Tag: Christianity

Balamand, Lebanon, February 29, 2024

Photo: Antiochian Patriarchate     

A Synodal Committee of the Antiochian Patriarchate is investigating the “ecclesiastical transgressions” of Metropolitan Joseph, the former head of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America.

The committee will report to the Holy Synod, which will make the appropriate decision.

The Patriarchate reported yesterday:

The Synodal Committee formed by His Beatitude Patriarch JOHN X held a meeting to discuss the developments taking place in the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America.

This committee consists of Metropolitans: Elias Audé (Beirut), Antonios Souri (Zahlé and Baalbek), Nicolas Baalbaki (Hama), and Athanasius Fahd (Latakia).

Its first meeting which took place in Balamand was chaired by His Beatitude and attended by the Metropolitans, members of the Committee. It examined the ecclesiastical transgressions committed by the former Metropolitan of the Archdiocese Joseph Zehlaoui.

It decided to hold several meetings for further investigation and deliberation, in order to prepare a detailed report to be submitted to the upcoming Holy Synod meeting on March 13, 2024, where the appropriate decision will be taken.

Met. Joseph was enthroned as head of the Archdiocese in New Head of Antiochian Church in America Enthroned; Antiochian Patriarch to Meet with Officials on Issues in SyriaThe second largest Orthodox Christian Church in North America has a new leader, enthroned by the head of one of the oldest churches on earth.

“>December 2014, having already served as a bishop for more than two decades in Syria and the U.S.

In 2022, Helena Ditko revealed to Archdiocesan officials that she had been romantically involved with the Metropolitan from 2001 to 2017 (she was divorced in 2004), and that she could no longer remain silent. The accusations and investigation were leaked and published online, and the resulting scandal led to the Metropolitan’s retirement Metropolitan of Antiochian Archdiocese retires amidst moral claimsPatriarch John calls upon the Archdiocese to remain united in prayer.

“>last September.

Then, Former head of Antiochian Archdiocese sues over severance package—alleges promises were brokenAccording to Metropolitan Joseph (Al-Zehlaoui), he has not been given the generous severance package he was promised.

“>in October of last year, Met. Joseph brought a lawsuit against the Archdiocese and several board members, arguing that he has not been given the severance package he was promised.

In addition to a number of other benefits he says he was promised, Met. Joseph hopes to continue living at the Los Angeles chancery, though he also owns a home in Post Falls, Idaho, that is valued at nearly $1.7 million.

Met. Joseph is seeking at least $5 million in compensatory damages, as well punitive damages and declaratory and injunctive relief.

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A Romanian Jew who became a French intellectual, Benjamin Fondane was a man of many parts.

A poet, a philosopher, a cineaste with connections to the French avant-garde, he was a citizen of the world involved in the cultural life of three countries: Romania, France, and Argentina, where he lived briefly. He was also a friend of leading cultural figures in France, including the formidable Catholic thinkers Jacques Maritain and his wife, Raissa.

The man lived in the whirlwind of the chaotic first half of the 20th century, always as an outsider to the many movements he encountered. He died the quintessential outsider — a victim of the Nazi genocide, killed at Auschwitz just days before the Russians liberated the camp.

Fondane was, besides, a prophet. In philosophy, he was close to a Russian existentialist and religious thinker, Lev Shestov.

Maritain, who tried unsuccessfully to save him from the Holocaust, described him as “a disciple of Shestov, but one inhabited by the Gospel.” Fondane, the Jew, said that “the powerlessness of Christ” was “stronger than all the powers of the world.”

I only recently encountered Fondane in a book of his philosophical writings entitled “Existential Monday: Philosophical Essays” (New York Review Books, $16).

Eclectic is a word that would have to be invented for Fondane had it never existed. He told Maritain that he and his mentor Shestov were attempting a thought rooted in Judaism but indebted to the Christianity of Kierkegaard, Martin Luther, and Tertullian. Besides those heretics, throw Pascal, Kafka, Baudelaire, and Rimbaud into the mix and you have a sense of the reach of Fondane’s culture.

It is a testament to both Maritain and Fondane that they could be friends despite such different ideas. I think what united them was a deep skepticism of modern culture, which, since the Enlightenment, has attempted to find meaning for mankind without resorting to the God of revelation.

In words that are as true today as they were in his time, Fondane said “we think that we are sheltered from the convulsions of a culture that risks burying us in the debris of its collapse.”

Kant and Hegel, Heidegger and Sartre, even Camus seemed to Fondane to be part of a conspiracy to limit humanity with a bleak future based solely on reason, defined in a way that demanded a transcendence without a transcendent, and condemned the individual to a stoic meaninglessness.

“Human nature,” he wrote, “has not withstood the inhuman Tower of Babel which we have erected and which we have called civilization.”

Fondane saw the “Nazi Caliban” threatening Europe not as an aberration of the progress of the Enlightenment but as its final fruit. Civilization without God ended up in the cul-de-sac of the concentration camps.

He called for a “far-sighted humanism based on human wretchedness.” The “overestimation of reason,” as he saw it, resulted in putting “all of science’s trump cards in the hands of” the enemies of humanity.

This has application today: Nazi science presaged the horrors of all the Frankenstein experiments today accepted by modern researchers, for instance, the frozen embryos and fetal flesh used by Big Pharma in its insatiable thirst for profits. The Nazis were the advance guard for abortion, certainly. Planned Parenthood, recognize your ancestor!

Fondane called for an “irresignation” with regard to what was called “humanism” (really, secular humanism). He said the modern proponents of humanism “staked too much on the separate and divine intellect [of human beings] and neglected more than it ought to have real man, whom we had treated as an angel only to finally reduce him to a level lower than the beasts.”

This “irresignation,” a word he coined, was not the same as unresignation. More than a failure to be resigned to the meaninglessness of life, it was a refusal to be resigned to a world that was not open to God.

“As long as we hope to be victorious by our own strength and the strength of the Idea, as long as we have not yet lost everything and lost it irremediably, the relationship between man and God has still not been opened,” he asserted.

Fondane not only preached irresignation, he also lived it.

Although a naturalized French citizen married to a Gentile, the poet was arrested several times by the Germans who occupied Paris. Once captured while serving in the French military, he escaped, another time he was released. But the third time he was detained, taken to the infamous Drancy concentration camp where the French Catholic poet and convert Max Jacob died.

Fondane’s sister was arrested with him. When it came about that his friends had negotiated his release again, he refused to go without his sister. He could not be “resigned” to saving himself while allowing his sister to be taken. They both died in Auschwitz. That is irresignation incarnate, and merits as much admiration as his intellectual stance.

In the years since his death, his work in literature and philosophy has been recognized in France. In English-speaking countries, he is far less known but that seems to be changing.

Fondane has a lesson for people of faith.

In a poem about his military service fighting the Nazi onslaught, “I myself carried a rifle,” he talked about his connection with salvation history. “I crossed the Red Sea on foot,” he said and then remarked about his understanding that without God we are nothing. “Did I think that I could halt History with a rifle but without Him?”

There is a lovely Catholic epilogue to his story. The Maritains entered his history after death, also, especially by their friendship with Fondane’s wife, Genevieve Tissier-Fondane. They secured employment for her after the end of World War II and coaxed her back to the practice of the Catholic faith. She eventually became a sister of the Congregation of Notre-Dame de Sion, a congregation that had as its hallmark the evangelization of the Jewish people.

Palestinian Ambassador to the Holy See, Issa Kassissieh, on Monday met with a top Vatican official about the ongoing war in Gaza, stressing the need for immediate humanitarian assistance and calling for a ceasefire ahead of the holiest days on the Christian and Muslim calendars.

“There is a real crisis in Gaza with regard to the famine and (there is) no food, no water, no medicines, no hospitals, no schools…the children, the mothers, and the elderly are the ones who are highly paying the price,” he said, and thanked Pope Francis for his repeated prayers and calls for a ceasefire.

As the Muslim holy month Ramadan and the Christian feast of Easter approach, “we hope that by this day there will be a ceasefire, so that especially the people in Gaza would see at the end of the tunnel a glimpse of hope, if there was any hope,” he told Crux.

Kassissieh also urged Israel to pay heed to the appeals of the international community and “even their allies,” saying they should remember that “they’re living in the Middle East, among Arab and Muslim worlds, so extremism won’t get any results for anyone.”

The current situation, he said, requires “good leadership, and it needs wisdom, wisdom amidst this difficult situation we’re all in.”

Kassissieh on Feb. 26 met with British Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, to discuss the ongoing war in Gaza and other issues of regional importance.

He thanked Gallagher for the pope’s appeals for peace in Gaza and for statements made by other senior Vatican officials on the war, and for the “relentless” efforts of the Holy See to push for a lasting peace in the Holy Land.

Among the recent statements made on Gaza are remarks by Vatican Secretary of State Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who described Israel’s retaliation against an Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack by Hamas as disproportionate, drawing fire from Israel’s embassy to the Holy See, which called Parolin’s comment “regrettable.”

The conversation between Kassissieh and Gallagher also touched on the special status of Jerusalem and the need to ensure access to holy sites, such as the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, as both Ramadan and Easter approach, to ensure that Jerusalem remains the spiritual heart of the monotheistic religions.

In his capacity as dean of the Arab ambassadors to the Holy See, Kassissieh delivered a letter to Gallagher on behalf of the League of Arab States Accredited to the Holy See detailing current regional developments and stressing the importance of supporting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), at a time when the organization is responsible for the bulk of the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip, providing a lifeline to millions of Palestinian refugees throughout the region.

In his interview with Crux, Kassissieh noted that the International Court of Justice in January urged Israel to prevent a potential genocide in Gaza, and echoed Pope Francis’s repeated condemnation of war “as a defeat” for all involved.

Regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Kassissieh said he told Gallagher that at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, trucks full of humanitarian aid are blocked while inside Gaza, “you have famine and the situation is completely chaotic, and the health system is completely collapsing.”

“There is no place for the people to go, while outside we have more than 2,000 lorries full of medical aid and food and structures, and they cannot get in. So, the irony is, in the same place, inside you have this famine, and outside you have all the lorries waiting to come in,” he said.

Kassissieh said there ought to be a stronger will by the international community, and the Western world in particular, to ensure that the people of Gaza have access to humanitarian aid.

“Everyone is watching the TV, and they see it in the eyes of the children, the suffering. Our children have enough suffering, the trauma they’re in is unthinkable,” he said, saying, “the catastrophe we’re in needs years and years to heal.”

“Gaza has become a graveyard for our children. So, we need to have the world leaders shake up their conscience, as is the case with the Holy Father,” he said, voicing hope that “with God’s will, this carnage would stop.”

Kassissieh praised the church’s network of charitable organizations and institutions such as the Pontifical Missions and Caritas, as well as efforts by the Latin Patriarchate to help those in need, and he lauded the pope for being in constant contact with the pastor of Gaza’s Holy Family Catholic parish, which is currently sheltering around 600 people amid calls for evacuation.

“They’re living in horror; they hear bombardments and the voice of the military machines, and nowadays this voice is higher than the voice of the bells, and the Holy See wants to see immediate ceasefire and to give hope for the people,” he said.

Also discussed in the meeting with Gallagher were restrictions on holy sites in Jerusalem ahead of Ramadan and Easter, which Kassissieh said is “a recipe for more deterioration and for more angriness.”

“We expect that Israel under the Geneva Convention would facilitate, but not complicate,” he said, saying access to the holy sites “is a basic right for the faithful, to reach their holy shrines and pray without any restrictions.”

Kassissieh said he asked Gallagher to help ensure Christians in Bethlehem, Ramallah and other parts of the West Bank can enter Jerusalem without restrictions and “practice their belief and celebrate Easter,” as having free and secure access to their places of worship is their longtime right, he said, saying restrictions “would create more anger, more frustration, more hatred,” which must be avoided for everyone’s sake.

The needs and ambitions of everyone should be respected, “or else the future would be so gloomy,” he said, saying, “there should be someone there like His Holiness to keep the hope and to keep the light on, the candle on, not to push things to more deterioration.”

In terms of the Holy See’s role in the current conflict, Kassissieh said he urged the church to continue “their constructive efforts with their partners, with the world leaders, to ensure a ceasefire and humanitarian aid,” and to help develop a roadmap with an endgame, including a clear timeframe to reach a two-state solution.

Kassissieh insisted that other states ought to follow the Holy See’s decision and recognize the State of Palestine based on the 1967 borders, which he said is the only way to achieve a comprehensive peace.

He also said the Holy See’s advocacy for maintaining the “historic and legal” status quo of Jerusalem and its holy sites is important, and that it its status must be internationally guaranteed given the special importance of Jerusalem for monotheistic religions.

The special relationship between Pope Francis and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was also highlighted during the conversation.

Regarding the status of Jerusalem, Kassissieh said “This, I think, needs to be more developed and mainly with the local church, with the patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem, so that they would have a united vision for the future of Jerusalem.”

“Here there is a crucial role for the Holy See,” he said, saying church discussion in this regard must be based on the United Nations’ resolutions related to the Palestinian question.

Kassissieh also spoke of rising discrimination against Christians in the Holy Land, saying, “the Christian presence in East Jerusalem is not at its best. There are many incidents taking place now by the extremist settlers.”

He said that he and Gallagher agreed on the need to “maintain the beauty of the mosaic of the Old City of Jerusalem, and to ensure that the Christian heritage is preserved in this area.”

Gallagher’s message to the people of Palestine, he said, was to remind them of the pope’s repeated prayers and calls for a ceasefire, and to assure them that the Holy See is aware of their suffering.

The need to hold elections in Palestine was also discussed, Kassissieh said, saying he agreed with Gallagher on this point, but cautioned that “no one can talk about the timeline for elections within a political roadmap before we have a ceasefire and a serious humanitarian intervention.”

After almost 10 days of terror in Chilpancingo, Guerrero’s capital city, peace was finally attained after a priest got the leaders of both gangs to negotiate by phone on Feb. 13.

In that period, two criminal groups attacked and killed seven bus drivers and led the people to stay at home out of fear of being shot on the streets.

Since then, no more violent actions connected to drug trafficking have occurred in the city, according to Father José Filiberto Velázquez, who heads the Human Rights Center Minerva Bello, which gives support to victims of violence and their families.

Velázquez’s initiative was part of a national program called National Dialogue for Peace promoted since 2022 by the Mexican chapter of the Society of Jesus, the Mexican bishops, the Conference of Religious, and the organization of lay people to build peace in the North American nation.

The movement was launched after the shocking killings of two Jesuit priests, 80-year-old Father Joaquín Mora and 79-year-old Father Javier Campos, who were shot dead along with a lay person inside their church in Chihuahua in June of 2022.

“Crime has been growing more and more since 2006 and the government has launched a strategy of war against gangs, something that only worsened the situation. Those groups have become more diverse and have grown,” Velázquez told Crux.

That crisis has eroded any sense of value that life and sacredness had, he added. That prompted the Jesuits and the rest of the Mexican church to act.

Father Jorge Atilano, the Executive Director of the National Dialogue for Peace, told Crux that the project was conceived to be carried out in three stages. The first one involved the establishment of a wide network of church people, scholars, and non-governmental organizations that work to reduce violence in Mexico.

The activists and social movements gathered in the Dialogue defined a national agenda for peace, which includes actions to be taken on the local and on the national levels.

“In the second phase, which is now taking place, the idea is to establish local agendas for peace and to implement small actions in that direction,” Atilano explained.

In the third stage, the people involved in the Dialogue will receive training and inter-institutional projects for peace will be implemented.

While national actions involve the creation of policies to attend to vulnerable teenagers and the commitment of politicians to the peace agenda, local initiatives – like the ones carried out by Velázquez – comprehend measures like giving support to victims of violence, establishing programs to prevent and combat drug addiction, and promoting the peaceful solution of conflicts.

“Each parish and diocese is implementing such actions in their own way. But it was possible to build a common perspective and define a national agenda for peace,” Atilano said.

Velázquez has not been the only member of the clergy to talk directly to criminals in order to pacify gangs. Bishop Maximino Martínez of Toluca told the press earlier this week that he has been talking to local drug lords in order to find peace. Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, a bishop emeritus in Chiapas, also revealed that he has been having meetings with drug traffickers.

“A number of members of the clergy have been discussing problems directly with criminals. Unfortunately those initiatives many times do not make progress,” Atilano said.

Velázquez has been working with victims of violence since 2017 and has provided humanitarian help to them and to poor communities in Guerrero on many occasions. This way, he ended up getting to know some of the local drug lords – and that’s how he managed to talk to them.

“I saw a possibility to put them in contact to solve their dispute and I did it. Both parties were willing to talk and both of them trusted in the process,” Velázquez said.

More than a week has passed, and new attacks have not been reported in Chilpancingo, he said.

Working so close to criminals can bring many challenges and risks. Last year, Velázquez’s car was shot at many times while he was driving. Thankfully, he was not hit.

“Our work possibly goes against the interests of criminal gangs and government authorities. There’s always a risk for us,” Velázquez said, adding that it’s important for priests like himself to make clear for criminals that “they only want to bring a message of peace.”

The relations of the people involved in the National Dialogue with the Mexican politicians has also not been easy. Atilano recalled that President António Manuel López Obrador has recently said he considered the meetings between clergy and drug lords to be positive. But local politicians said that violence and peace are the State’s responsibility.

“The president is arrogant, but he had to recognize our work. We’re now focusing on talking to the next candidates [general elections in Mexico will be in June],” Atilano said.

ROME – After taking several days off due to what the Vatican described as a mild flu, Pope Francis on Wednesday resumed his normal schedule, but had an aide read his remarks during a public address and underwent tests at a Roman hospital after.

Speaking to attendees of his Feb. 28 Wednesday general audience, Pope Francis said “I am still a bit sick, and because of this I have asked Monsignor [Filippo] Ciampanelli to read the catechesis.”

Ciampanelli, an official of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, read the pope’s speech, but Francis delivered the traditional greetings to different language groups himself.

The Vatican announced Saturday that Pope Francis had canceled his audiences that day because he was suffering from a “mild flu-like state.”

While Francis delivered his Sunday Angelus address as planned, he also canceled Monday’s commitments due to his ongoing cold, though the Vatican clarified that he had no fever. He had no publicly announced appointments on Tuesday.

Having aides read his public remarks when sick but well enough to maintain his schedule has become a habit for the pope, who in December had officials of the Secretariat of State read several public speeches while he was suffering from a respiratory infection that caused him to cancel a planned trip to Dubai for the COP28 climate summit.

Later on Wednesday the Vatican announced that Pope Francis after concluding his general audience went to the Fatebenefratelli Hospital on Rome’s Tiber Island for unspecified “diagnostic tests” that had not been previously announced. Italian media report that he left the facility around noon local time.

In Wednesday’s audience address, Pope Francis focused on the topic of envy, and afterward issued an appeal for prayer for all people “who are suffering war,” including the people of Ukraine and of Israel and Palestine.

He also urged prayers for the people of Haiti, “where crimes and kidnappings by armed gangs continue,” and acknowledged the 25th anniversary of the United Nations convention on anti-personnel mines, saying mines “continue to hit innocent civilians, especially children even many years after the end of hostilities.”

ROME — When it comes to leadership and governance, the old adage that “personnel is policy” is true of just about everyone — including popes.

As a pontiff with a very clear set of pastoral and political objectives, Pope Francis in particular speaks volumes with whom he chooses to represent him — both officially and unofficially.

Over the last 11 years of his pontificate, Francis has shown a preference for messengers able to move the needle on important points of policy by stepping outside of convention and traditional power structures.   

Francis tends to operate in an indirect and roundabout way, appointing what are essentially placeholders to traditional seats of power while giving more influence to people he sees as trustworthy confidants, regardless of whether they are formally part of the system. 

In fact, some of those who play the most crucial roles in advancing papal policy under Francis don’t necessarily hold any diplomatic office, and have never been a part of the Vatican’s official diplomatic corps. The question, then, is perhaps not so much who the most important Vatican diplomats are, but who are the most important people involved in Vatican diplomacy.

Here’s a look at five officials, not in any specific order, who seem to hold the most sway right now when it comes to the Vatican’s diplomatic endeavors.

1) Cardinal Pietro Parolin

Regardless of everything stated above, one of the most consequential Vatican diplomats has been, and remains, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, though not for the reasons one might expect.

Parolin has been Francis’ secretary of state since October 2013 — almost the entirety of the pontificate. From the beginning, Parolin has been a close papal confidant who, among other things, was among the chief architects of the Vatican’s China policy and its controversial 2018 provisional agreement with China on bishop appointments. 

But as the years have passed, Francis has depended less and less on Parolin for key policy moves. While leaving him in his position, Francis has appeared to bypass him by entrusting special projects and initiatives to close allies outside the system. 

Still, he’s remained a strident, even outspoken defender of Francis’ foreign policy stances. 

For example: While the pope has tried to strike a balanced tone in public remarks about Israel’s war with Hamas, Parolin has pulled no punches, repeatedly calling for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and recently coming under fire by the Israeli Embassy to the Holy See for saying Israel’s response to Hamas’ surprise Oct. 2023 attack was “disproportionate.” Israel called those remarks “regrettable” (which was translated into Italian as the more forceful “deplorable”).

As one of the pope’s most visible representatives, Parolin is still seen as a diplomatic heavyweight in the Vatican, meaning that when he speaks, his counterparts are listening.

However, Parolin also carries added weight in that he is increasingly seen as papabile, a likely papal candidate in the next conclave, by moderates and conservatives in the Church who are in favor of general continuity, but who are perhaps looking for someone a bit calmer and more predictable.

2) Cardinal Matteo Zuppi

Though not formally a part of the Vatican’s diplomatic corps, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the archbishop of Bologna and president of the powerful Italian bishops’ conference, is undoubtedly a key player in the Holy See’s diplomatic affairs.

A close papal ally broadly seen as being tanto papabile, Zuppi as a young priest helped the Vatican negotiate the Mozambique peace accords in 1992 through the Sant’Egidio Community, an ecclesial movement dedicated to social issues, and which is involved in diplomatic peacekeeping efforts.

Zuppi is a member of Sant’Egidio, Francis’ favorite of the new movements, and last year was tapped as the pope’s envoy to look for possible pathways between Ukraine and Russia. 

 While the Vatican doesn’t seem poised to play a major role as mediator in the conflict so far, Zuppi’s humanitarian efforts — like assisting in the return of Ukrainian children deported to Russia — can be considered successes.

Zuppi is increasingly seen as a close papal confidant with a growing list of credentials that makes him an attractive candidate for many continuity voters in the next conclave. When he speaks, it’s assumed that he accurately represents the mind of the pope.

3) Cardinal Christophe Pierre

At 78, French Cardinal Christophe Pierre is already three years past the traditional age of retirement for cardinals and bishops, but remains in his role as apostolic nuncio to the United States. Francis gave him a red last September, making him one of few nuncios to bear the status of cardinal.

Since 2016, Pierre has had the tough job of serving as a bridge between Francis’ Vatican and the United States amid impressions of a growing rift between the progressive-minded pontiff and conservative American Catholics uncomfortable with many of his decisions.

It is no secret that Francis has a chip on his shoulder when it comes to Americans. He has frequently condemned market capitalism, singled out the U.S. for its high volume of carbon emissions, and pointedly dismissed his American critics as “reactionary.”

Pierre has insisted that there is no “great divide” between Francis and the American church and has assured that the pope loves the United States, chalking up any disagreements to broader societal polarization.

But it’s no secret that some of Francis’s most vocal critics are from the U.S., so getting his message across to a skeptical church with outsized financial and political influence is a delicate task, and one Pierre has done well enough to earn him both a red hat, and an increased profile as papabile for the continuity crowd.

4) Cardinal Stephen Chow

One of Francis’ most glaring priorities from the outset has been the Vatican’s engagement with China.

Apart from sticking by the Vatican’s controversial 2018 agreement on bishop appointments with the Chinese government, he’s also gone out of his way to deliver calculated and timely accolades, including a very visible shout-out to the “noble Chinese people” during his visit to Mongolia last September.

Without any formal diplomatic presence in mainland China, Francis’ point man on engagement with Chinese officials is Cardinal Stephen Chow, a fellow Jesuit who serves as the bishop of Hong Kong.

Like Zuppi, Chow is not officially part of the Vatican’s diplomatic corps. But he is responsible for advancing one of the most important foreign policy agendas of this pontificate, striving to make Hong Kong a “bridging church” between China and the Vatican.

Chow made a historic visit to Beijing last April, and then in November welcomed Beijing Archbishop Li Shan to Hong Kong, marking the first in what Chow said he hoped would be an ongoing exchange of visits to help both churches get to know one another better.

China will likely remain a key agenda item for Francis, meaning Chow will have an important role to play as long as he serves in Hong Kong. 

5) Cardinal Mario Zenari 

Although Italian Cardinal Mario Zenari, apostolic nuncio to Syria, has somewhat fallen off the radar in recent years, he remains one of the Church’s most important regional actors.

Appointed to the job by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008, Zenari has been there for the entirety of the country’s catastrophic civil war, which began in 2011 and continues to cripple much of its population. 

Francis made Zenari a cardinal in 2016, when the war was generating intense international interest. Today, he is seen as one of the most authoritative Vatican voices on Middle Eastern affairs, and for many suffering locals, he is a sign of hope.

Zenari is among the biggest names on the diplomatic scene to call for an end to international sanctions against Syria, and one of the biggest promoters of rebuilding and fundraising efforts in the country. 

Zenari continues to travel and speak on various panels and events throughout the world to raise awareness of Syria’s ongoing woes, and he remains a primary point of reference for Francis and the Vatican on the Church’s Middle East policy.

Priest Stanislav Rasputin is an experienced missionary and the rector of the Church of the Holy Royal Martyrs in the Karelian village of Novaya Vilga (Northern Russia near the Finnish border). In November 2023, with the blessing of Metropolitan Sergei (Chashin) of Singapore and South-East Asia, Fr. Stanislav made a missionary trip to Papua New Guinea. What do we know about this country? Some Russians will think of the diaries of the Russian scientist, traveler, naturalist and explorer Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay (1846–1888), who made successful expeditions to New Guinea. This Oceanian island country, occupying the eastern part of New Guinea, is unique by its geographical location, culture and particularly by the number of dialects spoken by its population. It is the twenty-first century now, and naturally since the time of the nineteenth-century pioneers, the life of its inhabitants has changed in many ways. Recently, churches in Papua New Guinea came under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church. Fr. Stanislav talks about his missionary trip and answered questions about missionary work.

    

—Father Stanislav, you recently made a trip to Papua New Guinea. How did end up there, and what was the purpose of your trip?

—“There Are Huge Prospects for the Orthodox Mission in Papua New Guinea”Father said the visit was the most successful of his many mission trips.

“>Papua New Guinea became part of our Southeast Asia Exarchate just a few years ago. But due to restrictions related to the recent pandemic it was impossible for missionaries to go there. Only one of our priests recently traveled to this country privately. And now the need has appeared for a priest to go there officially in order to understand how to develop the mission in that region and evaluate the missionary field. Metropolitan Sergei (Chashin), the Exarch of Southeast Asia, suggested that I go for this purpose. I immediately agreed because I had already had experience of missionary trips to other Southeast Asian countries: the Philippines, Indonesia, and India. The goal was to evaluate the missionary field.

—You celebrated the Liturgy there. How did it take place? Where did you do it? Who sang the service? Did many people receive Communion?

—We celebrated the Liturgy twice. To begin with, there are only a handful of Orthodox there now. An assistant from Indonesia, Reader Sergius, traveled with me. He both helped me and sang. Currently there are only a few baptized people there, five at the most, so there were few communicants. The first time we served in a hotel in the city of Port Moresby, the country’s capital, and the second time, literally in an open field under a canopy. There were local people interested in Orthodoxy there, but only four people took Communion.

The second time we served in a village. We chose a place near a building made of blocks under a polythene canopy. We made a Communion table out of the same blocks, built a table of oblation out of them, covered it all with fabrics and served like that.

—What language did your assistant sing in?

—Part of the service has already been translated into one of their national languages—Tok Pisin. So, often repeated pieces such as, “Lord, have mercy”, or “To Thee, O Lord”—that is, the litany responses, were sung together in their local language. Other hymns are in English. The Creed and “Our Father” were read in two languages: their local language and English.

    

—Were many people present at these services?

—No. It was not our goal to gather a lot of people at once. This is the very beginning of the mission. We didn’t even intend to baptize many, because they first need to be a long preparation for this, so that their choice to be baptized would be conscious. In our situation, it is normal to have only a few people in attendance.

—Did you hold catechetical talks after the Liturgy?

—Yes, I did. Then we had tea together. We talked, and I answered various questions. For the most part, I didn’t speak with locals during and after the Liturgy, but rather between services when we went to different remote settlements and communicated with rural communities there.

—How do villagers live there? How do they differ from Europeans, from Westerners, from what we are used to?

—This is a completely different race. They even differ greatly from Asians in their way of life, traditions, and culture. In Papua New Guinea there are some very primitive tribes that live like in the Stone Age. We did not go to such places, but instead visited more developed areas. They live simply, without water and electricity. They eat what grows nearby and live by hunting and gathering. We went to several places where such people live. These are tribal communities of several hundred members each, and we had big meetings in these communities. During one of them almost 100 people were present, if not more. We discussed with them various topics on Church history and teachings. I told them what makes us different from the Catholics and the Protestants, how we understand the Holy Scriptures, what Church Tradition is, and so on. They asked many questions.

    

—How did they respond to your preaching of Christ?

—Very favorably. Actually, they have already been partially Christianized; that is, according to statistics, there are quite a few Christians there. But their knowledge is rather superficial, so most of them do not have a solid foundation in their faith. Different kinds of “new” Protestant denominations flourish there as well; there are a considerable number of Adventists, Pentecostals, Baptists and others there. Of course, there are also pagans.

When we say that they are Christians, we should take into account that their Christianity is intertwined with a huge number of their local beliefs and traditions of a pagan nature. They have plenty of pagan elements and different superstitions in their culture at the moment, such as tattoos, dances, and songs.

When we arrived in one or another village, we first contacted one of the tribal elders, who acted as our guides, and organized these meetings. Locals are sincerely interested in the Orthodox faith and have the desire to study the faith. When you tell them that Orthodoxy was the very Church that appeared on the day of Pentecost as the Fulfillment of Sacred HistoryThrough the Holy Spirit’s working in the Church, Christ’s presence is continued on Earth.

“>Pentecost, it really surprises people, because they have never studied Church history at all. They live in isolation. For example, we brought them a Bible, but they don’t know what it is or where it came from. Once they find out, they get interested. There I also chrismated and received into Orthodoxy a local who had been planning to become Orthodox for a long time.

—Do you have Baptisms planned for the future?

—We could have baptized 200 people right then, but this is not yet our aim. Suppose we baptize them. What next? The priest has left, and it is still unclear when he will come next. True, there will be missionary work, but it is still unclear in what format. These people are without books, without a priest and everything else. From a spiritual point of view, it is wrong to do this. We must first prepare the ground so that we can leave them with someone—at least lay catechists with some literature, with whom we will be in permanent contact. And only then can we baptize them, so that later they can have spiritual guidance.

—They have no Orthodox literature in their local languages at all?

—Orthodox literature is now being translated into Tok Pisin. There is already a translation of a short prayer book. God willing, a catechism and the Liturgy will be translated as well. The main things are being actively prepared, but it’s a long process. Many locals understand English there, especially young people and those who live in cities; because although this country is independent, Australian influence of is still very strong, so English is often used there.

    

—Do you plan to translate prayers and the catechism into some dialects of the country, as is the case in other remote parts of the world with an Orthodox presence?

—Papua New Guinea is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the island with the largest number of languages. There are around 700 of them there! Naturally, there is no point in translating something into their dialects right now, because the dialect of one tribe may be incomprehensible for a neighboring one, and the amount of effort put into it can be very great. It makes sense to translate first into Tok Pisin, and then, if there is a need and there is a good translator from a local tribe, it will make sense to do other translations.

—What struck you the most there?

—I can’t say that something really struck me, since it’s not the first time I have traveled abroad. But it was a new experience for me, because this country is absolutely unique and it is very different from the whole of Asia. It is very unusual that this country has one foot in the twenty-first century and the other in the nineteenth, while some remote areas are still in the Stone Age—that is, there is a very large gap. Half of the population live outside the country’s economy and eat what they have grown themselves.

It is quite dangerous there, although I personally did not feel any danger. But locals said that I shouldn’t go anywhere alone. It is a poor country, but that’s not to say that people live in unbearable conditions. I’ve seen how people live in other countries and I have not seen such poverty anywhere as in India—terrible poverty when people live in boxes on the street. True, in Papua New Guinea people live simply and modestly, but they are not dying of hunger.

—Do they know anything about Russia?

—Some people do, because they had already been in contact with people from Russia. But the vast majority did not. When we were in one village, there were about forty people sitting there. During our talk I asked them if they had heard anything about Russia. Most of them had no idea what Russia was or where it was located. It seems to us that we are so great, the largest country in the world and everyone knows us, but many people in other countries do not care about us at all. They live quietly on their island, eat mangoes, bask in the sunshine and walk around barefoot.

    

—What is the probability that an Orthodox church will appear there?

—Very high. Work will be done there, and I am certain that Orthodox communities will definitely appear in some places. If there is an Orthodox community, then an Orthodox church will surely appear as well, but when and where we cannot guess now. It’s still very early to speak about that. But I am sure that local inhabitants will be given spiritual guidance. Let’s hope that priests from our Church will continue to visit there.

—You have extensive experience in missionary work in different countries. What do you think is the most important thing in a mission, in order to make it successful? After all, there are examples of unsuccessful missions, such as that of Archimandrite Andronicus (Elpidinsky) in “The Indian mission will be the most fruitful mission in the world!”When we decided to embark upon the Ark of Salvation—the Holy Church—many times we were told by our Anglican friends that we were making a mistake, but by the mercy of God we were happy and willing to make this mistake.

“>India.

—There is no recipe and no exact answer to this question, because it depends on a huge number of circumstances. I will give a few points.

Firstly: Of course, a missionary must act with the blessing of the Church hierarchy, because he is not a “freelance artist” looking for a place on the map to fly to. Any mission is the work of the Church.

Secondly: A missionary should not set himself exaggerated and unrealistic goals. He must do what he can and not chase after any illusions.

Thirdly: A missionary must study the culture, environment, language, and traditions of the people to whom he intends to preach. After all, the holy Apostle Paul said: Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law (1 Cor. 9:20). Otherwise, mission is impossible. What works very well and is accepted in Russia does not work at all and is not accepted in the Philippines or in Papua New Guinea.

We are not talking about doctrinal issues now. We are talking about the external form of transmitting the same information. This must be taken into account. In general, you need to have a certain set of tools, and during the process see what to do and how.

    

—How can a lay person be a missionary in his daily life?

—It is possible in a wide range of situations. Firstly, every lay person has a social environment that is unique to him. He has relatives, friends, acquaintances and colleagues. And at least for them he can be someone through whom people will learn about God, the Church and salvation.

Secondly, a lay person can often redirect other people. Even if he himself does not have a specific answer to some question, if he himself cannot help, he can always advise someone else where to go, to which priest to turn with his request or situation.

Thirdly, a lay person can always help one of the priests in his parish. This is also an important point.

And fourthly, a layman can become a missionary himself. For example, in his spare time at his parish. Everyone is called to this. Every Orthodox Christian is called to fulfill Christ’s commandment about preaching: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations (Matt. 28:19), and preach the Gospel.

There are three pillars to our Lenten observance: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. While we are pretty good at the first two, many of us could probably use a reminder about the third. 

To help us, the U.S. bishops have offered these suggestions for directing our alms to the poor: 

Fulfilling our duties to the poor, both close to home and around the world, is not “optional.” It is a core duty of our faith. 

In his famous parable of the last judgment in Matthew 25, Jesus tells us that our salvation depends on the compassion that we show to society’s most vulnerable: 

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me. … Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Beginning with the Church Fathers, Catholic tradition has always emphasized our radical duties to the poor and marginalized.

The Catechism quotes St. Ambrose of Milan: “The acceptance by human society of murderous famines, without efforts to remedy them, is a scandalous injustice and a grave offense. Those whose usurious and avaricious dealings lead to the hunger and death of their brethren in the human family indirectly commit homicide, which is imputable to them.”

Could our selfish behavior really be described as indirect homicide? Could this really be serious? You had better believe it. To drive that point home, the Catechism puts this discussion under offenses against the fifth commandment: “Thou Shalt Not Kill.”

In Catholic social teaching, the concern for the least among us is reflected in the principles known as “the preferential option for the poor” and the “universal destination of goods.” 

These principles remind us that God intends the good things of the earth for all, not just the few, and that those who lack these things should be “the focus of particular concern,” not only for our individual consciences, but in our thinking about social policy. 

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church links these principles to our duty to “imitate the life of Christ.” This applies to “our manner of living and to the logical decisions to be made concerning the ownership and use of goods.”

It also compels us to “embrace the immense multitudes of the hungry, the needy, the homeless, those without health care and, above all, those without hope of a better future” around the world.

Lent is a gift that God gives us to prayerfully take stock of the direction of our finite lives and to focus on what is of ultimate, transcendent importance. We are invited to repent of our sinfulness and answer the universal call to holiness. 

With this in mind, the Lenten pillar of almsgiving should not be given the radical priority it deserves in the life of all of us who follow Christ. As he himself has told us: salvation hangs in the balance.

Priest Dionisy Kamenshchikov When a new cross appeared in the spring sky over the ancient village of Strigay in the Bazarny-Karabulak district of the Saratov region, it became clear that the common cause of the restoration of the dilapidated and desolate St. Nicholas Church had passed the point of no return. The village church, which served as a granary for many years and then was turned into terrible ruins overgrown with trees and bushes, is being transformed day by day. St. Nicholas Church is again becoming itself—a church.

But what Herculean efforts it took just to uproot the “thickets”, take out all household garbage and broken bricks from the church, cover it first with a temporary, and then a permanent roof, fit windows and doors, make the floor, order and then raise a cupola with a cross!… Now an extra building is being constructed: it will house a boiler room, a Sunday school, and perhaps a small hostel for those who will wish to make a pilgrimage to Strigay. A park has been laid around the church. The installation of the heating system of the church and its interior decoration are planned for the near future.

St. Nicholas Church in Strigay before the restoration     

And all this is without powerful and high-ranking patrons and benefactors, only with ordinary people’s money on the principle: “Many a little makes a mickle”. A small group of enthusiasts and volunteers rallied around Priest Dionisy Kamenshchikov, rector of St. Elias Church in the city of Saratov. Few believed in success when Fr. Dionisy was starting this project other than those nearest him, his family.

Little Xenia Kamenshchikova, with whose question it all began Actually, it all began with the question of little Xenia Kamenshchikova:

“Father, you’ll restore it, won’t you?”

Xenia found herself within the walls of the ruined church with her parents and elder sister Barbara almost by chance. In the unforgettable spring of 2020, the Kamenshchikovs, tired of endless waves of COVID, constant worries and anxiety, decided to take a break and go off to the countryside. The road unexpectedly led them to Strigay, and it is impossible not to notice the old church there. Even in its dilapidated state it strikes you with its wistful grandeur and ascetic beauty.

Of course, the young daughter’s question was just a stimulus and occasion for the priest: he himself immediately realized that he would not allow this church to disappear. And he took on full responsibility for its future restoration, which then seemed hopeless and even perhaps “inappropriate”—when the whole country was straining itself in the fight against COVID. But pandemics come and go, and churches must stand until the end of time.

Denis Alexandrovich Kamenshchikov entered the Saratov Theological Seminary at the age of twenty-eight. He already had a higher education, and had worked in science and business. His path to the Church and then the priesthood was thorny yet very determined—one day he realized exactly what he needed and has never strayed from the path since. He overcame inevitable spiritual crises by fighting fire with fire. Once, for example, he went to a remote steppe monastery to perform obedience as a laborer. In fact, the monastery did not yet exist—the neglected territory of a former neuropsychiatric home was put at the disposal of a single monk, and everything had to be started from scratch. Hard work under the scorching sun of the steppe did what others get from great spiritual fathers and clairvoyant elders—the seminarian returned to Saratov a different person. After reading Denis Kamenshchikov’s essay about this experience, I came to believe in him as a priest. But let’s return to Strigay.

Fr. Dionisy had another motive to take up the restoration of this rural church. As the rector of the newly built St. Elias Church in Saratov, he was looking for a common cause—not something one–time, but long-term and creative, so that it would help unite his parishioners and create a living community. And, indeed, his parishioners were the first to respond to his call. Regular clean–up days began, with parishioners clearing the church interior. People immediately felt that they needed it, and their lives were changing there.

And it was important for Fr. Dionisy to ensure that people come to believe in themselves:

“With God’s help we can fully restore all our desecrated holy churches ourselves, with our ordinary means, without waiting when government representatives or ‘owners of factories, newspapers and steamships’¹ want to do it. I am glad that the bulk of our funds are small donations from people who learned about us from social media or in their churches. We must make sure that together we can do a great deal.”

The team-leader of the builders in Strigay Vitaly Khrustalev But if anyone can take out garbage, repair and construction work requires qualifications. Here Fr. Dionisy heeded the advice of his guides (particularly the engineer Alexei Odinokov, a parishioner of St. Elias Church). A small team of local Strigay men is working at the construction site; they receive salaries, also from donations. The team-leader Vitaly Khrustalev, a father of a large family and a former city dweller, is convicted that the most important thing in life is to leave something behind you to your children, grandchildren and country. Fr. Dionisy says the same thing: Every church, whether restored or newly built, is our eternal message to future generations. Unhappy is the man who cannot go beyond his earthly life and is able to do only what will die with him. An illustration of this is a fragile oak sapling beside the walls of St. Nicholas Church in Strigay:

“When we were taking out the garbage that had piled up over several decades from the church—cans, bottles and even wine glasses—one of our parishioners found an acorn. This is despite the fact that there are no oaks in the area (according to the Great Saratov Encyclopedia, the oak forest around Strigay were cut down back in the 1880s). She brought the acorn home and managed to germinate it. Then she brought the sprout to Strigay, and we planted it. I tinkered with it the whole summer, watering and weeding it. Oaks grow very slowly, and we may not live to see when this one becomes a mighty tree. But everyone who will come to Strigay, to our St. Nicholas Church, will know the story of this oak tree. They will definitely know. We will try our best to ensure it.”

The New Priest-Martyr Peter Zinoviev The holy New Priest-Martyr Peter Zinoviev served at St. Nicholas Church in Strigay. He was its last rector before the church was closed. Born in the village of Bereznyaki in the Voskresenka district of the Saratov province, a father of four, he was charged with “showing dissatisfaction with the Soviet Government, spreading rumors of an imminent war with the Nazis, counterrevolutionary activities against the Soviet Constitution,” and the like. He was executed by a firing squad on December 29, 1937 in the town of Bezhetsk of the Tver region. At first Fr. Dionisy and everyone involved in the restoration of the church in Strigay knew nothing about Hieromartyr Peter. But once they heard about him, they got added evidence that there are no “coincidences” in this life. Now, on Fr. Dionisy’s initiative and with the help of the Secretary of the Diocesan Commission for the Canonization of the saints, Priest Maxim Plyakin, a service has been composed (and is already used in church) to the holy Hieromartyr Peter. And it was on his feast-day, December 29, that the ruling hierarch, Metropolitan Ignatius (Deputatov) of Saratov and Volsk, came to Strigay for the first time. He blessed the cupola and the cross, which had yet to crown “Nikola in Strigay” (as St. Nicholas’ Church in Strigay is affectionately called).

On May 22 2023, the spring feast of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Vladyka Ignatius came to Strigay for the second time and, with a large concourse of locals, celebrated the first Divine Liturgy in eighty-six years within the walls of the church. Many people remembered Vladyka’s sermon:

“Today, the feast of the Translation of the Relics of St. Nicholas to Bari, we have performed the Bloodless Sacrifice here. It has already been proven by centuries of experience and it has become an axiom that when the Divine Liturgy begins to be celebrated in a church, it and everything around it begins to invisibly revive. When a person tries to make efforts, and at the same time the Bloodless Sacrifice is performed, everything blossoms in the literal and figurative senses, and first of all souls are resurrected. I believe that through the prayers of St. Nicholas, through the prayers of our dear Fr. Valery, through the labors and prayers of Fr. Dionisy who takes care of this church, we are witnessing a Paschal miracle today… The Lord sends us people who help us—sometimes penny by penny. It is a real miracle when caring people revive a church by their joint efforts.”

Archpriest Valery Koroteyev It’s time to tell readers about Fr. Valery Koroteyev mentioned by Vladyka. There is another, active church in Strigay, dedicated to the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God, located in an adapted house. Money for its purchase was collected by the whole village. The seventy-nine-year–old Fr. Valery, who was baptized at age forty-four and became a priest at fifty-three, is the rector of this church. His wife Margarita Fyodorovna helps the priest in everything. For many years she taught French at the Saratov Seminary. Throughout his ministry in Strigay, Fr. Valery was looking at the dying St. Nicholas Church with an aching heart and couldn’t do anything. He organized cross processions from the Protection Church to the ruined St. Nicholas church twice a year on the winter and the spring feasts of St. Nicholas, and in the summer the parishioners pulled out the grass, trying to clear the inner space somehow… But they didn’t have the strength; the rural parish was rapidly aging and dwindling. But when Fr. Dionisy appeared in Strigay with young and energetic helpers, when it became clear to everyone that they were undertaking this work seriously, the community of the Protection Church collected almost 80,000 rubles (at the time it would have been about $1,400) for them.

Prayer service within the walls of the ruined church. Fr. Dionisy and Fr. Valery And now the gray-haired Fr. Valery is always next to Fr. Dionisy, who is young enough to be his son. They always celebrate prayer services together within the walls of the church under restoration. It seems that it is very easy for Fr. Valery to climb a vertical ladder to the church roof—he wants to see everything with his own eyes!

The village of Strigay was founded in the early eighteenth century and was mainly settled by soldier-plowmen. The construction of the first Church of St. Nicholas commenced at their request in 1765. In 1795, this church burned down along with most of the village. Then it was rebuilt. According to information from 1910, there were 623 peasant farmsteads and 3,741 residents in the village. At the same time, the construction of a school and a new church (the one we are talking about in this article) were completed in the village. Information about the fate of the earlier church in Strigay is very contradictory.

Neither snow nor rain will fall in the church anymore Currently, Strigay officially has around 800 residents. The village is alive, but its prospects are not at all bright. Alas, this is the reality of thousands of Russian villages, but each of them is a part of Russia and its history…

Of course, Fr. Dionisy is very often asked: “How do you see the future of the restored church? Who are you restoring it for? Who will come to worship in it in ten or twenty years?” Fr. Dionisy has his own vision: The church can become a destination for Sunday pilgrimages. How joyful it will be for a family of city dwellers to come here on Sunday, pray at the Divine Liturgy, and then spend a day in the countryside! In addition, a counter-process to the depopulation of villages has already begun. Farming is gaining momentum, and there is a tendency for city dwellers to migrate to villages.

St. Nicholas Church in Strigay today It’s all true. We should also say of the experience in our metropolia, that over the past fifteen or twenty years, quite a few churches have been restored in rural areas in villages that seemingly had no future… And none of them are empty now. Besides, let us recall the words of Vladyka Ignatius: “When the Divine Liturgy begins to be celebrated in a church, it and everything around it begins to revive invisibly… and first of all souls are resurrected.” Yes, that is true, and such examples abound. When a doleful ruin (where obscene graffit can be found on the inner walls, mixed with the remnants of beautiful paintings) becomes a church again, when this church finally opens its doors to worshippers, people’s attitudes towards life, their native village and towards themselves change. A half–forgotten feeling comes to life again in their hearts: love for their native village. Then they have the desire to live here, at home.

Undoubtedly, restoring a church does not mean solving all the problems of today’s villages. But is it possible to solve them without a cross over the village?