Tag: Christianity

Upcoming elections in Mexico, scheduled to take place on June 2, will not be voted on by many residents of Chiapas, the southernmost Mexican state, according to a local bishop.

The dispute for territories between great drug cartels in the region has kept many civilians from leaving their homes. For Bishop Rodrigo Aguilar of San Cristóbal de las Casas, this will prevent people from voting.

“We think that in some regions of the state, which have been impacted by violence, displacement, or are under control of the drug criminals, there are no conditions for the promotion of the elections,” Aguilar said in a video released by the diocese last week.

In his message, he describes the increasingly chaotic scenario in Chiapas, in which many communities have been suffering with extortion, kidnappings, and killings perpetrated by armed gangs, and exhorts the people to vote for candidates who have a platform to transform communities.

“I have been living here over the past six years and for me the current unsafety is unprecedented,” Aguilar told Crux.

His intention was to invite as many people as possible to leave their homes on Jun. 2 and vote, “but many communities said that the situation is impossible for them.”

“Many people fear that the authorities will fail to keep the necessary security on the voting day,” Aguilar added.

According to sociologist Carlos Ogaz, a member of the Friar Bartolomé de las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba), the current wave of violence began in 2021, when cartels began a war for territory in Chiapas.

“That dispute has been greatly impacting civilians since then, with serious human rights violations,” Ogaz said.

It all became worse when such groups got involved in mining endeavors, Aguilar explained.

“That’s a very important geo-strategic region. Major governmental development programs focus on Chiapas,” Ogaz added.

At least 15 licenses for mineral exploitation have been issued by the authorities in that zone over the past years, he said. Drug cartels have control over several of them. Their major interest is to produce zinc, baryta, and copper.

One of these projects, located in the town of Nueva Morelia, was the site of a May 12 massacre that resulted in 11 deaths. According to Aguilar, the victims were peasants of Indigenous origin who were resisting the growing power of the gangs.

“There were two catechists and a permanent deacon in that group of victims. It was a terrible shock for all Catholic communities in the region,” Aguilar said.

The Diocese of San Cristóbal released a new statement on May 17 denouncing the killings and asked for justice.

“Those women and men refused to leave their homes despite violence, threats, and harassment from the criminal groups,” the statement read, adding that their resistance against all signals of death that harm life and human dignity, “the same peaceful resistance that led Jesus to die in the cross”, led those brothers and sisters to die for their people.

The message also recalled two other deaths in Nueva Morelia occurred in January and the several crimes perpetrated against the people of Chiapas over the past few years, demanding action from the State in order to normalize the situation in the region.

A report released by Frayba and other organizations earlier this year demonstrated that at least 10,000 residents of Chiapas had to leave their homes over the past few years due to the violence of the cartels.

The diocese’s document asks the authorities to ensure that all peasants and Indigenous communities can freely go back to their houses.

The full participation of Chiapas’s inhabitants in the upcoming elections would be an important step towards the empowerment of the communities under threat. But the criminal organizations operating in the area apparently decided not to allow such a thing to happen, Aguilar said.

“Last week, a candidate was killed in a local town. That was a sign that they didn’t want her to run for office,” the bishop said.

The government has enough strength to negotiate a ceasefire with the cartels and ensure the elections will take place, Ogaz said.

“But the Armed Forces are accused by the population, for instance, of working side by side with the gangs,” he said.

That’s why, in his opinion, “there are no conditions at this point to promote elections in Chiapas.”

“We’re facing a disastrous situation. Political violence is now in its peak,” Ogaz told Crux.

    

When we find ourselves at an impasse, it always helps to go back to the basics; or when our zeal is at a low ebb, we ought to remember our first love. I’m sure for each one of us that’s different, but for me, the writings of St. John the Theologian

“>St. John the Theologian are one of those landmarks that I go back to and that continues to inspire me. Matthew was a wealthy publican, Luke was a well-educated physician, Paul was a learned Pharisee; but John’s writings stand apart from all of them. Here we have the fulfillment of Paul’s words that God uses the weak and foolish things of this world to confound the high and mighty. The words of this simple unlettered fisherman resound more forcefully and clearly than all the rest.

It was given to the Son of Thunder to make the most memorable proclamations in the whole of Scripture—In the beginning was the Word; the Word was made flesh; God is love. Volumes of theology have been written about each one of those statements, and still their force and meaning has not been exhausted, their depths have not fully been plumbed. When I read the words of the Theologian, I always feel as though I’m looking into an impenetrable abyss. On the one hand, his language is so clear and simple—passages from his Gospel are elementary exercises in the textbooks of biblical Greek. His style is nothing like Paul’s, whose dense sentences can run on for paragraphs at a time. And yet, simple as they are, the words of St. John always seem to hide another layer of meaning. Their full import always eludes the most frequent and careful study, and his teaching stubbornly resists systematization. Because of this, we can sense that these words are not the fruit of great learning and erudition or the product of natural human wit; they are the words of the Spirit, the words of eternal life, and they proceed according to divine logic. Like the rays of the sun, their beauty and their radiance lead our gaze back to their source, but our fallen minds just like our feeble eyes, are not long able to look at the Sun—just long enough to register its brilliance, but never enough to fully take it in.

Of all the writings in the New Testament, St. John’s first epistle is the one that speaks to me the most. Yes, it can be repetitive, and it doesn’t seem to proceed according to any particular rhetorical plan. But it contains the very essence of the Gospel and the life in Christ. And so at the risk of contradicting my earlier comment about systematization, I think St. John’s message in this epistle boils down to these four propositions:

1. God is love.
2. Because He is love, God gave us His Son.
3. When we believe in His Son, we believe in God’s love for us.
4. Because we believe in God’s love for us, we should love Him and one another.

That’s it. That is the whole apostolic preaching in a nutshell. It is so simple, a child can understand it. It’s logic is so compelling, only a fool or a devil would dispute it. And yet it is so simple that we’re often blind to it. Like the sun, we can’t look at it for too long; our mental eyes are weak, clouded by passions, bent down to the earth. We glance briefly, admire the beauty, and then look away. We so easily lose sight of what it most essential. And in so doing, we become irrational. As St. John tells us, Jesus is the Word, the λόγος of God. When our life is not directed towards Him, it becomes ἄλογος, illogical, without reason or purpose.

Let’s talk about those four propositions in more detail. First, “God is love, ἀγάπη—that is, pure, self-sacrificial, self-emptying love. St. Paul gives us its characteristics in his first epistle to the Corinthians: Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth (1 Cor. 13:4-8). So when we hear “God is love,” we should know that we’re not talking about just any kind of love.

Now, there is a trendy set of slogans that gets put in rainbow colors on t-shirts and yard signs. They comprise what you might call the “Secular Progressive Symbol of Faith.” All of them are prefaced by the creedal statement, “In this house, we believe…” One of the articles of this faith is that “Love is love.” It affirms that all human loves are of equal worth and legitimacy, that there is no basis for distinguishing between them. This refusal to acknowledge any criterion of judgment is what the world considers “compassion”. When we consider this idea in light of the holy teaching of St. John, it reveals a real blasphemy. Love is a name of God—we might even say it is the name of God, as it reveals the nature common to all three Persons of the Trinity. And yet the world call any and all forms of human desire, sexual or otherwise, no matter how perverse or depraved, by this same holy name.

It’s worth recalling at this point why St. John is the one to speak so powerfully about love, why He was the beloved disciple, why He was so close to the Lord that He lay on His breast at the Last Supper. Tradition tells us that Jesus loved Him especially because of his exceptional purity. He was still quite young during Christ’s earthly ministry, and unlike many other Apostles, he was unmarried, and remained so until the end of his life. In his Revelation, we find that virgins, they which were not defiled with women (Rv. 14:4), have the special privilege of singing a new song, known to them alone, before the throne of God. Not only were these virgins not defiled with women, but it also says, they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth (Rv. 14:4). It comes as no surprise, then, that the pure, virginal John, the beloved disciple, was himself so full of love for his Lord that he alone among the Apostles followed the Lamb of God to His self-offering on the Cross at Golgotha. Only Christ’s most-pure, ever-virgin Mother was with him there at the foot of the Cross. And so it seems there is a deep connection between love, the Cross, and virginity or purity.

What is this connection? The link between love and the Cross is obvious, and it brings us back to the second proposition I mentioned earlier: “Because He is love, God gave us His Son.” We find this stated most clearly in St. John’s Gospel, when Christ is speaking to Nicodemus by night: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (Jn. 3:16). The verses immediately preceding this show that the Lord is speaking of the Cross in particular: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life (Jn. 3:14-15).

The Cross is the ultimate manifestation of God’s love for us. The Father shows His love by giving us what is most precious to Him, His beloved Son. The Son shows His love for the Father and for us by accepting the Cross and offering Himself upon it. This is love’s most perfect expression. St. Justin Popovich explains this in his commentary on St. John’s epistles: “We have known the love of God through the Savior. Until then, we actually did not know what true love is. Only in the Savior have we realized what true love is—the salvation of man from sin, death, and the devil. Before Him, there were only stories and fairy tales about divine love, but it entered our world for the first time with Him.”¹ When we see the Cross, then, we see a reminder of God’s love, and all that He has done for our salvation.

Of course, we can only have such an understanding of the Cross through faith, by believing on Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior. Otherwise, we will see in the Cross just one more senseless, painful, humiliating death that does nothing to redeem the collective suffering of humanity, that is bereft of saving love. The Cross presents each of us with the same choice that faced the two thieves crucified with Christ. The one found paradise, and the other perdition. But when we dare, like the good thief, to believe that this man nailed to the Cross is in fact the Son of God, we are doing nothing other than to believe in the love of God for us. This is the third proposition contained in St. John’s epistle—that believing in God’s Son means believing in God’s love.

When our hearts perceive ever so slightly the love that the Cross represents, when by faith we understand that Jesus died on the Cross for us, for each one of us in particular, then we cannot help but feel love for our Savior in return, and we instinctively begin to trust in Him with our whole heart. And so the third proposition leads inexorably to the fourth—that if we believe in God’s love, we ought to love Him. Or as St. John puts it, We love him, because he first loved us (1 Jn. 4:19). St. Justin elaborates on this in his commentary: “[Love of Christ] is the only true love; all other loves are true only if they are derived from it and insofar as they are like it. Our love of Christ is the natural answer to Christ’s love of man. Not one single type of love on earth is so completely justified and deserved as our love towards Christ.”²

If our hearts are so naturally moved to love for Christ when we come to understand his love for us, how do we respond, how do we begin to express that love? St. John is ready for us with the answer: Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love on another (1 Jn. 4:11); And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also (1 Jn. 4:21). Love for our brother is the corollary and extension of our love for Christ. Truly, they are one and the same love; one cannot exist in us without the other. St. Justin explains: “In loving Christ God, we love, through Him and for Him, everything in man that is divine, immortal, in the image of Christ, eternal, and theanthropic. We cannot love man with true love if we do not love him for these reasons. Every other love is a pseudo-love, a so-called love, which easily changes into un-love, and into hatred towards man … For there is nothing easier than to loathe man due to his depravity or due to his stench or due to his rottenness.”³

So that brings us to the end of the fourth proposition in St. John’s epistle—if we believe in God’s love, we ought to love Him and one another. If we want to participate in God’s love, manifest fully on the Cross, then we should remember that the Cross formed with two bars—the vertical bar is our love for God, and the horizontal bar is love for man. If we are missing either one, then our love is no longer Christian love.

So we have established the connection between love and Cross. But what about virginity, which we mentioned earlier? Is it only possible to achieve Christian love by living a life of virginity? The history of the Church makes it clear that it’s not impossible to attain this virtue in the married state. But it also indicates that virginity is the easiest way to reach it. Even those great saints who were married often lived in exceptional chastity and abstinence. Why should the virtue of purity or chastity contribute so much to the ultimate Christian virtue of love? Because even the natural attraction that exists between men and women, even when it is not completely dominated by base lust, is still something carnal and imperfect. We call this impassioned state, “being in love.” But it is very far from true Christian love. Even when it is used lawfully, the ardent and often inordinate affection that first attracts a couple to each other must be tempered and give way to a deeper, spiritual bond. For everything carnal inevitably dies away, and when it does, as St. Justin said earlier, what we once mistakenly referred to as ‘love’ will quickly and easily turn into hatred. This reveals its true character.

But those who embrace virginity choose to bypass this state entirely, so that they may fully devote the ardor of their affection to Christ. Freed from the constraints of a spouse, a family, and all of the cares that they entail, those in a state of perfect chastity are free to pursue the love of God. Unencumbered by the particular attachments of family life, they are free to embrace all men equally with their love, which springs naturally from their fervent love of God. This is the ideal that we see exemplified by St. John, the Mother of God, by countless saints, and even by the Lord Himself, who lived on earth in a virginal state. As monastics, this is the ideal we have embraced. Let us keep before our minds and never lose sight of it, lest we fall short of the high calling that we have professed. And so I leave you with these words of the Apostle: Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever (1 Jn. 3:15-17). Amen.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, described the small resilient community of the Holy Family Parish compound in Gaza City as one with “steadfast faith,” amid horrific destruction and constant bombardment following his return from a four-day pastoral visit during Pentecost.

“Despite the everyday issues, I saw a community united, well-organized, concerned about the future. There was suffering and complaints, but there were no words of anger or resentment. This is something which should not be taken for granted. This is something positive. I really appreciated that,” he said in a press conference on May 20.

Their main concern at the moment is for their children and their education, he said, having already lost an academic school year. “Inside the compound there are dozens of children but also all around is full of children. Everything is destroyed and it is very difficult to find one house (intact).”

Some people are managing to live in houses, but the buildings are in “very precarious conditions,” the cardinal said, with garbage everywhere and destroyed infrastructure. Many people have nowhere to go, he highlighted.

It was his first pastoral visit — and the first visit to the Gaza Strip by a high profile Christian leader — since the outbreak of Israel-Hamas war in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel’s southern communities. The attack left 1,200 mostly civilians murdered and 254 people taken captive into Gaza, according to Israel, with over 100 people still held hostage. The subsequent Israeli military campaign into Gaza has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women, according to the Hamas Gaza Ministry of Health.

The patriarch also paid a visit to the Greek Orthodox compound. “There are a lot of questions of what will be after the war,” he said, calling for an end to the war.

The community in the Holy Family compound has formed itself into committees to help arrange for all the tasks that need to be done including cooking, washing, and the use of water and electricity, the patriarch said. He noted that the food situation was not as dire as in the beginning of the war, but that it was still lacking. He visited and blessed a nearby bakery owned by a Christian family that was providing bread for the parish as well as the neighbors when it could.

He said the sound of bombing and firefights were constant and the explosions often shook the ground, and while the people had seemingly gotten used to them after almost eight months of war, it was sometimes difficult for him.

The patriarch, who prior to the war went on regular pastoral visits to Holy Family Parish, said nothing was recognizable as he entered Gaza and described a perilous drive on roads to reach the church.

Though security and entrance into Gaza were coordinated with Israel, the patriarch declined to give any details of the coordination or the security taken for his entrance or exit during his May 15-19 visit.

He said the main purpose of the visit as pastor of the parish was to show his physical support to the Christian community, not only with supplies of food or money.

“I wanted to be with them and meet with all of the families,” he said. “I met a community which was very tired after months of war, and who have lost everything — houses, jobs, with one or two families living in classrooms. The situation is very complicated from a humanitarian point of view.”

Gaza parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli, who was caught in Jerusalem at the outbreak of war, unable to return to his parish for the past eight months, also accompanied the patriarch and remained with his parish. Also in the small delegation was Fra’ Alessandro de Franciscis, Grand Hospitaller of the Sovereign Order of Malta.

Cardinal Pizzaballa said the visit marked the first stage of a joint humanitarian mission of the Latin Patriarchate and the Sovereign Order of Malta — with which they have been in touch with since November — in collaboration with Malteser International and other partners, with the aim to deliver food and medical supplies to the people in Gaza.

The center for supply distribution and the field hospital they are planning to create would be outside the church compound and meant to provide assistance to the entire neighborhood, with whom there are good relations, the patriarch said.

Cardinal Pizzaballa said there are currently some 450 Christians and the 60 severely disabled children from the home of the sisters of the Missionaries of Charity living in the Holy Family Parish compound, while another 150 Christians and 40 Muslim families were in the Greek Orthodox compound. Some 40-50 Christian families are in southern Gaza, in Khan Yunis, and unable to reach the church compounds, he said.

While some Christians have left Gaza — there were originally over 700 sheltering in the Holy Family compound — they have left of their own initiative, said the cardinal.

In addition to the physical needs of the people the patriarch noted that they were in deep need of psychological and emotional treatment as well. A small Caritas clinic outside the compound dispenses what medicines it can, especially for skin diseases — because of lack of hygiene — and chronic diseases, but also told the delegation that the people need a lot of psychological support.
“The physical destruction can be seen, Cardinal Pizzaballa said. “But the emotional impact on the population is enormous.”

The patriarch celebrated the feast of Pentecost with the parish May 19 and administered the sacrament of confirmation to two parishioners. During his homily he emphasized the need of maintaining unity among each other and the crucial role that the priests and sisters in the community have played during the past period.

He also urged the people to keep the flame of hope alive in their hearts and lives alive with the power of the Holy Spirit. He said he had assured them that, as a church, they will not abandon them, and will be among the first to help rebuild Gaza and assist its people in achieving a dignified life.

He reminded them that one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is strength, which should not be confused with power.

“We don’t want power but we want to be strong and I have noticed that you are certainly tired, very tired, but that you are strong,” he said in his homily. “One sign is that during all my discussions with you, I have not heard a single word of anger. This is a sign of strength.”

Protopresbyter Joseph Dzagoev, a priest in the Protection monastery in Magadan, tells about the spiritual life in his city. He talks about well-worn stereotypes, “ordinary” Christian miracles, and how we should never get tired of trusting the Lord.

Trinity Cathedral in Magadan   

The Russian antimension

Before 1989, our city was lacking not only a monastery; we didn’t have a single church. Before the Bolshevik persecutions against religion, there were churches, chapels and veneration crosses at various neighboring villages, on the coast, and in Cossack settlements. It wasn’t till the very end of the twentieth century when the persecution of the Christian faith finally officially stopped, and with the blessing of the Bishop of Khabarovsk, the very first Orthodox community was formed here. The first services were held in a private residence. This is where the Protection Monastery was later founded. Although it’s true that our city never even had a chance to have a church, because it started its life, so to speak, as a local GULAG camp in the early 1930s. That’s why any church was out of the question. We aren’t talking about the times of the Russian Empire, when churches were everywhere, and everyone, including exiles, convicts and other prisoners, always had the opportunity to attend a church service. But on the other hand, even if we didn’t have a physical church, it doesn’t mean that we had no Christians here. We have every reason to call both Mystical SolovkiWe have chosen for this photogallery on the feast of the Synaxis of Solovki Saints a selection from works by photographers and artists featured on the Solovki Monastery’s website.

“>Solovki and Magadan and their surrounding territories an enormous Russian antimension spread under the open sky. How many New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia“>new martyrs and confessors suffered here in very recent times!

One of the most revered local saints is the “We Saw Elders”Fr. Vitaly foretold monasticism for me and my sister forty years before we adopted it.

“>Venerable Confessor Andronik (Lukash), one of the elders of “Everything in Glinsk Exudes Holiness”The Glinsk Hermitage was a provincial monastery at the beginning of the twentieth century, located in a desert wilderness, but its glory extended not only throughout the entire Russian Empire, but even far beyond its borders.”>Glinsk Hermitage, whose relics rest in our Holy Trinity Cathedral. But there are many more saints like him—both those we know, and those known only to God. So, the place you stand is holy ground. I think we should know more about the holiness of this land.

Well-worn stereotypes

—Fr. Joseph, how can we understand the salvific value of sufferings? How do we benefit from them if viewed from the Christian perspective? After all, not everyone who suffered here at Kolyma suffered for Christ’s sake. If we read the works of Varlam Shalamov¹—it gives you jitters and you even can grow despondent.

—I have to say right away that neither I, nor many of the inhabitants of our region, are fans of Varlam Tikhonovich’s literary work. You can’t find a glimpse of light in his writing. Besides, the locals say that not everything that he wrote is truthful. But let’s leave Shalamov in peace, God rest his soul. As for the meaning and nature of suffering, in my opinion, there were prisoners (and there are still some—I have been conducting prison pastoral care since 1998 in our region, so I can talk to the prisoners) who truly suffered for the truth, for Christ’s sake, and for their loyalty to Him. But there were also some (moreover, many) who endured the hardship of imprisonment because, as many of them admit, they have been beneficial to them. They redeem from “other” sins for which they probably haven’t been “officially” convicted. These people tell me: “It’s better that I suffer here and now instead of later, in the afterlife.” I think this speaks of the humility cultivated in them. I used to meet real Christians behind bars, so we shouldn’t suppose that Kolyma is only for hardened thugs. But cultivating suffering—no, I will not do that. Let’s remember the words of the Apostle Peter: But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters (1 Peter 4:15).

But overall I, and the overwhelming majority of residents of Kolyma region, have already gotten quite tired of this reference, the stereotype regarding our land—that Magadan is all about the prisons, camps, tough guys in padded jackets with an inmate number, barbed wire, and so forth. It still works somehow as a gimmick for tourists, but our land has so much more and it can surprise in a good way by bring joy to someone “from the mainland.” Actually, have you noticed that we even say, “from the mainland”, despite the fact that Magadan is actually also a mainland city, while Yakutsk is only 2000 kilometers away from us?

—Aha, right, “just” a mere couple of thousand kilometers—no big deal!

—But it is so beautiful, isn’t it?

The embankment   

—That’s true. The sea knolls, the sea, your сhurches, the embankment, the central streets and museums—it’s a pleasure to walk around!

We don’t live in the dull past, nor do we relish the allure of prison life—we have other things to do, and something and someone to pray about

—So, we don’t live in the dreary past, nor do we relish the allure of prison life—we have other things to do and something and someone to pray about. We have much to do, and that’s good. Because you can’t, after all, rush around the country “seeking greener pastures”. It is better to get comfortable in your own clean, spacious, well stocked and hospitable home. But you’ll obtain this home only when you, and not some “fairy-tale do-gooder,” take care of it yourself. Besides, that “fairy-tale do-gooder” actually does offer support; we receive sizable support from the federal budget. And no, it’s not our thing to sit here whining and waiting for better times, unwilling to lift a finger to make those better times come.

The fruits of a recent sermon and “birth pangs” of the Apostle Paul

But let us return to the idea of the Russian antimension spread under the open sky. It seems to me that the whole of Russia can serve as such antimension, since persecutions happened all over Russia. So many churches and monasteries were destroyed! I think, we, the Christians of today, can’t come even close to Holy Russia of that time.

In the Protection monastery —And in qualitative terms?

—On the one hand, I can dwell on the problems like an old man—where our young generation (including priests) is heading, that they are the victims of the “upbringing” of the 1990s, that the former generations were “warriors, far better than you,”² “unlike the current crop of youth,” and to some extent I would probably be right. On the other hand, as a modern-day priest, I see something joyful happening before my own eyes—I wouldn’t’ say holy, I should be careful here—but examples that speak of a worthy and often miraculous Christian life.

Let’s take our Protection Monastery, for example. As I already said, it was founded around a house of worship with the blessing of Bishop Gabriel of Khabarovsk as far back as 1992. There was a community there already, but they were able to obtain their own building, albeit a small and remote one, only in the 1990s. Vladyka used to visit us here several times a year, and this community grew larger over time. Later the Magadan diocese was formed, so when Vladyka Arkady came here together with the monks, they began to travel all over Kolyma as missionaries, visiting every village and hamlet, baptizing, serving, and having conversations. That’s how the life of the Church has gradually settled here. Much later, our monastery was built, and it currently has four elderly nuns headed by Matushka Nadezhda, the abbess.

—It turns out that everyone has different gifts. One person is man of prayer, another is a master craftsman, and yet another one is an excellent organizer.

To be a follower of Christ was always considered in our fallen world to be a sort of disease—we are not right in the head if we are Christians

—I think the most difficult thing is to have only just begun the spiritual life—considering those “birth pangs” of the Apostle Paul. But later on, there comes a moment of great joy when you see that your community is growing in Christ. Thanks to Bishop Arkady’s labors, we were able to accomplish very much Above all, he succeeded in changing the attitude of the regional and city authorities towards the Church. And not just of the authorities, but also of our local people. Formerly, believers were called “relics of the past” and “pariahs,” despicable and worthless people with “issues,” who were crazy in the head. Now, largely thanks to missionary work, people have realized that first of all, Christ is risen, and secondly, His Resurrection directly affects each and every one of us. Do you choose to languish in the darkness of eternal complaints and death? Wouldn’t it be better to be joyful and work alongside Christ and His disciples? That’s where our choice is. It is, of course, a serious question—to what extent we sinners are worthy disciples of the Lord. But our failures don’t give us the right to forsake God, right? Judging from my own experience, I know how perplexed people were when we witnessed the faith. I remember how in the 1990s, when I was still working at a mining plant (I am a mine foreman by education), there was a lot of theft. And when someone made me an offer to “steal” at work, I replied that I was a Christian and I would not steal. They stared at me and kept looking at me for a long time as if I were insane. However, at any time, to follow Christ was always seen by the fallen world as a disease—we are not right in the head if we are Christians. God willing, may we be that kind of crazy.

Kolyma paradoxes and the miracles of Magadan

Protopresbyter Joseph Dzagoev with the patients of residential care facility —The irony is that the site of the present-day Holy Trinity Cathedral in Magadan formerly housed the 1st administrative office of Dalstroy, the very consortium that brought workers, or rather slaves, to the GULAG. Later on, they decided to build the House of Soviets there, a huge one by local standards, around fourteen stories tall. But they never finished it; the structure cracked and it was impossible to commission it. That unfinished construction site has seen it all: drunken brawls, the stench of beer, teenagers committing suicide… It was horrible. But now it is the site of our magnificent Trinity Cathedral.

—Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our hearts were also transformed?

—That is harder to achieve, of course. Especially now, when the war is going on, and when our boys return after witnessing all that death. What are we to do with them? God willing, some of them will find their way to the church, But what about the rest? After the Great Patriotic War, career military people were sent to work here—straight from active duty in the army, they became the camp guards. They say there was an unheard level of drunkenness here… I don’t know what will happen now. We pray that we can overcome the ordeal that befell our military men and their families.

Yes, and more about the sick. Our monastery is on good and friendly terms with the staff at the psychoneurological residential care facility. Many patients and their staff come to us, and we also visit them. We hold services, we meet and talk to people, comforting them to the best of our abilities. Here is what I want to say: According to information from the residential facility’s staff, the vast majority of their patients (and it’s something like ninety percent!) are the children of drug addicts and alcoholics. And there are about four hundred people residing there! This is the sad part.

“This Auntie taught me to read,” he says and points to the icon of the Mother of God

Now about the miracles so common for Christians. Have you noticed one young man at the service—a kind and caring one, who is smiling and willing to help everyone? This is our Sasha, and he also resides there. He came a long time ago, when the Protection Monastery had just been founded. Well, he sort of came, but he couldn’t say a word—he could only mumble something unintelligibly. Well, he kept mumbling something while we prayed together with him. All churches and communities have such people, so it’s not surprising. But one day we came to the morning service and saw our Sasha standing in front of the icon of the Mother of God, clearly reciting, “Rejoice O Virgin Mother of God.” Not only was he reciting it, but so eloquently that any pious church reader would be jealous! We stood there in amazement. Once he finished praying, we came closer. “Sasha, dearest, how did you learn to read, how do you know the words?” He answered so calmly but matter-of-factly: “This Auntie taught me!” and pointed to the icon of the Mother of God. We could only stand there in silence and continue praying. And that’s what we do! As for Sasha, he continues to come, almost never missing a service. He also helps around the monastery and assists at our meetings in his residential care facility.

    

So, we do have miracles, we can’t do without them. On the one hand, those miracles are truly our great support on our path to God. On the other hand, they give us a wonderful opportunity to pause and think that Christ does not work miracles without reason or purpose—any real miracle has its own meaning, and we always see God’s love in it. We also have to work hard, even if we are spiritual invalids. We can still progress towards Heaven. If we ourselves don’t make an effort, of course there won’t be miracles! So I wish for us all to keeping working. And one more thing: If you ever happen to be in Kolyma, you are cordially invited to visit us!

Is the Supreme Court seeking a judicial middle ground in the abortion wars — a stance that pleases and displeases pro-lifers and pro-choicers alike, although for opposite reasons? If so, two pending cases could provide opportunity for it to move in that direction.

In one, the court is being asked to reverse a decision by the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals approving restrictions on the abortion drug Mifepristone. The controversy originated with a group of pro-life doctors who challenged Food and Drug Administration actions making Mifepristone easier to obtain. The case is Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.

The second case involves an Idaho law barring abortions in hospital emergency rooms except to save the mother’s life. The Justice Department, acting on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services, argues that a federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act overrides Idaho law and requires a permissive approach to abortion. The case is Moyle v. United States — Mike Moyle being speaker of the Idaho House of Representatives — and comes to the Supreme Court on appeal from a ruling against Idaho by the liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

If the Supreme Court does have it in mind to demonstrate some version of impartiality, the Mifepristone case offers a simple way to please the pro-abortion side — hold that the unnamed anti-Mifepristone doctors lack legal standing since they haven’t suffered substantial injury through the drug’s availability. The justices appeared to lean that way during oral argument March 26.

Supposing the Supreme Court goes that route, a ruling based on a technical issue like “standing” would be a win for pro-choicers and a defeat for pro-lifers, though something less than unconditional vindication of Mifepristone.

The central question in the Idaho case is how strongly the Supreme Court will press the state’s rights rationale of its decision two years ago in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. In that ruling the court rejected the idea that there is a constitutional right to abortion and held that individual states can impose restrictions on the procedure.

Moyle v. United States puts that line of reasoning to the test. The Justice Department argues that a federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act overrides Idaho’s law and requires easily accessible emergency room abortions. Idaho calls that a “novel legal theory” floated by Health and Human Services to comply with White House instructions after Dobbs telling federal agencies to promote expanded access to abortion.

Prior to 1973, Idaho argues, states could address the “profound moral issue” of abortion as they saw fit. Then the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade made itself the champion of abortion nationwide. But, the state says, that changed two years ago in Dobbs when the court reversed Roe and affirmed the right of states to enact laws reflecting the “widely divergent views” on abortion that actually exist. “Idaho’s Defense of Life Act is one such law,” the state concludes.

Among many friend of the court briefs filed with the Supreme Court in Moyle is one by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, joined by several Catholic health care groups. After analyzing the federal law used by the government to attack Idaho’s law, the USCCB brief concludes that to claim the statute supports abortion contradicts its “unambiguous text and intent” to the contrary.

The court heard oral arguments in Moyle v. United States April 24. Decisions in both these cases are expected before the court’s term ends in June. 

Bucharest, May 21, 2024

Venerable Nifon and Nectaria, founders of Prodromou Skete     

Two more Romanian Athonite monks have been proposed for canonization.

The Synod of the Metropolis of Muntenia and Dobruja met yesterday at the Patriarchal residence in Bucharest. During its session, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel announced that the founders of the Athonite Prodromou Skete, Venerable Nifon and Nectarie, have been proposed for formal canonization, reports the Basilica News Agency.

As Mt. Athos is under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Romanian Church is asking Constantinople to canonize the ascetic laborers.

The same proposal was already made for Elder Dionisie (Ignat)Dionisie (Ignat), Elder

“>Elder Dionisie (Ignat) and Relics of future saint Elder Petroniu (Tănase) exhumed on Mt. AthosFr. Petroniu, who spent the last 33 years of his life on Mt. Athos, and the last 25 as abbot of Prodromu until his repose on February 22, 2011, has been proposed for canonization by the Romanian Metropolis of Muntenia and Dobrogei.”>Elder (Petroniu Tănase), Romanian Athonite elders of the 20th century, 20th-century Romanian Athonites and 18th-century hierarch proposed for canonizationThe Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church Metropolis of Muntenia and Dobrogei has discussed the proposed canonizations of a number of saints lately.”>in 2022.

The Synod approved the liturgical texts that will accompany the canonization proposal for Venerable Nectarie the Protopsaltis, whom Pat. Daniel described as “one of the greatest Romanian hesychasts who lived on Holy Mount Athos.” He is known as the “Nightingale of Mt. Athos,” due to his beautiful singing voice, the Patriarch also noted.

The liturgical texts for Venerable Nifon will be discussed at a later date.

Venerable Nifon and Nectarie, monks of Horaiţa Monastery in Moldvaia, purchased the Prodromou cell from Greek monks in 1851. In 1856, Patriarch Cyril VII of Constantinople approved the establishment of the Romanian skete.

Romanian diocese proposes 18th-century abbot for canonizationThe Synod of the Metropolis of Oltenia of the Romanian Orthodox Church held a session on Bright Tuesday, May 7, during which it proposed a new monastic saint for canonization.

“>Last week, the Synod of the Metropolis of Oltenia of the Romanian Church proposed the canonization of Venerable Ioan, the first abbot of Hurezi Monastery, founded in 1690 by St. Constantine Brâncoveanu, the Prince of Wallachia between 1688 and 1714.

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On June 1, Archbishop José H. Gomez will ordain 11 new priests for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

In the days leading up to their ordination, we’ll be introducing a new soon-to-be Father. Los Angeles, meet your new priests!

Age: 33

Hometown: Bocas, San Luis Potosí, Mexico

Home parish: St. Mariana de Paredes Church, Pico Rivera

Parish assignment: Mission Basilica San Buenaventura, Ventura

Growing up in the small town of Bocas, Mexico, there were few parts of Eduardo Pruneda’s upbringing that didn’t yell “cradle Catholic.” 

His family — especially his Mom’s side — were devout churchgoers. His aunts were catechists. Priests could often be found having dinner at his grandparents’ home. Pruneda himself was an altar server from a young age, and before that, acted as priest when playing Mass at home with his three brothers. 

The cultural Catholicism found in Bocas left its mark on Pruneda, the third of four brothers.

“As a Mexican family, we had those little traditions and devotions that helped me to get stronger in my faith growing up,” said Pruneda. 

For as early as he can remember, Pruneda felt an “attraction” to the priesthood. He felt especially drawn to the “superpower” he sensed while watching the priest celebrate the Eucharist, “knowing that he had something that I didn’t have.”

Soon, the adolescent Pruneda became insistent with his parents: he wanted to enter the seminary. 

“I always knew it,” Pruneda said about his vocation. He just didn’t know where that calling would take him. 

Pruneda first entered minor seminary in Mexico while in high school, before continuing in Mexico City. A few years later, while taking a year off to visit the U.S. and learn English, he came into contact with the Van-Clar missionaries at St. Rose of Lima in Maywood, a lay missionary group with the spirituality of the Poor Clare sisters. 

Eventually, Pruneda accepted an invitation to join the group on a mission trip to the African country of Sierra Leone. The experience shook him up. 

“It was a very hard experience in the beginning,” said Pruneda. “I was thinking, I have the tools, I’ve been in formation for a couple years, I come to evangelize and things like that. But then it becomes nothing when you see the reality of the people.”

Pruneda’s group spent a lot of time helping at a school run by nuns but attended by more Muslim children than Catholics. For many, their only meal of the day was the one they received at school. 

But the experience also gave Pruneda hope, seeing the zealous spirit of the sisters and the generosity of children with no material possessions sharing the little they had. 

“That gave me a lot of strength to continue my vocation,” said Pruneda.  

Returning to Mexico, his plans to resume formation there were scrambled. Despite reservations about the thought of becoming a priest in the U.S., he was convinced to apply for formation in Los Angeles. There, his studies took him from Juan Diego House in Gardena to St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, with a parish internship year at St. Anthony of Padua in Gardena. 

During these years apart from his family, Pruneda is grateful for the spiritual “moms” in LA who’ve kept him fed, the “dads” who’ve kept him in line, and the “brothers” in seminary who’ve kept him company. 

“The Lord has provided a family for me,” he believes. 

Having been born on Nov. 1, the feast day of All Saints, Pruneda has also leaned on several intercessors for prayers during times of struggle and doubt. Two of them aren’t even saints yet: Blessed Miguel Pro, a young Jesuit martyred during the Cristero War; and Blessed María Inés Teresa of the Blessed Sacrament, founder of the Van-Clar missionaries. 

“When I see her, I feel like I’m at home,” he said. “I see her as a spiritual mother.”

Pruneda said he’s particularly excited to serve as a priest in a place with people of so many different backgrounds — quite different from his hometown of 2,000 people.

“I hope that people feel that we are a multicultural archdiocese, but at the same time just one Church,” said Pruneda. “I knew that here is the place where the Lord wants me to serve.”

Staraya Stanitsa, Rostov Province, Russia, May 21, 2024

Photo: diaconia.ru     

A new Church center for assistance families with children with disabilities opened in the Rostov Province within the Shakhty Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church on Friday, May 17.

There Berega center is located at the Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Staraya Stanitsa, part of the diocese’s City of Angels social project, reports Patriarchia.ru.

The center has already accepted the first 10 families with children for rehabilitation, including five families from Donbass.

Photo: diaconia.ru     

The Shakhty Diocese already has years of experience helping families with children with disabilities, and now it has opened its new center “which provides facilities for classes, doctors, other specialists and the round-the-clock stay of a mother with a child.”

Experienced specialists will offer families medical, psychological, and spiritual help at the center through an individualized rehab program developed for each child.

All assistance is provided free of charge.

Today, there are more than 400 Orthodox organizations in Russia that help and children and adults with disabilities.

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In the 1920s, anti-Catholic government officials in Mexico instituted and enforced laws against the Church, in an attempt to eradicate the faith throughout the company. The government banned all foreign clergy members, and forbid the celebration of Mass in some areas.

St. Christopher Magallanes, 21 other priests, and three lay companions were martyred between 1915 and 1937. The government targeted them for their involvement in the Cristero movement, an uprising committed to defending and restoring the Catholic faith. Their motto was “Long live Christ the King and the Virgin of Guadalupe!”

Christopher built a seminary in Totatiche, where he and his companions secretly preached and ministered to local Catholics. Christopher’s last words after he was imprisoned are recorded as: “I am innocent and I die innocent. I forgive with all my heart those responsible for my death, and I ask God that the shedding of my blood serve the peace of our divided Mexico.”

St. Pope John Paul II beatified the Cristero martyrs in 1992, and canonized them in 2000.

Behind every great artist is the person who does all the actual work. For instance, no pop star born outside Liverpool has ever written their own songs. Dostoyevsky used to compose his novels by pacing the floor and dictating to his wife, who would transcribe and shape his rants into a narrative that would pay off his gambling debts. Even I, literary wunderkind, rely on an editor to hack my paragraphs into something resembling coherent thoughts.  

“The Fall Guy” (now in theaters, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt) is not about ghostwriters, but another profession in the category of unsung heroes: stuntmen.

The modern stuntman is what happens when someone in a film studio’s accounting department runs the numbers and realizes it will cost them more money than they’ll save if the lead dies. So instead, they hire someone of his/her approximate height and build to perform those life-threatening stunts. It is deliberately a thankless position; any recognition means you didn’t do the job right.

Director David Leitch, who began his career as a stuntman for the likes of Brad Pitt and Jean-Claude Van Damme, clearly relishes the chance to champion those men and women whose faces are always just a frame off camera. That he also gets to settle some scores with the actors they replace is just a bonus.

Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is the stuntman for movie star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), whom he thankfully resembles in looks only. After Colt injures himself in a stunt gone wrong, he retreats from both stunt work and Jody (Emily Blunt), a camerawoman he started dating during the production. A year later and slightly less sorry for himself, producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) approaches Colt with an offer from Jody to work on “Metalstorm,” her directorial debut being filmed in Australia.

The offer turns out to be a ruse intended to use Colt both to stand in for Ryder, who has gone missing during filming after crossing paths with some Aussie drug dealers, and help track him down. To make things worse, Gosling’s character has crossed the Pacific only to find that Jody did not ask for him, and certainly hasn’t forgiven his ghosting.

This is a rather hectic plot, with Colt having to simultaneously solve the mystery, save “Metalstorm,” patch things up with Jody, while also delivering a nifty stunt every 15 minutes or so. Yet eventually the table setting begins to feel like plate spinning, distraction for the sake of spectacle.

That is the tug-of-war at the heart of every blockbuster; we pay our 20 dollars and demand to see some return on investment, yet if all we receive is empty calories (beyond just the popcorn), then we feel our souls growl and grumble as we exit the theater. “The Fall Guy” is at its best in those breathing moments between set pieces, when it’s too exhausted to be anything except human.

This is a movie quite literally built around stunt work, but its romantic plotline proves more interesting. Stunts are inherently deterministic; they even follow a track. A stunt is a promise sold, the thrill coming from how that promise is kept. The motorcycle that tries to cross Snake River Canyon is going over regardless — the landing part is the variable.

But human beings are forever surprising, especially when the matter at hand is a simple one. Boy meets girl should be a shorter and straighter journey than Burbank to Glendale, yet it’s remarkable how frequently we get lost. I am reminded of Walker Percy’s observation that despite all the quasars and nebulas, humanity remains the oddest phenomenon in the universe.

The chemistry of the two stars certainly contributes. “The Fall Guy” frames itself as an ode to practical effects, but it is also an ode to traditional Hollywood stardom. Gosling these days has stopped straining for greatness and accepted his likability, which is a far rarer commodity these days. 

Any hack can fake a limp to an Oscar, how many could cry to Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” and make you believe it? Blunt could have chemistry with a broom wearing a hat, so lining up across a reciprocal talent like Gosling infinitely eases her burden. You believe her when she barks orders into a megaphone and when she mourns Phil Collins into a karaoke mic.

The best scene in the movie is when Jody screeches her own movie to a halt, setting Colt on fire for take after take as she works through her frustration toward him. There is no promise to be fulfilled here, because there’s no simple track to a woman’s forgiveness. (If there were, the last 15 years of my life would have been far less adventurous.) Evel Knievel’s problem is simple: you either cross Snake River Canyon or you don’t. It’s far more difficult to solve a woman’s problems when the problem is you. Sometimes we, like poor Colt, would rather jump a thousand canyons.

“The Fall Guy” is ultimately a movie at odds with itself. The film is disdainful of actors, portraying them as vapid drug addicts too cowardly for real risk but wanting all the credit. Yet the movie depends on its own stars, demonstrating their value almost against its will.

The movie adores its stunts, each shot with a clear affection to the craft and crafters behind them. Yet as anyone who has attended a Latin Mass will tell you, benediction isn’t always a roller coaster ride. So here I am, left with one final contradiction: Despite all my reservations, why do I want to see it again?