Tag: Christianity

Parma, Ohio, October 11, 2023

Photo: domoca.org     

A parish of the Orthodox Church in America’s Diocese of the Midwest opened a prayer walk through the woods on its property earlier this month.

Photo: domoca.org     

The trail at Holy Trinity Church in Parma, Ohio, includes 10 icons along the way and a cross at the end.

The Diocese of the Midwest reports:

On Sunday, October 1, the feast of the Protection of the Mother of God, the faithful of Holy Trinity Church, Parma, OH, assembled together after the Divine Liturgy to bless their newly renovated prayer walk.

Photo: domoca.org     

As the walk opened for prayer, neighbors to the north and south of the parish were invited and participated in the blessing and the reception that followed. The teenage church school class was instrumental in initiating the project which was supported by sponsors and volunteers among the parish.

Photo: domoca.org   

Icons on the prayer walk include: Hospitality of Abraham, St. Andrew the Apostle, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Panteleimon, St. Nektarios of Aegina, St. Elizabeth the New Martyr, St. Herman of Alaska, St. Peter and St. Paul, the Theotokos with Christ, the Descent into Hades, and concludes with a large wooden cross was placed at the end of the walk.

Photo: domoca.org     

Parma is also The Blessing of Zoe HouseFive Orthodox bishops of various jurisdictions came together on Friday, March 4 to bless the Orthodox pro-life Zoe House in Parma, OH.

“>home to ZOE House, a ministry of the pro-life Orthodox organization ZOE for Life! that provides assistance to women in crisis pregnancies and mothers.

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I’m not the kind of guy who keeps a long bucket list of vacation goals or life-threatening challenges. But for the past few years I’ve talked about riding my bike from the outskirts of Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., a 335-mile ride that includes a long, steady incline up one side of the Eastern Continental Divide and down the other. This summer, I finally made the trip.

You could call it a working vacation of sorts. I thought of it as a retreat with mileage.

Almost the entire route was away from cars and away from cities. Most of the time and most of the miles were on gravel paths often strewn with potholes, tree roots, and the occasional mud puddle. Riding on the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) trail and the Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal trail, we passed through small towns that once played big roles in U.S. history. Towns like Hancock, Maryland, whose residents fought off a siege by General Stonewall Jackson, and Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, where John Brown failed to inspire a slave uprising in 1859 but lit the fuse that became the Civil War.

Gravel provided its own soundtrack to the trip. At times it crackled and crunched under our tires, like popcorn muffled in the microwave. But patches of dirt or dried mud introduced a quiet note, so that the crunch gave way to silence for brief moments. No doubt the wildlife in the area were well alerted to our presence, but deer, rabbits, hawks, blue herons, a black snake, and one enormous and rather surly snapping turtle still crossed our path. Or more accurately, we crossed theirs.

The trail took us along three rivers: The Youghiogheny, the Casselman and the majestic Potomac. Rivers were the lifeblood of our young country. Towns grew up along their banks. Goods were transported on them. The C&O Canal started as the brainchild of George Washington, who sought a way to bypass the falls and rapids of the Potomac and bring goods west. It was dug by 35,000 workers, mostly immigrants, but its utility was challenged even as it was being built by the arrival of the railroad. We would occasionally hear a train roaring west on tracks paralleling the canal, the clatter of wheels on rails a taunting reminder of who won that race.

What was most memorable, however, was simply being immersed in nature for hours at a time. The rhythm of the pedals and the crunch of the gravel provided a soundtrack to the canopy of trees and the lush microclimates that we rode through. There was beauty everywhere. Sunlight streaming through the trees, wild flowers growing on the banks of the canals. The rivers — changeable, moody, sparkling one minute and then seething and tumultuous the next.

The Japanese have a term: “Shinrin-yoku,” or “forest bathing.” It describes that peace which comes from simply being quiet amid the trees, like walking the garden paths of a monastery. There is a peace that settled over me riding down those trails. I was in the moment, legs and bike pushing forward in a steady rhythm that said, “be where you’re at; do what you’re doing.” It is motion that is conducive to prayer, but particularly the type of prayers we often overlook: those of praise and thanksgiving.

As the miles mounted and the days passed, the beauty drove out other concerns. I may be a news junkie, but for a week, I kicked the habit. Looking at my news feeds didn’t interest me. I ignored news channels on television. I stopped prowling my emails.

“Holidays and vacations can help to balance activity with contemplation, haste with more natural rhythms, noise with the heralding silence of peace.” St. John Paul II said that. He was an outdoorsman, a skier, a hiker, a swimmer. I think he would have appreciated my ride and understood its impact.

Activity and contemplation. Haste with natural rhythms. Noise with peace. The whirr of the wheels. The smells and sights of nature. Feeling for a short while like I’m one with the bike and one with the nature that I am spinning through and a part of.

There were nine others on the trip with me. We had all signed up with Wilderness Voyageurs, a company that specializes in multi-day bike trips around the country. Strangers when we set out, we all counted ourselves friends at the end. Each of us had his or her own reason for coming. Yet we bonded in the experience, hearing one another’s stories as we rode the trail or shared a meal.

Certain themes stood out: the challenge of friendships; the demands of work; the questions that come with retirement. In a sense, it felt like we were all finding our way, our path. But for six days, our quest was simply to be, and to savor the goodness of the Lord’s creation.

But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;) Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God (2 Cor. 9:6–11).

    

Christ is in our midst, my dear readers!

Today’s [October 8] epistle reading teaches us mercy, compassion, the ability to share with your close ones for Christ’s sake not only heartfelt warmth, but also material abundance. The theme of “greedy priests in Mercedes Benzes” was in its time picked up by many people who were looking for a reason to hate the Church. I will not offer examples—there were very many in my lifetime, when priests served in extreme poverty even compared with “rich” times. The Lord leads each of us along His path to salvation. It’s not difficult to explain the psychological popularity of this meme. For a greedy, envious, money-loving person, his neighbor’s wealth is like a knife in the heart. In general, all revolutions are built on this. “We’ll built our own, new world, and he who was nothing will become everything” [one of the slogans of the Bolshevik revolution]. But nothing has changed. Rich landowners were replaced by rich businessmen, instead of the aristocratic elite came the party elite, and the poor man who lived in poverty went on living in poverty.

As long as there is Love of Money, the Sin of Distrust in GodSpeaking about love of money in our days is just the same as describing hot weather in summer. Everyone suffers torment from the scorching heat in July, and it seems there is no way to hide from it, though there are air conditioners, fans, shady places, and cold water. Very few people like the blazing sun, while the love of money captures our hearts and enslaves us. And this may happen even to those who have no money in their pockets…

“>love of money and The Passion of Ambition (Love of Power), and the Ability to Guard the LipsLove of power is against the spirit of the Gospel, against the spirit of humility. Nevertheless this passion has a grip on everyone, and there is no one who is not infected with it—even little children.”>love of power, there will always be people who are ready to obtain power and money at any price. Because in the earthly, atheistic worldview, this is happiness. But how many examples there are of rich people who end their lives in suicide. Some from an over-satiated life, others because from billionaires they became “impoverished” millionaires due to fluctuations in the exchange rate. Nothing external, no matter how abundant it may be, can provide inner fullness. Between the two is an impenetrable wall. The poor man can have paradise in his heart in the midst of poverty, while the rich man has the flames of hell in his heart.

God humbles Himself before man’s will and allows him to live as he pleases. There are confessions among the heterodox that are simply obsessed with the idea of enrichment. They gather huge crowds at their services and ask God for money. And it works. How can that be? Abba DorotheosDorotheos, Abba

“>Abba Dorotheus answers this question in his teachings: “Whoever asks God for the earthly, God gives him the earthly—only he takes the heavenly away from him.”

We need to look at our hearts. Those who believe in the Gospel know that the Lord takes care not only of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, but also for man. It has long been noticed that if a person helps the poor without looking back at his own wealth, God Himself will take care of him. He won’t have hills of gold, he won’t become a moneybag, but he will never lack what is most necessary. And the opposite is true—as soon as a man’s heart inclines towards love of money, the Lord abandons him.

I know a very qualified doctor, who before being called to a consultation would ask, “Does the patient have the money to pay for my consultation?” The Lord gave him the opportunity to learn the depths of medical arts, but he decided to keep it for himself. Later, he himself began to have such problems that cannot be solved by any amount of money. And all he had earned no longer brought him any joy.

Unfortunately, this approach is now being cultivated in every sphere of man’s life as a generally accepted norm. If you have money, you’ll get what you desire; if not, go and be happy with what you have, or die. But I am convinced that if a man is a specialist with God-given talent, and his heart lives by Christ, he will not live according to the generally accepted norms, but according to the Gospel. And glory be to God, that in our country, and throughout the world there still are no few such specialists. Someone goes to for a vacation on the Canary Islands, while another takes up his backpack with medicines and goes to poor countries to treat without pay those who have no access to a doctor. Some will lounge in the sun on a beach bed, freezing their souls, while another’s heart will be filled with light, love, and quiet joy amidst poor folk.

Such is human life. The greedy man has a heart of stone, but the generous man’s heart is alive. When the soul of the first leaves its body it will fall downward like a stone to hell, while the soul of the latter will fly like a bird up to God. And we are given the freedom of choice for flight.

New York, October 11, 2023

Several of the scholarships were granted to students and graduates of Hellenic College-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston. Photo: goarch.org     

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (Patriarchate of Constantinople) has granted hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships to nearly 100 students for the 2023-2024 academic year.

This year the Archdiocese granted $450,000, divided between 95 undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students, including graduates of Holy Greek Orthodox School of Theology who are pursuing further academic studies and those who are pursuing degrees at Hellenic College-Holy Cross, the Archdiocese reports.

The report concludes:

The Grant Committees, appointed each year by His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, consisted of men and women from a wide variety of ministerial and professional experience. Each application was carefully reviewed to determine eligibility and assessment of need.

The funds for the scholarships of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese are primarily made available by endowments established by donors for specific educational purposes and are managed by professional investment advisors.

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Pope St. John XXIII was born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, in Italy, on Nov. 25, 1881. He was the fourth child of 14, and his parents instilled great faith and love for God. He entered the seminary at the age of 11, became a Secular Franciscan four years later, and in 1901, he entered the Pontifical Roman Seminary. He was ordained in 1904, and was made secretary to the bishop of Bergamo. He also taught in the seminary. 

John was great friends with St. Charles Borromeo and St. Francis de Sales when he was a young priest. He served as a military chaplain during World War I, as a spiritual director of a seminary, and as the Italian president of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. 

In 1925, Pope Pius XI appointed him a bishop and sent him to Bulgaria as the Apostolic Visitator. John chose “Obedientia et Pax” (Obedience and Peace) as his episcopal motto. Ten years later, he was sent to Turkey and Greece to care for their Catholic populations. During World War II, St. John used his diplomatic status to rescue as many Jews as he could. 

In 1953, he was made a cardinal and Patriarch of Venice. When Pope Pius XII died, he was elected pope. He was a pastoral pope, a good shepherd who cared for his sheep, as illustrated by his social encyclicals. 

On Oct. 11, 1962, John convened the Second Vatican Council, his greatest act as pope. He was affectionately known as “Good Pope John,” for his humility, simplicity, and profound goodness. He was canonized by Pope Francis on April 27, 2014, alongside Pope St. John Paul II, who beatified him. 

Iași, Iași County, Romania, October 10, 2023

20,000 people processed with the relics of St. Paraskeva on Sunday night. Photo: basilica.ro     

Every year, tens or even hundreds of thousands of faithful Orthodox Christians flock to the Romanian city of Iași for the extended pilgrimage in honor of St. Paraskeva, one of Romania’s most beloved saints.

Nearly 20,000 hierarchs, clerics, monastics, and laymen joined in the procession with her relics held on Sunday night this year. Though St. Paraskeva is loved throughout the Balkans, and her relics have had many homes, they have been venerated in Iași since 1641, working countless miracles to this day.

And according to personal testimony, the beloved saint is working miracles during her pilgrimage this year. Fr. Alexandru Lungu, a priest in Fălticeni, published an account that he received on Sunday, October 8, of a woman who traveled from afar and was miraculously healed of a debilitating disease by the relics of St. Paraskeva.

The grateful woman writes:

Father, I am writing to you because I’m not followed by so many people, and my words would most likely be like a passing breeze lost on the horizon. Please, if you are willing, put them on your page. No need to give names, because those whom God decides to touch in their hearts will feel that this testimony will not go unnoticed.

I don’t live in the country. I went abroad when I was young, and this year I desired more than anything to visit the relics of St. Paraskeva of Iași. I managed to arrive on a Friday, and on Saturday night, with emotion and joy, I venerated this saint who is so dear to my soul.

I’ve been suffering from Parkinson’s for several years, a disease that steals your entire life. It has been progressing for a few years, and lately, I felt like even simply lifting a spoon to my mouth was a struggle. I have read hundreds of testimonies about the miracles of the saint, and I know that a storm of questions began in my heart. I confess that these thoughts troubled me more and more. Could God intervene in a situation like mine? Because I must admit, Father, I am not the best Christian in the world. I don’t go to Liturgy every Sunday, I haven’t always fasted as prescribed, and I don’t pray as much as I could.

But I thought, if the saint helps me, I want to spend the rest of my days living only for Christ. And after enduring more than 9 hours of harsh cold, several times feeling like I wouldn’t make it to the end of this pilgrimage, I finally caught sight of the canopy with the saint’s body. I didn’t know what I would feel; I had heard many testimonies over time, but I know that each person has a unique experience.

When I finally reached the saint’s body, I touched with trembling hands the area where there is an open hole that allows us to touch the garment covering the saint’s body.

Father, I don’t know how to describe what I experienced, but warmth spread throughout my body, and I felt tingling sensations. Suddenly, my whole body, which had been frozen until a few seconds prior, was enveloped in a Heavenly warmth. Because of joy, I didn’t understand what was happening, but Father, I write these lines to you with tears: From the moment when the warmth enveloped my disease-weary body, I no longer trembled at all.

It has been years since any treatment has given me so much peace and tranquility. I don’t know how to tell you, but I came like the leper from the Gospel, and I am returning home healthy and determined to keep my promise to Christ.

Please, no matter how many disparaging and discouraging messages you receive, don’t delete my testimony. Perhaps there are others in my situation who will find reassurance that the saint works through the power of prayer and God’s mercy, Who endowed her with so much grace.

Fr. Alexandru also commented:

When I choose to share a miracle, I don’t do it to create illusions. There are things that don’t go the way we would like. However, Christ tells us, not me, not any bishop, that “Whatever you ask in My Name, and you do not doubt, you will receive.” Of course, if we ask for foolish things like money, cars, a career, and they will not benefit us, I’m absolutely convinced that God will delay in giving them to us. Sometimes we pray for health and in many cases nothing changes. However, no one knows what God’s work is with each individual. Faith is not the answer to frustrations, failures, and disappointments. You either have faith or you don’t!

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Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp, Belgium, appeared to reject the Catholic Church’s teaching on euthanasia in a recent interview, saying he does not believe the practice, in contrast to the Church’s teaching, to be “evil as such.”

In a Sept. 28 interview given to the Belgian newspaper La Libre, Bonny said the Church’s teaching that euthanasia is an intrinsic evil is “too simple an answer that leaves no room for discernment.”

“Philosophy has taught me to never be satisfied with generic black-and-white answers. All questions deserve answers adapted to a situation: a moral judgment must always be pronounced according to the concrete situation, the culture, the circumstances, the context,” Bonny is quoted as saying.

Bonny continued by saying: “We must learn to better define concepts and better distinguish situations.”

“We will always oppose the wish of some to end a life too prematurely, but we must recognize that a request for euthanasia from a young man of 40 is not equivalent to that of a person of 90 who faces an incurable illness,” he said.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder” and “gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and the respect due to the living God, his Creator” (No. 2324). This teaching was reaffirmed in the 2020 Vatican document Samaritanus Bonus, which strongly denounced euthanasia as an “intrinsically evil act, in every situation or circumstance … a grave sin against human life.”

Bonny’s office did not respond to a Friday inquiry from CNA for more information about the bishop’s views.

The Belgian prelate has courted controversy before by taking actions and expressing views that appear at odds with the Church’s teaching, particularly related to his myriad calls for greater acceptance of homosexual relationships within the Church.

Bonny and the other Flemish bishops of Belgium introduced a blessing of same-sex couples in September 2022, despite the Vatican’s doctrine office, with the approval of Pope Francis, confirming that the Church does not have the power to give blessings to unions of persons of the same sex. Bonny later spoke to the highly controversial German Synodal Way assembly, which has openly dissented from several points of Church teaching, in March as a distinguished guest.

Assisted suicide is not the same as euthanasia, although the two phrases are often used interchangeably. According to the American Medical Association’s code of ethics, euthanasia necessarily involves “the administration of a lethal agent by another person to a patient,” meaning the person performing the euthanasia (e.g., a medical doctor) is directly responsible for ending the patient’s life.

Assisted suicide, on the other hand, as defined by Catholic bioethicist William May, is the act of making the means of suicide available to the patient, who subsequently acts on his or her own. In many cases, a doctor or other authorized health care professional will be authorized to prescribe the patient a lethal dose of medication, which the patient administers to himself or herself.

Belgium and its neighbor the Netherlands have been at the forefront of offering and expanding euthanasia and assisted suicide, and doctors who personally object to the practice must still refer patients. Under Belgian law, euthanasia is permissible when a “medically futile condition of constant and unbearable physical or mental suffering” resulting from a severe and incurable disorder caused by illness or accident cannot be alleviated.

The euthanization of children was legalized in Belgium in 2014 after being legalized for adults in 2002. Belgium’s law allows minors of any age who are terminally ill to request euthanasia, though parental consent, as well as the agreement of doctors and psychiatrists, is required. In 2016 and 2017, three minors availed themselves of the procedure and were euthanized, according to a government report, though a later report claims no minors used the country’s euthanasia law in 2020 or 2021.

The share of declared deaths due to euthanasia reported in 2022 was nearly 3,000, or 2.5% of all deaths in Belgium, the same report states.

Instead of assisted suicide or euthanasia the Catholic Church supports palliative care, which means accompanying patients toward the end of their lives with methods such as pain management, without doing anything to accelerate the process of death.

Catholic teaching states that patients and doctors are not required to do everything possible to avoid death, but if a life has reached its natural conclusion and medical intervention would not be beneficial, the decision to “forego extraordinary or disproportionate means” to keep a dying person alive is not euthanasia, as St. John Paul II noted in Evangelium Vitae.

Pope Francis has condemned euthanasia throughout his papacy, most recently in September of this year, including referring to it as “a sin against God.” He has also been firm about the need to provide the very ill and dying with palliative care.

In the United States, seven states and District of Columbia allow assisted suicide, where the doctor provides the patient with a means to kill themselves. Euthanasia, on the other hand, remains prohibited throughout the entire U.S. (in contrast, Canada legalized euthanasia in 2016.)

As we begin a new school year, we spoke to the Orthodox family psychologist Tatiana Viktorovna Bulatova about the importance of positive attitude in learning and the specifics of her work as an Orthodox psychologist.

Psychologist Tatiana Bulatova —Tatyana Viktorovna, tell us briefly about the most important milestones in your professional life.

—Talking about my professional experience, we should probably start at the very beginning: My diploma states that I am a child psychologist, and at first I worked in schools. But later on, during the difficult 1990s and early 2000s, I tried working in other areas such as human resources and as a business coach in the retail sector. But my destiny seems to have taken a sharp 360 degree turn and in early 2010 I found my way to back to working in education. I worked as an early childhood psychologist in a kindergarten setting and also had a private practice as a family counselor. For the last ten years, I have continued working as a private family counselor, as well as the psychologist at a private kindergarten called “Mary Poppins.” I am also a psychologist at a charitable foundation that works with families in crisis.

—At the beginning of September, the schedules of our children and, consequently, us parents, undergo drastic changes due to the start of a new school year. What could you advise us to do in order for this process to go smoothly and to help the schoolchildren to adapt to the learning process without too much stress?

—The three months of summer freedom and rest are over and the learning process has started all over again. Much depends on how the children and their parents handle the beginning of school. If your family members, as soon as the school is mentioned, say things like “Oh, my goodness, here it comes again, we’ve got to survive it, so, here, enjoy these last moments of fun, as it’s almost time for all that hard work and learning,” —then the children will have the same attitude. How your child adjusts depends largely on the right mindset, so my first advice would be: take every new school year as a step towards further growth and development of your child. Let your feelings about the school year remain generally positive and joyful, as if in anticipation of something interesting, rather than frightening, that is to happen.

Think of the new school year as a step in your child’s growth and development

To help the initial adaptation period go smoothly, try to create fond memories about it. Perhaps your child can shop for and choose his or her own notebooks, pens, and pencils, or you can discuss the first day clothes, or buy new school supplies or textbooks that are exciting enough to take a quick look at right away. You may also talk with your child about interesting discoveries that await him in his studies.

The closer you get to the first day of school, the more you need to think about your child’s usual summer routine and how to gradually adapt his day to the upcoming school schedule, that is, getting up early and going to bed at the same time. You may need to pay attention to other daily school-related issues, such as food and snacks or getting school clothes ready in the evening.

School life is about the ability to organize your life and plan your day, to perform certain tasks and to use your willpower to reach the goal. It is important to develop all these skills at home. If a child has small tasks and household chores, or when he can take care of someone and show his self-organization skills in everyday life, it will be easier for him to show the same qualities in a school setting.

—What are the important factors that parents of first-graders should pay attention to?

—For first graders? Of course, it will be a very special day for them. First and foremost, it is a celebration. It should be a celebration for both the parents and their child. This is a time when a child encounters a lot of new things and many changes in his life. A new adult-led environment, new children, a new place for the child to be, and, of course, new sets of rules. Therefore, it will be very important to make sure that your first-grader is ready.

Probably, the first thing we should do is to assess his psychological readiness which has to do with motivation in the emotional-volitional area, i.e. whether the first-grader wants to go to school, if he is interested and eager to learn—this is the most important thing that can be formed in a future student. Unfortunately, it often happens that children are already exhausted by all kinds of training courses, extra classes and early education. For them, their new life at school has already become a burden even in the first grade. Therefore, my dear parents, do not let it happen, but make it all come in a timely fashion. And, again, I will repeat, a positive attitude to the learning process and a positive emotional setting when it comes to learning is probably the number one thing for the first-grader, and for schooling, in general.

Positive emotional background that has to do with learning is the number one thing for learning at school

I would like to say a few words to parents who say, “We went to the first grade,” “We began to learn…” Please, keep in mind that this is about your child and you are always on the support line, ready to help, but not to learn instead of him. The most important thing for your child to learn in the elementary school is to learn to study, and not for his parents to do the learning instead of him.

—Some children exhibit certain patterns of behavior, there is much talk these days about hyperactive children, or when they are seemingly bored at school. How can you advise parents, homeroom teachers, and children, and what should teachers be aware of?

—Every child has his or her own personality, peculiar temperament and specific traits of physiological character. Sure, there are children with attention deficit disorder, or hyperactive children, and I think it is necessary to consult a specialist in time to identify the existing problem and help your child. Psychologists, like doctors, specialize in a certain area, so you can turn to a neuropsychologist or a neurologist if necessary. This would help to identify the causes and provide timely help to such children, leading to a successful learning process at school.

I recommend that adults—both parents and teachers—stop comparing children with each other, because we are all different. Some have strengths in one area, others have different strengths; one child is diligent, and another one is time-efficient. Work efficiency is different too—that’s why you should only compare a child with himself. Now, of course, try to be more positive and hold more upbeat conversations. Try to talk about things he is already doing well, what he likes about school, ask him what he has learned there. Try not to scold him for something he didn’t do on time, or forgot to write down, or wrote with crooked letters. As we psychologists, say: Use the “rule of the green pen,” that is, see the good in people and avoid focusing exclusively on their mistakes.

—Does a consultation with a psychologist usually have to do with a difficult life situation, going through a crisis, or getting an illness?

—Psychologists have a joke: “The main thing is that a person is happy with his diagnosis.” But it really is a joke. There are people who will never go to a psychologist, they think they can solve any problem or, task and they find answers to all the questions that come up in their lives. Then, there are also the people who need support, help, clarification, and most importantly—a mutual search for ways out of a difficult life situation. A psychologist is simply a tool, and we help people solve difficult questions and find a way to get out of a difficult life situations.

    

—You position yourself as an Orthodox psychologist. What is the specific nature of your approach —is it a particular attitude to a person’s worldview or the choice of techniques in counseling?

—In our days, psychology had a large number of focal areas developed and used by the specialists in their work with clients. I believe that a person’s worldview contributes to his or her profession. So, if a specialist is a man of faith, and an Orthodox Christian who regularly attends church, it affects the way he conducts his counseling session, treats his work and people, in general. Therefore, I surely find it more pleasant and more comfortable to work with believers who are Orthodox and who come and see the solution to their difficult situation. They see that there are problems not only in their psychological abilities, but also in their spiritual life; it is also about changing their lives, improving their inner world, the qualities and traits of their soul.

Faith and psychology do not contradict each other with regard to man’s soul

But even for such people psychological help is sometimes necessary, because psychologists have such tools, techniques that help to survive and compensate for some childhood traumatic experiences, to see the situation from the other side, to see their mistakes, to relieve emotional tension, etc. Faith and psychology are not opposites when it comes to the human soul. When I was studying at the theological courses, I realized that psychology helps to change a person’s personality and often becomes a landing step on the way to spiritual change.

—In your opinion, who needs the help of a psychologist in these troubled times?

—Practicing Christians also occasionally need help and support to look at the problem from the outside, to explore their traumatic experience, and to find a way out of a conflict. Psychology can be useful in these instances.

I specialize in two areas: image work (the symbol drama method) and body-oriented psychotherapy. I think these two methods of psychology help people in a more holistic way.

My life and professional experience tell me that when someone tries to find solutions to certain inner aspirations, when a psychologist’s goal is to help the soul, and when a priest takes care of the issues related to spiritual life (aspects of faith and the Church)—this mutual effort, along with the client’s conscious inner work, helps to harmonize his life and personality.

Certainly, there are also clients who don’t go to church or are non-believers, and I never set a goal for them or press them with the Truth at any cost. I work as a professional and use my professional knowledge. If, in the course of our communication (a certain atmosphere of trust always develops between a psychologist and his client), a person begins to think about the existence of spiritual life and that, in many ways, the answer to his question lies in reforming himself, in repentance, and in coming to the Church to participate in the sacraments of the Church, then, I’d probably consider it a good result of my work. What’s most important is to help people find our main helper in life—our Lord and God.

    

—What makes you as a psychologist happy when you have finished working with your client?

—I think every professional is happy when the client is satisfied and grateful to him. But in my case, I am even happier to see when the client begins to reflect on things or he feels a little confused after learning something new about himself. I think it shows that this person has effectively tried to solve important inner problems. This inner work gives him a chance to think about changing his life and solving his thorny issues, as it depends solely on his effort, not on some psychologist “wonderworker”.

In fact, the psychologist rejoices even in the smallest details; for example, when a client says that he wants to go home after work and hug his beloved spouse or his child with whom he had a conflict. This is probably a very good outcome, and I always rejoice along with my clients at these small breakthroughs.

Gratitude is probably a mutual process. I am grateful for my clients if they trust me, when they recommend me to their friends, acquaintances, or anyone else who needs my help, or when they remember me after a while and let me know that something has changed for the better in their life, family, or soul. I am happy when the family stays together, when the children in the family are happy, when the parents find mutual understanding, and when they learn to change themselves, instead of expecting changes in others.

While the doors of the Synod on Synodality, taking place in the Vatican Oct. 4-29, are closed to journalists and the public, a group of survivors of sexual abuse anxiously awaits news on how the assembly addresses the clerical sexual abuse that affected their lives so painfully.

While OSV News sources say abuse has been mentioned a few times in the first synodal week — synodal groups spoke about abuse; none of the individual interventions have so far — it is not clear how and to what extent it will be brought into discussion.

Some abuse survivors expect concrete outcomes regarding abuse policies during the Synod on Synodality. Others say that it’s enough that the universal church learns from churches where good practices have already been established and made a difference.

Teresa Pitt Green of Spirit Fire, a Christian restorative justice initiative founded by two survivors of clergy abuse in the United States, told OSV News in an email exchange that “if the synod is trying to make the church more welcoming to more people, it would be smart to restore a sense of safe harbor for the vulnerable and weak.”

“To do that, acknowledging the wounds created by abuse which touch every Catholic — and every former Catholic — is an important start, with the kind of dialogue which seems to be what the synod is about. So, I can see why people wish the synod would have a dialogue about abuse,” Pitt Green said.

“It’s one of the major issues that the church has on her plate today,” Robert Fidura, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse from Poland, told OSV News. “If they don’t address abuse seriously at the synod, it’s like they turn a blind eye at what’s really going on, and all the good things the church did and will do will again be seen in the shadow of not addressing abuse properly,” he said, speaking the perspective of a Catholic who is still an active member of the church.

For Peter Isely, even more is at stake as he demands concrete action from the synod along with other survivors from groups like SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) and ECA (Ending Clergy Abuse).

Isely is a survivor of childhood sexual assault by a Wisconsin priest. He is also one of the founding members of SNAP, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and a psychotherapist in private practice.

“There is no zero tolerance requirement for abuse of children by clergy in the Catholic Church. There isn’t. Pope Francis has talked about zero tolerance when it’s convenient,” Isely told OSV News from Rome, where survivors gathered to demand a zero-tolerance policy.

“What do we want? Zero tolerance! When do we want it? Before the Synod,” the group chanted at the famous Via della Conciliazione leading to St. Peter’s Square, where they ended an 81-mile pre-synod pilgrimage on Sept. 27 through an Italian part of a medieval trail called Via Francigena that connects Canterbury, England, to Rome. The group marched for six days carrying a large wooden cross.

Isely joined them in Rome with Timothy Law, a U.S. attorney and co-founder of ECA.

The pilgrimage “shows the determination of survivors to come to deliver their message to Pope Francis … that there must be a universal law of the church of zero tolerance,” Law told Reuters. “Anything less than that is not adequate.”

ECA’s demand is the immediate removal from ministry of priests suspected of abuse, and making it clear in canon law that abusive priests are not breaking the sixth commandment, which is “You shall not commit adultery,” but committing a grave crime.

“It’s like, what have you done? According to church law, you’ve violated the Sixth Commandment … So like these 75 year-olds, when I was a kid, I was committing adultery … ” Isely said of his own abuse, which he first reported in the 1990s.

“Change it. Change it. Get up at the synod and do that,” he told OSV News.

That’s why he and other ECA members demand mandatory reporting of abuse cases to civilian, rather than religious, authorities and firing of bishops guilty of cover-ups.

“If you have been shown and proven to cover it up and put others at harm, you can’t be a priest either,” Isely said.

Abuse issues appear numerous times in the instrumentum laboris, a working document with which every participant of the Synod on Synodality walked into the assembly room on Oct. 4.

“To the penitence it owes to victims and survivors for the suffering it has caused, the Church must add a growing and intensified commitment to conversion and reform in order to prevent similar situations from happening again in the future,” the document stated.

“These are open wounds, the consequences of which have yet to be fully addressed,” the instrumentum laboris said.

“Abuse in the area of responsibility of the church has systemic causes,” Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, director of Rome’s Institute of Anthropology — Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care at the Pontifical Gregorian University, told OSV News in reply to an email. “This means that church structures and processes, as well as certain attitudes and ways of thinking within the church, contribute to the fact that abuse is possible,” he said.

“If something is to change here, it is necessary to deal with the church’s self-image. It is precisely this self-image that is at stake in the synod before us,” he said.

Father Zollner is a top Vatican expert on abuse and a former member of the Pontifical Commission on the Protection of Minors, which he left earlier this year citing “structural and practical issues” with the commission.

He told OSV News that “in order to ensure that this discussion of the church’s own self-understanding does not become a mere ‘circling around oneself’ — a mere self-occupation, and that the mission of the church is forgotten in the process — it is in the spirit of the Holy Father to ask this question again and again: What does the church’s self-understanding mean in concrete terms for the lives of the people to whom the church is sent? One of these concretions is the topic of abuse.”

The instrumentum laboris states that “the face of the Church today bears the signs of serious crises of mistrust and lack of credibility.”

Asked about the zero-tolerance policy demanded by survivors, Father Zollner said that “in principle, a zero-tolerance policy with regard to abuse is exactly what is needed. In concrete, however, it is very difficult to implement this policy for various reasons.”

“These reasons are not the exclusive responsibility of the church,” he said. “They also lie in sometimes very heterogeneous state legislation, which the church cannot simply ignore. In this context, one only needs to look at the very different data protection laws around the world, for example, and the related protection of personal rights (including those of perpetrators, by the way). Not everywhere is it possible to simply publish the names of perpetrators and warn against them — for example, this is not possible under EU privacy laws,” he underlined.

For Fidura — who was abused in Poland at the time the country was still under communist rule and who said he “didn’t have anyone he could talk to” because his parents “would never believe a priest has done anything like that and no one would dare to report a priest to state communist police” — there is another thing important to him and other survivors: “that we are treated as a side in canonical trials, not witnesses,” he said.

“It is close to impossible for the victim to learn what is happening in his or her cases, because we’re only witnesses, not sides, and this is unfair and painful how we’re treated and how it’s apparently impossible to change it for so many years,” he told OSV News.

In a “Question for discernment” section of the instrumentum laboris, the document’s editors ask: “How can we continue to take meaningful and concrete steps to offer justice to victims and survivors of sexual abuse and spiritual, economic, power and conscience abuse by persons who were carrying out a ministry or ecclesial responsibility?”

For Pitt Green, the answer is very synodal: Listen to others who have more experience. For her, the synod would make the best use of its resources if it listened to those that have gone through their “Spotlight” moment many years ago, using U.S.-based abuse victims’ ministries as an example.

“I’d like Catholics and others to understand there is much hope already. There are dedicated and holy people who have for decades been quietly at work helping the church heal from abuse,” she told OSV News. “This has been done apart from the synod. The synod could learn from these ministries, but we do not need the synod to minister as we have all been doing.”

“As a Church committed to listening, a synodal Church desires to be humble, and knows that it must ask forgiveness and has much to learn,” the instrumentum laboris said.

“If the synodal assembly had interest in real-world practice of healing from profound sin within the church, there are very inspiring and effective ministries around the world already,” Pitt Green emphasized.

She also said that “if leaders do not find in their hearts a compelling need to speak of healing from abuse, it’s better they do not do so. Either this Good News for survivors and families and the whole church is burning on their tongues, or they should spare the world yet another carefully crafted press release. We’ve all had enough of those,” she said.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors appealed on Sept. 27 for the safeguarding of children “to be seriously and frequently deliberated” throughout the synod’s discussions. “Together with all those who are worn down by abuse and its consequences, we say: ‘Enough!’ the appeal said.

On Oct. 4, the German agency KNA reported that Father Zollner told the magazine Publik-Forum, which is close to the “Church from below” (in German, “Kirche von unten”) reform initiative, that the problem is that “the leadership” of the church “is either unwilling or unable to implement its own standards and guarantee their sustainability.”

The Catholic Church still has “no culture of accountability,” the child protection expert said, adding that the issue of abuse is not a high priority in the universal church. “We may have the desire and the idea that all energy is spent on addressing the abuse crisis. But in the Roman Curia, which is a reflection of the universal church, it is not high on the agenda,” the Jesuit said.

“Personally, I hope that this listening and questioning will also take into account and make clear that reaching out to people who are affected by abuse or are in danger of being affected by abuse in the future is not an additional task to the ‘normal’ work of the church. Turning to these people corresponds to following Jesus and thus to the core of church life. It was he who clearly stood on the side of those who experienced suffering and pain,” Father Zollner told OSV News.

When asked by OSV News what will happen if abuse is not properly addressed at the Synod on Synodality, Father Zollner said that “many people who have been affected by abuse and many who have lost trust in the church leadership will be deeply disappointed. Their anger, pain and disappointment at the actions of the church will certainly not diminish.”

For Isely, the fundamental desire of the synod to talk about the future is vague if the criminal problem of predator priests is not solved.

“This isn’t just about … people harmed. This is about them,” he said, referring to those in the church’s hierarchy who may still ignore the problem of sexual abuse. “I mean, it’s astonishing. They don’t seem to care.”

Father Zollner, who met with ECA members on Sept. 23 in Rome, said that “as long as the church only reacts to pressure and not out of its own insight, nothing will really change in this regard. In order for something to change here, a conversion of hearts and a purification or clarification of thoughts is still needed within the church with regard to dealing with the topic of abuse, changes within the church system not excluded.”

Pitt Green added that she has been recovering for 40 years from abuse by multiple priests in her childhood and teen years and, as “there have been many disappointments in this regard,” she understands that the Synod on Synodality may be one more.

Still, she said, “Wonderful things may come of the synod, even if it remains tone-deaf to the wounds of abuse throughout the church.”

Nonetheless, she added, “Here’s what I never doubt, and I invite fellow Catholics never to doubt: Jesus, Our Lord and Savior, the Lamb of God who redeemed us to be His Church, will have His Bride back, and anyone at any level who does not see the clarion call in that statement is to be pitied.”