Tag: Christianity

St. Albert the Great, so-called because of his encyclopedic knowledge, was born in 1193 in Donau. He studied at Padua, and joined the Order of Preachers in 1223. He was sent to Germany to teach in many cities, and taught St. Thomas Aquinas. 

In 1248, he earned the honor of Master in Sacred Theology. Huge crowds gathered to hear him speak and teach. A few years later, Albert was made the provincial of his Order in Germany. He lived in the court of Pope Alexander II, and was made bishop of Regensburg, but two years later, he returned to Cologne. 

In Cologne, he served as shepherd, counselor, and peacemaker, until his death at the age of 87. 

In 1931, Pope Pius XI made Albert a saint, and declared him a doctor of the Church. Albert wrote throughout his life, and his 21 folio volumes are dedicated to commentaries on Aristotle and the Bible. He is known as the greatest German scholar of the Middle Ages. 

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13

Anna Stepanovna Demidova On the night of July 16–17, 1918, the royal servants were executed in the dreadful basement of the Ipatiev House alongside the seven members of the Imperial family. They were the doctor E.S. Botkin, the cook I.M. Kharitonov, the valet A.E. Troup, and the maid A.S. Demidova. These people remained faithful to their duty, honor and oath and courageously went to their deaths demonstrating profound Christian humility and sacrificial love. They made their choice between life and death “for their neighbor,” and this choice became a spiritual labor and an example of loyalty forever.

After the abdication of His Majesty the Emperor Nicholas II, almost all of his retinue cowardly abandoned the Imperial Family, shrugging off the oath of loyalty to the Lord’s Anointed they had taken at the time. Favored by power and honors, distinguished noblemen and representatives of elite members of the gentry scattered in all directions. Later followed the house arrest of the Romanovs and their exile in Tobolsk where their servants, who didn’t want to leave the Imperial family in their time of trial, traveled as well. The Empress’s maid Anna Stepanovna Demidova was among them. She followed the Royal Passion-Bearers to Ekaterinburg and died a martyr’s death with them.

They made their choice between life and death “for their neighbor” and this choice became a spiritual labor and an example of loyalty

Anna Stepanovna Demidova was born on January 14/27, 1878 in Cherepovets to the wealthy bourgeois family of Stepan Alexandrovich and Maria Efimovna Demidov. The Demidovs had long been known in their town as devout Christians and generous benefactors. Anna’s great-great-grandfather, Vasily Nikiforovich, funded the opening of the first training school in Cherepovets. Anna’s grandfather, Alexander Andreevich Demidov, was the churchwarden of the Resurrection Cathedral. Her father was a member of the Cherepovets City Duma and the county-level zemstvo assembly of members of the city council, as well as the chairman of the Cherepovets mutual fire insurance society. Anna had two brothers and a younger sister, Elizaveta, who was her best friend.

Anna Demidova (or Nyuta, as she was called by her family) first studied in a two-grade school at St. John the Baptist Leushino Monastery founded by the famous Abbess Thaisia, a spiritual daughter of Righteous John of Kronstadt. Upon graduation from this preparatory school, Anna continued her studies in the six-year teaching school for girls with needlework classes at the same monastery. The education offered there was at the level of a higher educational institution. Abbess Thaisia authored the program of education for girls, which included such subjects as the Law of God, Russian literature, foreign languages, arithmetic, history, natural history, and music. The Leushino schools had developed great programs to teach handicrafts, iconography, and painting. The abbess paid great attention to the development in her students of high moral qualities, such as profound faith, a strong work ethic, commitment to do good, and a sense of responsibility and duty. The decisions Anna made later in her life showed the fruits of this education. Upon graduation with honors from the teacher’s school in 1898, Anna Demidova received a certificate of governess.

Anna’s mastery of needlework played a decisive role in her future. According to family legend, during one of the needlework exhibitions in the Leushino monastery, the Empress took a liking to Anna Demidova’s work, and a skilled embroiderer herself, Alexandra Feodorovna invited the girl to serve at the palace as a maid. On January 13, 1898, the twenty-year-old Anna was “assigned to the rooms of H.I.H. the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna” and received the regular position of “maid of honor of the bedchamber.” For this service, she and her family members were granted nobility by birth.

Anna settled in the Alexander Palace for years to come. A modest, kind, and obliging girl with an even temperament, she quickly fit into the family earning the favor of the Empress and the love of her children. She responsibly fulfilled her duties, the main one being teaching needlework such as sewing, embroidery, and knitting to the Grand Duchesses. She would also occasionally serve as their nanny.

“I’m going to bed now. Nyuta is combing my hair,” Grand Duchess Olga once wrote to her father.

Nyuta grew particularly fond of the Tsar’s youngest daughter Anastasia, since she took part in her upbringing from early childhood

Nyuta Demidova grew very attached to the Royal family and the Grand Duchesses loved her in return. Nyuta was particularly fond of the Tsar’s youngest daughter Anastasia, as she took part in her upbringing from early childhood. Anna’s sister and her family kept a postcard Anastasia had sent to her:

“Congratulations to Mademoiselle Anna! Anastasia. See you soon.”

Nyuta had a fiancé, N. N. Ersberg, an engineer and the brother of Elizabeth Ersberg, a room girl of the Tsar’s daughters. Things were heading toward a wedding, but their union never materialized. Apparently, Anna did not want to part with the Imperial family, knowing that once married, the room girls had to forfeit their position immediately. As an alumna of Leushino Monastery, Anna wrote to her relatives that she accepts her service to the Anointed of God as an obedience and will never leave her position of her own free will. She lovingly told them about the Imperial family. The Emperor himself called her by her first name and patronymic, while the Empress, in her letter to A.A. Vyrubova, said of her: “My nice and big Nyuta Demidova.” The Tsarina’s congratulatory words to Anna have survived till our days:

“I heartily congratulate dear Anna Stepanovna with her Name Day, sending you a big kiss from afar and my best wishes. A.F.”

Anna Stepanovna Demidova On February 21, 1913, in connection with the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanovs, Anna Stepanovna Demidova was awarded among other royal servants with the Light bronze commemorative medal.

Nyuta, who often returned to her native Cherepovets, was greeted with honor by simple folk who loved the Imperial family and respected Anna, the maid of the Empress herself: “They stood along the road from the station to her house” (as related by an old nanny in the house of Anna’s sister, E.S. Demidova).

After the February Revolution of 1917, all the inhabitants of Tsarskoye Selo who did not want to be subjected to the prison-like security, had to leave the palace. Demidova, among a small group of servants, continued to reside in the Alexander Palace. When the question arose of sending the crowned family to England, Anna told her relatives that she wasn’t going to go there, but would return to her native Cherepovets. Apparently, she loved Russia and did not want to leave it. When the family was sent to Tobolsk in August 1917, Anna voluntarily followed them to share the bitterness and burden of exile with her beloved Masters, as she called the Imperial couple. She dreaded her future, but she never entertained any thought of betrayal.

“The last two weeks, ever since I have found out that they have plans to send us “somewhere,” I was on edge and slept little, worrying about the unknown, about where we will be taken,” she wrote in her diary preserved to our days. “It was a time of hardship. It was only when were already on the road that we found out we are being “sent away to the far north” and my heart sinks at the mere thought of ‘Tobolsk’. “

In her diary, she describes their long journey to Siberia. From Anna Demidova’s diary:

“When we travel, I think less of what the future will bring us, but I feel sick in heart once I realize how far I am from my family, whether I will ever see them again or when! I haven’t seen my sister, not even once, for five months.”

Both the Romanovs and their servants lived in exile as one tight-knit family: they prayed, worked, and rested together

The Imperial family considered their life in Tobolsk “quiet and peaceful”. Both the Romanovs and the servants lived in exile as one tight-knit family: together they prayed, just as they ate, worked, and took rest together. Anna writes in her diary about the weather and pastimes: going to church, attending the Liturgy and All-Night Vigils served in the house, and the evenings with the Emperor, Dr. Botkin, and Prince Dolgorukov taking turns reading aloud. She writes how busy she is about the house and that she was giving lessons to Tsesarevich Alexey when his tutors got sick. She would occasionally visit the St. Sophia Cathedral, which houses the relics of St. John of Tobolsk glorified among the saints during the reign of Nicholas II. Since Anna had the right to freely go about the city, she carried out various errands for Alexandra Feodorovna, risking her freedom and even her life. She would secretly take and deliver the letters and parcels from the Empress to her intimate friends. In a letter dated 12/15/1917 to Anna Vyrubova, Alexandra Feodorovna wrote:

“Thank Annushka for the things and write to me with caution. I hope that you will receive our things by the holiday; they were dispatched only yesterday. It is thanks to Annushka who does everything for me together with Volkov.”

And in a letter dated 12/10/1917:

“Of course, we risk sending this package, but I got Annushka to help me… Write to Annushka that you received everything.”

During the last months of imprisonment, the servants were left without salaries; they served the Imperial Family out of loyalty.

Evgeny Kobylinsky, head of security for the Imperial Family in Tobolsk, testified:

“Demidova was about forty-two years old, full, blonde, with a ruddy face, a straight and small nose, blue eyes.”

Sidney Gibbs, an English tutor of the Tsar’s children, with whom Anna was reportedly in love, left a portrait of hers as well:

“A tall, well-built, and full-bodied woman, who, contrary to her physical appearance, was extremely timid of character.”

He recalled how terrified she was during her last evening in Tobolsk:

“I am so afraid of the Bolsheviks, Mr. Gibbs. I don’t know what they can do to us.”

Overcoming her fear, she accompanied the Empress from Tobolsk to Ekaterinburg.

The life of the prisoners in the “House of Special Purpose” passed in an atmosphere of never-ending abuse on the part of rude, insolent, and evil-minded guards. Demidova happened to be the only servant who was allowed to stay with the family, and, during her last fifty-three days with the Romanovs in the Ipatiev House before the execution, she tirelessly served the Empress, washing and mending linen, or stoking the furnace.

From a letter of the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna: “Nyuta is darning stockings. In the morning, we made the bed together…” From the diary of the Empress: “The children and Nyuta darned linen…” “Before dinner, Maria and Nyuta washed my hair.” Anna Stepanovna turned out to be one of the closest people in the entourage of the holy Imperial family during the tragic year of their life.

“I want to kneel before them, as they suffer for us, but we can’t help them, not even with a word,” wrote the Empress

The crowned martyrs were concerned about their faithful servants. Here are some lines from a letter by Alexandra Feodorovna:

“Remember those others. Oh, God, how we suffer for them, what they are going through, the innocent ones… They will receive a crown from the Lord. I want to kneel before them, because they suffer for us, but we cannot help them, not even with a word. This is the hardest of all.”

In July, on the terrible night of the murder of the Imperial family and its faithful servants, Anna was carrying pillows, because the prisoners were told that they would be taken to a safe place. In the basement, Nyuta leaned against the door frame and Anastasia whom she loved so much was standing next to her. In the last moments of their lives, they stood there, side by side—the Grand Duchess and her faithful nanny. A blood curling tragedy unfolded next. When the Bolsheviks began to shoot, the frightened, helpless and horror-stricken woman began to rush about the basement. She used a pillow to defend herself from the bullets that got lodged inside it. When the shots stopped, Anna joyfully exclaimed: “Thank God! God has saved me!”

But her joy over her miraculous rescue didn’t last long… With macabre cruelty, the slaughterers finished her off with bayonets, inflicting thirty-two blows, and then smashed her head with rifle butts. Anna Stepanovna suffered the most dreadful agony. One of the murderers A. Kabanov recalled:

“Frelna¹ was lying on the floor still alive… One of the comrades began to poke the Frelna’s chest with the bayonet of the American Winchester rifle. The bayonet was like a dagger, but a blunt one, so it did not pierce the chest. Frelna grasped the bayonet with both hands and began to scream, but then she and three royal dogs were finished with rifle butts.”

The guard A. Strekotin testified:

“Comrade Ermakov, seeing that I was holding a rifle with a bayonet, suggested that I should finish off the survivors. I refused, so he took the rifle from my hands and began to finish them off. It was the most terrifying moment of their death. They couldn’t die for a long time, and so they screamed, moaned, and twitched. That lady had a particularly hard death. Yermakov stabbed all over her chest. His bayonet would hit so hard that it went deep inside the floor every time.”

That’s how that bloody crime happened, which ended the life of Anna Stepanovna Demidova, a remarkable Russian woman who shared with the Imperial family their exile, countless sufferings and ascent to Golgotha.

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia did justice to her deed. In 1981, she was glorified as a saint along with everyone murdered in the basement of the Ipatiev House. Grateful residents of Cherepovets installed a memorial plaque in the memory of Anna Demidova on the house where she spent her childhood and youth. I hope that someday her canonization will take place in Russia, too. We admire her loyalty to God and to the family of the Holy Royal Passion Bearers.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, led his brother bishops in prayer for wisdom as they began their fall plenary assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 13 with a Mass for peace.

The archbishop was the homilist for the Mass at the historic Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first Catholic cathedral in the United States. The Mass followed a morning of prayer, reflection and confession.

The morning also included a welcome to the Baltimore Archdiocese, the first Catholic diocese in the United States, by Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, who is vice president of the USCCB.

“Living our faith, we open our plenary session in this historic basilica, home to so many meetings and councils of the vibrant Church in the United States,” said Archbishop Broglio in his homily.

“At the beginning of our plenary session we beg for wisdom because we recognize that we are servants of the truth and charged to find ways to help those entrusted to our care welcome that truth, see its logic, and embrace the way of life that Christ holds out for us,” he said. “We do so in many ways as we work in Synodal fashion to serve the Church in this part of the world.”

The prayers of the Mass were offered for peace and reconciliation in a troubled world, and Archbishop Broglio pointed out the significance of the plenary opening on the feast of St. Frances Cabrini, patron saint of immigrants.

“It seems supremely eloquent that our first saint came over on a ship in the 19th century like many of our grandparents. She can only bless the tireless work to ensure a dignified welcome, which is a constant care of this assembly of bishops,” he said.

Archbishop Broglio also reminded his brother bishops of the current situation in the Middle East.

“The suffering and death of the innocent on both sides continue to horrify people of goodwill as well, as Pope Francis reminded us yesterday,” he said, referring to the pope’s words during the Angelus.

The pontiff said Nov. 12 that every day he remembers the suffering Palestinians and Israelis, prays for them and offers his “embrace” at this “dark moment.” He appealed for a stop to the violence, immediate rescue efforts and humanitarian aid for all.

Archbishop Broglio said, “We pray for world leaders that they might find solutions to bring peace to every troubled corner of the world.”

St. Frances Cabrini “even obliged the poor to give from their poverty to help those more needy than they,” the archbishop said in concluding his homily. “It was also a way of insisting on the dignity of all and the common responsibility for others. It is a message that is very appropriate today and every day. … Charity demands our attention to the little ones, the weak, the simple, fraternal correction and unlimited pardon to those who ask.”

The two public days of the assembly, Nov. 14 and 15, promised a packed agenda for the bishops.

Archbishop Broglio is scheduled to give a presidential address to open the public sessions the morning of Nov. 14.

But before his remarks, the apostolic nuncio to the U.S. will speak to the bishops for the first time as a cardinal. Cardinal Christophe Pierre received his red hat from Pope Francis at the consistory held Sept. 30, days before the Synod on Synodality Oct. 4-29. His address is expected to continue emphasizing the importance of synodality to the church’s mission entrusted to them by Jesus Christ.

Three delegates who attended the first session of the synod also will share their experiences with the U.S. bishops: 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.

Among the tasks facing the U.S. bishops is taking the 41-page synod synthesis report back to the faithful of their local churches for consultation and feedback that can help inform the discernment of the synod’s second and final global session in October 2024.

The U.S. bishops also are electing their new secretary, and also chairmen for six standing committees on Catholic education, communications, cultural diversity in the church, doctrine, national collections and pro-life activities.

Also on Nov. 14, the U.S. bishops’ chair of the Committee on Divine Worship, Bishop Steven J. Lopes of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, will give a preliminary presentation on U.S. adaptations to the Liturgy of the Hours, which is the public prayer of the church proper to all the baptized, and also drafts related to the blessing of an abbot or abbess, and the consecration of virgins, for votes the next day by the Latin Church bishops.

On Nov. 15, Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, is set to give updates on the National Eucharistic Revival, its three-year initiative to renew Catholic belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and the National Eucharistic Congress planned for Indianapolis in 2024.

The bishops also will hear a presentation on the implementation of “Encountering Christ in Harmony,” the pastoral response to Asian and Pacific Islander Catholics they authorized in 2018.

The bishops are getting an update on their newly launched mental health campaign from Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, chair of the USCCB’s Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, along with Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, chair of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth.

In other action items during their assembly’s two days of public sessions, the bishops will decide whether to approve a new introductory note, five bulletin inserts, and a template video script to supplement their teaching “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship”; will vote on “Keeping Christ’s Sacred Promise: A Pastoral Framework for Indigenous Ministry” as a formal statement from the body of bishops; will be asked to support the request of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales to ask Pope Francis to name St. John Henry Newman a doctor of the church; and will vote on the reauthorization of the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism for a period of two years.

Peter Jesserer Smith, national news and features editor for OSV News, contributed to this report.

At age 50, seminarian Scott-Vincent Borba doesn’t consider his to be a late vocation.

“God called me at age 10,” he told OSV News. “I just accepted late.”

Now in his pastoral year at St. Patrick’s University and Seminary in Menlo Park, California, Borba chuckled as he recalled his first meeting with his vocation director — to which he drove a luxury car and wore an expensive black suit.

“(The director) opened the door, looked at me and said, ‘I have got a lot of work to do on you,’” recalled Borba, who is studying to be a priest for the Diocese of Fresno.

But his automotive and fashion choices for the meeting were to be somewhat expected.

After all, Borba had been an internationally famous cosmetics executive, who before age 30 had spearheaded successful business campaigns for some of beauty’s biggest brands, including Neutrogena, Sebastian, Joico, Murad and Hard Candy. He was co-founder of the e.l.f line of products, which had made him a household name, and had even developed his own eponymous brand of skin-balancing water, with Anheuser-Busch signing on for a marketing and distribution deal.

He had several books to his credit, such as “Skintervention” and “Cooking Your Way to Gorgeous.”

Borba, who had modeled as a youth, was an esthetician to the stars, and even gave actress Mila Kunis a $7,000 facial — using microcrystals from diamonds and rubies — for the 2011 Golden Globe awards.

He’d had an office in Beverly Hills, a beach house not far away, and a social life that included parties with Paris Hilton and millions in the bank.

And amid what seemed to be a nonstop wave of fortune and fame, he was miserable.

“I was at a party and I was very, very unhappy,” Borba told OSV News. “I just felt like I was empty and I was empty. I was exhausted. I was burning the candle on both ends.”

Right on the spot, Borba looked up to heaven.

“I said, ‘God, if this is life, where all you do is work and party and do that all over again and die, then this is not the life that I think that you have made for me. But I can only change if you help me,’” he recalled.

In response, Borba experienced a sudden conviction about his worldly ways, the reality of sin and hell, and God’s power to save.

“I said, ‘Help me … I don’t want to do this (anymore),’” Borba said. “I was sincere about it and asking for God’s help, (and) he gave me my conversion. … It was God’s grace all over me.”

In short order, Borba packed his bags, left his house and checked into a hotel.

“I just didn’t want to be at my house anymore,” he said. “Everything reminded me of sin. … I was telling God, ‘I am so sorry for having ever offended you.’”

Over the next few years, he moved away from Los Angeles and began divesting himself of his wealth — in stages, Borba admitted.

“At that point, God called me to give up everything, and I thought that meant just my cars,” he said. “So I had an Aston Martin convertible, and I said, ‘All right, Lord, I’m gonna sell this car, give the money to charity, and then use some other money to get myself a truck.’ Then he said, ‘Give it all up.’”

While it may have shocked his peers, Borba’s return to the faith of his childhood — from which he had become estranged during his college years and career ambitions — was the fruit of seeds sown earlier in life, he said.

His parents, both devout Catholics, were active in their parish and promoted devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. While he was in third grade, his mother suggested he consider the priesthood.

“At Mass, she asked me to look up at the altar, and if I wanted to be the man in the robes,” Borba said. “Whoever the priest was, his robes at that moment were shimmering like glitter. … And I knew God was placing on my heart to become a priest.”

Mary has been instrumental in his vocation journey, Borba said.

After a particular childhood prayer intention was answered favorably following a rosary he prayed, Borba “asked Mary to stay with me, to keep me and to hold me throughout my entire life.

“I know that our Blessed Mother has brought me into this vocation because of her love for me and for her Son,” said Borba.

Even when he headed to Los Angeles after college to seek worldly success, Borba — who had then lapsed in his practice of the faith — still instinctively sought to connect with God.

On the drive there, “God gave me the grace to turn off my radio, roll down my window and scream out to him, ‘Father, Father, please help me achieve some of my dreams. And upon achieving those, I will give you back my life and service,’” said Borba.

Now, Borba — who left those dreams behind at age 40, and entered the seminary at 42 — is making good on that promise.

“I have never been happier. I have never been more full of joy,” he said. “With everything the world can give me, I would give it back a million times over to be united to Jesus.”

The removal of Bishop Joseph E. Strickland from pastoral governance of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, is an administrative rather than penal action, a canon law scholar told OSV News.

On Nov. 11, the Holy See Press Office announced the bishop was removed by Pope Francis from the pastoral governance of the diocese. The pope has appointed Bishop Joe S. Vásquez of Austin, Texas, as apostolic administrator to oversee the diocese until a new bishop is appointed.

No reason was given for Bishop Strickland’s removal, although speculation about his future in the diocese has swirled for months given a number of statements the bishop had made challenging the pope’s orthodoxy and authority.

Now, Bishop Strickland is “functionally a retired bishop” who remains incardinated in his diocese, said Father John Beal, professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America.

The removal “does not affect his ability to function as a bishop in the spiritual realm, at least thus far,” said Father Beal. “There’s been nothing said otherwise, so they would have to make it public if they were going to limit his spiritual ministry.”

Father Beal added that “the removal does not, of itself, entail any wrongdoing.”

“It’s just … a pastoral judgment that the ministry had become detrimental or ineffective in that particular place,” he told OSV News Nov. 12.

In addition, “it’s important to distinguish … between the penal privation or deposition of a bishop for a canonical delict or crime, and the administrative removal,” he said.

The penal privation “has a long lineage going back to the early church, where a bishop was accused of some wrongdoing,” he said. “Often in the early church it was heresy, and they were removed.”

After the 11th-century Gregorian Reform — led by Pope Gregory VII, who sought to address the issues of simony, canonical elections and clerical celibacy — the removal process “started to become something that the pope was actively involved in,” Father Beal said.

Following the Gregorian Reform, “the popes would send out papal legates to the hinterlands to enforce the reform measures and call synods where accusations could be made and people could be deposed,” he said.

Over the last millennium, the penal deposition or privation of the office of bishop, “like other loss of offices for (canonical) crimes, has been done through a penal process — a judicial process where the pope is the ultimate judge, although he usually delegates somebody else to do it for him,” said Father Beal. “That has a long history, and there’s a clear procedure to follow.”

The administrative removal is a more recent development in church history, said Father Beal, who noted the procedure is used to address cases “when someone’s ministry has become detrimental or ineffective.”

Father Beal said the administrative removal of pastors for such reasons was not instituted until 1910. The current procedure is laid out in canons 1740-1752.

“With pastors, there’s a clear process to follow,” said Father Beal.

However, “with bishops, it’s up to the Holy See — the pope, ultimately — and the Dicastery for Bishops to determine the process,” he said.

“Usually it is preceded by an apostolic visitation, where people appointed by the dicastery, usually other bishops, go to the diocese in question and interview or take testimony from people — including the bishop himself — and render a report,” Father Beal said. “And then there is a decision based on that.”

Father Beal said the apostolic visitation to the Diocese of Tyler — which took place June 19-24 and which was conducted by retired Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona, and Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan of Camden, New Jersey — “(seemed) to have followed the usual format,” based on “what has been made known publicly.”

If a decision is made that a bishop’s ministry “has become detrimental or ineffective,” he is “encouraged to resign,” said Father Beal.

Bishop Strickland was asked to resign Nov. 9, but he declined to do so, and so Pope Francis removed him from his office, according to a public statement released Nov. 11 by Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, the metropolitan archbishop of the ecclesiastical province that includes the Tyler Diocese.

That decision is “a pastoral judgment on the part of the pope, ultimately,” said Father Beal. “I don’t know that they have a process with criteria. If there is, it’s not been published, and so it’s not available to canon lawyers to critique.”

Father Beal said the Canon Law Society of America had published a 1989 study on “making the process for these determinations public,” with suggestions for “a future process,” but to date the study’s findings have not been implemented.

Doing so would help “eliminate some of the innuendo and suspicion of arbitrariness,” adding that “supposed arbitrariness is almost as bad as the real thing,” said Father Beal.

Adoption of a future process would depend upon the bishops, he said, noting that the task is “not a top priority.

“Although, when something like (Bishop Strickland’s removal) happens, it may get their attention,” he said.

Antisemitic incidents in the United States have skyrocketed by more than 300% year over year in the weeks since the Israel-Hamas war began, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said this week, with more than two dozen incidents occurring every day on average according to the group’s calculations.

The ADL said in a press release on Monday that according to preliminary data, “in the month following Hamas’ terror attack on Israel, antisemitic incidents in the U.S. increased by 316% compared [with] the same time period last year.”

Hamas’ attack on Israel unfolded on Oct. 7 when the terror group invaded Israel, killing over 1,000 and taking hundreds of hostages. Israel quickly declared war on Hamas, with the two sides fighting throughout the region throughout October and into November.

The ADL said on Monday that “in the one-month period between Oct. 7 and Nov. 7, 2023, the ADL Center on Extremism documented 832 antisemitic incidents of assault, vandalism, and harassment across the U.S., an average of nearly 28 incidents a day.”

“This represents a 316% increase from the 200 incidents reported during the same period in 2022,” the group said.

The group shared a map plotting the antisemitic incidents throughout the U.S., which it said included “incidents of vandalism, harassment, and assault directed at Jews (or people perceived to be Jewish) or Jewish institutions.”

Of the 832 incidents on its list, the ADL said it had recorded “632 acts of harassment, 170 instances of vandalism, and 30 assaults.” More than 120 took place on college campuses.

“As we have seen repeatedly, when conflict arises in the Middle East, particularly when Israel exercises its right to self-defense, antisemitic incidents increase here in the U.S. and around the world,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of ADL, said in the release.

“These include violent assaults on pro-Israeli students on college campuses, anti-Israel protests openly expressing support for terrorist organizations, as well as white supremacists distributing antisemitic fliers and banners blaming Jews for the war.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray last month said that the number of anti-religious attacks on Jewish people has increased in the wake of the war and that those attacks are “wildly disproportionate” considering the community’s minority status in the United States.

Pope Francis last week, meanwhile, said during a meeting with rabbis in Rome that he “strongly condemned” the spread of antisemitic demonstrations, which the Holy Father in prepared remarks said was “of great concern.”

And Franciscan University of Steubenville last month announced the creation of an expedited transfer process for Jewish students in danger of antisemitic discrimination and violence on campuses across the United States.

Chechelievka, Kirovograd Province, Ukraine, November 14, 2023

Photo: spzh.news     

The wave of violent church seizures by schismatics, often with the help of police and local authorities, continues throughout Ukraine.

At least two incidents occurred on Saturday, November 11. In one, a man attacked a woman who is 7-months pregnant.

That day, unknown men in camouflage and balaclava masks broke down the doors and seized the Holy Protection Church of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the village of Chechelievka, Kirovograd Province, parishioners told the Union of Orthodox Journalists.

A legal battle over the church has been going on for four years already. Until recently, the UOC parish and the schismatics had agreed that no one would enter the church until the matter was settled, with the Orthodox faithful worshipping in an adapted room on the territory of the church.

According to eyewitnesses, police and SBU officers participated in the violent takeover.

“The parishioners of the church have dead and missing husbands in the war, and this is what is happening,” the faithful say.

Another incident occurred the same day, in the village of Lug, Transcarpathia, when Uniates, schismatics, and employees of a security company, with the support of a police, cut the locks and seized the Church of the Holy Spirit, parishioners reported to the Union of Orthodox Journalists.

During the seizure, a man in military uniform, later identified as the head of the security company, physically assaulted a pregnant woman who was trying to protect her priest. Police officers refused to take a statement from her.

The Orthodox community celebrated the Sunday Divine Liturgy the next day in the yard at the rector’s house.

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What could be more dispiriting than our current news cycle? The world is preoccupied by several wars. Churches are being bombed on one side of the planet, while bishops disappear into prison on the other.

Meanwhile, in the United States, we are heading into a presidential-election year. Political partisans and activists have already worked themselves into a frenzy, and their rhetoric will soon get nastier. Ordinary people — good people — destroy friendships and family bonds in their righteous indignation.

If you detect these symptoms in yourself, please seek help immediately. Go to the sacraments. Make a good confession. Receive holy Communion. Then repeat the process with the frequency prescribed by your confessor.

I say this because we’re approaching the great Feast of Christ the King (Sunday, Nov. 26, this year). This is the feast that keeps our focus where it belongs.

“For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us” (Isaiah 33:22). The prophet gives us an infallible reason for confidence and peace. No storm should shake our inmost calm. We need not grow overanxious about the success or failure of our candidates or nominees. We need not even worry much over the scandals plaguing the Church.

We mustn’t place our trust in princes. The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, which is ultimately the only kingdom that matters. We may witness injustice during our years on earth — and we should fight to right wrongs — but always in charity. Everyone we consider an enemy, an opponent, a rival, is a potential fellow citizen of the city of God.

It’s the habit of Christians to pray to the Lord, “Thy kingdom come!” We should be eager for the kingdom’s fullness, which will be manifest at the end of time. But we should not forget that we already possess the fullness whenever we go to Mass. Christ will not possess more glory at the end of time than he already possesses right now.

He comes to us even amidst our scandals and wars. If we keep our focus, we see that the Church is already glorious, because it is both earthly and heavenly. It is already the communion of saints, many in heaven, but many too who are here on earth, unknown to us. God is bringing his plan to completion, in spite of the world’s injustices and scandals, in spite of your sins and mine.

So let’s not look with hope to Washington. Our salvation won’t come from the White House or the Supreme Court, and certainly not from Congress. If we’ve been riding the political roller coaster — or even the roller coaster of ecclesiastical politics — then we should repent and take our place with the saints.

This doesn’t mean we cease to fight for justice. It does mean that we cease to make idols of our human institutions.

We can look ahead in hope.

“I go to church and will continue to do so!”After school the pioneer leader stood on my way and said, “When will you stop going to church?” offering me anti-Church lectures and booklets to read. I answered, “I go to church and will continue to do so!”

“>Part 1

The church in the village of Reshetniki. Photo: sobory.ru     

—Did you decide to study at a theological seminary right after the army?

—After the army I returned to the church, which was dear to me, in the village of Reshetniki. The priest was delighted. He said, “We didn’t expect to see you again.” Such was anti-religious propaganda. He blessed me to enter the seminary. With his blessing I wrote an application for admission to the Moscow Theological Seminary, took the envelope to the post office and received a receipt, but the letter was never sent. During Khrushchev’s persecution of the Church such things were common. But I didn’t realize all this at the time and awaited an answer. By the beginning of August nothing had been received from the seminary, so I decided to go there.

I approached the secretary and was told that they had received no letter from me, and the secretary hinted that it was useless to send documents by mail. He gave me the contacts of Pyotr Dosayev, who then worked as a caretaker at the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra and lived in Moscow. I met him, and Dosayev agreed to help me. He suggested sending the documents to him, and he himself would hand them over to the seminary (as it turned out, he had helped many people with the transfer of documents before me so as to avoid mail and special services). However, I had already lost a year. I went to work in Reshetniki again.

Next year I came back to the seminary.

—How were your entrance exams?

—The inspector, Igumen Philaret (Vakhromeyev) spoke with me. I told him that since school I had performed the obedience as a singer and a reader in church and that my grandfather had suffered for his faith. He reported all this to the seminary’s secretary, Archpriest Alexei Ostapov (his father was the secretary of Patriarch Alexei I). At the entrance exams I was asked to sing “Lord I Have Cried”, tone 3. Next, they asked me about the spiritual meaning of the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. I began to tell them that before His Passion the Lord had taken His disciples with Him and was transfigured on Mount Tabor—He had shown His Glory. Glory is a Divine Power. In short, it wasn’t an exam in the traditional sense. The seminary took into account my experience of serving in the church as a reader and a singer, and I was admitted.

—When were you ordained?

—In 1965, during my third year at the seminary, I was ordained deacon on the St. Sergius of RadonezhUndoubtedly, the most outstanding establisher of the truly selfless “life equal to the angels” in fourteenth century Russia is St. Sergius of Radonezh, the founder of the famous Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery, which embodies in its historical legacy his blessed precepts, and gradually became a kind of spiritual heart for all of Orthodox Russia.

“>autumn feast of St. Sergius of Radonezh; and in the fourth year on the winter feast of St. Nicholas, I became a priest. But it wasn’t me who wanted it that way: the Lord arranged everything thanks to many people I have already spoken about, and, of course, thanks to the inspector, Fr. Philaret (later he became Metropolitan of Minsk and Belarus), who noticed that I, an ordinary rural church caretaker, had a great desire to study at a theological seminary.

After my ordination I was invited to a service of Patriarch Alexei I. He awarded me the epigonation.¹ During our conversation he recalled how the faithful had suffered in Solovki and reminded me of the words that a newly ordained priest is told when a piece of consecrated Lamb is placed in his hands with an exhortation: “Receive this pledge, and preserve it whole and unharmed until thy last breath, because thou shalt be held to account therefore in the Second and Dread Coming of our Great Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ.” That is, the Body of Christ is placed in the priest’s hands—this pledge is great. And priests will give account for this vow. Therefore, a priest, even if he is rebuked and mocked, has no right to raise his hand against anyone.

Pioneers at the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, which was turned into a museum after the revolution. Photo: rg.ru     

—What else stuck in your mind during your studies at the seminary?

—Persecutions. They shouted at us, “You parasites, we’ll close your churches! Get out of here!” Soviet Komsomol members campaigned against us—it was a terrible time. Archimandrite Tikhon (Agrikov) served at the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra. What he had to endure! How he was mocked! Even half–naked women jumped onto him from the upper floor to make everybody think: “Look what a priest is doing.” There were all kinds of provocations. But he, a man of high spiritual life, did not react to such things, and still he was expelled from the academy and from the Lavra. For many years he was persecuted, living in Ukraine and in Abkhazia. He suffered much.

—If you were ordained during your seminary years, it means that you got married in the same period. Where did you meet your wife? After all, the theological seminary is a closed educational institution.

—My wife, Lyubov, was a spiritual daughter of Our FatherYou and I have come to our elder, to our father, St. Sergius, and he receives us and prays for us, lifting his arms to the throne of God. And no matter where we are, beloved brothers and sisters, call out to him for help in your sorrows and difficulties.

“>Archimandrite Tikhon (Agrikov). My acquaintance, Fr. Simeon Mitrofanov, introduced me to her. He asked me, “When will you get married”? And I said, “I don’t have a fiancée.” And he answered, “I have someone to introduce you to—Lyubov Mikhailovna who goes to Fr. Tikhon for confessions.” She worked as a kindergarten teacher in Moscow and travelled to the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra to her father-confessor. We met and immediately liked each other. We got married in summer on the feast of the Kazan Icon.

Archimandrite Tikhon (Agrikov) —How did you end up in the land of Vyatka again?

—After graduating from the seminary, I was sent to the Kirov Diocese. Vladyka John assigned me to serve at St. Seraphim’s Cathedral, where I have served ever since. On my arrival there was no place for me to stay, let alone an apartment to live in. There was an annex in the church area, where the caretaker Dmitry Ivanovich served; he sheltered me under the roof in the hayloft. My wife and our little son were living in Moscow with our son’s godmother at that time. And I began my priestly ministry. Not being the rector, I could not come to terms with some of the irregularities at the church. I began to insist that intercession lists submitted by parishioners should be read immediately at the nearest services and not put into boxes. I also spoke out about Gospel readings: now the Holy Gospel is read throughout Lent, but previously it was read only on Holy Week. Some supported my proposals and “reforms”, while others were not happy with them and were opposed to me. But I continued to serve as a priest in the parish.

—You began your pastoral ministry in the 1960s—the period of Khrushchev’s persecutions. What was the spiritual life in the land of Vyatka like at that time? What were trials that fell on the shoulders of believers in Kirov?

—It was a tough time. For any word or action in support of the Church you could be given a prison term. Father Seraphim Isupov had a relative named Vasily Vasilyevich, a parishioner of the church. He made two side chapels in the church. The church had to be enlarged—there were a lot of people and it was cramped. For this he was summoned to the authorities and told, “Either work in the church or leave.” However, his trials did not end there. He was imprisoned for two years for rebuilding the church. At the same time, all his property was confiscated. After the end of his term he returned to the city and worked at the church as a caretaker for the rest of his life. He would pray all day long and read the Gospel at night. In a word, he did not leave the church and was a true believer.

—Who supported you in difficult times? Your wife, parishioners?

—Vasily Vasilyevich once addressed the congregation: “Father Simeon serves here, but he has nowhere to live, and his family is in another city.” And the parishioner Anna Mikhailovna of blessed memory who lived with other women in the church house gave me her small room and herself moved to the kitchen of a communal apartment. Can you imagine that? Of course, we were very grateful to her.

But there were trials even there: the space was tiny and cramped, at night our children were bitten by bedbugs crawling out from under the wallpaper. My wife supported me in these trials and was always with me. Over time, the Lord sorted things out.

—Commissioners in the Soviet era—who were they?

—These were people from government agencies who watched how clergy lived, what they said in their sermons, how they served. They could urge the bishop, “This one should be removed and that one should be transferred there.” Surely, they kept an eye on me, especially since not everyone liked the zeal in the church and the “reforms” in the parish that I proposed. But I did not violate the Soviet laws—I carried out my priestly ministry conscientiously. It also happened that KGB officers asked us to spy on the parishioners and inform on them (and almost the whole city attended St. Seraphim’s Church), but my fellow clergy and I remembered the consecrated Lamb and were faithful to our service to the Church. Once I was even threatened with a gun; they tried to force me to sign a blank sheet—but in vain. I had already been warned in advance in Urzhum by Father Simeon Garkavtsev, who had gone through labor camps, “Semyonushka, they will trouble you again, so be wise.” I did not sign anything under any threats.

—Have you served at St. Seraphim’s Church in Kirov all your life?

—As a cleric of this church, yes. But on the great feasts—for example, Pascha, I travelled to celebrate services in other cities and towns of the Kirov region: Urzhum, Kirs, Omutninsk, Lalsk… There was a prayer house in Omutninsk. We had to start from the minimum, because in the Soviet era everywhere we were met by dilapidated churches, there were no priests locally, so it was not easy to celebrate services. There weren’t even elementary things, but at the same time believers always rejoiced when the priest arrived and gathered for services, especially on the major feasts. All the parishioners were happy to try and do something for the church. Each place had its own customs and traditions.

St. Seraphim’s Cathedral in Kirov     

—Who attended church services?

—Old women and young people, believers and even non-believers. Sometimes some young people were present in the church, although not for prayer, but in order to record which of the other young people went to pray.

—Tell us about the most remarkable Pascha in your life.

—I remember that since my childhood I had always felt great joy on this feast. As we sang Paschal hymns, the soul rejoiced. When I was celebrating services in Sinai, on Mt. Tabor on the feast of the Transfiguration, when I was in Jerusalem, I experienced the same Paschal joy.

But another Pascha was imprinted on my memory as well. I remember how in the late 1970s, on Paschal night in Kirov, stones with celluloid “smoke bombs” were flung at us. Then there was the Paschal procession from St. Seraphim’s Cathedral, and we were literally stoned. During the service a stone flew through the window and fell on the altar table. Hooligans also tried to cause panic among the faithful in the church, throwing “smoke bombs” into the crowd shouting: “Fire!” They took plastic combs, wrapped them up in paper and set them on fire. There was a lot of acrid smoke. They hoped to create panic in this way and drive the faithful out of the church. So atheistically minded young people engaged in hooliganism. Both the authorities and the police allowed it. We had to survive that time.

—What do you particularly remember from the years of perestroika and the “crazy 1990s”?

—Freedom of religion appeared. In the 1990s I became the rector. We tried to maintain the church in good order, washed the walls, painted and built a lot. Churches in the city (and throughout the country) were reopening, and during the years of perestroika more believers started coming to services.

At that time I visited Jerusalem, thereby fulfilling not only my dream, but also the dream of my grandfather Sergei. I commemorated him during my pilgrimage to the Holy City. Thank God that in our time it has become possible to visit these holy sites. I had a chance to serve on Mt. Sinai and on Mt. Tabor. In ten days I had time to take the most of that trip. I remembered that event for the rest of my life. Back then such pilgrimages were organized only by the Patriarchate, and these were pilgrimages, not tourist trips, as they are now. Everything was spiritual, prayerful, though financially unsettled.

—Who are spiritually stronger: believers of the Soviet past or modern laypeople?

—Believers of the Soviet era were stronger in faith, now people are weaker and more pampered. Difficulties hardened us and strengthened us in the faith.

—Please give spiritual advice to those who want to embark on the path of pastoral ministry.

—Have humility, meekness, abstinence, patience, love for the church and services, be zealous for worship, read the Holy Scriptures and be nourished by them.

—What would you wish our readers?

—Christ is Risen—and we will all be resurrected. The Lord promised—and He will fulfill His promises. Through illnesses, sorrows and suffering the Lord cleanses the human soul and brings it closer to Himself. The Lord came to free us from sin. Every day you should read the Gospel, absorbing every word of it—this is a conversation with Christ Himself. Let us remember the Savior’s words:

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing (Jn. 15:4-5).

St. Lawrence O’Toole was born in the early 1120s in Ireland, the son of a chief. When he was 10, Lawrence was given as a hostage to the King of Leinster. The king treated him so poorly that his father begged that he be turned over to the Bishop of Glendalough instead. 

Under the bishop’s care, Lawrence grew in virtue, and when he was 25, he was chosen to become the Bishop after the former bishop had died. In 1161, he was chosen to fill the See of Dublin, having earned the love and trust of his community. 

Ten years later, Lawrence came to England to help King Henry II with his diocese. One day, while he was coming up to the altar to offer Mass, he was attacked by a mad man. Although the congregation thought that he was fatally wounded, Lawrence asked for water, blessed it, and applied it to his wound. The bleeding stopped immediately, and he continued the Mass. 

Lawrence died on November 14, 1180, and was buried in the abbey at Eu, in Normandy, having lived a life of great piety and charity.