Tag: Christianity

Amman, Jordan, November 15, 2023

Photo: Facebook     

Hierarchs from the Antiochian Patriarchate paid a special visit to a hierarch of the Jerusalem Patriarchate last week in honor of the restoration of Eucharistic communion after 9 years.

The Antiochian Synod broke communion with the Church in Jerusalem on Church of Antioch breaks off Eucharistic communion with Patriarchate of JerusalemThe reason of the break-off is the dispute on the canonical jurisdiction of Qatar territories, to which both Local Churches have claims.

“>April 29, 2014, over a dispute concerning the canonical jurisdiction of Qatar, to which both Local Churches lay claim. On Antiochian Patriarchate restores communion with Jerusalem PatriarchateThe Holy Synod of the Antiochian Patriarchate resolved to restore Eucharistic communion with the Jerusalem Patriarchate today, after nearly a decade of broken communion.”>October 20, 2023, the Antiochian Holy Synod resolved to restore communion, although the Qatar issue remains unresolved.

And last week, His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch sent Their Eminences Athanasios of Latakia and Ephraim of Aleppo and Alexandretta to visit His Eminence Archbishop Christophoros of Kyriakoupolis of the Jerusalem Patriarchate in Jordan, reports the Antiochian Patriarchate.

“They were to bring to the Church of Jerusalem a message of fraternal love and the return of ecclesiastical communion between the Patriarchate of Antioch and the Patriarchate of Jerusalem,” the report states.

Abp. Christophoros expressed his personal joy and the joy of His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem and of the Jerusalem Holy Synod over the restored communion.

Likewise, the Antiochian hierarchs conveyed the love of Pat. John and of the people of the Church of Antioch.

Abp. Christophoros also “highlighted the importance of returning to ecclesiastical communion and perpetuating ties of pure Christian love for the good of the Orthodox family in the two sister Patriarchates, as well as the positive impact on the Orthodox and Christian world in the East and over the world.”

At the end of the meeting, “as an effective expression of sincere fraternal love and solidarity, and in confirmation of the national and humanitarian position of the Church of Antioch in supporting the afflicted brothers in Gaza,” the Antiochian hierarchs have Abp. Christophoros a financial donation from the Church of Antioch.

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Catholics are still forbidden from joining Masonic organizations and, with an increasing number of Catholics joining Masonic lodges in the Philippines, the Vatican has urged the nation’s bishops to find a way to make clear the church’s continued opposition to Freemasonry.

“Membership in Freemasonry is very significant in the Philippines,” said a note from Cardinal Víctor Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and approved by Pope Francis. “It involves not only those who are formally enrolled in Masonic Lodges but, more generally, a large number of sympathizers and associates who are personally convinced that there is no opposition between membership in the Catholic Church and in Masonic Lodges.”

The dicastery’s note, dated Nov. 13 and made public Nov. 15, was a response to a request from Bishop Julito Cortes of Dumaguete, Philippines, “regarding the best pastoral approach to membership in Freemasonry by the Catholic faithful.”

The bishop had voiced his concern about “the continuous rise in the number of the faithful enrolled in Freemasonry” in his diocese and asked the dicastery “for suggestions regarding how to respond to this reality” from a pastoral point of view, including its “doctrinal implications.”

The dicastery wrote “that active membership in Freemasonry by a member of the faithful is forbidden because of the irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry” — a position that was reiterated by the doctrinal congregation in its “Declaration on Masonic Associations” in 1983 and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines in 2003.

Therefore, it said, “those who are formally and knowingly enrolled in Masonic Lodges” — including clerics — “and have embraced Masonic principles fall under the provisions in the above-mentioned declaration.”

The 1983 declaration states that Catholics enrolled in Masonic associations “are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.”

The dicastery said it notified the Philippines’ bishops’ conference that “it would be necessary to put in place a coordinated strategy among the individual bishops” to address the issue appropriately.

The strategy should include both a doctrinal and a pastoral approach, it said, proposing the bishops “conduct catechesis accessible to the people and in all parishes regarding the reasons for the irreconcilability between the Catholic faith and Freemasonry.”

“The Philippine bishops are invited to consider whether they should make a public pronouncement on the matter,” it added.

The Catholic Church has long denounced Freemasonry; in particular, Pope Leo XIII, in the late 19th-century, insisted “Christianity and Freemasonry are essentially irreconcilable, so that enrolment in one means separation from the other.”

Freemasonry refers to the beliefs and practices of a number of fraternal organizations worldwide that are oath-bound secret societies tracing their ancient origins to the local guilds of stonemasons. Today many of the organizations are known for their charitable activity, and worldwide membership in various Masonic lodges is estimated between 2 million and 6 million people.

Freemasonry appears to relativize the religious faith of its members with respect to a “broader truth, which instead is shown in the community of good will, that is, in the Masonic fraternity,” according to a 1985 article in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

“For a Catholic Christian, it is not possible to live his relationship with God in a twofold mode, that is, dividing it into a supra-confessional humanitarian form and an interior Christian form,” said the article, which is also published in the doctrinal dicastery’s archives.

“Only Jesus Christ is, in fact, the Teacher of Truth, and only in him can Christians find the light and the strength to live according to God’s plan, working for the true good of their brethren,” it said.

Norway, November 15, 2023

Photo: mitropolija.com     

A new Orthodox church dedicated to the Serbian children who died in Nazi camps in Norway during WWII is under construction in Norway.

The church is being built at the initiative of the Norwegian theologian Dr. Johanness Sulberg, who gave part of his property for the construction of the church, together with his compatriot Kiel Moen, reports the Metropolis of Montenegro.

“Dr. Johannes Sulberg gave part of his estate for the construction of a church so that the Orthodox could gather there and remember the martyred Serbian children in prayer,” explains journalist and film producer Branko Dimović.

Sulberg earlier participated in the production of the film 33 Angels, about the at least 33 children who died in Norwegian camps, which gave him the opportunity to visit the places where the Serbian people had suffered and to hear the testimonies of their descendants.

Moved by what he saw and heard, he met with His Grace Bishop Dositej of Great Britain and Scandinavia and received his blessing to give part of his estate for the building of a church.

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Nov. 14 was World Diabetes Day, a day that many in the worldwide medical community focus on a disease that causes about 4 million deaths a year, according to the World Health Organization. The Catholic Church considers St. Rafael Arnáiz Baron to be the patron saint of those suffering from diabetes.

Considered one of the great mystics of the 20th century, Arnáiz could not fulfill his desire to become a Trappist monk because of his diabetes, so he was only allowed to be an oblate.

Born in Burgos in 1911, he was educated in schools of the Society of Jesus in his city of origin and in Oviedo, where his family later moved for work reasons.

As a child, he suffered from various illnesses. At the age of 10, after recovering from pleurisy, his father took him to Zaragoza to offer him to the Virgin of Pilar in gratitude for his cure.

Rafael was admitted to the Madrid School of Architecture in 1930.

Aware of his drawing skills, his uncle Leopoldo Baron Torres, duke of Maqueda, commissioned him to design the cover of a book titled “From the Battlefield to the Trappe.” It was a translation of the story of a French soldier who had achieved fame and honor in the art of arms during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871).

Although he could have aspired to the highest decorations and positions, the young Rafael decided to join the Trappists. He was impressed by the life of a French soldier named Gabriel Mossier, who ended his days as Brother Gabriel, a member of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance.

Rafael made his first visit to the Cistercian Monastery of San Isidro de Dueñas in Palencia shortly afterward. Those were the turbulent years of the 1930s in Spain that led to the Civil War.

After doing his compulsory military service, in 1934, the future saint abandoned his university studies and entered the Palencia monastery as a novice for four months. Because he became seriously ill with diabetes, his superiors sent him home to recuperate.

Almost two years later, in 1936, Arnáiz entered again in San Isidro de Dueñas, no longer as an aspirant to monasticism but as an oblate brother. He remained there until September when he was called to fight with other youth.

Despite Rafael’s determination to fight against the enemies of God and his Church, he returned to the convent two months later after being declared unfit for combat due to his disease.

Already, in 1937, due to the special difficulties of the monastic life during wartime, the superiors decided to send him back to his family. But before the end of the year, Arnáiz returned to the monastery in December.

Barely four months later, on April 26, 1938, Brother Rafael died in his cell at the age of 27. In total, adding up all the stages, he only lived the Trappist rule for about 20 months.

A long process of canonization

As early as the 1940s, some of his brothers, convinced of his heroic virtues, proposed placing his tomb in a wing of the cloister, without success.

In 1944, his uncle, the duke of Maqueda, wrote the history of his nephew, titled “A Secret of the Trappist,” which interested many.

It was not until the 1960s that work began on the beatification process and his tomb was moved to the cloister, as his brothers had wished 20 years earlier.

During World Youth Day held in Santiago de Compostela in August 1989, Pope John Paul II proposed Brother Rafael as a model to follow. A few days later, he was declared “Venerable.”

Only a year later, a possible miracle began to be studied and in 1992, St. John Paul II proclaimed him “Blessed” in St. Peter’s Square in Rome.

Under Pope Benedict XVI, the miracle for the canonization of Rafael Arnáiz was approved, and he was canonized on Oct. 11, 2009.

Two years later, he was declared patron — together with other saints like the then-Blessed John Paul II — of World Youth Day in Madrid.

Putna, Suceava County, Romania, November 15, 2023

Abp. Viktor of the UOC and Putna Abbot Melchisedec. Photo: news.church.ua     

A Ukrainian Orthodox Church delegation consisting of three hierarchs visited one of the Romanian Orthodox Church’s most famous monasteries earlier this week.

With the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, the delegation, consisting of His Eminence Archbishop Viktor of Khmelnitsky, His Eminence Archbishop Dionysiy of Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky, and His Grace Bishop Mark of Borodyanka, visited the Holy Dormition-Putna Monastery in northern Romania, near the border with Ukraine, the Khmelnitsky Diocese reports.

Photo: news.church.ua     

The bishops venerated the monastery’s holy icons and relics and enjoyed warm fraternal conversation with the abbot Archimandrite Melchisedec.

Among the sacred treasures at Putna is the relics of St. Stephen the Great, who founded the monastery in 1466-1469 in gratitude for victory in the battle in which he conquered the Kilia citadel.

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The first public day of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ fall plenary assembly in Baltimore saw elections to important posts, while public presentations chiefly centered on synodality, the use of technology in the liturgy and advancing the cause for canonization of a champion of evangelizing through media.

But the day’s events also were marked by little public discussion from the floor. The Nov. 14 public session was prefaced by 90 minutes of closed-door “fraternal dialogues,” which gave bishops time for face-to-face group discussions.

The bishops’ first order of business was voting to approve a letter to Pope Francis that affirmed their shared concern with the pontiff over the conflicts engulfing the world, their desire to facilitate “prayer and dialogue around the reflections of the synthesis report” from the synod and his recent environmental teaching in “Laudate Deum” calling for “ecological conversion.”

The morning session began with Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the U.S., giving a reflection on synodality and its relationship to the U.S. bishops’ ongoing National Eucharistic Revival.

While acknowledging the “synodal method has been a challenge for us,” he explained that “these two realities belong together by their very nature, and they shed light on one another.”

The address by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ president, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for Military Services, focused principally on international conflicts taking place around the world, highlighting various Catholic groups committed to the church’s evangelization, and emphasizing that more could be done to further the National Eucharistic Revival. He called particular attention to the role of “committed priests on fire with the Gospel” who “motivate so much of the charitable outreach of the church.”

Archbishop Broglio emphasized what he saw as “the many synodal realities that already exist in the church in the United States,” naming various advisory bodies at the diocesan level, the National Advisory Council and “the committees of this conference.”

“That is not to say that we do not have to grow and open ourselves to new possibilities, but we recognize and build on what is already present,” he said. “We open our hearts to the action of the Holy Spirit and we listen to that voice.”

The only moment of significant disagreement during the day took place at the midday press conference. In response to a question from The Pillar, Archbishop Broglio said he differed with Cardinal Pierre’s assessment of the U.S. church (as characterized by America magazine’s interview with him) that appeared to indicate the nuncio saw the U.S. church was not yet the outward-facing, missionary church Pope Francis was asking it to become.

In contrast to Cardinal Pierre’s assessment that the churches and seminaries were emptying, and religious sisters disappearing, Archbishop Broglio said, “Certainly, our churches are not empty — yet,” emphasizing the efforts of the National Eucharistic Revival and other initiatives promoting the need to share the Good News, and he mentioned some seminaries were at capacity.

The bishops voted overwhelmingly to reauthorize their Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism for two more years and to evaluate whether or how it should be a permanent part of the conference structure. They made a one-time change to their handbook rules so retired Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Joseph N. Perry could continue as the committee’s chairman; the rules prohibit a retired bishop from serving as a committee’s chairman.

In one of the few comments from the floor, Bishop Barry C. Knestout of Richmond, Virginia, affirmed, “The matter (racism) is still very much present in many places … so I’m very appreciative of the committee’s own work.”

Bishop Steven J. Lopes of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, a kind of Catholic diocese with Anglican traditions under the auspices of the pope, presented on liturgical adaptations for the U.S. Liturgy of the Hours set to be voted on the next day. He also gave a presentation asking whether the U.S. bishops wanted the Committee on Divine Worship, which he chairs, to develop national guidelines regarding the use of technology in the church’s liturgy.

The bishops spent 20 minutes discussing a sheet of questions on the topic, and were asked to jot them down so they could be collected and considered. According to a document provided to OSV News, those questions asked for feedback on the committee’s previous determination “that copyright permission would not be granted to project readings and liturgical texts onto screens.”

The document also asked about livestream liturgies and screens in liturgies, whether they were used well or poorly, and for both it asked what “opportunities and threats does this practice present?” It also asked if any dioceses in the bishops’ respective regions issued guidelines regarding the use of technology in the liturgy. It also asked them whether “new national guidelines merit further consideration,” noting that the U.S. bishops last issued guidelines on digital transmission of the liturgy in 1996.

Bishop Lopes declined a request from OSV News to discuss either the liturgical adaptations under discussion or the concerns surrounding the use of technology in the liturgy.

The U.S. bishops elected Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City as secretary-elect of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The bishops also voted for chairmen-elect for six committees: Bishop David M. O’Connell of Trenton, New Jersey (Catholic education); Bishop William D. Byrne of Springfield, Massachusetts, (communications); Bishop Robert J. Brennan of Brooklyn, New York (cultural diversity in the church); Auxiliary Bishop James Massa of Brooklyn (doctrine); Bishop Daniel H. Mueggenborg of Reno, Nevada (national collections); and Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, (pro-life activities).

They also reappointed the bishops for the boards of Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., or CLINIC, and Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. church’s overseas relief and development agency.

The bishops heard presentations on the pastoral plan for Indigenous Catholic ministry; the revised national statutes for Christian initiation; and supplements to the bishops’ teaching document “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” that consist of a new introductory note, bulletin inserts, a template video script and social media kit.

Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, the conference’s vice president, presented on the supplements to the bishops’ teaching document “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” which consists of a new introductory note, bulletin inserts, a template video script and social media kit. He also reminded bishops that a full rewrite of Faithful Citizenship was planned following the 2024 election.

Unlike the bishops’ assembly last year, no bishops rose to debate or offer comment on the plan.

Toward the end of the day, Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, and Father Iván Montelongo, a priest from the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, shared with the bishops their positive experiences of the Oct. 4-29 Synod on Synodality.

Bishop Flores highlighted how the synod’s model of “conversation in the Spirit” was a “very effective way,” while not the only way, of having the people of God engage in regular conversational interaction for the sake of the church’s mission. He noted the synthesis report was 41 pages and so bishops “can be judicious in discussing what is most relevant to our local churches.” Overall, he said it raised “thoughtful questions of pastoral and theological importance.”

“Many difficult issues were raised but they were not discussed in a contentious way,” Bishop Flores said. “This is in itself quite remarkable.”

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, asked one of the few questions of the day, encouraging the bishops to “read the whole” synthesis report, saying it was “worth it.” He also thanked the Orthodox observers at the USCCB meeting for their participation in the Synod on Synodality, calling it a “great gift.”

The U.S. bishops voted to support the sainthood cause launched by the Archdiocese of New York for Father Isaac Hecker (1819-1888), a Catholic convert and pioneering Catholic publisher who founded the Paulist Fathers.

“Ultimately, this is what we’re about: promoting and directing our faithful and ourselves towards sanctity,” Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, said in introducing the cause with Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York.

The plenary assembly concluded abruptly, with Archbishop Broglio calling the U.S. bishops into an unscheduled executive session. No reason was given.

Kostroma, Kostroma Province, Russia, November 15, 2023

Pat. Kirill venerates the Feodorovskaya Icon which was present during the consecration of the rebuilt Theophany Cathedral in the Kostroma Kremlin in September. The icon has since been permanently moved to the cathedral. Photo: kostromamitropolia.ru     

One of the most revered icons in the Russian Orthodox Church was returned to its historical home earlier this month

On the evening of November 5, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the wonderworking Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God, the main shrine of the Kostroma land, was transferred to the recreated Holy Theophany Cathedral in the Kostroma Kremlin, reports the Kostroma Metropolis.

Photo: orthodoxy.ru     

The icon is perhaps best known as the patron of the imperial Romanov House. Grand Duchesses who were born in the West and later became Russian tsarinas took the patronymic “Feodorovna” in honor of the icon. For example, the last Russian empress became Alexandra Feodorovna in Orthodox Baptism.

The icon first appeared, miraculously, in Kostroma in the 1250s–1260s, and was then kept in the first Kostroma Kremlin, which was destroyed by fire in 1413. Shortly after, a new Kremlin was built on the site of the modern Kremlin, with the Holy Dormition Cathedral. The icon was kept there until 1929.

From 1929 to 1991, the icon was kept in various Kostroma churches, and since 1991, in the Holy Theophany-St. Anastasia Cathedral of the convent of the same name in Kostroma.

Photo: kostromamitropolia.ru     

The revival of the Kostroma Kremlin in recent years made it possible to return the wonderworking icon to its historical place in the rebuilt Theophany Cathedral, which was consecrated by Pat. Kirill on September 24.

In the near future, a new canopy will be made for the Feodorovskaya Icon.

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Ob, Novosibirsk Province, Russia, November 15, 2023

Photo: dsnsk.ru     

The Novosibirsk Theological Seminary is holding a conference today in honor of an exceedingly rare publication that was discovered in its library in the spring.

In 1570, Ivan Fyodorov, one of the fathers of Eastern Slavonic printing, published the first Slavonic Psalter with the Book of Hours in Zabłudów (in modern Poland). Until this year, there were only four known existing copies.

However, a fifth copy lay unknown for many years in the vast library of the Novosibirsk Seminary, until an archaeographic survey was undertaken in the collection earlier this year. The priceless find was made by Alexei Yudin, an employee of the Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts of the State Public Scientific and Technical Library, reports smotrim.ru.

Photo: smotrim.ru     

“At first, he couldn’t believe his eyes. In his hands the scholar held the 1570 Psalter,” the outlet writes. “Until that day, there were only four surviving copies from that small print run were known.”

The other copies are in London in the library of the Lambeth Palace, in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg, in the academic library of Saratov State University, and in Lvov, in Ukraine.

Researchers are working to determine how many owners the book has had over the past 400 years and how it came to the Siberian seminary. However, digital photo correction has given one clue: Having deciphered some erased lines, researchers learned that the Psalter was acquired by one owner in Veliky Ustyug (Russia) in 1620.

In the near future, the Psalter will be digitized to preserve it for future generations.

The video report from smotrim.ru gives a good look at the Psalter:

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I recently boarded a full plane en route to San Salvador from Houston. I was heading back to El Salvador where I had been a missionary for 20 years. 

I found myself seated between two young Salvadoran American men, both Catholics. One was reading a Catholic Bible, the other was too emotional to be reading anything. Both were on their way to visit relatives in rural El Salvador; one had never seen his grandmother in person. He was the more talkative of the two.

“Jorge” had left El Salvador when he was only 1 year old. He was very excited about going to see the place where he was born, a home of which he had no memory. I told him of my years in his country, more years than he had lived. He was curious about where I had been and what I had seen. 

He worked at a Walmart. He wondered if I knew the story of the Waltons and their tremendous success. I was impressed with his admiration of them. Napoleon said that every corporal had a field marshal’s baton in his knapsack. I doubt if many of the thousands that work at Walmart had the almost Horatio Alger-like respect for what the Waltons accomplished that Jorge had. 

This young man, brought across the border illegally when he was only 1, was a believer in capitalism. I sensed in him a work ethic that’s hard to find in his Gen Z counterparts that I meet. 

I asked how his cousins had legal status but he did not. He shrugged, accepting the vagaries of providence. “I didn’t even know I was illegal for a long time,” he said.

I was surprised he used the term “illegal.” I knew that people with his status were called “dreamers,” but I never had talked with one in whom the dream was almost palpable. His sincere loyalty to the life he lived in our country moved me. I have worked with so many young men who suffer addictions and, despite birthright citizenship, never felt they really belonged anywhere.

Like his cousins, Jorge had attended public school and lived in the two worlds immigrants inhabit, speaking Spanish at home and English out of the house. In so many ways, he was a typical American boy, except he was not. 

He smiled as he talked about how he had got vacation time, how many days he would be in El Salvador, and what he hoped to see. He was thrilled to be going to a place he had only heard about. He was so grateful that he was able to visit the land of his birth, but he said he had to be careful, that there were many precautions he had to take. If he got in any trouble or was late getting back, he could lose his “temporary” status.

As we began our descent to the airport, his emotion was evident. He was seeing El Salvador but it was like he was entering into a dream. His eyes could not absorb enough, his face in the window. 

I could tell he was a little embarrassed by his emotion, so I said, “It is a beautiful land.” He grinned with appreciation. He began to take photos with his phone. His wonder was contagious. Even the young man on the other side of me, who had been back and forth several times, seemed to be moved by Jorge’s honest excitement.

I am only a second-generation American. My paternal grandparents were both born in Middle Europe before empires disappeared and so many different nations were established. I never doubted that America was my country. 

I remember, however, that my grandmother was afraid to admit to her ethnicity because she lived through two wars in which her adopted country fought against Germans. She would only speak her meager English to her children. She did not want them to be “foreigners.” I think she would have understood why I was so moved by Jorge’s situation. He was a man with and without a country.

Since my trip, I have sent Jorge an article I had written in a previous review of “Solito,” a book by a Salvadoran American poet who reconstructed his difficult and dangerous odyssey to California as a young boy. 

Although I have not heard back from him, I have thought of him in light of some recent articles I have read about the Catholic Church and immigration. One accused the bishops of self-interested actions on behalf of immigrants — “more people in the pews, more money in the collection basket!” 

The other was by a bishop well known for his work with diverse immigrants and their families. Retired Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn recently wrote to “dispel the doubts that have been placed in the public forum by some uniformed public officials.” He clarified that “the Church does not advocate for open borders. In fact, the teaching is clear that a sovereign nation has the right to admit those whom it chooses, but it must be based on the common good.”

In the polemical climate we live in, even something obvious, like what DiMarzio delineated, seems controversial. I have heard good Catholics get upset that Catholic Charities gives food and blankets to persons who have been detained. Charity and justice are not competing claims. They are complementary aspects of social doctrine. We have lost that in much of the name-calling and blame-game antics of the public forum.

The nation’s immigration system is broken. Fixing it is going to be a mammoth job of social engineering. It is an international problem; an economic one; an anthropological issue in terms of family unity; a human rights question; finally, a moral dilemma with many sides and conflicting interests. The solution will be an affair of experts, perhaps, but like all important social crises, it requires individual understanding and commitment.

When the rhetoric cools down, and reason takes the place of impulsive reactions, I will still be remembering a young man staring out the window of an airplane “going home.”

Nun Maria (Balan) from Agapia Monastery is the sister of the famous Archimandrite Ioanichie (Balan)Ioanichie Balan, Archimandrite

“>Archimandrite Ioanichie (Balan) of Sihăstria Monastery, the great spiritual father, hagiologist of Romanian saints, and compiler of the landmark Romanian Patericon. They were connected not only by blood, but also by strong love for Christ, to Whom they both devoted their lives.

She was born in the village of Stănița in Neamț County, the ninth child in a simple peasant family. And her brother, the famous confessor Ionichie (Balan), was the second child and first boy. There was a difference of nineteen years between them, but it didn’t prevent them from loving each other as only true brothers and sisters can. Mother Maria and Fr. Ioanchie lived in monasteries located near each other, across a mountain pass, on that patch at the foot of the Neamț Mountains that is known as the Romanian Athos. Most of the largest monasteries in the country are gathered there—Secu, Sihăstria, Sihla, Agapia, Văratec—over which both ancient and newly revealed saints awaiting canonization stand guard.¹

The dusk was thickening when I met her—a dusk that wrapped the story of her life in gold, as if pouring out from the other world.

​Brother and sister, Mother Maria and Archimandrite Ioanichie     

“The communist period was hard for the faith, but at the same time wondrous, because we had these great confessors with us. Holy people… Do you know what happiness it is to follow in the footsteps of the saints?”

Beginning

Archimandrites Cleopa (Ilie) and Ioanichie (Balan), c. 1952-1954 “Which one of them is my brother?” she wondered. Two monks stood before her, dressed in long, black riassas and white sheepskin vests. One was young, thirty years old, with fair hair and sky-blue eyes—this was Fr. Ioanichie (Balan); the other was a bit older, a man in the prime of his life, just over forty—Fr. Cleopa (Ilie).

And only when the whole village flooded to their house to see them did Maria realize which one was her brother. He wasn’t an ordinary man. He was a monk, and not a simple one, but from Sihăstria Monastery, where Archimandrite Cleopa (Ilie)Cleopa (Ilie), Archimandrite

“>Fr. Cleopa (Ilie) himself was the abbot, who the people already loved and revered as a saint by that time.

That’s how it was. When he preached in the village church, everyone wept. Even if you were made of stone, his words couldn’t fail to touch the depths of your soul—fiery words emanating from otherworldly realms and gathered in his heart by the power of prayer.

The whole village passed through their house then—a continuous string of people wanting to talk with these monks, to ask them for advice and often to assuage their sorrows with the power of their blessing.

“Times were very tough. Full-scale collectivization hadn’t begun yet, but every peasant had to give the state the majority of what they produced. If anyone couldn’t, then they’d go to his house and confiscate everything he had. And people were looking not just for comfort from Fr. Cleopa and my brother, but also advice. They didn’t know what to do in the face of such a ruthless dictatorship that only caused fear.

“I remember that before he left, Fr. Ioanichie left us a suitcase full of his manuscripts. He thought persecution was about to begin and he would be arrested. He escaped arrest, but not persecution.”

Brotherly love

Archimandrite Ioanichie Fr. Ioanichie loved and cared for his sister her whole life. In his old age, he would tell his disciple, a married priest:

“Father, we monks partake of every one of God’s blessings, save one—carrying our own children in our arms. God has granted this great joy only to you all in the world. But know that I partook of this a little bit as well, because I held my sister Maria in my arms. When I left for the monastery, I was nineteen, and she was two months old. I hugged her last and I’ve always lived with the memory of her.”

As the years passed, the girl grew up, but her brother continued to watch over her from his monastery seclusion, and not just with prayers.

“Father really loved me. I remember, he would tell our mother: ‘I don’t know why, but she’s very precious to me.’ And you know, he was always watching out for me. Once I was quite sick with tuberculosis, and I got a letter from him while I was in the hospital, covered with the stains of his tears… He was very worried about my health. I could always sense his very tender, very sensitive soul.”

A capital of saints

Agapia Monastery, where Mother Maria labors     

Maria was a student, and when Fr. Ioanichie would come to visit her, they would wander around the capital. Every door opened before them; they were received with love everywhere. In those dark years, there was an invisible network of spiritual authorities in Bucharest, circulating the love of God. The dictatorship notwithstanding, in churches closed for subsequent demolition, in frozen apartments, and tiny monastic cells, you could meet with priests such as Fr. Dumitru StaniloaeStaniloae, Fr. Dumitru

“>Dumitru Stăniloae, Constantin Galeriu, 20th anniversary of Romanian Elder Sofian (Boghiu) celebrated in his hometown (+VIDEO)Yesterday, September 14, marked the 20th anniversary of the repose of the great Romanian elder Archimandrite Sofian (Boghiu), who spent his life in monasticism and suffered for 15 years in a communist prison.”>Sofian Boghiu, Ilarion Agratu, and Benedict Ghiuş. Mother Maria entered into these circles that burned with faith and represented spiritual resistance to the dictatorship, through Fr. Ioanichie—a highly revered and scholarly monk, much loved by everyone.

“Everyone was very hospitable, full of love; I could go to their homes or monasteries at any time. I would go to Cernica Monastery to Fr. Benedict Ghiuş for some time every day, because I was helping him with the publication of the Prologues. I was simply in love with Cernica, and when I would walk along the alley leading to the church, I always felt extremely happy. I really love St. Calinic.² He’s always so warm and loving! After venerating his relics in the church, I’d go to Fr. Benedict’s cell.

“Do you know what he was like? A saint! That’s how I always perceived him. It’s hard to explain why. It can only be felt, not explained. He was very erudite, richly gifted from God: He sang beautifully, he was a talented writer, and an unrivaled preacher. He was completely immersed in himself, and at the same time a very friendly person; a delicate nature.

“He was quite silent. Sometimes when I was alone with him, we would finish working on the Prologues and he would simply fall silent, immersed in the prayer of the heart. Usually in a situation like this, where a person doesn’t talk to you for such a long time, you feel awkward, unnatural, and a lump forms in your throat. But with Fr. Benedict, I could spend an hour not saying anything, and we didn’t notice how time flew, because there was grace all around him.

Persecution

Fr. Cleopa (Ilie) and Fr. Ioanichie (Balan) were too strong, too pure, and their words were too beloved by the people for the security services to leave them together, so they were separated. Fr. Ioanichie was driven out of Sihăstria Monastery and sent to Bistrița Monastery near the town of Piatra Neamț so it would be easier for informers to follow him. Counsels of Elder Justin (Pârvu); †June 16, 2013On June 16, 2013, at 10:40 p.m., after several weeks of suffering in terrible pain, which became particularly acute during his final hours of life, Archimandrite Justin (Pârvu) departed this temporary life to the habitations of heaven, to the holy martyrs and confessors he so loved, and with whom he so longed to be united.

“>Fr. Justin (Pârvu), who had seven years of the harshest imprisonment behind him, was also sent there. Without realizing it, the communists had done the work of God. There, in Bistrița, Fr. Ioanichie continued working on his books, with which he saved from oblivion and immortalized all the great Romanian saints.

Bistrița Monastery     

“As soon as he would leave the monastery, the security officers would enter his cell and rummage through everything. One time they took one of his manuscripts, and it was extremely difficult to get them to return it, even though there was nothing political in it. He wasn’t involved in politics at all, but still, his homilies, which the people really loved, were a slap in the face of the regime. So his transfer to Bistrița was from God, and Father was greatly loved there. People would come to him from the city of Piatra Neamț and all the surrounding villages. They also came to Fr. Justin (Pârvu), who was simply drowning in a crowd of people in Bistrița. He didn’t even have time to go to church for the Liturgy, he was so sought after by the people. They really loved him too, because he was very meek and had endured suffering in prison.

A book from the east

Compiler of the Romanian Patericon, Archimandrite Ioanichie (Balan) From childhood, she would go see her brother Fr. Ioanichie at Sihăstria Monastery, but her calling to monasticism didn’t mature immediately:

“I remember one time Father took me to the tiny monastery library. ‘Look, he said, ‘I arranged all the sacred books from the East, and all the rest from the West. Pick one you’d like to read!’ I looked at the titles and told him: ‘I’d like one from the West!’ ‘No, my sister, I implore you, take a sacred book, from the East. I give you the obedience of reading the Acts of the Apostles.’

“And there was no electricity at Sihăstria at that time. We read by lamplight, and it was so beautiful! They sang quietly on the kliros. It wasn’t Byzantine chant, but a very simple melodic line. It was essentially prayer-chanting, where the music receded into the background and love for the Lord remained in the foreground.

“Thus I learned what a monastery is. In 1968, I was helping Nun Agafia, my second cousin, at Văratec Monastery, when suddenly she said to me: ‘You know Fr. Ioanichie would be glad if you joined a monastery.’ It was as though the vault of the heavens came crashing down on me! I started praying, walking circles around the church, and came to a decision. I was in my second year of college then, and I liked to see things through to the end. So I decided I would finish school first (at the Academy of Economic Research).

Văratec Monastery, Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. Photo: Shutterstock     

“And when I finished, my brother Fr. Ioanichie decided to test me and asked me to wait a bit. I think Father wanted to see my decisiveness, and wanted to wait for the wave of persecution that came crashing down on the monasteries after Decree No. 410 in 1959, when all the monks were expelled from their monasteries, to pass. The decree wasn’t canceled, and although the monks started returning to their monasteries, they did so illegally, trying to gain a foothold in the monasteries under any pretext, as museum or trade shop employees.

The prayer of Elder Paisie (Olaru)

Hieroschemamonk Paisie (Olaru) “Do you still have joy?”—this is what Fr. Ioanichie asked her every time they saw each other. He knew that nuns feel extremely happy in the first years after they join a monastery. Grace from above overflows the heart of the novice and helps her pass through any test unscathed. Mother Maria very clearly remembers these years, when God carried her in His arms”

“When you have a calling to monasticism from Christ, you don’t walk to a monastery—you run! This is the grace of God, great grace. At first it envelops you, then it weakens and trials come to teach you humility. For me, the joy of joining the monastery was immense. I wanted to embrace all the sisters, I was so happy! There was an abyss of love between us. We’d be working in the field, and I’d fall behind, when suddenly I’d see a couple of nuns in front of me who had finished digging their row and had come to mine, hurrying to dig it up too. Or when it was snowing, we’d get up at midnight and go to the older nuns to shovel the snow around their huts. It was wonderful in those years! And we had a special abbess, dear Eustochia (Ciocanu), a former student of Fr. Stăniloae. I loved her very much.”

Mother Maria chose Agapia Monastery, where she still labors today, to be closer to Monastery of Elders Cleopa (Ilie) and Paisie (Olaru) underway in Romania (+VIDEO)Two of the greatest Romanian elders of the 20th century were honored on Friday with the laying of the foundation stone of a future monastery to be dedicated in their honor.

“>Elder Paisie (Olaru) who was laboring at Sihla Skete at that time. Thousands of pilgrims clambered along the paths of the Neamț Mountains to get to the tiny cell of the holy confessor.

“When I entered the monastery, I asked the abbess to allow me to go see Fr. Paisie at least once a month. I’d go see him at night sometimes, because we had work during the day. There were only old huts in Sihla at that time, each one lit by a single lamp. Father lived up above, in a small cell under a rock. He was kind, like a mother! During Confession, you could bury your head in his lap,” Mother Maria says weeping.

“I had always wanted to have a spiritual father like him. He was very kind. Very kind! He pastored us with great love. At midnight, he would gather us under his stole like a mother hen, and read an amazing prayer over us that he had composed himself: ‘Bless, O Lord, their labors, their homes, their bread, their children, their lives, and mercifully grant them a good end, and in the next world, on the Day of Judgment, grant them a corner of Paradise, for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages.’ And at the end, he’d always wish: ‘May we meet at the gates of Paradise!’

“He was simply priceless! He always had little poems that made us smile. As we climbed the mountain, he’d say, ‘Let’s go to Paradise, Paradise, Paradise, on a two-horse cart!’³ Then he explained that the two horses are the body and the soul, and the cart carries our deeds.

“We young nuns would tease each other a bit, but only I really suffered from it; it can be like this in a monastery, because we come from the world with ambitions that are hard to give up. And Fr. Paisie taught me to see all the nuns as better than me, to make me humble. He’d tell me to go to church and say in front of an icon: ‘I’m guilty of everything!’ But he said it with such love! He corrected us with great love, to humble us, but he understood us too.

Fr. Ioanichie’s departure

After Fr. Cleopa departed to God, on December 2, 1998, Fr. Ioanichie started telling his disciples that he’d like to retire into silence. He gave his whole life to Christ, going around the whole country searching for stories about the ancient saints. His books have raised an entire generation; they’ve been read by everyone, from the simplest believers to hierarchs. He fulfilled his mission, and now, at seventy years of age, he was looking for some rest in prayer; he wanted peace and quiet, which he needed his whole life.

“Fr. Ioanichie was of a contemplative nature. He really loved to pray. In his journal, he wrote that after leaving Matins at 2 AM, he’d go to the cemetery to pray at the graves of the great Sihăstria elders.”

Perpetual lampadas at Sihăstria     

In the end, God fulfilled his thirst for solitude by sending him a serious illness. And in his last years, until he took up his abode in Heaven in 2007, he knew only one road: from his cell to church and back, and he was always led by his disciples.

“Stay here, you’re like a mother for me!” he’d always say when she’d go to Sihăstria.

And in the end, she stayed.

“My brother was very perceptive; he had a very sensitive soul, the soul of a poet. He’d weep when I’d read Eminescu’s poems to him in his final years. I was with him when he departed to the Lord on the night of November 22. He had fallen into a coma ten days prior, and a real pilgrimage began to his bedside. A procession of faithful, priests, monastics, and hierarchs came to see him.

“On November 21, at eight in the evening, I was sitting next to him, reading the Psalter. He was breathing very hard, but when I got to Psalm 119, I noticed that he started breathing normally. Then his breathing became weaker and weaker, and at 2:20 AM, it died off. It was snowing outside the window… He died peacefully.

​Nun Maria (Balan)     

“Sometimes I see him in my dreams. Once I saw him in his vestments—he blessed me and disappeared. He was so joyful. Very joyful! And I woke up happy, in seventh heaven.

“He was very dear to me! And it wasn’t just him I felt attached to like a blood relation, but also other elders of the last century. They were all real fathers! When I was with them, it didn’t even feel like I was living in an era of dictatorship. I was so happy!

“I feel that they’re still talking to us. I always think about them. They’ll remain an ideal for me until I die. I always think: What would they say, what would they do if they were in my spot right now? And with this thought, it’s easy for me to make a decision to keep the true path to God.”