Tag: Christianity

New York, April 11, 2024

A young man physically attacks an elderly woman at a Greek Orthodox Church in Queens. Photo: Fox 5 New York screenshot     

Police are looking for a suspect who physically assaulted an elderly woman at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in the Briarwood section of Queens on Sunday.

Surveillance shows a 68-year-old parishioner heading up the church steps, when a man runs up from behind her and punches her in the face, which sends her falling backwards down the stairs, reports Fox 5 New York.

The suspect then rummaged through her belongings before taking off with her purse, which had $300, her cellphone, and her car keys in it.

The suspect, believed to be between 18 and 25, around 5’8’’, then sped off in the woman’s car.

The woman is in critical but stable condition, with a fractured skull. According to parish priest Fr. Konstantinos Kalogridos, she is conscious and alert and was able to receive Holy Communion in the hospital.

“To do this horrendous act … from the church’s steps—that’s unheard of,” Fr. Konstantinos commented.

“Sometimes it’s not easy [to forgive], but with God’s help, it can be done,” he added.

Watch Fox 5’s report on the incident:

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An unprecedented decision by California’s Santa Clara County district attorney to reset the death penalty sentences in the county to life in prison sentences has been touted by the local bishop as “an important step toward respecting the sanctity of all human life.”

“As Bishop of San José, I also support and congratulate Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen for his prophetic and exemplary decision to reset the death penalty sentences in our county to life in prison,” said Bishop Oscar Cantú of San José, California. “This decision is an important step toward respecting the sanctity of all human life, which is a fundamental principle of Catholic social teaching.”

On April 5, Rosen announced that he converted the sentences of the county’s 15 death row inmates from the death penalty to life in prison with no chance of parole. The 15 inmates are all men.

Rosen cited an “antiquated, racially biased, error-prone” system as the reason he sought to change the sentences. The decision comes about four years after he stopped sentencing people to death; a decision he made after the murder of George Floyd.

“The question is not whether these 15 human beings deserve the death penalty,” Rosen said in a statement. “It’s whether the two million people of Santa Clara County deserve the indignity and ineffectiveness of the death penalty. It’s an antiquated, racially biased, error-prone system that deters nothing and costs us millions of public dollars and our integrity as a community that cherishes justice.”

Capital punishment is legal in California, but has stopped ever since Gov. Gavin Newsoom took over in 2019. The state hasn’t executed someone since 2006. However, the state’s 665 people on death row are the most of any state by a longshot. Texas is second with 313 death row inmates.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, of California’s 665 death row inmates 232 are Black, 220 are white, 177 are Hispanic, 27 are Asian, and 9 are Native American. The Black inmates represent about 35 percent of that total, even though they make up only about 7 percent of California’s population. Of the 665 death row inmates, 644 are men, and 21 are women.

California law allows district attorneys to re-sentence a person if they determine the sentences no longer serve justice, which is how Rosen was able to make this move. He is the first district attorney in California to do so, and based on Crux’s research, the first in the nation, as well.

Rosen acknowledged that the crimes of death row inmates are “horrible,” but said judges and juries of the people should decide where an inmate dies,” and “God should decide when.”

In an April 9 statement on Rosen’s decision, Cantú highlighted the catechism of the Church, which states “the death penalty is inadmissible, because it violates the inviolability and dignity of the person.” He also noted that the Church, while it supports victims and their loved ones, also recognizes the “possibility of conversion and redemption for every soul.”

Cantú said Rosen’s decision aligns with Catholic social teachings’ recognition of the dignity of every human life, and the coherent ethic of life the Church holds across issues related to the unborn, the poor, migrants, the sick, and those in the criminal justice system. He noted that the decision is also a call for society as a whole to move away from the death penalty, and place a focus on restorative justice.

“Prosecutor Rosen’s decision aligns with these values, challenging us to seek alternatives to the death penalty that respect life and human dignity, promote rehabilitation, and foster a safe, more compassionate society,” Cantú said. “It is a call to move away from punitive justice towards restorative justice that heals and rebuilds lives.”

Cantú called on Catholics to support the decision and advocate for other actions that support life.

“Let us support this decision as a community that values every human life. Let us continue to work together toward a more perfect union, building a system of justice that reflects our commitment to life, mercy, and redemption,” Cantú said. “Let us pray for the strength to defend the dignity of all people and for the wisdom to find paths that lead to true justice and peace.”

Kiev, April 11, 2024

Photo: news.church.ua     

The Holy Synod of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church held its first session of 2024 yesterday at the primatial residence at St. Panteleimon Monastery in Kiev.

The current situation with the violation of the right to freedom of religion of the faithful and organizations of the UOC was discussed, and it was decided to inform the Local Orthodox Churches, foreign countries, and international human rights organizations about the ongoing persecution, reports the Information-Education Department of the UOC.

The Synod also reiterated the Church’s administrative independence and that since 1990, its administrative center has been located in Kiev.

The Synod also adopted the text of a statement, emphasizing

that hierarchs, priests, and laymen of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are subjected to criminal prosecution on trumped-up charges. Churches and other property are taken away, and religious communities are unlawfully re-registered into the newly-formed Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Nearly a thousand and a half churches have already been seized to date. Local self-governments take unlawful decisions to ban the use of property by religious organizations of our Church.

The Synod also called on the Ukrainian Parliament not to pass draft law No. 8371, which aims, “under the pretext of protecting national security,” to completely ban the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church on the federal level.

Deputies voted in favor of the bill in its first reading Ukrainian Parliament votes for bill to ban UOC in first reading, second reading still to comeMany local administrations have declared bans on the Church, though at the same time, the Church’s activities have continued in those localities.

“>in October, though it must pass a second reading to enter into law, and this second reading has been delayed several times.

The Synod notes that such a law would incite religious enmity and intolerance and infringe upon the principle of the autonomy of a religious community.

The Synod also elected a new vicar bishop for the Kiev Metropolis and a new vicar bishop for the Odessa Diocese.

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Vietnam has one of the largest Catholic populations among countries never visited by a pope. The country is home to an estimated 7 million Catholics. An additional 700,000 Vietnamese Catholics live in the United States today, many of whom are refugees or descendants of refugees who fled by boat during the Vietnam War.

Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Marek Zalewski, a Polish Vatican diplomat, as the resident papal representative to Vietnam in December 2023.

Zalewski’s appointment was a historic step toward the possibility of someday establishing full diplomatic relations. Vietnam severed ties with the Holy See after the communist takeover of Saigon in 1975.

With the new appointment, Vietnam is the only Asian communist country to have a resident papal envoy live in the country.

The Catholic Church in Vietnam has seen a rising number of religious vocations in recent years. The country has 8,000 priests and 41 bishops, according to government data. More than 2,800 seminarians were studying for the priesthood across Vietnam in 2020, 100 times more than in Ireland.

Kimviet Ngo, a Vietnamese American Catholic, told CNA last fall that she hopes that a potential papal visit to Vietnam would help improve religious freedom in the country.

The Vietnamese Constitution guarantees individual freedom of belief and individual religious freedom. However, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which advises branches of the U.S. government, recommended that Vietnam be designated a “country of particular concern” in its 2024 report.

Ngo’s hope has been backed by a 2024 academic study, which found that papal trips can have a significant effect on the host country’s human rights protections.

Pope Francis is expected to travel to Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries in early September if his health allows.

Kiev, April 11, 2024

Photo: news.church.ua     

The Holy Synod of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church held its first session of 2024 yesterday at the primatial residence at St. Panteleimon Monastery in Kiev.

Among the many issues addressed by the hierarchs, they resolved to found two new monasteries. In response to reports from diocesan bishops, the Synod established the Monastery of the She Who is Quick to Hear Icon of the Mother of God in the village of Babai in the Kharkiv Diocese and the Holy Trinity Convent in the village of Bukivtsiovo in the Mukachevo Diocese, reports the Information-Education Department of the UOC.

A choir directing and catechism school was also established at the Tikhvin Convent in Dnipro.

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Soon after the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, they set out to make it a “Jew-free” territory.  Between 1939 and 1945, German officers oversaw the imprisonment, deportation, and eventual murder of approximately 3 million Jews.

Not all Poles turned their back on their fellow countrymen. They were families like that of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children, Catholics who chose to shelter Jewish friends in their own home and were eventually executed by the Nazis for doing so. Last year, the Ulmas were declared martyrs by Pope Francis and beatified.

Despite the terror that such episodes were meant to instill in the Polish population, many heroic men and women continued to hide Jewish fugitives until the end of World War II. Among them was Irena Gut, whose incredible life story is told in the new film “Irena’s Vow,” playing in theaters April 15-16.

Directed by Canadian filmmaker Louise Archambault, “Irena’s Vow” tells an inspiring story of courage and self-neglect with the help of a strong script by Israeli-American screenwriter Dan Gordon and authentic performances from a cast led by Sophie Nélisse (“Yellowjackets,” “The Book Thief”).

Like the Ulma family (and Oskar Schindler, the protagonist of Spielberg’s 1993 epic historical drama), Gut was honored as a “Righteous Among the Nations” by the Israeli Holocaust Commission; a title given to non-Jews who risked their lives by saving Jews during the Holocaust.

St. Pope John Paul II also bestowed a special blessing on Gut in 1995. Today her story is featured in a permanent exhibit in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.                                                           

Gut, a young Polish nurse, was put in charge of a group of Jews employed as tailors and seamstresses in a Nazi-run hotel in her hometown of Radom. None of her employees were actually professional, but like others, had lied about their abilities and credentials to escape the first wave of persecution.

She witnessed firsthand the horrors of the Nazi genocide. In a harrowing scene, we see her witness the vicious murder of a Jewish child and mother, the child crushed to the ground and the mother shot at point blank as she cries over her dead child.

Gut’s vow, for which the film is named, was to never let it happen again. If she could do anything to save a Jewish life, she would. Archamabault’s film depicts how bold, dangerous, and unrealistic her plan was.

Her boss, Wehrmacht Major Eduard Rügemer, moved to a large mansion requisitioned from a Jewish family and asked Irena to become his housekeeper. She accepted and proceeded to hide all of her 12 Jewish employees in the Nazi officer’s house.

Over the next two years, Gut succeeded in hiding her friends until the end of the German occupation, concealing them amid countless Nazi parties, a blackmail scheme, and even the birth of a child.

During the two years of hiding, one of the women became pregnant (the group included married couples). Delivering the baby while hiding, and keeping it hidden, seemed impossible, so one of the Jewish refugees, a doctor, asked Gut to provide him with the means to perform an abortion.

Gut refused to do so, citing her Catholic faith. “I am not going to help Hitler get another Jewish baby.” “If we don’t have this baby” she adds, “something else will die inside of us too.”

The child was born, and miraculously survived. At the end of the film, you can see real footage of Gut’s encounter with him after the war. “This is my baby,” she says in the clip as she hugs him.

Gut’s heroic protection of the unborn, whom she regarded as no less worthy of risking her life for than the adult parents, echo Mother Teresa’s timeless words on abortion.

The late saint regularly reminded wealthy western countries — particularly ones that expressed concern for the death of children from poverty or war in poorer countries — that they were forgetting the “war against the child” waged within their borders, and the “millions being killed.”

According to Mother Teresa, one has to be willing to suffer, to risk one’s life and time, to ensure that the child and mother are taken care of. “How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion?” she once asked. “As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts.”

Gut was willing to give until it hurts, and her sacrifice bore much fruit. All of the Jews she hid survived, and so did Gut, who after the war married an American citizen and moved to the U.S. She died in Orange County in 2003.

As winds of war blow over much of the world, this film presents an inspiring example of what it means to live one’s faith in dramatic times. It is an appropriate movie for the Easter season, as it presents us with a woman who followed to the letter Jesus’ command at the Last Supper: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

Sevastopol, Crimea, April 11, 2024

Photo: crimea-eparhia.ru     

Since April 1, daily services have been held in the newly revived St. Vladimir Chersonesos Monastery in Crimea.

The services are being held in the monastery’s Church of the Seven Hieromartyrs of Chersonesos, reports the Metropolis of Crimea.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the closure of the St. Vladmir Monastery in Chersonesos, Crimea, built on the site where St. Vladimir the Great was baptized in 988.

The monastery was constructed in the 19th century during the reign of Emperor Alexander II. It was closed in 1924 and its buildings were transferred to the Chersonesos Museum-Preserve.

The beginning of the restoration of its monastic life was celebrated with an outdoor Liturgy celebrated by His Eminence Metropolitan Tikhon of Simferopol Crimean Monastery resuming monastic life after 100 yearsThis year marks the 100th anniversary of the closure of the St. Vladmir Monastery in Chersonesos, Crimea, built on the site where St. Vladimir the Great was baptized in 988.

“>in mid-February.

“Praying to God is our main task. The second task is to enlighten people with the word of God,” commented Met. Tikhon.

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Google’s recent foray into using artificial intelligence (AI) has shown us that AI is not only something to worry about in the future, but it has the ability to be a problem in the past. 

Gemini AI image-generating tech produced images of an African American George Washington and a Chinese female member of the Waffen SS. Whether AI was just having a bad day — it happens to all of us — or whether it was intentional manipulation by someone behind the curtain at Google, the result is the same: confusing and bad history.

I would heartily endorse avoiding AI or any online historical source for your history, and recommend staying with books written by experts in their field. But a recent read of “Not Stolen: The Truth About European Colonialism in the New World” (Bombardier Books, $20.70), written by Jeff Flynn-Paul, proves that even an educated source can struggle with historical misrepresentations almost as glaring as an Asian woman wearing a steel helmet and the skull-and-crossbones insignia of a German SS officer.

Though “Not Stolen” is history for amateurs like me, it is nonetheless filled with hundreds of footnotes and other academic bona fides that would make me trust the information found within. 

The theme of the book is a response to the past couple of decades of historical scholarship which has painted Western Civilization, especially as it encountered the New World, with an overly broad and not-too-flattering brush. And as one cannot talk about such things without including the engine that drove so much of that civilization, namely the Church, I was interested.

Things were going fine, I was learning things I did not know, and through some of the footnotes included, I gathered good leads to go deeper into assorted topics. I was most interested in how Flynn-Paul, a professor of history from a prestigious American university, would treat the Spanish friars who came to evangelize the native inhabitants.

With multiple statutes of St. Junípero Serra wandering like refugees these days, the general consensus of our popular culture is that the priests who came to the New World did so to oppress the native inhabitants and destroy their culture. True history does not always fit in convenient boxes and proves to be a lot more complicated than people would like. Grasping the ramifications of two distinct and extremely different civilizations coming into contact with each other for the first time cannot be understood via sound bites. I thought the author was fair, and the Church is not the “bad guy” in this book. 

Flynn-Paul also takes issue with how the Spanish in general, via the forward-thinking rules laid down by Queen Isabella of Spain, paved the way for so much intermarriage and cross-pollination of Mexican and Spanish culture.

But one of these examples in the book first made me curious and then stupefied me. The author describes a painting from the Mexican colonial era that celebrates mixed-race couples. The painting reinforces Flynn-Paul’s premise that though there was plenty of mistreatment of Native populations, there was also a meaningful mixing of cultures. He further claims that this work of art gives an imprimatur to the new cultural reality by the presence of the Virgin Mary. “In one painting, the Virgin Mary stands over all the mixed-race couples as a vulvic symbol of the Mother of All. She even has a baby peeking out from under her skirts. …”

This sounded like a sweet example of primitive art, but the real image left me dumbfounded when I turned the page. The Virgin Mary referenced by Flynn-Paul, mind you, was Our Lady of Guadalupe. That “baby” peeking out was an angel, with rich symbolic meaning for the Aztecs. 

Her “skirt” was the tilma, with many more powerful symbols, both theological and political, that the author left out of his description. 

How could a historian not know this? How could his editor not know this? How could a $20-an-hour proofreader not know this? 

The Church herself does not insist that anyone believe any apparition of Our Lady in any of the various places throughout the world. But for a historian, in a heavily researched book, to not understand the historical, theological, and cultural importance of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is historical malpractice.

I guess my next stop on my quest for reliable historical data will have to be reading stone tablets. But I guess there’s always Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 

    

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Is. 1:18).

With these words the Prophet IsaiahThe Holy Prophet Isaiah lived 700 years before the birth of Christ, and was of royal lineage.

“>Prophet Isaiah predicted the miracle that occurs before our eyes every day—the purification of the human soul in the sacrament of repentance. We do not see the great and terrible thing that mysteriously happens in front of the analogion, but God’s saints saw it.

“And the Prophet Isaiah proclaimed how sinners and penitents can be delivered from sins,”¹ the holy Martyr Justin the Philosopher writes about this prophecy in his Apology.

More than that, in his Catechetical Lectures to Those Who Are to Be Enlightened, the Holy Hierarch St. Cyril the Archbishop of JerusalemAs Patriarch of Jerusalem, Saint Cyril zealously fought against the heresies of Arius and Macedonius. In so doing, he aroused the animosity of the Arian bishops, who sought to have him deposed and banished from Jerusalem.

“>Cyril of Jerusalem reveals to us:

“He says, shall be as white as snow and …they shall be as wool. By this He means the remission of sins or even a sinless state.”

Traditions carefully preserved by the Church tell us about the power of the Confession. God Is HereRepentance destroys hell in the penitent’s soul and transfers him to Paradise.

“>sacrament of confession and that God’s mercy really does instantly and entirely erase all the sins of those who repent sincerely…

A penitent robber

St. John Climacus wrote that during his stay at a cenobitic monastery near Alexandria, a robber came to that monastery to repent and receive the monastic tonsure. “This wonderful physician, using all means for his salvation, and wishing to give to all an example of saving and effectual humility, again exhorted him, in the presence of all, to tell in detail what he had done. And with terror he confessed one after another all his sins, which revolted every ear, not only sins of the flesh, natural and unnatural, with rational beings and with animals, but even poisoning, murder and many other things which it is indecent to hear or commit to writing. And when he had finished his confession, the shepherd at once allowed him to be given the habit and numbered among the brethren.

“Amazed by the wisdom of that holy man, I asked him when we were alone: ‘Why did you make such an extraordinary show?’ That true physician replied: ‘For two reasons: firstly, in order to deliver the penitent himself from future shame by present shame; and it really did that, Brother John. For he did not rise from the floor until he was granted remission of all his sins. And do not doubt this, for one of the brethren who was there confided to me, saying: “I saw someone terrible holding a pen and writing-tablet, and as the prostrate man told each sin, he crossed it out with a pen.” And this is likely, for it says: I said, I will confess against myself my sin to the Lord; and Thou hast forgiven the wickedness of my heart (Ps. 31:5). Secondly, because there are others in the brotherhood who have unconfessed sins, and I want to induce them to confess too, for without this no one will obtain forgiveness².”

The Testimony of the Angels

Once the Venerable Theodora appeared in a vision to Gregory, a disciple of the Venerable Basil the New, and told him about the aerial “toll-houses” that her soul had gone through after her death. She also told him that, in awe and horror of what was happening to her, ascending from one “toll-house” to another, she asked the holy angels:

“Is it for every sin which a man commits in life that he is tormented with at the trials, or if it is possible, even during life, to expiate the sin in order to be cleansed of it and not be tormented with it at the trials?

“The angels told Saint Theodora that not all experience the trials in that way, but only those like her who did not make a heart-cleansing confession before death.

“Whoever strives diligently for repentance, always receives forgiveness from God, and also unencumbered passage from this life to the blessed life beyond the grave. The evil spirits, which are here during these trials with their records, open them and find nothing written, because the Holy Spirit will make invisible everything that is written. They know that everything written by them is wiped out, thanks to Confession, and they are deeply saddened… Truly great is the saving power of Confession! It saves one from much woe and distress, it provides the possibility to go through all the trials without hindrance and come to God.”³

Healing by repentance

Speaking about the power of confession, the Holy Hierarch Ignatius (Brianchaninov) cites a remarkable story in his Homily on Death:

“It would be useful to mention here an event that is almost contemporary to us. There is a large village called Kubenskoye in the vicinity of the city of Vologda, which has several parishes. One of the parish priests became ill, and approaching his death, saw his bed surrounded by demons who were preparing to seize his soul and take him down to hell. Then three angels appeared. One of them stood at the bedside and began to argue about the priest’s soul with a very hideous demon, who was holding an open book in which all of the priest’s sins were recorded.

“Meanwhile, another priest came to administer the last rites to his brother priest. Confession began; the dying priest, fixing his frightened eyes on the book, uttered his sins with self-denial, as if spewing them out of himself—and what did he see? He saw clearly that once he pronounced a sin, that sin disappeared from the book, leaving a blank in its place. Thus, by confession he erased all of his sins from the demonic book, and having been healed, he spent the rest of his life in deep repentance, sharing with his neighbors for their edification his vision and miraculous healing.”

“They have become like God”

The Ancient paterikon relates the vision of a bishop, to whom spiritual vision was once given during a Liturgy. When Christians “approached the Holy Chalice to receive Holy Communion, through their faces he saw their souls and the sins they were prone to; he saw that the faces of some were like soot, others had faces like a flame, and bloody and fiery eyes; and he saw that others had light faces and were dressed in white robes.”

Among those who approached the Chalice there were two noble women, of whom the bishop knew that they led unchaste lives. However, to his astonishment, he saw that

“as they drew near the Holy Mysteries, they had bright and honorable faces, and were clothed in white robes. Then, when they received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, they shone as if from light.”

After the service the bishop prayed to God to understand the revelations shown to him. Then an angel appeared to him and answered that the women who had previously been sinners, when approaching the Holy Chalice, “were fair in face, had white robes, and shone with light greatly because they had become conscious of what they had been doing and promised to abandon it,” and for tearful repentance, good works and confession, “they have become like God, their sins have been forgiven, and they will live chastely, righteously, and piously for the rest of their lives.”

The bishop marveled not so much at the change in the women as at the mercy of God, Who not only had delivered them from punishment, but had also vouchsafed them such great grace. The angel answered him:

“Are you surprised by this? Rightly so—you are a human being, and our Lord is good by nature and the Lover of mankind. Not only does He not send those who abandon their sins and fall down before Him with confession to the torments, but He also appeases His anger on them and vouchsafes them honors. 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). Therefore, He who deigned to die for His enemies all the more remits the sins of those who have become His own and repent of what they have committed, vouchsafing them to take pleasure in what is prepared for them. Know firmly that no human sin will overcome God’s love for mankind if only people by repentance make up for the evil deeds they committed before. For, being the Lover of mankind, God knows the weaknesses of your kind, the power of the passions, and the devil’s cunning, and when people fall into sins, He forgives them as His children, and expects reform, long-suffering for them. He shows compassion to those who repent and beg for His mercy as to the weak, immediately delivering them from punishment and granting them the blessings prepared for the righteous⁴.”

St. Stanislaus Szczepanowski was born in Krakow in 1030. His parents were members of the nobility, and passed their strong Catholic faith on to their son. Stanislaus studied theology and canon law in Parish, and when his parents died, he gave away his large inheritance to the poor.

Stanislaus was ordained as a priest and served the Church of Krakow for many years. When the current bishop died, he was chosen as successor in 1071, and began preaching the Gospel boldly.

His preaching caught the negative attention of Poland’s corrupt King Boleslaus II, whom he was unable to reform. Stanislaus excommunicated him, and Boleslaus responded by sending henchmen to kill the bishop, but they were unable to. Boleslaus finally ambushed Stanislaus while he celebrated Mass and killed him with a sword.

Following his death, St. Stanislaus was considered a martyr, while the king lost his grip on his powers, and spent his final days in a monastery, repenting of his sins. St. Stanislaus was canonized in 1253, and is a beloved patron saint of Poland.