Tag: Christianity

Kraków, February 20, 2024

Photo: orthodox.pl     

Every year, World Orthodox Youth Day takes place in a different Polish city over the weekend closest to the feast of the Meeting of the Lord. This year, with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland, the celebration was held in Kraków, February 16-18.

The official opening of the ceremony took place on Friday, February 16, with the participation of Their Eminences Archbishop Jerzy and Archbishop Grzegorz, who oversees the Brotherhood of Orthodox Youth in Poland, and Their Graces Bishop Atanazy and Bishop Warsonofiusz, reports the Polish Orthodox Church.

Photo: orthodox.pl     

Abp. Grzegorz spoke on behalf of the gathered hierarchs and greeted the youth on behalf of Met. Sawa, reminding them that the weekend should be not only an opportunity to meet each other, but to encounter God. Igumen Panteleimon (Karczewski) of the Orthodox seminary in Warsaw then offered a lecture on the centenary of the autocephaly of the Church in Poland, being celebrated this year. Then there was a concert of Eastern and Central European music.

The second day of the event was dedicated to a tour of the history and monuments of Kraków. The day concluded with an All-Night Vigil in the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God.

As always, the weekend culminated with the Sunday Liturgy. This year, there were two early Liturgies to accommodate all the guests, and even then, the church was filled to overflowing. Abp. Jerzy delivered a homily on the humility of Zaccheus.

Several dozens of young people from Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands, the U.S., Germany, participated in Youth Day this year.

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A senior Russian Catholic has urged church leaders abroad to commemorate the opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, as armed police dispersed citizens mourning his death at age 47 in a remote prison camp.

“When I heard he was dead, I recalled the words of St. Luke’s Gospel, ‘Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace’ — he did everything he could for his country, and I thank God such people still exist,” said the Moscow-based lay Catholic.

“The Catholic church in Russia doesn’t speak out on sensitive issues — though we’ve been here for centuries, we still feel like we’re in a ghetto, keeping quiet so no one will notice us. But I really hope memorial services will be held in other countries — that even the pope might join prayers in his memory.”

The Catholic, who asked not to be named, spoke as Navalny’s family requested handover of his body, amid international revulsion at the veteran dissident’s suspicious death.

In an OSV News interview, she said fellow Catholics in Russia had long feared Navalny’s end was being “brought closer” by his harsh detention conditions, which included 27 punitive spells in solitary confinement over three years.

She added that some church members had defied police pressure and requested prayers in his memory, while grieving his death as “a pain and tragedy, and a loss of hope.”

“Although not all Catholics agreed with everything he said and did during his short life, no one would deny his courage,” said the Catholic, a university lecturer who also works with Caritas.

“Sadly, however, I can’t believe Navalny’s death will mark a turning point by provoking mass protests and changing things. Many others have died under the current regime, and their names are already barely remembered by young Russians, while hundreds of political detainees still suffer in prisons and labor camps.”

Navalny’s death at the strict-regime IK-3 arctic Syberian penal colony in Russia’s Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, where he was serving a 19-year sentence, was reported Feb. 16 by the Tass Russian news agency, which said the Federal Penitentiary Service had attributed it to “sudden death syndrome.”

Speaking Feb. 20, the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, dismissed media claims the dissident was poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent, and criticized “arrogant” and “unacceptable” condemnations by Western leaders.

On Feb. 16, U.S. President Joe Biden said he was both “not surprised” and “outraged” by reports of the death of Navalny.

“He was so many things that Putin was not. He was brave. He was principled … dedicated to building a Russia where a rule of law existed and was applied everywhere, and to an evolving belief that Russia, as he knew it, was a cause worth fighting for, and obviously even dying for.”

Meanwhile, as of Feb. 20, at least 400 Russians were reported to have been arrested while commemorating Navalny across the country, as police removed flowers and candles in his memory.

Speaking Feb. 16 in Rome, the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said news of Navalny’s death has caused “sadness” and surprised the Holy See, adding that he had personally hoped the opposition leader’s plight could be “resolved differently.”

Meanwhile, the chairman of the German bishops’ conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, said in a social media post the “shocking” death showed “human lives don’t seem to count” for Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, whose “inhumane system” allowed human rights to be “trampled underfoot in a supposedly constitutional state.”

However, a source at the Russian bishops’ conference said he was unable to comment publicly on the “tragedy,” while another prominent lay Catholic told OSV News church members feared for their safety if they spoke out.

In her interview, the Catholic lecturer said Russia’s government counted on Navalny’s death “passing unnoticed” as “an ordinary incident soon to be forgotten.”

“News of his death is already disappearing from internet sites, even from those gloating or laughing at it,” the Catholic told OSV News.

“Presidential elections are approaching, so the authorities are suppressing past investigations by Navalny’s team, while his body is unlikely to be handed over any time soon since a public funeral could provoke unrest. The authorities will try to destroy any memory of Alexei, just as they’re already eliminating any spontaneous memorials to him,” she said.

Navalny ran for president in 2018, despite a court ruling him ineligible, and was jailed in January 2021 for violating parole after receiving life-saving treatment in Germany for Novichok poisoning in Siberia.

The dissident, whose three-and-a-half-year sentence was later extended, described himself as a Christian convert from “militant atheism” at his 2021 trial, adding that the Bible offered him guidance and gave him “fewer dilemmas in life.”

In the court speech, reported by the now-disbanded Moscow Helsinki Group, he said he also had “no regrets” about returning to Russia to face certain arrest.

Navalny’s death coincides with apparent Russian battlefield advances in Ukraine, as well as preparations for March 15-17 elections, in which President Putin, in power since 2000, is assured of a fifth term after the forced elimination or marginalization of possible challengers.

Leaders of Russia’s Catholic Church, whose four dioceses represent just 0.5% of Russia’s 146 million inhabitants, according to Vatican data, have voiced fears that minority religious communities could be targeted during the campaign.

However, in a Feb. 13 letter to Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, Italian-born Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God at Moscow condemned “unfair and offensive” protests Jan. 14 and Feb. 4 outside the capital’s Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, during which nationalists branded Catholic clergy “enemies of Russia.”

“These statements and actions were clearly aimed at inciting religious hatred and disrupting Sunday services — it is of particular concern that law enforcement officers remained inactive,” said Archbishop Pezzi, who urged a “merciful approach” to Alexei Navalny, without “torture and mockery” when his Anti-Corruption Foundation was forced to close offices in May 2021.

“I hope the Moscow government will intervene to protect Catholics from encroachment on their right to practice their faith without threat to safety and dignity.”

Media reports said Navalny’s mother was told Feb. 20 she must wait 14 days to receive the dissident’s body pending a “chemical examination,” fueling suspicions of poisoning.

Meanwhile, the opposition leader’s wife of 24 years, Yulia Navalnaya, accused Putin in a Feb. 19 video of killing Navalny “without ever looking him in the eye or even mentioning his name,” and she vowed to continue his struggle.

In a Feb. 19 statement, Amnesty International urged the Russian government to end its “callous” campaign against citizens wishing to commemorate Navalny, and demanded “a prompt, independent and impartial investigation” into the circumstances of death, “which should be carried out with full transparency and the involvement of his family.”

It added that a bishop from Russia’s independent Orthodox Apostolic Church, Grigory Mikhnov-Vaitenko, had suffered a heart attack after being arrested while attempting a requiem in St. Petersburg for the dissident, as part of a nationwide “campaign to silence dissent and instill fear.”

The priest, who is now hospitalized, was apprehended near his residence as he headed to a memorial site for Soviet political repression victims.

The detained priest was on his way to the Solovetsky Stone in St. Petersburg when he was apprehended and taken into custody on Feb. 17, The Moscow Times reported.

Reportedly many Catholics had participated in Stations of the Cross ceremonies across Russia for Navalny, as well as posting messages and prayers for the dissident on social media.

In her OSV News interview, the Moscow-based lay Catholic said clergy from Russia’s predominant Orthodox church, which is tightly controlled by the Kremlin, had also held “private liturgies” for Navalny, despite “every possible preventive effort” by their bishops.

“It would be difficult to call Navalny a Christian martyr — for me, he’s a martyr for the ideals of freedom he considered so important,” added the lay Catholic, who said she had been urged by family members not to give her name, despite not wishing to “hide behind anonymity.”

“Alexei Navalny urged us not to be afraid, as did St. John Paul and Christ himself, so this is the moment to step beyond our fear. I would be so pleased if the Catholic Church recalled the value of human dignity at this time, and joined in deploring the inhumane conditions in Russian prisons.”

Jerusalem, February 20, 2024

Photo: Patriarchate of Jerusalem     

On Saturday, February 17, a delegation from the World Council of Churches, led by General Secretary Dr. Jerry Pillay, visited His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem.

The meeting was attended by the heads of other churches represented in the Holy Land. The General Secretary expressed his commitment to support the suffering churches and people of the Holy Land and to work “for peace and reconciliation amid the tension between the different sides,” reports the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

In recognition of his support, Pat. Theophilos honored Dr. Pillay with the medal of the Commander of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre.

During the meeting, the Patriarch addressed Dr. Pillay on behalf of the all the church leaders:

Dr Pillay,
Beloved Members of your Delegation,
Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

We welcome you warmly to the Holy City of Jerusalem and to our Patriarchate, and we wish to express our gratitude to you for your visit at this difficult and complicated time for all the peoples of this region, and especially for the Christian community of the Holy Land.

Your visit is of such importance, for you bring with you the attention of the World Council of Churches and its members to the situation here.

In these critical times, we Christians, both in the Holy Land and around the world, have a mission to uphold the message of the Gospel, which is stronger and more enduring than our human weakness. It is the Gospel that speaks of reconciliation and peace, and this must be our constant commitment. War and violence are always the consequence of human failure. But Christ and his Church proclaim a different truth. In theological terms we affirm that hatred and darkness have no hypostasis; it is only light and life that have a true and enduring existence.

Death is not our mission. God-given life is at the heart of the kerygma of the Gospel. As our Lord Jesus Christ tells us, I came that they may have life and have it in all its fulness (John 10:10). We are called to be united in our moral obligation and mission to uphold the sacred values of peace and reconciliation. As we learn from the Prophet Isaiah,

They shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more.

(Is. 2:4)

This is our common human vocation and our common human destiny. The call of the Gospel is to turn the instruments of war into the instruments of peace and reconciliation.

Our historical experience in the Holy Land is a powerful and tangible example that synagogue, church, and mosque may exist side by side in mutual respect. Ours is a long-standing multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious landscape which has given rise to a unique civilization, in which Jerusalem remains the beacon of hope for the whole world. There has always been room in the Holy Land for all those who call this region our home.

There is no military solution to establish the future of the Holy Land and the wider Middle East. The pattern of disputes, retribution, and retaliation has brought us no nearer to peace and security, and all these frames of reference are bankrupt. For it is written, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21).

With this in mind, we as the Heads of Churches in the Holy Land continue to pray and call for an end to the war so that the humanitarian crisis may be brought to an end, displaced populations may return to their homes, and essential help be brought to all innocent victims caught up in this conflict who are without the basic necessities of life.

The present conflict is clear evidence from which we have learnt that that we must face the future with a new resolve. We believe that this is the only way to forge a new pathway to true and lasting peace and reconciliation.

The Heads of the Churches remain firm in our opposition to the escalation of violence. We are convinced, as is the World Council of Churches, that it is in upholding and promoting the fundamental values of the Gospel that a way forward will be found, and we invite our fellow Christians, as well as all people of good will around, to join us in this sacred mission. For it is written, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God (Mt 5:9).

As you come to the Holy Land as pilgrims of peace in a time of war, we pray that our risen Lord, the conqueror of death, may bless your work and your endeavours in the cause of the Gospel of peace and reconciliation.

Thank You.

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The head of the Catholic Health Association of the United States called it “extremely disappointing” that a USA Today article published Feb. 17 “suggested that Catholic health care’s long-standing commitment to providing care that recognizes the sacredness of each individual — from conception to natural death — somehow constrains care.”

Mercy Sister Mary Haddad, president and CEO, made the comments in a Feb. 19 statement issued in response to an article by KFF Health News in the daily newspaper alleging Catholic hospitals “constrain medical care” in the U.S. because the church’s health care directives “are often at odds with accepted medical standards, especially in areas of reproductive health.”

The article “perpetuates the myth that because Catholic health care providers do not perform elective abortions and remain committed to protecting and upholding the dignity of every human life, our hospitals somehow do not follow accepted medical standards,”
Sister Haddad said.

KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News, describes itself as “a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues.”

In one example, the KFF Health News article cited a story that a nurse midwife shared about a woman who was hospitalized after her water broke too early in her pregnancy for her unborn child to be considered medically viable and who was denied an abortion because the unborn child still had a heartbeat. According to the article, the woman “was hospitalized for days before going into labor … and the baby died.”

That event purportedly took place before the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that reversed its previous abortion precedent calling it a constitutional right. Another instance in the article mentioned a woman who sought a sterilizing procedure after Dobbs from her Catholic provider, but had to go elsewhere because the provider declined it. The hospital’s directives on such procedures, however, did not change as a result of Dobbs.

“The fact is that Catholic hospitals in the United States are held to the exact same clinical standards of care and adhere to the same policies as every other hospital in the country,” Sister Haddad said.

“Contrary to what was reported in the article, Catholic medical providers who care for pregnant women follow guidelines set forth by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG),” she said, adding that the article “relies on the opinions of two individuals to make the sweeping claim” that the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Services, or ERDs, “contradict ACOG guidelines.”

“There is nothing in the ERDs that prohibits a Catholic health care provider from providing medically indicated care to a woman who is suffering from serious or life-threatening conditions during pregnancy,” Sister Haddad said.

Since Dobbs, states across the country have alternately moved to restrict or expand access to abortion, creating a new legal and political landscape for the procedure, impacting in some cases how hospitals approach abortion.

The Catholic Church opposes abortion, outlining its teaching in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that human life “must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.” Because abortion takes the life of an already conceived child, it is “gravely contrary to the moral law,” the catechism says.

The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services reflect that teaching; however, that document also states that “operations, treatments, and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman are permitted when they cannot be safely postponed until the unborn child is viable, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child.” That guidance forbids direct abortions but permits “indirect abortions,” procedures where the immediate purpose is to save the mother’s life, where the death of the unborn child “is foreseen but unavoidable.”

Sister Haddad said that while there “has been a renewed focus on abortion following the 2022 Dobbs decision, the very complex and nuanced treatment decisions physicians must consider in the care for a mother and her baby during pregnancy complications are often overlooked and misconstrued to foster distrust.”

“The abortion debate does not always account for the various ethical and clinical decisions that are required to ensure the best possible outcomes for both the mother and baby,” she said.

The KFF Health News also claimed that “more and more women are running into barriers to obtaining care as Catholic health systems have aggressively acquired secular hospitals in much of the country.”

“Four of the 10 largest U.S. hospital chains by number of beds are Catholic, according to federal data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality,” it said. “There are just over 600 Catholic general hospitals nationally and roughly 100 more managed by Catholic chains that place some religious limits on care, a KFF Health News investigation reveals.”
Sister Haddad, however, said the article “incorrectly states that Catholic hospitals are rapidly expanding across the U.S.”

“The number of Catholic hospitals has remained relatively stable during the past three decades, increasing by six percent since 2000 in the face of unprecedented challenges impacting all aspects of health care,” she said.

According to KFF Health News, nearly 800,000 people have only Catholic or Catholic-affiliated birth hospitals within an hour’s drive, citing “pockets of the Pacific Northwest, the Dakotas, and the Midwest” as examples. But Sister Haddad said that the presence of Catholic hospitals in underserved areas is a core part of their mission.

“The article is correct that Catholic hospitals are often the only medical facilities serving rural areas,” she said. “This is due to our long-standing commitment to care for patients in need, especially women, children, and those in underserved communities. When other health care providers decide to leave rural markets for financial reasons, Catholic health systems often remain or step in to ensure rural residents continue to have access to high-quality, life-saving care.”

Sister Haddad said she also had concerns about the article’s “implied attack on the role of spirituality in health care.”

“The authors make a point to report about a blessing that occurred in a hospital, which apparently was included to underscore the false premise that Catholic teaching and science are incompatible,” Sister Haddad said. “On the contrary, Catholic hospitals see our faith as a call to ensure everyone has access to quality, compassionate care, regardless of one’s religion, race, ethnicity, gender, or other identity.”

Astana, Kazakhstan, February 20, 2024

Photo: mitropolia.kz As a result of archival research, the exact date of birth of the Apostle to Central Asia has been established.

His Eminence Archbishop Sophony (Zephaniah) (Sokolsky), the first hierarch of the Turkestan Diocese and a prominent spiritual educator of the 19th century, is venerated today as a Holy Hierarch.

The Department for the Canonization of Saints of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Kazakhstan Metropolitan District and the Almaty Theological Seminary are conducting broad research into the life of the revered Archbishop, preparing materials for his eventual canonization, the Metropolitan District reports.

Conducting research in the archives of the Tver Region, Dr. Soloviev, vice rector of the Almaty Theological Seminary, was able to establish that Abp. Sophony was born on July 25/August 8, 1800, based on the materials of the metric book of the Holy Resurrection Church in the village of Eski, where his father served as priest his whole life.

The newly established date will be included in all reference and academic publications devoted to the life of the Holy Hierarch.

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Pro-life advocates around the world are working to counteract continued efforts by euthanasia activists to pass and expand laws allowing doctors to help kill their patients.

Euthanasia made global headlines this month when former Dutch Prime Minister Dries van Agt and his wife, Eugenie, chose to have themselves euthanized, both at the age of 93. The couple, who had been married for over 60 years, “died hand in hand,” the Dutch Rights Forum said.

The Netherlands has among the most permissive euthanasia laws in the world, allowing boys and girls as young as 12 to end their own lives if certain conditions are met. Several other European countries — including Portugal, Spain, and Belgium — have also instituted liberal euthanasia regimes.

In Canada, meanwhile, euthanasia and assisted suicide have been legal for nearly a decade after the government began permitting it in 2016. The Trudeau administration this month postponed until 2027 plans to expand the assisted suicide program to include those suffering from mental illness after a parliamentary report said the country’s health system is “not ready.”

Jack Fonseca, the director of political operations for the Campaign Life Coalition, told CNA that his group is planning a “major protest” at the Canadian Parliament for later this month, one that will “send the message to the prime minister and all elected lawmakers that a three-year delay in expanding euthanasia is not good enough.”

“We want the government to completely and permanently abandon its plans to allow doctors to kill mentally ill patients and those who are depressed,” Fonseca said.

Fonseca said that Pierre Poilievre, a member of Parliament and the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, has vowed to repeal the country’s Bill C-7 if he is elected prime minister next year. That law when enacted in 2021 permitted the pending assisted suicide expansion.

“I think every pro-life group in the country will now turn to holding Mr. Poilievre to his promise,” Fonseca said. “This is especially true since Trudeau’s Liberal regime is tanking in the polls, and it seems inevitable that Conservatives will take power in 2025.”

“Poilievre’s Conservative Party is expected to win the next election with a massive majority,” he said. “So, the pro-life movement is going to use every avenue we can to continually remind Poilievre, and his Conservative caucus, that he must immediately repeal Bill C-7 during his first term, within the first 100 days of his administration.”

In Australia, all six of the country’s states currently allow assisted suicide, or “voluntary assisted dying” (VAD). The Victoria state government is currently undergoing a five-year review of its own assisted suicide program, which it first implemented in 2019.

That review is merely operational and is not recommending any expansions of the program as it currently stands. But Jasmine Yuen, the Victorian state director of the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), told CNA that she wouldn’t “rule out future legislative changes.”

“I believe VAD advocates will make good use of this review to push through some agendas,” she said, “and the government will use the feedbacks to justify future changes or expansion that could include telehealth services and removing the gag clause to allow doctors to recommend VAD to patients.”

“All pro-life groups, including ACL in Victoria and all states and territories, will be working against any expansion [including] the inclusion of children and other illnesses into the scheme,” Yuen said.

Other states in Australia permit doctors to initiate conversations about assisted suicide, Yuen noted, though the country’s federal euthanasia law imposes some barriers to the practice.

“It’s a matter of years that we’ll go further down the slippery slope,” she said, “but the pro-life groups will push back as much as we can for the sanctity of life.”

Paul Osborne, a spokesman for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, noted that “one of the most pressing issues at the moment in Australia is the push to allow doctors to undertake euthanasia-related consultations online and over the phone.”

“The Church says this is abhorrent,” Osborne said, “and the Australian government at this stage agrees that it is a bridge too far.”

Osborne pointed to a document released by the bishops’ conference there last year on the topic of euthanasia. “To Witness and to Accompany with Christian Hope” is meant as “a service to those who are called to attend to the spiritual and pastoral needs of patients who access or seek to access services that are designed to terminate a person’s life,” the manual says.

The letter instructed that priests administering sacraments to potentially suicidal individuals must endeavor to steer them away from that choice by explaining how the practice is “not consistent with respect for God’s gift of life.”

“If a patient is resolved upon a course of action, such as euthanasia, which is so clearly and gravely in conflict with the teaching and life of the Church, then — even if the patient believes they are choosing rightly — the patient should nonetheless recognize, or be helped to recognize, that it would not be right for him or her to receive the sacraments,” the bishops wrote in the manual.

Dr. Moira McQueen, the executive director of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute, told CNA this month that the country’s euthanasia law “would have to be revoked” to halt the mental illness expansion there, an outcome she called “highly unlikely.”

Daniel Zekveld, a policy analyst for the Canadian Association for Reformed Political Action, said in a statement to CNA that the group has been opposed to the country’s suicide program expansion since 2021 via its Care Not Kill campaign.

“Like many Canadians, medical professionals, and other organizations, Care Not Kill has emphasized the importance of suicide prevention instead of suicide assistance,” he said. “Expanding euthanasia to those with mental illness encourages a culture of neglect and devalues the lives of those who are suffering.”

Care Not Kill has conducted extensive outreach to that end, Zekveld said, including a campaign that distributed 200,000 flyers. The group has also encouraged political engagement and has submitted briefs to the government commission studying the expansion.

“These efforts will continue until the government puts a stop to the expansion of euthanasia for those with mental illness,” he said. “With another delay scheduled, we now have three additional years to advocate for caring for, not killing, those with mental illness.”

Fonseca, meanwhile, said the Campaign Life Coalition recently helped pass a policy resolution at the National Convention of the Conservative Party of Canada, one meant to further strengthen the party’s stance against euthanasia there.

“We oppose MAID [medical assistance in dying] for people living with disabilities or mental illness seeking to die based on poverty, homelessness, or inability to receive medical treatment,” the policy said. “Euthanasia must not be an abandonment of people living with genuine needs.”

Chios, Greece, February 21, 2024

Photo: wikimedia.org     

An 11th-century Orthodox architectural treasure on the Greek island of Chios is undergoing restoration.

The Ephorate of Antiquities of Chios is carrying out the project on the defense tower and fortified enclosure of the complex of buildings of Nea Moni (New Monastery), reports the Orthodoxia News Agency.

Nea Moni is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage site together with the Greek Daphni Monastery and Osios Loukas, all considered extraordinary examples of the second golden age of Byzantine art.

The project, to be completed in 2025, will make the western part of the monastery enclosure accessible to the public. The budget of $756,790 (700,000 euros) is being provided by Greece’s Recovery and Resilience Fund.

Nea Moni was founded in the middle of the 11th century with imperial sponsorship. The monastic complex is fortified with a high enclosure and protected by a defensive tower, following the typical arrangement of buildings in monasteries of the Byzantine era. At its center stands the Catholicon, while the refectory is situated a short distance away. The church was consecrated in 1049, and the construction was completed during the reign of Theodora (1055-1056).

During the Genoese rule (1346), the prestige of Nea Moni increased, and its prosperity and zenith continued through the Ottoman rule after 1566. Initially, the monastery followed the coenobitic system until its first desertion (end of the 11th century), after which it was abandoned. When new monks settled, a unique system with some coenobitic elements was adopted, which lasted until 1950. Throughout nearly 1,000 years of its existence, the monastery faced numerous trials. The first major blow was the destruction and looting of 1822, followed by the earthquake of 1881, which was critical for both the buildings and the monastery’s finances.

From the original 11th-century complex, the catholicon, cistern, tower, part of the refectory, and the Church of Saint Luke in the monastery’s cemetery outside the walls remain today. The rest of the area is occupied by other communal buildings and mainly by cell wings, dating back to the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

Until World War II, the monastery was male. In 1946, following the death of the last monk, it was deserted until 1950 when the Metropolis of Chios, in an effort to keep the monastery alive, converted it into a convent, and nuns were settled there.

In 2000, Nea Moni was declared an archaeological site of great extent, including the fortified monastic complex, buildings outside the enclosure, the monks’ cemetery church outside the walls, two chapels under the monastery’s jurisdiction located a short distance from it, the Church of St. Anthony, and the Church of St. Phanourios, cultivated areas, as well as large forested areas. In 1990, the monastery catholicon was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Since 2014, it has again operated as a male monastery.

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When Pope Francis shared a warm embrace with Argentina’s new rightwing populist President Javier Milei in February, the image provoked a bit of whiplash among those who could remember the Milei of just a few months ago. 

A former television pundit and an ultra-libertarian economist, Milei was elected president of Argentina with 56% of the national vote in November.

Among other things, Milei during his fiery electoral campaign raised eyebrows for the remarkable language he used to describe the pope, calling Francis an “imbecile,” a “communist,” a “filthy leftist,” and a “son of a b****,” just to offer a sampling.

Milei’s critiques of social policies advanced by leftwing governments and his radical reform strategies to pull Argentina out of a decades-long economic and social crisis were seldom polite. To add to the controversy, many of his tirades have targeted the Catholic Church’s social doctrine.

Yet all that seemed to fade into the background during a highly anticipated meeting between Francis and Milei during the Feb. 11 canonization Mass in Rome of Argentina’s first female saint, Maria Antonia of Saint Joseph de Paz y Figueroa, affectionately known by Argentinians as “Mama Antula.”

The two Argentine leaders met briefly before the ceremony, and Francis paused to greet Milei and other government ministers again before leaving St. Peter’s Basilica. Notably, Milei chose to break protocol and asked to give the pope a beso, a kiss on the cheek that is a customary greeting in most South American nations.

Images of the encounter portray a smiling pope, who reportedly jested with Milei, asking if he’d gotten a haircut, and a grinning Argentine president who stooped low to embrace the leader of the world’s roughly 1.3 billion Catholics.

The two held an hourlong private meeting the next day, with a brief Vatican statement describing the discussion as “cordial” and having focused on relations between the Holy See and Argentina, Milei’s strategy to counter the country’s economic crisis, and the need to promote peace in light of global conflicts.

Afterward, Milei described Francis on a radio interview in Rome as “the most important Argentinian in history.”

How did Francis and Milei go from insults to embrace, from opposition to high praise? The answer comes down to the difference between campaigning and governing.

During his electoral campaign, Milei focused on making the kind of statements that would get him consistent publicity while also firing up his base.

However, as the new leader of a deeply divided country grappling with a severe and protracted financial crisis, Milei’s focus has shifted to building consensus, if he wants progress to be made.

According to Argentina’s INDEC statistics agency, some 40.1% of the population currently lives in poverty and inflation rates stand at over 200%, leaving much of the country destitute and desperate for a solution.

One clear way to reach out to the opposition and thus attempt to build this consensus is to reach out to the person the opposition looks up to and who is seen as their champion. In this case, that is Francis.

Francis himself seemed to handle Milei’s oratorical creativity as a candidate extremely graciously, dismissing Milei’s remarks in an interview shortly after Milei was elected.  

“You have to distinguish a lot between what a politician says in the election campaign and what he actually does afterward, because then comes the moment of concreteness, of decisions,” he said.

For Francis, there is also the factor of ego, in that a pope generally carries more global significance than most presidents of individual nations, and as a prominent religious leader, is seen as occupying a higher moral ground.

If Francis were to respond to Milei in kind, he would essentially be stooping to Milei’s level, implying they are in some way equals. Yet by ignoring Milei’s remarks and choosing to stay above the fray, Francis helped ease tensions and make such a turnabout with Milei possible.

Their encounter should also be seen in the lens of a potential papal trip.

Francis has repeatedly expressed his desire to visit Argentina this year, a potential trip Milei has also publicly voiced support for. In this sense, both men want the trip, and they need each other to make it happen.

Francis has consistently voiced his fear that a return trip to Argentina would be manipulated for political ends, and by diffusing tension with Milei from the start, he is basically trying to take the air out of the balloon so that a trip becomes possible in a political context.

Milei, for his part, faces an imploding economy and an urgent need for the type of social cohesion that a papal trip could offer at such a critical juncture, so being friendly with Francis is also a step in the direction of potentially keeping the country from falling apart.

Age is also a factor for Francis, who is 87 and suffers from several health-related maladies, and who desperately wants to make his long-awaited return to his home country while international travel, though not uncomplicated, is still possible.

In terms of how much of Francis and Milei’s apparent reconciliation is genuine, and how much is simply politics, the best answer would probably be that it’s a little of both.

They obviously each have their own agenda in the relationship, and they in some way depend on one another for that agenda to be accomplished, but their friendly encounter shows there is also likely a good deal of respect, too, whatever their differences may be.

Dibeen, Jerash Governorate, Jordan, February 21, 2024

Photo: Jerusalem Patriarchate     

A new Orthodox church was formally opened in Jordan on Sunday, February 18, by His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem.

The Patriarch was joined by His Highness Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, Chief Advisor to His Majesty the King of Jordan for Religious and Cultural Affairs, for the opening of the Three Holy Hierarchs Orthodox Church, within the Orthodox Center project next to the Holy Theotokos, Life-Giving Spring Monastery in Dibeen, Jerash Governorate, reports the Jerusalem Patriarchate.

Photo: Jerusalem Patriarchate His Eminence Archbishop Christophoros of Kyriakopolis also attended the opening. He emphasized that “the church will meet the needs of young people, and will be a place for holding conferences, meeting intellectually and culturally, and serving the local community.”

He also thanked Mr. Issa Nassif Odeh, who made a generous donation to complete the construction of the church.

The new church is the first in Jordan to be named for the Three Holy Hierarchs—Sts. Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom.

The church combines traditional Jordanian geometric designs “with a Byzantine architectural spirit.”

The first Divine Liturgy will be celebrated on Friday, February 23.

The Patriarchate of Jerusalem site currently lists 40 other monasteries and churches in Jordan.

An historic Divine Liturgy was celebrated in a Byzantine-era church in Petra, Jordan, for the first time in 1,500 years After 1500 years, first Liturgy in Byzantine church in Jordan (+VIDEOS)For the first time in over a millennium, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in a Byzantine-era church in Petra, Jordan.

“>last month.

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Today we’re going to talk about a deep existential question that is of vital importance and has many dimensions in our lives. We’re going to talk about prayer. Prayer is the critically important meeting between our “I” and God.

Prayer is an encounter with God. It’s not just a question of sacred duty, not some kind of religious obligation, and even less is it something we do just to expel evil from ourselves and invoke good.

When I was young, my mother told me:

“Cross yourself so the Most Holy Theotokos will protect you, so you come home alive and well.”

This is good, a wonderful blessing, but this is not the essence of prayer. Prayer is not mentioning God at the most inopportune time. Who is He? When we go to sleep, when we’re tired, when our eyes are closing, when we’re sapped of our strength, that’s when most of us remember prayer. We have so many complaints against God—that He doesn’t hear us, that He has turned away from us, that He’s absent from our lives, but we only give him three or four minutes. We have to devote time to prayer. For prayer to become an encounter with the living God, we really have to devote enough time to it.

Prayer is a great encounter, because two great mysteries meet in it: God and the human heart, which, according to the Church Fathers, is an incredible and inexplicable mystery. We easily and recklessly blame people, discuss their behavior, draw conclusions about them, and accuse them. We think that we know everything about people, but in fact, we know nothing about them. The other person, even if it’s our neighbor, our husband, our wife, or our child, is one great stranger, because he or she is a great mystery to us. Why? Because each of them harbors a human heart within, and the depth of the human heart is unfathomable. That’s why we often find that we can live with someone for many years, but when something critical happens—illness, temptations in relationships, difficulties that shake us—it’s probably only then that we truly begin to realize who we’ve been living with all this time.

When does this usually happen? When we lose this person. In today’s Gospel, Christ says that in order to save your soul, first you must lose it (Mk. 8:35). This has a double interpretation. One is that in order to receive something, you have to sacrifice something. One of the main axioms that a mature man knows in his life is that you can’t have everything—only an immature man believes he can have it all. The main sign of a mature man is the understanding that he can’t have everything, but he tries to live well with what he has. This is the secret of a blessed life. Unhappiness begins when I get offended and protest about what I don’t have, and don’t praise God for what I do have. Our famous poet Elytis says, “I love those who take a rock and make a bird out of it.” There are so many people who have gone through hard times, through difficult periods in their lives, and possessing very few things, they have turned them into something very valuable in their hearts.

    

Let’s take a closer look at the three main stages by which you can achieve a state of prayer constituting a true encounter with the living God—not simply repeating some sacred but for you superficial words. Because no matter how sacred a word is, if it can’t transform your heart then it can’t give you anything.

The first is what the Holy Fathers and the Patericons say, that a Christian must not only pray. He must reach the state where his life becomes prayer. What does that mean? I can pray, read Compline, go to church, read canons at home, pray on my prayer rope, say the Jesus Prayer, but if I do it externally, no change occurs within me. I read the prayer rule that my spiritual father gave me, but I don’t truly pray, because I haven’t “connected” with God.

Prayer is a true encounter with God that has practical, not theoretical results. The goal is not simply to pray, but as the Holy Fathers say, to become prayer ourselves. In his letters, the great St. Theophan the Recluse wrote to monastics and his spiritual children: “Prayer is not standing before icons, but seeing God’s presence everywhere.” The great Elder Sophrony (Sakharov) from Essex in England, who we hope will soon be canonized by the Church,¹ kept up a correspondence with his sister in Russia. She wrote to him once: “I’ve forgotten how to pray lately. I can’t pray and I feel unable to persist in prayer.” He replied to her, “Be careful, because it seems to me that what you’re telling me is happening because you perceive prayer as someone standing before icons and reading prayers.”

Prayers alone aren’t enough, hence they’re incomplete. I’m not saying they’re bad, but they’re not enough. Of course, a man begins with Compline, the Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos, prayer canons, and he does all this at home with a prayer rope in his hands, but the point to doing all this is to unite with God, and with God’s grace to become a man who doesn’t merely say prayers, but becomes prayer himself. Perhaps you’re already asking yourself what that means. It means to see God’s presence everywhere, in everything and everyone, to sense the sacredness of God’s presence, the sacred sense of God’s presence; then everything can become a cause for doxology, prayers, and union with God. That’s what the saints did.

​St. Sophrony (Sakharov)     

If you read the life of St. Porphyrios then you’ll see that he saw Christ in everything, that everything became an occasion for prayer for him, from the smallest and simplest blade of grass to the singing of a nightingale, and so on.

One evening, when St. Porphyrios was lying exhausted in the hospital and he had a terrible crisis that nearly killed him, what was there with him?

“A star,” he said, “was shining, and everyone saw it and said it was a sign of God’s presence.”

And that comforted him.

Confessor for the LeprousElder Eumenios (Saridakis ) was an amazing ascetic, a saint of our times who diligently took care to conceal his holiness.

“>Elder Eumenios (Saridakis) is a great saint of our times, about whom St. Porphyrios said:

“There’s a secret saint. I want you to take me to him for Confession.”

He was a smiling, joyful, and warm-hearted man. When he was suffering from leprosy, the breeze would comfort and refresh him. Do you really see something strange in this, something “Hollywood?” These are simple things through which the saints felt the presence of God. They saw the presence and blessing of God in everyone and everything—in a man’s smile and his presence, in a friend, in a man who gives some brief response.

Fr. Nikolai (Sakharov), the nephew of Elder Sophrony and also a monk in Essex, says of the Elder that his entire life was not simply a prayer rule, as in a prayer rope and monastic prostrations, but his whole life was a prayer. His every movement was filled with prayer. He did nothing without prayer, or more precisely, he didn’t live without prayer. His life was prayer.

This is our great problem. We often divide the week and days and we say:

“Now it’s time for prayer! Then I’ll do something else. I’m going to go to church on Sunday. On Monday I have work and I should look different, because my job isn’t church…”

Thus we have a division and bifurcation in our lives. The surest way of understanding this is to ask your children. Ask them:

“My children, how do you see me at home? And how do you see me in church? Do I speak with your mother the same way I talk to the priest?”

    

But for our life to become prayer, in order to encounter the true, living God, we have to meet our true self. We’re strangers to ourselves. Think about how many masks we put on every day, how many roles we play every day. At work we’re in one role, at home another, with our wife a third, with our friends a fourth, and so on. We change and adapt to different roles depending on who we’re with. Therefore, authenticity is very important—something we’ve lost even in the Church. Before, if you went to a monastery, you would see all the spiritual charisms—one monk would be comforting another, another would be hard-working, another would have a practical mind, a fourth would have a contemplative mind. It used to be that you could see great prayerful monks, fasting monks, and cheerful monks in a monastery.

There was a priest in Athens, Fr. John the Joyful. I saw him in photos and heard his words, but I forget where he served. Perhaps some of you know him. Do you know why people gave him the nickname “Joyful?” The heart of every person who went to see him “boiled over” with joy. Fr. John took away their grief and grumbling. As Fr. Ananias Koustenis says, “If you make someone smile, the devil will burst with rage.” He also says that “a smile is mercy.” That is, charity isn’t just about giving someone money, but comforting his heart, relieving him of his pain, his problems, his fatigue as much as possible.

In other words, we’re not ourselves, and so it’s hard to understand the meaning of prayer when we begin to pray if we constantly deceive, if we don’t know who we are, if we don’t live our own life but rather live someone else’s life. We live the life our father , mother, or someone else wanted, but we don’t live our own life and we aren’t ourselves. And how will we encounter God if we’re inauthentic and don’t know who we are?

One young man said to me:

“Father, in the evening I watch movies, and then I go to pray. I read a bit from a book about Elder Paisios and I think I’m like him.”

This young man imagines himself as being like Elder Paisios, or Elder Porphyrios. The problem is that you’re not like them. Elder Paisios lived his life and found his path to God. And have you found your path to God? Therefore, there’s no greater mistake, no greater blasphemy against the Holy Spirit than the desire to copy someone else’s life. The mistake that often happens in Church circles is that we think that emulating the saints means copying their lives. No, you can’t do this, because as Elder Sophrony (Sakharov) says, you’ll look in vain for a repetition of the life of St. Nikodemos the Athonite or the life of St. Symeon the New Theologian in the life of another. Nothing will work out for you, because the Lord is a Person, and He creates a unique, personal, and inimitable relationship with every person.

The great Romanian ascetic Fr. Rafail Noica says, “Man is a path to God. Every man comes to God in his own way.” Because we’re inimitable, unique. And the Lord is looking for an encounter with us, not with someone else, not with our imaginary self.

To be continued…