Tag: Christianity

Balamand, Lebanon, March 18, 2024

Photo: antiochpatriarchate.org     

The Holy Synod of the Antiochian Patriarchate calls upon its flock to offer increased prayers for the suffering Ukrainian Orthodox Church throughout Great Lent.

The Holy Synod met under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Patriarch John in Balamand, Lebanon, last week.

The relevant portion of the Synodal statement reads:

The Synod Fathers call their faithful children during this blessed period to intensify their prayers for the whole Orthodox Church and Her unity, and for the confessing Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This Church’s faithful are suffering from the cruel brunt of war, organized violence, and danger of extinction through unjust laws that aim at closing their parishes and transferring their churches’ ownership to other religious groups.

The Antiochian Synod has repeatedly expressed its prayerful support for the UOC under His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, including Antiochian Synod highlights persecution of Ukrainian Orthodox ChurchThe bishops met yesterday in Balamand under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Patriarch John.

“>last April and Antiochian and Polish Synods on the persecution of the Ukrainian ChurchHierarchs and Synods throughout the Orthodox Church have repeatedly spoken up in defense of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church under His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, which is currently facing serious persecution from state authorities.”>last October.

Metropolitan Onuphry blesses special Lenten prayer rule for Ukrainian flockAs every year, the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has blessed the faithful to take up a special Lenten prayer rule for spiritual growth and for peace.

“>Met. Onuphry also blessed his Ukrainian flock to keep a special Lenten rule of prayer and Scriptural reading for forgiveness of sins and for peace.

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Christian Escobar has been involved, in one form or another, with the annual Passion play at Christ the King Church in Hollywood since he was 4.

From watching his father sew the group’s first costumes, to playing the role of a centurion this year, Escobar has deep ties to the production, now in its 37th year. 

For Escobar, the play is about more than just acting. It’s a way for him to mature in his faith, bond with the church community, and evangelize.

“Ever since I can remember I’ve enjoyed being a part of this,” said Escobar, now 42. “It’s something that I have grown to love and appreciate.”

Escobar is among scores of Catholics across the Archdiocese of Los Angeles who will appear in Spanish-language Passion plays reenacting Christ’s final hours during Holy Week. 

Passion plays emerged as a popular evangelization tool in medieval Europe, and were later brought to the Americas by missionaries, said Father Juan Ochoa, pastor of Christ the King and director of the archdiocese’s Office for Divine Worship.

The plays found fertile ground in Mexico, he said, where Spanish missionaries used them to teach indigenous tribes that human sacrifices were unnecessary because God had already sacrificed his only Son for them.

Today, Passion plays remain popular largely with the archdiocese’s Mexican community, he said, especially among those who can relate to a suffering Jesus.

“It’s one thing to read in the Bible about the passion of Jesus,” he said. “But when you’re there watching, it completely comes alive in a very different way.”

At Christ the King, Comunidad Primera Corintios 13 — an organization that began as a youth group and now engages multiple generations — will present a Passion play depicting the Last Supper through Jesus’ crucifixion.

The production — which will be shown at the parish and at St. Ferdinand Church in San Fernando this year — has been performed at more than 50 locations over the years, said Maria Elena Burgos, who’s been with the group since its infancy. 

At St. Emydius Church in Lynwood, about 60 people have been gearing up since December to perform for about 2,500 spectators, said organizer Efrain Alvarez. 

The group has performed for 19 consecutive years, Alvarez said, and actors are poised to reenact various Gospels from Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday. 

And at St. Marcellinus Church in Commerce, parishioners are getting ready to stage a series of dramatizations on Good Friday just as they’ve done for the last 10 years, said director Luis Carlos Betancourt.

Services will begin with a Via Crucis — or Stations of the Cross — procession in the streets, followed by a rosary, readings, Gospel dramatizations, and veneration of the cross at the church, he said. 

Many of those who help stage these annual productions say they’ve seen the theatrical works change the lives — and hearts — of both the actors and the audience. 

Miguel Angel Huerta, for example, has played Jesus in Christ the King’s Passion play numerous times since joining the cast in 2017. To prepare for the role, he ensures he’s in a state of grace and prays before the Blessed Sacrament, improving his personal and family life in the process. 

“My life completely changed,” he said. “I never thought that I’d be where I am spiritually.”

Guadalupe Ramirez has served as a coordinator for St. Emydius’ Passion play for more than 10 years and said that doing so has deepened her faith, introduced her to new ministries, and brought her a renewed appreciation for Christ’s death and resurrection.

“I have learned so much by being part of this,” she said. “We have a tendency of going to Mass and leaving, but we don’t know what the Church offers after that. It’s not only Mass that the Church is capable of offering us. There’s so much behind that.” 

Escobar said he sees the church’s annual play as a way to transmit the Gospel, by showing spectators that Christ is there to love them and save them.

“A lot of times people are crying, they’re relating, the message hits them,” he said. “And that’s one of the best feelings, just knowing that we spread the message.” 

For Betancourt, the Via Crucis is also a form of evangelization. Rather than performing Stations of the Cross at the parish, the group stops at various homes, where families read pre-written reflections aloud. Many times, however, they scrap the script when an actor playing a beleaguered Jesus arrives at their doorstep.  

“The beautiful part about this,” he said, “is that often when Christ arrives and falls to his feet at their station, it touches their heart. Often, what they had planned to say in their reflection completely changes because they are opening their conscience and their heart. And that is the work of God.” 

Many of those involved in bringing the acts to life say they hope to continue to do so for years to come.

Burgos said that although many in her group are now parents or grandparents, they still feel called to perform and encourage their families to join the cast as well. Participating alongside their offspring has helped strengthen their faith and give them the ability to spread the Gospel to a new generation, she said. 

“We realize that God wants us to continue,” she said. “And as long as God allows us, we’ll be there.”

    

Today the Holy Church and all of us have taken the first step, a very important one, in the mysterious, long and penitential path of Lent. Its first day has passed, and after reading the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete the soul of each one of us has plunged into a deep, prayerful, Lenten atmosphere.

Thank God that the time of Holy Lent has come. This is a period of struggle with the spirit of “idleness, despondency, ambition and vain thoughts”—we will hear the words of the Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian for a long time, and it will penetrate deeply into our hearts.

Lent is an amazing opportunity for each one of us, for each member of the Church, to escape from the deadening vanity, running around, chattering, and the endless pursuit of some dubious “values”. This is a time of struggle with countless passions, sins, and vices that enslave us, nesting in our hearts. When a person is in bondage to voluntary vanity, to the spirit of the age, it often seems to him (because he lives without prayer, without grace) that God is somewhere far away and that the whole world is woven from cold chunks of the ice of indifference and boredom. But each one of us knows that once we force ourselves to stop at least for a minute, tear ourselves away from vanity, meditate, pray and lift our hearts up to God, we will immediately understand that God, His love and Eternity are all very close!

Lent is an opportunity for each one of us to stop our endless haste and think about Eternity. According to the Holy Fathers, Lent is an amazing space of love, kindness, mercy and indulgence towards others; it is a space of repentant prayer, contrition, and the memory of death. All these concepts are close to us—we hear them every day, read about them in the Holy Gospel; and the Church tells us about them every day.

But still, how can we make all that we read and hear become truly the inheritance of our souls—not some pious imitation of a spiritual life, but real life? Of course, it is a very difficult task. But Lent has been given to us to help us—a unique opportunity to not neglect ourselves and to take a small step towards our souls. How can we make this amazing meeting of a person with his soul take place?

If we look at our lives, which are often woven from moments of vanity and haste, each one of us can ask himself: “What is more important to me—not to miss a moment for some new pleasure, for some new earthly discovery, or not to miss a moment in acquiring eternal life?”

The Holy Church will always, and especially in these penitential days—deep, mysterious and at the same time joyful—remind us every day at services about the most important thing—seeking the Kingdom of God in our hearts, the need to acquire the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love, peace and joy. This task is extremely hard because it is easier for us to focus on something external, even while fasting—on the menu, on abstaining from some kinds of food, from watching TV, from some pleasures, from going to entertainment events, etc. This is certainly important, but we must understand that the depth of our labor lies not only in this.

The Life of an Army Chaplain: St. Barsonuphius of OptinaEveryone around him knew him to be a just, and pious officer, who regularly attended church services and was well read in spiritual literature.

“>St. Barsanuphius of Optina (commemorated April 1/14) reflects wonderfully on monasticism. He spoke about prayer, the essence and depth of the monastic life, but these words apply not only to monastics, but also to any layperson, to any Orthodox believer. St. Barsanuphius says that external monasticism can be likened to plowing the land; but no matter how much you plow, “nothing will grow unless you sow something. Inner monasticism is sowing, and its seed is the Jesus Prayer. Prayer illuminates a monastic’s entire inner life and gives him strength to struggle.”

These words of Elder Barsanuphius of Optina remind us that there is an inner component of fasting, the most important being: the sowing of prayer, which the elder speaks about. It will help the land of our heart to produce the grace-filled fruits of humility, meekness, inner weeping, and prayer of the heart. St. Silouan of Mt. Athos: “I have many sorrows of my own, and they are my own fault…”There are moments when it seems that circumstances are indeed beyond our power, when life breaks down and it’s painful even to look at the world around us. Reality is cruel, and the soul can truly become sick. And no one knows when sorrows will knock at doors of the heart. But we must know in that moment how to answer these unawaited guests…

“>St. Silouan of Mt. Athos says that if you want to pray purely, then be humble, be abstinent, confess more often and more purely, and then prayer will come to love you.

Our Church is an experience of eternal life that does not begin on some abstract level, but already today, right now, here and in this particular human heart.

To a person who is lost in this life, who has been deceived by false attitudes and ideas, to which there is no end in the world, the Church returns a sense of uniqueness, authenticity and depth of his life—a feeling that only faith, only Christ and the Church can give.

The Holy Church gives a person all this fullness, colors, air and light—the experience of deep feelings. And it is in the space where Divine Providence has placed each one of us—where a person lives, works, serves, and labors—that his soul grows into eternal life. No matter what paths humanity invents—be it new technologies, approaches to development, or new national ideas—there is only one true path. This is the path of the Gospel, about which Christ Himself says: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart… Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (Mt. 22:37,39). There is nothing more important, profound and sublime in the world than this commandment.

St. Justin (Popovic) of Celije says that Christians must carry the radiant image of Christ through the twilight of life in the modern world, proclaiming it to the world, which is lost in the wilds of self-love. And the Gospel speaks of love for God and for your neighbor. Perhaps it is the duty of every Christian to carry the radiant image of Christ, about which the venerable father speaks. And, of course, a believer need not proclaim Christ by standing with a megaphone in a large square or pestering his relatives—as we often do, demanding that they repent immediately of all their sins, start going to Church, etc. Such “preaching” does not usually bear fruit, because the best preaching is when a believer shines from within with love, leniency towards others, mercy, inner peace, prayer, grace and harmony. Of course, it is very difficult, because we do not always succeed in shining from within. But this is what the Church calls on us to do.

After all, why does the world suffer? We see this suffering around us every day. Why does a non-believer perceive this world as a catastrophe, as a leap into the abyss, as a labyrinth of utter boredom, despondency and indifference? Why does such a person regard himself as the end point of a lifelong journey? He puts neither God nor truth, but himself at the center of the universe and believes that he is the ultimate goal of his movement. Why do people take drugs? Why do they fill their lives with fantasies, clothes, laughter, cynical pleasures and falsehood? There are thousands of other things behind all these that a lost person himself does not understand. But the most important thing is that behind this lies emptiness, the absence of God, because any passion is the fruit of emptiness, the fruit of the lack of desire to move towards faith, towards God.

May our Lenten labors be repentance and contrition. May the people whom we will meet—at work, on the train, in the subway or on the street—during Lent (this season will surely fly by quickly), people who are lost, who know nothing about the Church and faith—feel if only a little warmth and care from us may then see that there is another life, that “these people”, as they used to say about Christians in ancient times, are “special people: they live in a different way.” True, today we don’t live the way the first Christians lived. But still, let the people we meet feel that there are other values and other goals in this life.

How wonderfully St. Maximus the ConfessorSaint Maximus the Confessor was born in Constantinople around 580 and raised in a pious Christian family.

“>St. Maximus the Confessor says that the attitude of Christians towards the world around them should be neither sensual, nor insensitive, but sympathetic. This sympathy for the world should distinguish a Christian. Our little good Lenten labors (and we must set this task before ourselves)—maybe a little prayer for someone, a glass of water, some small good deed—let them be our mission, our preaching, our Lenten work. But for this to happen there should not be emptiness, lack of grace and prayer in our hearts, but there should be grace-filled gifts in the heart, which the Holy Scriptures tell us about: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Gal. 5:22, 23). There are very few of these fragrant fruits in our hearts. Everyone knows this from experience. And today we have heard in the Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, “I have marred the beauty of my mind.” These are marvelous words!

St. Nektary of Optina (commemorated April 29/May 12 and October 11/24) said, “Well, okay, it’s bad with me; but it’s good with grace.” What does this mean? Things are going very bad for me, but the Lord will help me; He will touch my heart with His grace, and help and support will surely come. The most important thing is that we should seek it and long for God. And may Lent help each one of us in some way to discover something new in our spiritual life. Of course, the most important thing is that we should have repentance, learn patience, indulgence towards others, prayer, wisdom, perhaps just good treatment of our neighbors—worldly wisdom that we so often lack—because our relations with others are often completely clouded by emptiness.

If a person is ill but does not grumble, if he understands that this illness, perhaps even a serious one, was given to him to cleanse his heart of numerous passions, then the experience of pain is transformed and becomes that of recovery. If a person has lost his loved ones, but sees this not as an accident but as Divine Providence, then the experience of loss becomes that of gain. And if temptations, difficulties, sorrows, and unexpected crises befall us (after all, anything can happen on the path of life), and we do not blame anyone, neither God nor our neighbors, but rather accept all that happens to us with a pure heart, then the experience of everything that happens in our lives becomes an amazing, joyful and extremely necessary work of gratitude to God and Heaven.

Lent should not be only external. It is not about frowning, but about inner concentration; it is not about abstaining from delicious dainties, but about the abandonment of hatred, judging, enmity, anger, boredom, indifference and other passions nesting in our hearts. Lent is the mirror in which each one of us must, through abstinence and repentance, see our hidden passions. The Prophet Isaiah says, And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein (Is. 35:8). Lent is a very difficult path, on which we have today taken only the first step. But the goal of this path is wonderful, beautiful, deep, and very inspiring. This goal is the Holy Pascha of Christ. Amen.

Much of what we know about the life of St. Cyril has been compiled from the writings of his younger contemporaries, including Epiphanius, Jerome, and Rufinus, as well as fifth-century historians Socrates, Solomon, and Theodoret.

Cyril was likely born around the year 315 in Jerusalem, when Christianity had just been legalized in the Roman Empire. Although this legalization ended public persecutions that had previously threatened the Church, it indirectly contributed to a number of internal controversies about theology and the jurisdiction of bishops, both of which Cyril became involved in.

Cyril received a thorough education in classical Greek literature and the Bible. He was ordained by Bishop Maximus of Jerusalem, and later succeeded him as bishop in 348. Around the year 350, he delivered a series of lectures to new initiates of the Catholic Church, which are still studied today.

The following year, a large cross-shaped light appeared in the sky over the city, and many people interpreted this as a sign that the Church had triumphed over heresy. It could also been seen as a sign of suffering that the new bishop would undergo.

Unlike many other bishops of the time, Cyril did not let his classical education lead him away from Church teachings, and continued to teach that Christ was fully man and fully divine. However, Archbishop Acacius — who consecrated Cyril as a bishop — allied with the Arian heresy. His false beliefs led many bishops to believe Cyril was involved in the heresy as well.

Through this and other disputes with Acacius, Cyril was exiled from Jerusalem three times over the course of 20 years. He went first to Taraus, and took refuge with Bishop Silvanus. In 359, he came to the Council of Seleucia, where Acaius was deposed and Cyril was returned to his see. But a year later, he was driven out again, and only returned when the emperor had been replaced in 361.

Six years later, the new emperor banished all bishops who had been restored under Julian, and Cyril remained in exile for the next 11 years.

In 381, Cyril participated in the Second Ecumenical Council, which condemned Arianism and added references to the Holy Spirit to the Nicene Creed in 325.

St. Cyril died in 387, and was named a Doctor of the Church in 1883.

Moscow, March 18, 2024

Photo: patriarchia.ru     

The Patriarchs of the Russian and Serbian Orthodox Churches concelebrated the funeral of the long-time Serbian Church representative in Moscow on Saturday, March 16.

His Grace Bishop Antonije of Moravica, who had headed the Serbian Church’s podvoriye in Moscow since 2002, Reposed in the Lord: Bishop Antonije of Moravica (Serbian) and Bishop Hierotheos of Efkarpia (Constantinople)Two hierarchs of the Orthodox Church reposed in the Lord yesterday, March 11.

“>reposed in the Lord on March 11 at the age of 54.

His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije and his accompanying entourage of hierarchs and clergy arrived in Moscow on March 15, and later that day, they visited Holy Protection Monastery to venerate the relics of the internationally revered St. Matrona of Moscow, reports the Russian Orthodox Church.

Photo: patriarchia.ru     

The next morning, Patriarchs Kirill and Porfirije led the Divine Liturgy and funeral for Bp. Antonije at Christ the Savior Cathedral together with the members of the Serbian delegation, host of Russian hierarchs and clergy, and the representatives to the Russian Church from the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia and the Orthodox Church in America.

During the litany for the departed, prayers were offered both for Bp. Antonije and for the newly reposed Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria.

Before the start of the funeral, Pat. Kirill spoke of how Bp. Antonije truly loved the Russian Church and people and how they truly loved him.

The funeral was served in Church Slavonic and Serbian. Watch the service below:

​

Following the funeral, Bp. Antonije was laid to rest at the Serbian Orthodox representation Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Moscow.

A memorial meal was then held, during which both Patriarchs spoke of the extremely close fraternal relations between the Russian and Serbian Churches and peoples.

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St. Patrick of Ireland is believed to have been born around 389 in Britain. He was captured by Irish raiders when he was about 16 years old, and was taken as a slave to Ireland. He lived for six years as a shepherd before escaping and returning to his home. 

Back in Britain, Patrick studied the Christian faith at monastic settlements in Italy and what is now France. Around 418, he was ordained a deacon by the Bishop of Auxerre, France, and became a bishop in 432. 

Bishop Patrick was assigned to minister to the small Christian communities in Ireland. At the time, they had no central authority and lived in isolation from one another. St. Patrick used what he had learned about Irish culture during his years of captivity to teach the faith to his flock, converting many natives. 

St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity, and the symbol has become synonymous with Irish Catholic culture. 

St. Patrick’s feast day is widely known and celebrated throughout the world, but varying legends and myths about the man himself make it hard to distinguish what is true about him. 

Patrick is falsely known as the man who drove away snakes from Ireland, although the climate and location where he lived makes it impossible that snakes have ever inhabited the area. 

Patrick was not the first missionary to Ireland, but he is widely regarded as the most successful. His life of sacrifice, prayer, and fasting laid the foundation for many saints who followed after him, and he is known as one of Ireland’s most beloved saints to this day.

  

Orthodox Kurds could perhaps be called “workers of the eleventh hour”. They came to believe in Jesus Christ only in the third millennium, centuries and millennia later than many other peoples!

Despite the fact that our ancestors the Magi came to worship the God-child Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, and that one finds names of “Persian saints” in Church history, for a long time Christianity could not take root among the Iranian peoples. For centuries, like their great ancestors Cyrus the Great and Darius the Mede, they have only expressed sympathy for, but not complete faith in Biblical revelations, not yet taking the step of receiving Baptism and beginning a new life in Christ.

There is not a single Christian Iranian nation in the world today. However, the descendants of the ancient Magi, who were the first to worship Christ, have now begun to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of history.

One can also see a certain advantage in this “historical delay”—the most important Ecumenical Councils have already been held, the Church Canons have been compiled, the great Liturgical tradition, rites and customs of the Church of Christ have crystallized. All that remains is to translate this rich heritage into the Iranian languages, to create a Kurdish ecclesiastical literature and thereby introduce and join our brethren to the Orthodox Church, enriching our languages and our culture.

However, the Kurdish people and other Iranian peoples and tribes are among those receiving the least attention from the Orthodox mission. At the same time, neo-Protestant denominations are actively preaching amongst the Iranian peoples and have carried out many missionary projects in just half a century. As for the Orthodox Church, unfortunately, there is no permanent or purpose-directed mission amongst the Kurds or other Iranian peoples today.

Unlike the neo-Protestant Kurds, who are content to have only the Bible and some church hymns, the people’s Orthodox representatives have already tasted the great Orthodox ecclesiastical liturgical tradition and works of the Holy Fathers of the Church as a lived experience. And against this background, it is bitter to admit that at the moment there are only a few Orthodox books in the Kurdish language. Due to the awakening interest of the Kurds and all the Iranian peoples in Orthodox Christianity, the need for these books is very great.

Today there are thousands of Christian Kurds and hundreds of Iranians who have converted to Orthodoxy on their own. It was from these new converts that the initiative to establish a mission began. And one of these very converts is the author of these lines.

Photo: greekcitytimes.com     

An ethnic Kurd-Kurmanj, I was born into a Yezidi family in Georgia. I turned to Jesus Christ at a young age and have been studying theology, classical philology, and Kurdish literature for a decade. I graduated from the University of Athens with highest honors, where I am currently writing my master’s thesis. It is in Athens that I am given a unique opportunity to study church texts in their original language and to make translations from Greek into Kurdish.

Work is currently underway on a Prayer Book, a Book of Hours, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, and a Catechism, as well as on F. M. Dostoevsky’s novella, Notes from the Underground.

Our goal is to create a language that will be understandable to the Kurdish reader and at the same time capable of expressing the complexity and beauty of the Christian idiom—a Kurdish Christian language, in all five dialects, that will greatly enrich our culture.

All that remains for us and all representatives of the various Orthodox Christian Iranian peoples is to make the richness of the Orthodox heritage our own, and pass it on to our brethren, “churching” the Iranian languages and baptizing all the Kurdish and Iranian tribes, whose numbers are like are like the stars in heaven.

We are in great need of the prayerful help and support of our elder brothers and sisters in Christ who hold dear the words of our Savior, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations (Matt. 28:19). We call on everyone to take part in this work of God so far as they are able.

Today we face a number of tasks to achieve our two primary goals: mission (preaching among non-believers) and catechesis (teaching converts to Orthodoxy the truths of the Orthodox Faith and strengthening them in church life):

Enlightenment

• Translation of the Bible, the works of the Holy Fathers and Teachers of the Church, and liturgical books into all Iranian languages and dialects;

• Translation of classical literature by ancient and modern Christian, authors, such as Dostoevsky, Plato, etc.;

• Creation of a publishing house that will facilitate the publication and distribution this literature;

• Assistance to missionaries and catechists on their missionary trips.

Digital products

• Creation of a library application comprised of all translated books, as well as their audio versions;

• Release of an ecclesiastical calendar;

• Creation of a large multilingual website and its profiles on all social networks;

• Creation of a multilingual online dictionary for translators.

Education

• Feasible assistance to the newly-baptized in admission to theological or other faculties of Orthodox Universities and theological seminaries.

• The support program will include the writing of articles and translation of video lectures on principles and dogmas, as well as on the ritual side of the Orthodox faith and Orthodox apologetics.

• Organization of pilgrimage trips for the newly-baptized and catechumens to Orthodox holy places.

Culture

• Creation of icons, mosaics, liturgical utensils, etc. for future church buildings in all Iranian languages and in the cultural idiom of our peoples;

• Collection of material and cultural heritage artifacts for a future Kurdish museum (carpets, ethnographic objects, etc.).

• Collection of books in national languages for a future library (at present we have collected more than 2000 books in the Kurmanji dialect alone, as well and books about Kurds in other languages).

We believe in the future of Orthodox Christianity amongst our peoples, because the Risen Lord has inspired us to follow this path. We hope that by realizing all the listed goals, we will help our peoples come to know and be converted to the Christian faith, establishing a solid foundation for the future local ecclesiastical communities towards which we all strive.

Please consider donating to the this missionary project through: Patreon.

You can also make a one-time donations through this PayPal account: info.kurd.orthodox@gmail.com

St. Julian of Antioch lived in the 4th century. He was a member of the Roman Senate, and was killed during the persecutions of Diocletian for being a Christian. 

According to legend, Julian was tortured for a whole year before his death, and was paraded through various cities of Cilicia to discourage others from following the faith. He was then sewn up in a sack of scorpions, sand, and vipers, and thrown into the sea. His body drifted to Alexandria, where he was buried before being moved to Antioch. 

At Antioch, St. John Chrysostom delivered a homily in honor of St. Julian. 

Amid a serious economic crisis in Argentina and a poverty rate of almost 60 percent, ultra-libertarian President Javier Milei on March 12 received the heads of the bishops’ conference for his first meeting with the Church. He heard their concerns over the lack of food and medicines for the poor.

Since Milei took office in December, he has been implementing a number of measures that critics say intensified the hardships faced by the poorest in society.

In one of his first acts, he devalued the Argentinian peso by more than 50 percent, something that had the initial result of increasing the prices of most products. He has also cut the State’s expenditures, including those offering social relief.

In February, the annual inflation rate attained 276 percent, something that puts gives Argentina one of the world’s highest inflation rates. The monthly increase, however, corresponded to 13 percent, a rate significantly lower than that of January – which reached 20 percent. Milei celebrated the figure as a sign that his policies are working, something disputed by many analysts.

The episcopal delegation was led by Bishop Oscar Ojea of San Isidro, the conference’s president. The meeting should have taken place in December, but Milei postponed it – claiming that the beginning of his tenure was too demanding and that he needed some more time to adequately receive the Church leaders.

In a statement released after the encounter, the bishops say they shared with the president their concerns over the economic situation, “especially when it comes to the restrictions imposed on the vulnerable sectors that suffer, mainly with the lack of food and medicines.”

The prelates also told Milei about the challenges faced in several Argentinian provinces, which had been reported to them by other bishops.

They thanked the president for “attentively listening to their demands” and told him they’re ready to work side by side with him for the common good.

Since the presidential campaign, Milei and the Church have had several run-ins due to his repeated attacks on Pope Francis and on the Catholic social doctrine. An adherent of radical libertarianism in the economy, he defends the State’s minimum intervention in Argentinian society and criticizes the advocates of governmental incentives and social aid for the poor.

He has already called Pope Francis, his countryman, a “communist” for defending the legitimacy of using taxes to help the neediest.

His several attacks on the pope earned him the enmity of many Catholics, including large sectors of the clergy, who even campaigned against him.

His friendly encounter with Pope Francis in the Vatican on Feb. 12 apparently reduced the atmosphere of discomfort among part of the Argentinian Catholics, but the concrete impact of his policies on the lives of the poor have led many in the Church to keep a critical attitude towards him.

Father Mauricio Cardea, a vicar in the parish of Villa Celina, a poor neighborhood in La Matanza, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, told Crux that “it’s noticeable how life has changed for the worse lately.”

“And the worst part is that one cannot identify any urgent measure being taken by the government to deal with that scenario,” he said.

A member of the team of “slum priests” – known as curas villeros – Cardea manages a refectory for the poor in his parish.

“But the number of people coming to us for food has grown so much lately that we had to open a new refectory,” he said.

The curas villeros are a group that works and lives in the poorest neighborhoods all over the South American nation.

Cardea explained that the current crisis leads everybody to lose in society.

“Many in the middle class became poor and many poor became indigent,” the priest said.

Most families are having to deal with difficulties sending their children to school and with sick elderly who are not receiving medicines from the government anymore.

“It’s a time of great disorder in communities and families,” he said.

Cardea said the Argentinian poor have always needed help from the government and from the social organizations. Without it, the situation might become unbearable.

Juan Romero, who heads a civic organization in a slum called Villa 31 – one of the largest in Buenos Aires – agrees with Cardea.

He said that the public refectory his organization runs can only serve 150 people, but more than 400 have been approaching them.

“More and more people have been telling us that they lost their jobs and that they need to eat,” he told Crux.

Romero said that a growing number of people have been living on the streets, some of them with their children.

“When we asked the government for more support, we didn’t receive an answer,” he said.

That has been one of the worst periods for Romero in 41 years of activity, he added.

“I don’t think we’ll see anything changing for the better this year,” he said.

Milei’s administration has already informed some curas villeros that the funds for their social activities supported by the government will not be readjusted this year. With the growing inflation, dining halls and other social works have been terribly in deficit.

“Thankfully, the poor have the strength needed to keep struggling,” Cardea said.

Organizers of Pope Francis’s ongoing Synod of Bishops on Synodality announced Thursday that ten different working groups had been formed in the Roman Curia to address specific topics that came out of last year’s session.

These topics, they said, are restricted to issues mentioned inside of the synod hall and include hot-button questions such as women’s access to the diaconate and ways of welcoming the LGBTQ+ community.

Asked specifically whether the working groups would touch on issues of homosexuality and the women’s diaconate, Monsignor Piero Coda, secretary general of the International Theological Commission, said “of course they are on the agenda,” and that various materials will be included in the reflection on these topics.

“If you look well at the issue of access to the diaconate, it’s said specifically that it was a topic that emerged from the synodal assembly and is a question of agreeing on this need to have a study,” he said, saying the results of the two past commissions established by Pope Francis to examine the issue, which were inconclusive, will be considered in the current study.

However, asked whether a working group dedicated to the relationship between the Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches would address the disputed question of mandatory priestly celibacy, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Vatican office for the Synod of Bishops, said no.

“The topic of celibacy was never put on the table during the assembly,” Grech said.

Similarly, Jesuit Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, general relator for the Synod on Synodality, stressed the importance of recalling that “these study groups don’t treat all topics discussed in the Church.”

“They only involve those points that were presented by the People of God during the synodal process,” he said, saying, “We don’t do ecclesial politics, we are servants of this synodal process.”

Hollerich said he has tried and believes he has succeeded in the synod “to not put my own contents, but content that comes from people of God.”

Organizers were also asked whether a working group dedicated to examining “controversial doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues” would revisit blessings for same-sex couples given the widespread backlash created by the Vatican declaration that allowed them.

The declaration, Fiducia Supplicans, was published by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in December 2023 outlining methods for blessing couples in irregular situations and has generated enormous backlash and debate.

However, Hollerich told journalists Thursday that for him, Fiducia Supplicans “is a very important document,” describing it as “very beautiful, because it means God loves everyone, even those who are in an irregular situation.”

The blessing given is a sign of God’s love, he said, saying “It is a pastoral document, it’s not a doctrinal document” and the synod has nothing to do with it.

“I find it very beautiful in my pastoral context, it helps me. I think that what the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pope have already decided is not a question to take up again in the synod,” he said, but added that this was his personal opinion.

On Thursday the Vatican published two documents resulting from the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, which opened in 2021 and has included consultations at the local, continental, and universal levels, culminating with the first of two Rome-based month-long meetings in October 2023.

A second and final month-long meeting will be held from Oct. 2-27, to further examine issues that arose from the various stages of consultation, as well as major discussion points that emerged during last year’s meeting, bringing the multi-year process to a close.

The first document, titled, “How to be a synodal Church in mission?” offered five different perspectives it said required theological reflection ahead of this year’s synod meeting.

Those perspectives include the “synodal face of the local Church” examining local realities and ministries, including the question of women’s involvement and the potential creation of new ministries, and “the synodal face of groupings of churches” on the relationship between national, regional and continental bishops’ conferences.

Another perspective is “the synodal missionary face of the universal Church,” which the document said implies “a new way of exercising the Petrine ministry” and examines the relationship between bishops and the pope, as well as the topic of ecumenism.

The liturgical and sacramental roots of a “synodal Church” exploring the ecclesiology of participation of laity while respecting hierarchal authority is another perspective requiring reflection, as is the “synodal Church in mission,” addressing the evangelization of culture versus the inculturation of the faith and the need for “ecclesial communion” at all levels on major pastoral and moral questions.

A second document was also published outlining ten different study groups dedicated to specific issues that have emerged in the synod process thus far, and which will be addressed by the synod office in collaboration with competent dicasteries of the Roman Curia.

These study groups are:

• Some aspects of the relationship between the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Latin Church
• Listening to the Cry of the Poor
• The mission in the digital environment
• The revision of the Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis in a missionary synodal perspective
• Some theological and canonical matters regarding specific ministerial forms
• The revision, in a synodal missionary perspective, of the documents touching on the relationship between Bishops, consecrated life, and ecclesial associations
• Some aspects of the person and ministry of the Bishop (criteria for selecting candidates to Episcopacy, judicial function of the Bishops, nature and course of ad limina apostolorum visits) from a missionary synodal perspective
• The role of Papal Representatives in a missionary synodal perspective
• Theological criteria and synodal methodologies for shared discernment of controversial doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues
• The reception of the fruits of the ecumenical journey in ecclesial practices

In a Feb. 22 letter from Pope Francis to Grech ordering the creation of these study groups, the pontiff said the groups must be comprised of not only curial officials, but experts from all over the world, brining not only their expertise, but “current experiences in the People of God gathered in the local churches.”

These study groups have already begun their work and have been tasked with developing a working plan that they will present during this year’s October synod meeting. They have been asked to conclude their studies and present results to the pope by June 2025.

Given the broad spectrum of issues being addressed, the study groups are working in close collaboration with the International Theological Commission, the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and a Canon Law commission established in agreement with the Dicastery for Legislative Texts.

Experts who form part of the study groups, the document said, must come from a variety of cultural and geographical backgrounds, they must represent different disciplinary fields, and must include both men and women.

The Vatican’s office for the Synod of Bishops will also establish a “Permanent Forum” to further explore the theological, juridical, pastoral, spiritual and communicative aspects of “the synodality of the Church.”

Organizers stressed Thursday that the groups, though established as a response to the synod, are not part of it, but are a personal initiative of the pope that are designed to outlast the Synod on Synodality itself.

Speaking to the press, Hollerich said the specific topic of the synod “is synodality. A lot of topics came up from people of God, but it’s impossible to treat all of these topics in a synod.”

“There needs to be a certain reflection, so the pope took up his responsibility as pastor of universal Church” to explore specific issues of broad interest, he said.

Similarly, Sister Simona Brambilla, the new secretary of the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said the synod is “not about this or that topic.”

“The important thing is how to reflect in a synodal way,” she said, saying the Church at various levels “must clarify how to do this reflection in a synodal way” and “walk together” in addressing important topics of broad interest.

This, she said, “applies to all topics” in the synod, examining how they were brought up, how to reflect on them, and how to live them “in a synodal way…it’s not on this or that topic, but synodality.”