imparted to Papists?
A Great Scandal with Unforeseen Consequences
By Archimandrite George, Abbot of the
Holy Monastery of Grigoriou, Mount Athos
Recently, while in Athens, I was asked a host of questions by scandalized
Christians, who, as they told me, saw the Oecumenical Patriarch and the
Archbishop of Albania give the Immaculate Mysteries to Roman Catholics during
the Divine Liturgy, which took place in Ravenna. Others also informed me that a
well-known journalist with new-age leanings praised the event.
I want to believe that both the Oecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as well as
the Archbishop of Athens Anastasios did not realize that those approaching for
communion were heterodox. The deacon, who was standing beside His All-holiness
and Beatitude, should have informed them that those approaching were heterodox,
if, of course, he understood the fact from the un-orthodox way in which they
made the sign of the cross. Or, to be most certain, he should have asked those
approaching if they were Orthodox.
Because the shock and scandal is great, with unforeseeable consequences for the
unity of our Holy Orthodox Church, we think it an urgent need for there to be
responsible and official statements that the above happened inadvertently and
by mistake and that there will be no such further incidents.
I know from eyewitnesses that His All-holiness never imparts Holy Communion to
heterodox and further that it is a principle of the Great Church for there not
be sacramental intercommunion with the heterodox before dogmatic agreement and
unity in the Orthodox Faith
However, since the heterodox exploit pseudo-unions under-handedly and de facto,
I believe that the concern and unrest of the faithful members of the Church is
totally justified.
Apart from this, the heterodox seek after such displays both for the sake of
scandalizing the Orthodox as well as toward the advancement of inner-Church
schisms and the disintegration of Orthodoxy. The more we are divided amongst
ourselves, so much the easier is it for them to devour us.
Let us take care, both Shepherds and flock, not to fall into the traps of those
who conspire against our Holy Orthodox Faith.
For what reason is there, then, I wonder, to transgress the sacred Canons,
those underpinnings of our Orthodox Church – those, indeed, which not only
forbid sacramental communion but also common prayer with the heterodox?
In examining not only the “what” of the holy Canons in question (i.e. what they
say concerning the matter at hand) but also the “why” (i.e. their theological
and pastoral presuppositions and extensions), we discover that these holy
Canons were instituted in the application and safeguarding of Orthodox
Ecclesiology, according to which only the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic
Church of the Symbol of Faith, namely our Orthodox Church, has the fullness of
Truth and of Grace and thus constitutes the only sure path of salvation,
possesses genuine and valid Mysteries and true apostolic succession. And
furthermore, that is it not possible for truth and delusion, Orthodoxy and
heresy, to exist together.
If, during the dialogues of the past and present the Pope and other heterodox
leaders of “Churches” were addressed as “his all-holiness” or “his-beatitude”
this happened and happens according to oikonomia in the hope that perhaps it
would facilitate their return to Orthodoxy. It is never proper, however, for
such ecclesiastical compliments to happen according to akribeia, as if they
have not lost the integrity of Orthodox Faith and as if they constitute a
different but nonetheless legitimate expression of the Apostolic Faith.
The spirit of this age, a spirit of syncretism, is attempting to lure even our
Orthodox Church into dogmatic and religious pluralism – that which through
heresy devastated the communities of the heterodox Christians of Europe.
The contemporary world and contemporary man has need of our man-befriending and
ageless evangelical and apostolic Orthodoxy. It is a great temptation for our
Church to adopt the spirit and the criteria of contemporary secularized man, so
that we may become agreeable and acceptable to him. Yet such friendship with
the world is enmity with God, according to the words of the apostle (James 4:
4).
Let us not bury the treasure; if we do, we will be judged as the evil servant
of the Gospel passage.
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