Tag: Christianity

Catholics who worship at parishes in Baltimore City have the opportunity to weigh in on the proposal for Seek the City, the archdiocesan process underway for nearly two years to change the footprint of physical locations in the city while emphasizing a Eucharistic vision and a renewed vision for the city church in Baltimore.

Geri Royale Byrd, director of the Seek the City to Come process, said the team and consultants are still listening, still taking feedback. “Seek the City to Come” is based on Heb 13:14: “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come.”

The Archdiocese of Baltimore follows other dioceses around the country that have looked at the number of parish sites in light of changing demographics, and the human and capital resources to continue ministering effectively.

Priests from the 61 parishes at 59 worship sites in the study area — all of Baltimore City and some close-in parishes in Baltimore County — were briefed on the latest proposal April 9, moving the process from the draft stage to a time for recommendations to Archbishop William E. Lori.

Seek the City organizers have pointed out that there are far more seats available in the pews in the city than people attending Mass, and there are more funerals than baptisms. “It’s getting progressively harder to do more with less,” and still be realistic, Byrd said.

The latest iteration envisions 21 parishes at 26 worship sites.

Pastors were to present the proposed map to their parishioners the weekend of April 13-14, with a special attention to explaining the impact of the proposal on their specific location.

The most important opportunities for parishioners and the general public to provide feedback will come in four upcoming open, prayerful public sessions in late April, including one in Spanish. A teleconference option will be available for those who cannot attend in person. Comments also can be submitted to [email protected].

“Archbishop Lori will reflect on all the feedback that is received, and consult with the archdiocesan leadership before releasing the final recommendations in June,” Byrd told the Catholic Review, Baltimore’s archdiocesan news outlet. The consultative bodies include the auxiliary bishops, the priests’ council, the college of consultors, the Board of Financial Administration and the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council.

The final plan will be released in mid-June.

“The biggest question as we look at the proposal is to say, does the model move us toward our Eucharistic vision? Does it get us closer?” Byrd said. “Every recommendation, every suggestion, all feedback will be considered, but not all will be incorporated.”

The proposal “is a product of consolidated synthesized information from parishioners, leaders, priests, Catholic Center personnel and our consultants at Ayers Saint Gross,” she said.

Since the process began in the fall of 2022, thousands of people have provided input at parish site visitations and a number of open prayerful meetings — through first a listening phase, moving to vision and then discernment. In March, four sites hosted prayer services for a Lenten pilgrimage. Byrd said there is a strong focus on input from the ground up.

With the goal of moving toward viability and vitality of ministry and service in the city, the process was aided by data, but not exclusively. “This mission has utilized data, but it is not a data-driven process. You’re talking about going from maintenance to mission,” Byrd said.

The proposal envisions newly formed parishes created by the mergers of existing parishes, so on the proposal, the parishes do not have names, but geographic designations, such as “Bayview” or “West Baltimore Parish.”

Two personal parishes have been designated, without territorial boundaries: St. Alphonsus Liguori, where the traditional Latin Mass is offered, entrusted to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter; and St. Ignatius, staffed by the Jesuits, providing a number of ministries based out of the church, Including a school for young children.

The new parishes generally utilize one of three models, or a hybrid:

— The “mosaic parish,” a medium or large campus as a “one-stop shop” for parish and community needs. The model should have at least 700 individual attendees at Mass each weekend and at least 50 baptisms or converts each year, among other metrics. It might require a new campus, rather than adapting a current site.

— The “radiating parish,” which reaches out to the broader Catholic community through a series of affiliated ministry sites. The model envisions at least 500 individual attendees at Mass each weekend and at least 35 baptisms or converts each year.

— The “Catholic commons,” which would be based in a community center that can provide different ministries, be a meeting place for the community and provide Mass, likely in a nontraditional facility.

No pastors or personnel have been assigned to any of the draft parish configurations, Byrd said. Final parish boundaries have not been discussed.

The implementation process, which will begin after the plan is finalized in June, will last six to 12 months or more, depending on the needs of the parish and its people. Along the way, support will be provided by staff from human resources, finance, real estate, clergy personnel and Institute for Evangelization teams from the Catholic Center to assist and accompany current employees and parish leaders.

The mergers also may require new or modified facilities, Byrd said, noting that a merged parish may eventually decide to close and sell locations that will not be used for worship or other ministries.

“All operating Catholic schools on campuses included in the proposal and even after final decisions are made, will remain open. Schools are not part of this process, and no schools will be affected,” she said.

A parish not designated as a worship site will not celebrate weekly or daily Mass, but will remain available for baptisms, weddings or funerals, until further decisions are made, she said.
“That’s something that is going to be part of that collaborative effort, obviously with the pastor and those parishioners,” Byrd said.

Deacon Steve Sarnecki, who was recently assigned to the Catholic Community of South Baltimore, said March 22 he hopes “we can be Catholic in this archdiocese, not just parochial.”

“As parishes merge, they need to come together. Identity is part of that,” he said, noting that it would be good for all the newly merged parish entities to take on new names to even the playing field for all the parishioners. “Everyone will sacrifice … to reconstitute and rejuvenate the community.”

At the March 12 draft modeling session, Danise Jones-Dorsey, a member of St. Gregory the Great Parish in West Baltimore, said she thinks people understand the need for changes in the structure of the parishes in the city. “This is a bottom-up approach. No matter what the final decision, we Catholics in the pews own this. I absolutely believe our voice has been heard,” Jones-Dorsey said.

Tallinn, April 17, 2024

St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Tallinn. Photo: i-sng.ru     

The Estonian Minister of the Interior wants the state to recognize the Moscow Patriarchate as a terrorist organization and therefore ban the Estonian Orthodox Church—an autonomous body within the Patriarchate.

Minister Lauri Läänemets stated on live TV last week that he intends to petition the Riigikogu—Estonian Parliament—to make the relevant decision, reports postimees.ee.

The Estonian Church has responded, and a top Russian Church representative characterized the Minister’s statement as a “witch hunt.”

The Minister’s statement came a week after Ahti Kallikorm, a member of the Isamaa (Fatherland) Party, stated that if the primate of the Estonian Church, His Eminence Metropolitan Evgeny of Tallinn, was deemed a threat to national security and Metropolitan Evgeny forced to leave EstoniaHis Eminence Metropolitan Evgeny of Tallinn and All Estonia was forced to leave the country today after the authorities refused to renew his residence permit.

“>forced to leave the country, then the state should also break its 50-year leases allowing the Church to use 15 church buildings and transfer these properties to Constantinople’s jurisdiction in Estonia.

The Estonian state has been closely monitoring the Estonian Church since the war began in Ukraine, and in Metropolitan of Estonia distances himself from Patriarch’s homily about forgiveness of sins for soldiersHis Eminence Metropolitan Evgeny of Tallinn and All Estonia also reminds of the several calls for peace that have already come from the EOC Synod and hierarchs and of all the humanitarian work undertaken by EOC churches and parishioners to help Ukrainian refugees.

“>October 2022, Met. Evgeny issued a statement, in response to a call from the government, formally distancing himself from Patriarch Kirill’s homily in September of that year in which the Russian primate stated that those who die fulfilling their military duty receive forgiveness of sins for this sacrifice.

Both Estonian politicians now point to the recent statement from the World Russian People’s Council (WRPC), which discusses the war in Ukraine and the concept of the “Russian World” (meaning bearers of Russian culture living both inside Russia and abroad), as their major cause of concern. Minister Läänemets refers to it as a statement “by the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church,” while Kallikorm refers to it as a speech of Patriarch Kirill.

The World Russian People’s Council

According to the WRPC’s charter, its chairman is always the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, and it counts a number of hierarchs and other clergy as members. And while the resulting document from the March 27 session was published on the site of the Russian Orthodox Church, the WRPC is a public forum, not an organ of the Russian Church.

Its meetings are traditionally attended by government representatives, leaders of public associations, the highest clergy of Russia’s traditional religions (Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism), military leaders, representatives of law enforcement agencies, teachers and students from the country’s largest educational institutions, academics, and cultural figures, delegates from abroad, and numerous youth representatives.

Thus, the WRPC document is neither a statement of a Church Council, nor of the Patriarch personally, but of a public forum that includes top ecclesiastical figures.

The WRPC document

The document resulting from the extraordinary congress is described on patriarchia.ru as “a directive addressed to the legislative and executive authorities of Russia,” summarizing the most significant proposals put forward during the Congress.

Among other topics, the document addresses the war in Ukraine, and the “Russian World.”

War in Ukraine

The document states: “The special military operation is a new stage in the national liberation struggle of the Russian people against the criminal Kiev regime and the collective West behind it, which has been waged in the lands of Southwestern Rus’ since 2014.”

The Russian people are defending their “lives, freedom, statehood, civilizational, religious, national and cultural identity, as well as the right to live on their own land within the borders of a single Russian state,” the document continues.

And according to the Council, the war in Ukraine is, from a spiritual and moral point of view, a “holy war,” with Russia “defending the unified spiritual space of Holy Rus’.”

Russia and its people are therefore “fulfilling the mission of ‘restraining,’” the Council writes, referring to 2 Thess. 2:7 (For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way), which is traditionally interpreted as the Roman empire/emperor, which continued with the Orthodox Russian Empire and the tsar.

Russia is “protecting the world from the onslaught of globalism and the victory of the West, which has fallen into Satanism.”

This section of the document concludes:

After its completion, the entire territory of modern Ukraine should enter the zone of exclusive influence of Russia. The possibility of the existence of a Russophobic political regime hostile to Russia and its people in this territory, as well as a political regime controlled from an external center hostile to Russia, should be completely excluded.

The “Russian World”

The document then covers the concept of the “Russian World,” saying “the borders of the Russian world as a spiritual and cultural-civilizational phenomenon” are much broader than those of Russia itself, but includes anyone around the world who values Russian tradition, culture, and sacred objects as “the highest value and meaning of life.”

Further:

The supreme meaning of the existence of Russia and the Russian World created by it—their spiritual mission—is to be a worldwide “restrainer,” protecting the world from evil. The historical mission is to repeatedly bring down attempts to establish universal hegemony in the world—attempts to subjugate humanity to a single evil principle.

The unity, including spiritual, of the Russian people is a key condition for the survival and development of Russia and the Russian World, the document affirms. And the family is the foundation of the Russian World.

Ahti Kallikorm argues that the Estonian Church should be deprived of its churches because, according to him, it has been silent since the WRPC document was published, and “Silence, as you know, is a sign of consent.”

Estonian Orthodox Church’s response

However, several days before the comments from Kallikorm, the chancellery of the Estonian Church had issued a statement clarifying that Met. Evgeny has not participated in the activities of the WRPC for more than six years now.

Further, on April 2, the Holy Synod of the Estonian Orthodox Church issued a statement emphasizing that the WRPC is “a non-governmental association of another state, whose decisions, despite the participation of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, are in no way connected with the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.”

The Synod recalls that according to the tomos it received from Patriarch St. Tikhon in 1920, the Estonian Orthodox Church is independent “in economic, administrative, educational, and social matters concerning the Church.”

Further, the Estonian hierarchs do not recognize the WRPC document “because it does not correspond, in our opinion, to the spirit of the teaching of the Gospel.” They continue:

The idea of the “Russian World” (Russky Mir) has become a substitute for the teaching of the Gospel, and as Christians, we cannot accept it. The Church is called to preach peace and unity in Christ. This is the message we hear in our churches every day. Thanks to this, people of different nationalities, different views and beliefs can participate in the service and find spiritual support and comfort.

The Estonian Church issued another statement a week later, entitled, “The Position of the EOC-MP in the Crisis Situation Between the Church and State,” emphasizing that the parishioners of the Estonian Church, coming from various countries and backgrounds, are all residents of Estonia who are constitutionally guaranteed “freedom of religion, conscience, and thought.”

And though historically and canonically connected to the Moscow Patriarchate, the Estonian Church “cannot and does not bear responsibility for the words of the Patriarch…

“Patriarchs change, but the canonical ties remain. People in the Church can make mistakes. But it’s not possible to change your Church affiliation with every human mistake.”

And concerning calls to separate from the Moscow Patriarchate, the Estonian Church responds that as an autonomous Church, it does not have the authority to change its status (according to the statutes of the Moscow Patriarchate, only a Local Council, involving all hierarchs, as well as clerical, monastic, and lay representatives, can change the status of a Church within the Patriarchate).

Further, “the ROC hasn’t accepted anything at the Church level that would force us to sever our canonical connection with it… the WRPC is not a Church structure, and moreover, the document adopted there cannot serve as a basis for severing any Church ties.”

Praying for the Patriarch means entreating God to enlighten him to act in accordance with truth, the EOC statement reads. “Prayer is not understood as an endorsement of a person’s actions.”

Regarding calls to merge with Constantinople’s jurisdiction in Estonia, the Church recalls that after Constantinople established a parallel jurisdiction in the early 90s, a compromise was reached for the sake of peace whereby parishes could decide which jurisdiction to adhere to. Thus, forcing parishes to change jurisdiction would represent a violation of their right to freedom of religion, conscience, and beliefs.

And regarding accusations that the Estonian Church creates security threats, the statement emphasizes that although the Church leadership and clergy understand themselves as part of Estonian society and “do not call for any kind of confrontation … We are faced with the exact opposite, primarily through the media, but also when communicating with government officials.”

The statement concludes:

By opposing a particular Church, the state opposes a certain part of its residents and citizens, against their religious freedom. Is inciting hatred against us justified? We do not feel that we have given a reason for this. Isn’t that what increases the security risk?

Response from a top Russian Church representative

A response was also offered by Vladimir Legoida, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Synodal Department for Relations with Society and the Media, saying the Estonian Interior Minister’s call to label the MP as a terrorist organization “returns the dark days of religious wars, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, and witch hunts to Estonia.”

“It’s obvious to any sane person that the Moscow Patriarchate is not engaged in terrorist activities … The Estonian Orthodox Church … is certainly a law-abiding organization.”

He concludes:

This statement is simply a theater of the absurd in which Estonian politicians play roles, probably trying to garner sympathy from the owner of this institution. Fighting the Russian Church and Russian culture has become a kind of mental narcotic that they try to feed to the Estonian voter so that he forgets about real problems.

The Church and the faith are called to build bridges between societies and peoples in the most difficult times. And it’s not the fault of Church people that politicians are destroying these bridges.

The WRPC document has also received a negative response from the Department of External Church Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Eminence Metropolitan Innokenty of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Diocese of Vilnius (Lithuania), and the Archdiocesan Council of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Archdiocese of Orthodox Churches of the Russian Tradition in Western Europe.

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Photo: Valaam.ru     

This is a long service, which happens only once a year. During it, the entire The Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete. Thursday of the First WeekI fall prostrate before Thee, O Jesus. I have sinned against Thee, be merciful to me. Take from me the heavy yoke of sin, and in Thy compassion grant me tears of compunction.

“>Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete is read from start to finish (during the first week of Great Lent, it was read in four parts from Monday to Thursday), and the Venerable Mary of EgyptCovered by the cloak, the ascetic turned to Zosimas: “Why do you want to speak with me, a sinful woman? What did you wish to learn from me, you who have not shrunk from such great labors?””>Life of St. Mary of Egypt is joined to it.

***

St. Mary lived in the desert for forty-seven years in fasting and prayer, and attained great sanctity. The only person who saw St. Mary after her departure to the desert was hieromonk Zosima. She told him her story.

The service of the Standing of St. Mary. Photo: Valaam.ru   

The service of the Standing of St. Mary. Photo: Valaam.ru   

The service of the Standing of St. Mary. Photo: Valaam.ru   

The service of the Standing of St. Mary. Photo: Valaam.ru   

The service of the Standing of St. Mary. Photo: Valaam.ru     

The service of the Standing of St. Mary. Photo: Valaam.ru   

At age twelve, she left her family and went to Alexandria, where she became a harlot. But one day, after a miraculous incident, she changed her life completely. On the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord, Mary joined herself to a group of pilgrims that was travelling to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem she tried to enter the church, but an unknown force prevented her. The harlot began to pray before the icon of the Mother of God that hung in the church narthex. After praying, Mary was able to enter the church and venerate the Cross. When she left the church, she heard the voice of the Theotokos, who said, “If you cross the Jordan, you will find blessed peace.”

The service of the Standing of St. Mary. Photo: Valaam.ru     

The tradition concerning St. Mary of Egypt was passed on orally until the seventh century, when it was committed to writing by Sophronius of Jerusalem. The full text of her life can be found Thursday of the Great Canon, with the Life of St. Mary of EgyptOn Wednesday evening a very special service is celebrated in Orthodox churches—the Great Canon with the Life of St. Mary of Egypt. This is the only time in the year when the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, which was read in four parts during the first week of Great Lent, is read in its entirety, along with the canon to St. Mary of Egypt. This canon contains every motivation toward fasting and repentance, and the Church repeats it in the fifth week in its entirety in order to inspire us with renewed strength to finish the course of the fast. The Life of St. Mary of Egypt is also read to that end—to motivate us to be attentive and repent.

“>here.

This text, according to the holy fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council (692)—and that is when the service of the Great Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew of Crete and the Life of St. Mary of Egypt were compiled—can give hope even to those who think they are in desperate straits, and to those who do not believe that they are capable of worthily finishing the fast and greeting the Resurrection of Christ. The Standing of St. Mary is a service that comforts the suffering, and arouses the faithful to continue their ascetic labor of fasting and repentance.

The service of the Standing of St. Mary. Photo: A.Goryainov / Pravoslavie.ru     

The service of the Standing of St. Mary. Photo: A.Goryainov / Pravoslavie.ru     

Through all the years of my childhood, widows were just next door. The lady in the apartment behind us was very old, lived alone, spoke no English, and always wore black, but I don’t recall ever seeing her without a smile. Based entirely on her expression, I have to assume the things she said to me were kind. I couldn’t understand a word of Italian.

When I was in fifth grade, we moved to a proper house, and a widow occupied the tidy place next to ours. She had lost her husband many years before in the mining disaster that was legendary in our town. Her yard was immaculate, her house well kept. When I was hawking stuff for school fundraisers, I could count on her to be my first customer. When I shoveled her walk, I knew she would pay me well.

The widows of my childhood were generous like the widow of Zarephath and like the Gospel widow who put her two small coins into the treasury. In that sense, they confirmed the data of revelation. But only in that sense.

Almost everywhere else in the Bible, widows appear as a symbol of misery. In the Law of Moses, you’ll find frequent reference to “the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow” (e.g., Deuteronomy 27:19). These are classes of people who have no stable home or regular means of support. 

In both the Old Testament and the New, widowhood is a synonym for poverty, social isolation, and vulnerability. They are a protected class in the law — but we can assume that their legal protection was routinely ignored, because the prophets raged often against this particular injustice (Ezekiel 22:7, Malachi 3:5).

Even in the New Testament, just moments after the founding of the Church, the first Christians settled into the customary neglect of widows (Acts 6:1).

So why didn’t any of our neighborhood widows look oppressed or destitute?

It has everything to do with the Christian revolution. In the beatitudes, the constitution for his kingdom, Jesus took conditions that were formerly accursed and declared them now to be blessed: “Blessed are the poor … Blessed are those who mourn” (Matthew 5:3–4). These were, in fact, the defining conditions of widows in Jesus’ time. They were bereft and impoverished. Jesus knew this because he was the only son of a widow, and his choice to be a wandering rabbi would have dire implications for his mother’s life.

Yet his mother never faulted him for this. In fact, she left behind the poverty she had known and took up the more radical poverty of her son, who had “nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).

We have no record of her complaining about her lot. In fact, she seems serene as she provokes the launch of Jesus’ ministry. She simply observes, in a moment of crisis, “They have no wine” for the wedding feast; and then she says to the bystanders, “Do whatever he tells you.”

As the Gospel unfolds, the widow Mary emerges as the model disciple. She is close to Jesus to the last.

Like the other heroic widows of the Bible — like the widow of Zarephath and the widow in the treasury — she has little, but she gives everything she has. And, as the beatitudes promise, she is blessed: the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Blessed Widow Mary.

The sacred writings bear witness to the Church’s concern for widows. Visit them in their affliction, says St. James (1:27). But that’s really no different from the Old Testament commands, which were ignored.

What’s revolutionary in the New Testament is the choice for widowhood. What’s new is the existence of a consecrated order within the Church of women who voluntarily bore the hardships of widowhood. The Apostle to the Gentiles urges widows to take up this life with gusto “and remain single as I do” (1 Corinthians 7:8). In the First Letter to Timothy, we find this life described and prescribed in detail. It is a life of constant prayer, work, and hope.

This must have arrived as scandalous in the Gentile world. It had not been long since Caesar Augustus had enacted laws requiring widows to remarry, for the good of the state. Now came Christianity declaring that widows should freely do as God bid them to do.

This order of widows seems to have been extremely popular. It appears often in the documentary record of the early Church. St. Ignatius of Antioch, writing around A.D. 107, referred to its members as “the virgins known as widows,” so renowned were they for their chastity. His contemporary St. Polycarp of Smyrna compared them to “the altars of God.” Indeed, the third-century “Didascalia Apostolorum,” which, among other things, sets out the duties and responsibilities of laypeople, bishops, and widows, decreed that widows should be revered like “the altar of sacrifice.”

The great Fathers — Sts. Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Chrysostom — wrote letters of counsel to consecrated widows. In Rome and Antioch (two cities for which we have reliable statistics) the order of widows counted thousands of members.

It was liberating. Traditional Roman society offered women no place of their own. A pagan woman found her identity in the men in her life: her father, her husband, and her sons. If she had no man, she was no one. She had no face before the law. She could not even testify in court. There was no flourishing of women in classical antiquity.

In the Church, however, the most abject of women — widows — found themselves at the forefront of great social movements. They were leaders. Some, like Fabiola and Olympias, were among the first founders of hospitals. Others, like Monica and Macrina, were teachers and formators of the intellectual giants of their age.

Still other widows, in fact the majority of them, quietly did the work that keeps the Church moving forward: catechesis, sacramental preparation, and charitable programs.

The history of the Church could be convincingly told as the story of such women. They were refreshingly free of the clericalist mindset that would see their lives as less because they lacked holy orders.

In their poverty, and even in their grief, they lacked nothing because they possessed Christ, and they could fulfill the most heroic ambitions because they did so in Christ.

Knowing the widows of my childhood, I have no trouble believing Christianity’s historical record. Knowing the historical record, I recall the widows of my childhood, and I see no incongruity between the constant black dress and the constant smile. I see perfect consistency between the poverty and the perfectly maintained house.

Almyros, Magnesia, Greece, April 17, 2024

Photo: vimaorthodoxias.gr     

Farmers in Almyros, Greece, are turning to the aid of their beloved Panagia to help them amidst the drought that is affecting the Magnesia and Thessaly regions.

On Monday morning, April 15, a procession was held with the miraculous Icon of Panagia Kato Xenia, reports Vima Orthodoxias.

The icon was festively greeted in front of the Church of St. Nicholas in Almyros, led by the abbot of the Holy Monastery of Panagia Kato Xenia, Archimandrite Nektarios, together with local priests, farmers, residents, and public figures.

A supplicatory prayer was offered to the Most Holy Theotokos, then the procession headed for the central Almyros square, and continued to the Metropolitan Church of St. Demetrios.

A motorcade then made its way to several more churches, with more prayers being offered at the Church of St. Athanasios. The monastery was then returned to its home at the monastery.

***

Photo: secretvolos.gr The Panagia Kato Xenia Icon is, according to tradition, one of those painted by the Apostle and Evangelist Luke. It was miraculously found in the coastal area of Laka Panagia in Magnesia around 850.

The clergy and faithful placed the icon in their church and called it “Panagia Xenia,” because it came from foreign lands.

A monastery was then built on the spot, taking the name Panagia Xenia Monastery. The icon remained there for about 250 years until 1210. Frequent pirate raids and the presence of fanatical Catholic monks forced the monastery to move more than once.

The icon was greatly venerated both because of its miraculous appearance and the many miracles attributed to it.

Around 1850, the icon was transferred to the monastery’s St. Nicholas metochion. After the devastating earthquakes of 1980 in the area of Almyros, the new monastery began to be built on a hill close to the monastery that was destroyed, which was also called the Monastery of Panagia Xenia, and the miraculous icon was moved there, where it remains until today.

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St. Stephen Harding was born in England and educated at Sherborne Abbey. When he had finished his studies, he visited the monastery at Molesme and met the abbot, Robert of Molesme, and the prior Alberic (both of whom later became saints). Stephen was impressed by their community and joined them.

After a few years there, the three men led 20 other monks to establish an austere monastery in Citeaux. Robert eventually returned to Molesme to resume his duties as abbot, and Alberic, who became abbot in his absence, died in 1110. Stephen was then elected as abbot.

Stephen established the famous “Charter of Charity,” which became the standard for Cistercian monasticism. Although very few men were joining the monastery at the time, and the monks there suffered from hunger and sickness, Stephen persevered. In 1112, St. Bernard of Clairvaux joined the community, bringing with him 30 other companions. The next year, Stephen was able to found a colony at La Ferte.

By the time he died in 1134, Stephen had established 13 monasteries, and by the end of the century, there were 500 across Europe.

Tens of thousands of Poles have joined church-backed street protests after legislators pressed ahead with plans to liberalize abortion in the traditionally Catholic country.

“As Poles responsible for our homeland’s future and the rights of every person living under our republic’s sovereign authority, we demand an immediate halt to subversive actions by the current government and its parliamentary majority against the inherent right to life confirmed in our constitution,” protesters said in a resolution.

“The foundation for rights protected by our republic is the natural, inalienable and inviolable dignity of man, whose protection determines the authority and dignity of state and nation.”

The resolution was adopted during an April 14 National March for Life, attended in Warsaw by over 50,000 people under the slogan “Niech Zyje Polska!” (“Long live Poland!”).

Organizers said the rally — which began with Masses in the capital’s two Catholic cathedrals and included the relaying of an unborn child’s heartbeat over loudspeakers — was intended as “a social and civic event, but even more a moral event.”

They added that the march, matched by a smaller mass demonstration in the northern port of Szczecin, would send “a very clear signal to act, concentrate forces and seek adequate answers” following an April 12 decision by Poland’s Sejm lower house to refer four separate abortion-liberalizing bills to an emergency parliamentary commission.

Speaking after a two-day Sejm debate, Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said the bills reflected “fundamental rights” and would reassure Polish women “they are not the object of attack, contempt or disregard, but truly becoming subjects who decide about themselves.”

However, Polish media said the tabling of separate bills by parties in Tusk’s coalition highlighted government divisions over abortion, adding that any liberalization was certain to be vetoed as unconstitutional by Poland’s conservative president, Andrzej Duda, who blocked a government-backed law March 29 that would have allowed easy access to morning-after pills, without parental consent, for girls age 15 and over.

In an April 12 appeal, the newly elected president of the Polish bishops conference, Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda of Gdansk, backed the National March for Life and urged special prayers at all Sunday Masses.

“Respect for life is one of the most important values and basic duties of every human being,” Archbishop Wojda said.

“Millions around the world are making constant efforts to protect human life, especially the most defenseless, conceived and unborn, and to show everyone its beauty and value. … I trust the efforts of millions of people of goodwill will bring even greater protection,” he added.

Poland’s 1993 law allows abortions in cases of rape, incest and threats to the life or health of a mother, and was tightened in October 2020 when the Constitutional Court removed a right to abortion in cases of “severe and irreparable fetal damage,” sparking protests by women’s groups.

Liberalization of the law, which also requires “all necessary help” for pregnant women and single mothers, was promised before Poland’s Oct. 15 parliamentary election by Tusk’s Civic Coalition, which also has pledged to restrict religious education, legalize same-sex partnerships and abolish state subsidies for churches.

The Polish protests came in the wake of an April 11 European Parliament resolution, calling for pregnancy terminations to be “completely depenalized” across the European Union’s 27 member-states, and for “access to safe and legal abortion” to be included as a fundamental right in EU treaties and conventions.

The resolution, which passed 336-163 with 39 abstentions in the 705-member Parliament, condemned “regressive attempts” to restrict “sexual and reproductive health and rights,” and said democracy and the rule of law were threatened in Europe by “ultra-conservative religious and far-right actors” who sought to “undo decades of human rights advances and impose a harmful worldview.”

It praised a March 4 “landmark vote” by French lawmakers to make abortion a constitutional right, and deplored “backsliding on abortion rights” and “a pushback on gender equality” in Poland, the United States, Hungary and Malta, as well as continued restrictions in Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Romania and Slovakia.

The resolution praised the Tusk government’s commitment to propose new laws ensuring access to “abortion care,” condemned the right of doctors and health care facilities to opt out of abortions, and demanded “safe and free contraceptive methods and means” in all EU countries.

In an April 9 statement, the Brussels-based Commission of EU Bishops’ Conferences, COMECE, warned abortion could “never be a fundamental right,” and said the resolution embodied an “ideological imposition” by failing to respect “the different cultures and traditions” of member-states, as well as their constitutions and “national competences.”

“We work for a Europe where women can live their maternity freely, as a gift for them and for society, and where being a mother is in no way a limitation for personal, social and professional life,” COMECE said.

“The EU cannot impose on others, inside and outside its borders, ideological positions on the human person, sexuality and gender, marriage and family etc. Nor can its Charter of Fundamental Rights include rights that are divisive and not recognized by all,” it said.

Reacting to the April 11 vote, COMECE’s Spanish secretary-general, Msgr. Manuel Barrios Prieto, told Vatican News the EU’s bishops were “saddened” the abortion resolution had been backed by “representatives of parties referring to the tradition of Christian democracy,” and would “appeal to the consciences of politicians and voters” in upcoming June 6-8 elections to the European Parliament.

The Brussels-based Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe accused members of the European Parliament of “using women as political pawns” and dismissed the Parliament vote as “cynical political posturing before the European elections”, adding that no international court, including the European Court of Human Rights, recognized a “right to abortion.”

Meanwhile, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, told Vatican News April 15 the vote signaled a “significant cultural regression, undermining societal values,” adding that it had prioritized “self-interest over community welfare” and shown a “complete disregard for the rights of the unborn.”

Bishops from COMECE are to meet for a spring plenary April 17-19 in the Polish city of Lomza, to mark the anniversary of the EU’s 2004 enlargement into post-communist Eastern Europe.

Highlighting that American communities would “grind to a standstill” without the labor of undocumented immigrants, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso is encouraging Congress to create more avenues to legal employment authorization for those with pending asylum claims.

“Without their contributions, American communities would grind to a standstill,” Seitz said in an April 15 statement. “Not only are they working in some of the most arduous conditions but frequently with limited legal protections, and they are more susceptible to human trafficking and other forms of exploitation.”

Seitz, who is the chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Migration, noted that not only do undocumented workers have limited legal protections, but they are also more susceptible to human trafficking and other forms of exploitation.

There are at least 8.8 million undocumented immigrants currently in the labor force, according to data presented in a federal testimony on September 13, 2023, by Steven Camarota, the director of research at the Center for Migration Studies.

Many of the top ten occupations where illegal immigrants are the largest share are manual labor jobs – plasterers, dry wall and ceiling tile installers, roofers, construction workers, among them, according to the testimony data. The top ten occupations with the largest number of illegal immigrants, meanwhile, includes maids and housekeepers, cooks, construction laborers, agricultural workers and grounds maintenance workers, the data shows.

Seitz noted the risks many undocumented workers take at work.

“Sadly, the risks faced by many immigrant workers were recently underscored by the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse, in which six immigrant workers tragically lost their lives,” Seitz said.

Seitz also sent a letter to Congress last week expressing support for further access to legal employment authorization for those with pending asylum claims – a number that the federal government estimates is more than two million people and growing given the backlogs that exist.

In the letter, Seitz noted the fiscal impact undocumented workers have on American society. A recent report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that refugees and asylees have made a net fiscal impact of $123.8 billion to the American economy at both the federal and state levels over a fifteen-year period.

In the statement, Seitz said the Church remains committed to securing rights for undocumented workers and made the case that society as a whole should be, as well.

“As a society, we judge ourselves – and will be judged – by our treatment of those who are least empowered to advocate for themselves because of social, economic, and political obstacles,” Seitz said.

“The Church remains committed to securing rights and justice for those who labor humbly in the shadows, and we urge leaders to undertake much-needed reforms that recognize their essential contributions,” Seitz added.

Australian religious and political leaders have called for calm and unity after the attempted murder of an Assyrian Orthodox clergyman at his church’s altar in Sydney’s western suburbs, just days after a separate knife attack claimed six lives in Sydney’s Bondi Junction mall.

Assyrian Orthodox Bishop Mari Emmanuel, who rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic for his fiery YouTube sermons, was stabbed at 7:10 p.m. April 15 at the altar of Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, an independent church he established in 2015.

In a now-removed livestream, a man in dark clothing could be seen approaching the altar and stabbing Bishop Emmanuel multiple times before congregants rushed up to stop the attack.

Terrified screams could be heard before the stream was ended and deleted.

The 16-year-old attacker was quickly restrained by the congregation, some of whom were injured in the attempt.

The attacker in turn suffered severe injuries from the angry crowd that quickly formed, with police later confirming social media photos and rumors that at least one of his fingers was severed.

Paramedics treated Bishop Emmanuel at the scene, later taking him to Liverpool Hospital where he was reportedly recovering well from non-life-threatening injuries.

New South Wales Police said the attacker had been restrained prior to their arrival, and was arrested and taken to an “undisclosed location.”

An estimated 2,000 men quickly converged on the church after the attack, with police responding by deploying the riot squad.

Catholic Weekly photographer Giovanni Portelli was on the scene as the riot hit its peak and saw police, wielding shotguns and assault rifles, deployed to the church as tensions rose.
Batons and pepper spray were used to disperse the crowd around 10:15 p.m. Two police officers were injured, after being hit with bricks, fence pickets and other debris, and several police cars were destroyed.

Members of the community were still cleaning up broken glass, smashed cars and debris the following morning, with the church closed.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns confirmed the stabbing was a “terrorist act” April 16 after convening a council of religious and community leaders overnight to call for calm.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said at a press conference with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese the same day that police will allege the attack was “religiously motivated” and also called for calm.

Faith leaders worked hard to ease concerns in the community, with the Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney urging believers to respond with “prayer and peace” rather than fear or anger.

“Houses of prayer have traditionally been places of peace and solace, refuge and sanctuary and so the video footage of the attack upon a religious leader during a religious service inside a church has been especially confronting,” the archbishop said.

“The images of the violence that subsequently occurred outside the church are also confronting,” he continued. “We have seen these types of events in other countries but, up until now, Australia has been largely free from this type of blatant violence in and around places of worship.

“Every person in this country, be they bishop or priest, rabbi or imam, minister or congregant, should be able to worship in safety, without fear that they might be subject to acts of violence while gathering in prayer.”

Archbishop Fisher urged the faithful “to not respond to these events with fear, avoiding places of worship because they are worried about further attacks, nor with anger, engaging in acts of reprisal or revenge. The best response to violence and fear is prayer and peace.”

Fairfield-based Syriac Catholic priest Father Lenard Ina, a neighboring clergyman who knows Bishop Emmanuel well, said he will forgive his attacker.

“I think Bishop Mari will forgive the person who did this but will also expect him to be judged under the law,” Father Ina told The Catholic Weekly. “I know his personality and I think he will use what has happened to him to show the face of Jesus.”

Bishop Robert Rabbat of Australia’s Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy told The Catholic Weekly that many people in Sydney’s multicultural community have come from places where innocent people, including priests, were killed in churches, “which is always hard to comprehend.”

“Especially from Iraq, but also Syria, Lebanon and other places where they were hurt and were happy to come here, where it is safe to practice their faith with their leaders,” he said.

The bishop said some members of his own church were wondering whether their houses of prayer would remain oases of peace in Australia.

“We also have to try to understand the people who were praying with Mar Mari Emmanuel or waiting to listen to his spiritual talk,” he added.

“When you see someone who is dear to you or who you look up to suddenly being attacked, unfortunately sometimes the emotions make you behave in a way you usually would not, especially as some people may have witnessed something overseas and the images come back to mind.”

Overnight, Premier Minns had met with Christian and Muslim leaders, police, and government representatives, to issue a joint statement rejecting “violence in all its forms.”

Maronite Catholic Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay, leader of Sydney’s large Maronite community, attended the meeting and also called for continued prayer and restraint in a separate statement.

“On behalf of the Maronite Eparchy of Australia, we unequivocally denounce violence in all its forms and express deep concern over the incidents that took place last night in Wakeley,’ said.

The Australian National Imams Council likewise condemned the attacks as “horrifying” and having no place in Australia, “particularly at places of worship and toward religious leaders.”

Bishop Emmanuel was a bishop of the Assyrian Ancient Church of the East, before establishing Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, and is no longer listed among the clergy of the Assyrian Church’s Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand and Lebanon.

A statement from the church April 16 said, “We are taught to honor the image of God, not through vengeance and justice, but in adopting the spirit of humility, love and peace.”

There are few subjects so challenging for writers as St. Joseph. And yet the Church’s calendar presents us with two feast days in his honor. One is just around the corner, on May 1. We can hardly avoid saying something, but what is there to say?

Joseph seems to go out of his way to be uncooperative. In all the reliable records he is as tight-lipped as an NSA agent. Christian authors have tended to make up for the dearth of information by supplying homiletics laced with legends. At the end of such treatments, Joseph can seem more distant from us than he was on page one.

Faced with this challenge, my friend Mike Aquilina wrote a book about Joseph anyway — and he succeeded by doubling the difficulty. In “St. Joseph and His World” (Scepter Publishers, $19.95), he composed “parallel lives” of a most improbable pair of historical figures. He told the story of the Holy Family’s patriarch alongside the life of the family’s arch-nemesis. He gave an account of Joseph’s days as they were bound up with the career of one of history’s vilest despots: King Herod the Great.

And this is a breakthrough because we cannot begin to understand the life of either man until we appreciate the life of the other.

We may not want to spend time reading about Herod’s depravity, but apart from it we cannot truly see Joseph’s virtue. Herod loomed large in the life of the Holy Family. Joseph was a carpenter; and Herod was perhaps history’s most lavish patron of the craft of carpentry. Herod was pretender to the throne of David; and Joseph was a legitimate heir of that throne. Herod’s daily decisions affected the well-being of Joseph’s village, his clan, and his trade. Herod’s programs and whims exercised a profound influence on their economy and security.

Joseph must have been concerned about such matters, but he never shows it in the historical record. What he shows us is prayer and work. So Aquilina shows us how Joseph prayed and — in literally nuts-and-bolts terms — how a typical carpenter worked in those days: what tools he used, what items he crafted, where he got his training, and how he got to and from his job sites.

What we discover, between the lines, is that there were, in the first century B.C., two guiding hands in history. There was the providential hand of the Lord God. And there was a demonic hand manipulating the mad king Herod. As a result, there were two rival accounts of kingship; two rival ideas of Temple-building; and two rival stories of salvation. Joseph was not the only Jew to recognize this, but he was perhaps the most important one. Those who recognized it were forced to make difficult choices — and face terrifying consequences.

There is much we will never know about Joseph — or his wife and Divine Son — unless we come to see them in their cultural context, and in contrast with the counternarrative that centers on Herod.