Tag: Christianity

Bucharest, December 3, 2024

    

The relics of the holy Hieromartyr Constantin Sârbu were uncovered yesterday during a special service held at the Church of the Holy Wisdom in Bucharest.

St. Constantin is among the 16 martyrs, confessors, and ascetics of the 20th century canonized by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church Romanian Synod canonizes 16 martyrs, confessors, and ascetics of the 20th-centuryThe Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church formally approved the canonization of more than a dozen martyrs, confessors, and ascetics of the 20th century at its session on July 11–12.

“>in July.

His Grace Bishop Timotei of Prahova, vicar bishop of the Archdiocese of Bucharest, participated in the uncovering of the remains, reports the Basilica News Agency.

    

The hierarch praised the example of St. Constantin Sârbu: “His virtues are generally known. First, a special love, a holy love for the words of the Gospel, a matching zeal, and a patience worthy of the Paterikon, because a priest who has the patience to hear confessions his entire life, to stand before the faithful, shows, without the need for many words, his love for the Gospel.”

St. Constantin was imprisoned for many years under the communist regime, though he always maintained a “fraternal attitude towards his fellow prisoners,” the bishop explained.

    

“One of the inmates, also a priest, who later reached America, said that once staying at Fr. Sârbu’s house after they were released from prison, he was impressed by his naturalness. And he testified that he didn’t ask him to pray all day, nor did he urge him to strict fasting, but he simply felt joy in his presence. It was probably also the sharing of the same experiences, sufferings, and humiliations they both had gone through,” His Grace said.

His Grace recalled that St. Constantin was frequently pressured by the communist regime to reveal secrets heard in confession, but he resisted martyrically.

The uncovering of St. Constantin’s remains is part of the Church ordinances regarding the preparation of holy relics, taking into account previous experiences related to the canonization of saints from the Bucharest Archdiocese. This exhumation aimed to properly prepare the relics to be later placed in the silver reliquary currently being manufactured at the Romanian Patriarchate’s workshops, in preparation for the liturgical proclamation of canonization at the beginning of 2025.

***

Photo: doxologia.ro Hieromartyr Constantin Sârbu was born on January 10, 1905, in Cavadinești, Galați County, into a very poor peasant family. His mother passed away when he was one year old while trying to give birth to her second child. His father, following an accident, was unable to care for himself or his child. Then, young Constantin was taken and raised by his grandmother, Ioana.

In 1919, at age 15, St. Constantin was admitted to the Theological Seminary in Galați, where he entered as a scholarship student, ranking third among 500 candidates. He was so thirsty for knowledge that at the seminary he completed two years in one, despite working nights at a lumber factory. In 1925, he became a student in Bucharest at the Faculty of Theology and the Academy of Music. Still poor, he slept on the floor for two years, first in an attic in Amzei Square, and then in the North Railway Station’s waiting room.

He was ordained a priest for the episcopal cathedral in Huși, at the Holy Dormition-Adam Monastery, by Bishop Nifon Criveanu of Huși, then in the same year was appointed director and professor of the Cantors’ School, later being designated as archpriest of Fălciu. St. Constantin stayed in Huși until November 1, 1938, when he transferred to Bucharest, to the newly established Călărași Park parish, because his wife had received a position as a German and French language teacher at the Nicolae Bălcescu High School.

    

On January 12, 1954, he was arrested, passing through the prisons of Jilava (1954-1955), Gherla (1956-1962), and Dej (1955), and the labor camps at Poarta Albă (1955-1956) and Salcia (1959). Christ’s martyr endured many tortures in prison. He was burned with hot iron on his soles, had his beard torn out, was beaten and humiliated to deny Christ. However, Blessed Constantin responded with spiritual courage: “You can torture me as much as you want, but I will not deny Christ.”

Released on January 10, 1962, he received two years of mandatory residence in Bărăgan, in Viișoara village. He returned to Bucharest in 1964, and Patriarch Justinian entrusted him with the Church of the Holy Wisdom. Alone, sick, hungry, in rags, with broken shoes, but full of confidence, St. Constantin arrived on June 1, 1965, to a church that was in ruins. The saint restored the church and gathered around him a Eucharistic community deeply involved in philanthropic activities.

St. Constantin Sârbu passed to eternal life on October 23, 1975, at the age of 70.

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Remember HAL? For those whose memories may not go back that far, HAL (Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer) was the murderous artificial intelligence (AI) machine in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Based on stories by Arthur C. Clarke, the movie contains a segment in which HAL deliberately causes the deaths of several astronauts in outer space.

HAL’s villainy was fictitious, but 56 years later it’s a different story. Artificial intelligence has moved ahead by leaps and bounds, so that now, although no such machine is known to be exhibiting homicidal tendencies, the potential dangers of artificial intelligence are causing serious people to sound warning bells.

Pope Francis is one. Addressing an artificial intelligence session of G7, an international body involving the U.S. and six other highly developed liberal democracies, the pope called AI an “extremely powerful tool” that “generates excitement for the possibilities it offers” but also “gives rise to fear for the consequences it foreshadows.”

You can’t say we haven’t been warned. The G7 session itself was a sign of growing concern about AI. And threats posed to human well-being by science and technology run amuck has been a literary theme for more than two centuries.

One of the first to address the topic was Mary Shelley’s 1818 “Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus,” about a scientist who assembles a humanoid monster and then must deal with the dilemma of what to do with it. (Shelley’s story bears little resemblance to all those Frankenstein movies.) Later came H.G. Wells’s 1896 “The Island of Doctor Moreau,” about a mad scientist who creates human-animal hybrids.

Fiction focused on the harmful potential of science and technology thrived in the 20th century. Notable examples include Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel “Brave New World,” with its nightmare vision of test-tube babies mass produced in laboratory factories — something now happening via in vitro fertilization — and Karel Capek’s 1936 “War With the Newts,” about the bad things that will come from training newts to be as rapacious and bloodthirsty as human beings. And technology-enforced totalitarianism famously provides the setting for George Orwell’s “1984,” which marked its 75th anniversary last year.

The dangers associated with technology are not fiction. Back in 1947, with Nazi death camps, the firebombing of Dresden, and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki fresh in mind, theologian Romano Guardini delivered lectures that became a book called “The End of the Modern World.”

The heart of it was that at a time when human beings were acquiring ever more power over the world, “man is removing himself farther and farther from the norms which spring from the truth of being and from the demands of goodness and holiness. … He must regain his right relation to the truth of things, to the demands of his own deepest self and finally to God. Otherwise he becomes the victim of his own power.”

In his 1979 encyclical Redemptor Hominis (“The Redeemer of Man”), St. Pope John Paul II warned that human beings themselves are “subject to manipulation” by the products of our own technology. And in his address to the G7, Francis spoke of a diminishing appreciation of human dignity, declaring it to be what is “most at risk in the implementation and development of these [AI] systems.”

More and more people seem to be waking up to the problem that unconstrained development of AI could pose. European governments have been taking appropriate action to control AI, but the U.S. has dragged its feet. Let’s hope we catch on before HAL does.

Bucharest, November 29, 2024

Photo: vigilantnews.com     

Călin Georgescu, an independent candidate in Romania’s presidential election, won an unexpected first-round victory earlier this week, with 22.94% of the vote.

The second-place candidate took 19.18% of the vote. The second round of voting is set for December 8.

His appeal seems to stem from combining social conservatism with economic populism, focusing on domestic issues rather than international commitments. He positioned himself as a voice for those who feel they don’t matter, advocating for Romania’s interests over what he sees as subservience to the EU and NATO, while promising to maintain existing obligations to these organizations.

And in a video published after his first-round win, he took aim at globalists who seek to destroy Christianity:

We are lucky to be still able to bow in front of these treasures. Just look what is happening to others. Today, they are fighting against God, but the globalists don’t understand that God can’t be defeated, and He can’t be replaced. Today, it’s basically a spiritual crisis, it’s the battle of Archangel Michael against Satan. It’s certain that they want to eliminate Christianity from the world. We call for Christian awareness. We have unlimited faith in our ancient Church, we have unlimited faith in Jesus Christ and in our nation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RAOsU2EAho​

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Shortly after Donald Trump was elected anew to the presidency in part due to strong support from Catholics, the U.S. bishops put the incoming administration on notice regarding the possibility of mass deportations of immigrants.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the military archdiocese, president of the bishops’ conference, said he and his fellow prelates have pledged “to see Christ in those who are most in need, to defend and lift up the poor, and to encourage immigration reform, while we continue to care for those in need who cross our borders.”

“We will all have to stand before the throne of grace and hear the Lord ask us if we saw him in the hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, stranger, or sick and responded to his needs,” Broglio said, to applause from the conference.

Some observers, especially on cable TV news and on social media, have taken the bishops’ pro-immigrant stand as indicative of an anti-Trump, left-leaning bias within the conference on social issues. Presumably, that’s because for the broader political culture in America, immigration usually is a left/right issue.

History, however, teaches that for America’s Catholic bishops, the defense of immigrants is hardly the exclusive hobbyhorse of the hierarchy’s left wing.

Take, for instance, Bishop Michael Gallagher of Detroit, who was confronted with a sudden influx of Maltese immigrants in the 1920s, mostly drawn to work in the auto industry. Gallagher incardinated a priest from Malta to minister to the community, he allowed Maltese immigrants to use the diocese’s Knights of Equity Hall not only to worship but also to organize in defense of their rights, and he approved efforts to build a Maltese parish.

This was the same Bishop Gallagher who appointed Fr. Charles Coughlin as a pastor in Royal Oak, Michigan, where he launched a radio ministry and went to become known as America’s “radio priest.” Despite Coughlin’s increasingly anti-Semitic edge and his ferocious attacks on President Franklin D. Roosevelt and New Deal Liberalism, Gallagher stood by him.

Once, when the pope’s apostolic delegate in American asked Gallagher to muzzle Coughlin, he flatly refused: “I made no mistake, and I have never doubted my judgment in putting him before the microphone,” Gallagher is said to have replied.

Or, consider Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York, one of the most ardently anti-Communist prelates American Catholicism ever produced.

“I believe that every real American, if he but knew the truth, would strive to defend this nation from Communists who, wielding their weapons of intrigue and infamy, are imposing on our country their profane pattern of serfdom,” he once wrote in a 1946 essay for The American Legion Magazine.

Yet Spellman warmly welcomed Puerto Rican migrants to New York City, among other things instructing local clergy to learn Spanish so that they would be able to minister to the Puerto Ricans in their own language. Spellman also became a major sponsor of celebrations around New York of the feast of St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of Puerto Rico.

To round out the picture, let’s recall Archbishop Robert Lucey of San Atonio, Texas, who was a steadfast friend of the area’s burgeoning population of Mexican migrants. He insisted that all construction projects in the archdiocese use unionized labor, at a time when most construction workers were Mexicans. He was an outspoken opponent of what he considered the abuses under the bracero program that brought Mexicano farm workers into the U.S., so much so that in 1950 he was named to President Harry Truman’s Commission on Migratory Labor. He also desegrated all Catholic schools in the archdiocese in 1953.

Yet Lucey would also become a close friend of U.S. President Lyndon Johnson, and an ardent supporter of the war in Vietnam. He opposed the introduction of sexual education into public schools, and he was blasé about the reforms unleashed by the Second Vatican Council. Lucey was an old-school authoritarian as a bishop, expecting absolute obedience, and his relationship with his priests deteriorated to such a point that in 1968 his own clergy sent a letter to Pope Paul VI demanding that he be removed.

Absolutely no serious historian would classify Gallagher, Spellman and Lucey as political or theological “liberals,” but their support for immigrants is a matter of record.

What drove such solidarity? Aside from a concern about human rights and dignity rooted in faith, there’s also the basic fact that Maltese, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans are all overwhelmingly Catholic, and so their growing presence in Detroit in the 1920s, New York in the 1940s and San Antonio in the 1940s and 50s bolstered the Catholic footprint in those communities, something that any bishop generally would appreciate.

Much the same logic applies today.

Famously, a 2011 Pew Research Center survey found that one in ten adults in America today, or 10 percent is an ex-Catholic, while only 2.6 percent of American adults converted to Catholicism after having been raised something else. Given those numbers, one would expect that the Catholic share of the American population should be in free-fall. In fact, it’s held fairly steady at around 20-25 percent because of the impact of Hispanic immigration.

A large part of the reason that American bishops have been so enthusiastic about immigration in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, while their European counterparts have been more ambivalent (especially before the advent of Pope Francis), is because most immigrants to the U.S. have been Catholic, while in many European nations, their most rapidly growing immigrant communities are Muslim.

The raw fact of the matter is that when a pastor says Mass for a group of people, when he hears their confessions and marries their young and buries their old, when he watches some of their sons become priests and some of their daughters become nuns, he’s likely to recoil at seeing that group mistreated, oppressed or expelled, whatever his politics in other arenas.

Thus, for all those tempted to perceive an “anti-Trump” thrust to the bishops’ warning on immigration, context is important. It wouldn’t matter who was in the White House, because immigration is one of those rare questions where the American bishops, if not so much the rank and file, are largely united … and for reasons both prophetic and practical.

Jerusalem, November 29, 2024

Photo: heritagedaily.com     

Recent archaeological investigations at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre have yielded significant insights into the sacred site’s historical layers, according to researchers from Rome’s Sapienza University.

The church, which dates to the 4th century AD, stands at the location of Christ’s death, entombment, and Resurrection, making it among Christianity’s most venerated locations.

At a joint presentation featuring representatives from the site’s custodial authorities—the Greek Orthodox Church, the Latin Catholic Custody of the Holy Land, and the Armenian Church—archaeologists revealed that the location initially served as a quarry. This finding is supported by distinctive saw marks in the bedrock and evidence of systematic stone extraction, reports Heritage Daily.

The quarrying operation, which reached depths of over 15 feet in some sections, followed a northeastern to southwestern pattern. Following its abandonment in the Iron Age, the area was transformed into agricultural land, supporting olive groves and vineyards.

In the aftermath of Jerusalem’s fall during the Jewish-Roman conflict, the site underwent another transformation when Emperor Hadrian established Aelia Capitolina, constructing a pagan shrine where the quarry had been. This temple remained active until Constantine I ordered its demolition in the 4th century to make way for a Christian sanctuary. Under Bishop Macarius I of Jerusalem’s direction, excavations revealed what he determined to be Jesus’s tomb carved from the rock.

Contemporary research has confirmed the presence of Hadrianic religious architecture and identified evidence of extensive ground-leveling operations conducted to accommodate major construction projects.

The 4th-century development created an elaborate religious complex designed to accommodate various worship practices and pilgrim movements. Its architecture facilitated circulation around multiple veneration points and provided covered areas for visitors, following established patterns seen in both pagan and early Christian sacred sites.

Current excavation efforts concentrate on the church’s northern wing, seeking to better understand the Roman religious structure. The project also encompasses comprehensive documentation of the basilica complex and material analysis to better chart the site’s development and its significance within Jerusalem’s urban fabric.

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Pope Francis welcomed the recent Lebanon-Israel ceasefire while urging the faithful to “stand erect and raise your heads” amid global turmoil during his Sunday Angelus address.

Speaking to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the first Sunday of Advent, the pontiff expressed hope that the diplomatic breakthrough between Lebanon and Israel could spark similar ceasefires elsewhere, particularly in Gaza, while delivering a powerful message about maintaining spiritual vigilance in times of tribulation.

“Jesus’ invitation is this: Raise your head high and keep your heart light and awake,” the Holy Father said, addressing a world grappling with what he called “cosmic upheavals and anxiety and fear in humanity.”

The pope noted that many people today, like Jesus’ contemporaries, faced with “catastrophic events they saw happening around them — persecutions, conflicts, natural disasters — are gripped by anxiety and think that the end of the world is coming.”

“Their hearts are weighed down with fear,” Francis observed. “Jesus, however, wants to free them from present anxieties and false convictions, showing them how to stay awake in their hearts, how to read events from the plan of God, who works salvation even within the most dramatic events of history.”

Diplomatic breakthrough offers ‘glimmer of peace’

“I welcome the ceasefire that has been reached in recent days in Lebanon, and I hope that it may be respected by all parties, thus enabling the population of the regions involved in the conflict — both Lebanese and Israeli — to return home soon and safely, also with the valuable help of the Lebanese army and the United Nations peacekeeping forces,” the pope said.

The pontiff also expressed concern about Syria, “where unfortunately war has flared up again, claiming many victims,” and added: “I am very close to the Church in Syria. Let us pray!”

Addressing the situation in Ukraine, Francis noted that “for almost three years we have witnessed a terrible sequence of deaths, injuries, violence, and destruction… Children, women, the elderly, and the weak are the first victims. War is a horror, war is an affront to God and to humanity, war spares no one, war is always a defeat, a defeat for the whole of humanity.”

A light heart in Advent season

Looking toward Christmas, the pope connected the season’s message of hope with contemporary challenges: “All of us, in many moments of life, ask ourselves: What can I do to have a light heart, a wakeful heart, a free heart? A heart that does not let itself be crushed by sadness?”

The pontiff concluded with a stark warning about indifference to conflict, stating that “the quest for peace is the responsibility not of a few, but of all. If habituation and indifference to the horrors of war prevail, the whole, entire human family is defeated.”

Hieromonk Germogen (Eremeyev) before his injury, 1997     

I received the first Holy Communion in my life precisely from his hands. It was a long time ago, nearly thirty years ago. And, of course, such “iconic” personalities aren’t forgotten… Never…

And in November 1996, when he created the newspaper “Orthodox Simbirsk,” I got the blessing of our Bishop Prokl (Khazov) to go see him again, the dean of the Church of the Burning Bush in Ulyanovsk, with a request to become a regular author.

Indeed, he was an interesting personality in his own right—this young, thirty-year-old hieromonk, Fr. Germogen (Eremeyev). In his past life, he was a soloist at the Sverdlovsk Opera Theatre, and by that time had already served both as the rector of the Transfiguration Church and as the secretary of the Ekaterinburg Diocese.

Also, Batiushka was the initiator of a broad civil movement to return Sverdlovsk its former name—Ekaterinburg. And another merit in his public “baggage”: Fr. Germogen had long been an active supporter of glorifying the holy Royal Passion-bearers—What Russia’s Last Emperor Lived ByWhat kind of person was the Tsar? What inspired and comforted him? In this series we shall speak about personal details that are usually omitted in most history books.

“>Tsar Nicholas II and The Holy Royal Martyrs“>his holy family. Once, in a burst of zealousness, he even went so far as to commit a bit of Church “mischief”—on his own, before the official glorification by the Church, he proclaimed a special litany during the Liturgy in honor of the entire Royal Family…

***

And then came the shocking news that on the evening of February 26, 1997, in Ulyanovsk, Fr. Germogen was shot! Who, what—it was all unclear…

The first thing I did was rush off to the diocese to find out if he was alive or not, which hospital they had taken him to. They said he was alive; they immediately performed heart surgery on him, and until he regained consciousness, we couldn’t go see him.

“Thank God he’s alive,” I thought with relief. I wrote a message for my newspaper and started praying and waiting for his recovery.

***

Then finally, we got the doctor’s permission.

I went to the thoracic department of the regional hospital in a white coat and plastic shoe covers. I was invited into his room.

It was large, for eight people. But someone had thoughtfully cordoned off his bed with a tall screen in the left corner—after all, Fr. Germogen is a monk, and that means no strangers should see his uncovered body.

“Ah, Sergei, hello!” Batiushka happily greeted me.

Cheerful, vigorous, energetic, he led me into the corridor, and we slowly walked to the window.

“Yesterday evening I snuck out to go to Fr. Alexei Skala’s church. I was basically in slippers, hiding from the doctors… It’s Great Lent, after all…”

“Well,” I thought, straining my memory, “that means that twelve days after being shot in the heart, he was running around, half a mile to the All Saints Church, and even stood through the entire first day of the Great Canon of Andrew of Crete. Not bad!”

***

“Batiushka! Come on, reveal the mystery! What happened that evening, on February 26?” I inquired impatiently.

“Well, something…” Fr. Germogen said, suddenly getting serious. His cheerful mood went away, and he began to remember:

“I was renting a one-room apartment in a regular nine-story building, on Promishlennaya Street. I came home from church, I was resting, when around eight in the evening, my doorbell suddenly rang. I looked through the peephole—a girl I didn’t know, pretty. What she wanted, I didn’t know. Maybe she got the address wrong?”

Then Batiushka pulled the door wide open without any fear!

“Can you imagine, when this girl saw me, she suddenly jumped aside sharply and I saw some unknown man who had been hiding behind her the whole time!

“This man had a pistol in his hand, aimed right at me! There were no more than five feet between us…”

***

The next second, a deafening shot rang out on the tiny landing, and the rogue couple instantly disappeared!

Fr. Germogen instinctively turned a little to the side. The impact of the bullet made him fall in the doorway and scream. The neighbors ran out on the landing, picked up Father, and carried him into the apartment. Someone called the police and an ambulance.

“You know,” he thoughtfully said to me, “the first thing I said about being wounded was, ‘I forgive everyone.’”

***

The ambulance came quickly.

The bullet went in Fr. Germogen’s right side and came out the left, only slightly damaging the pericardium, the cardiac sac.

“You know, you’re really lucky,” the night nurse told Batiushka in the hospital, “our best cardiac surgeon is going to operate on you. It’s his shift today.”

Indeed, Dr. Boris Feofanov (†2017) is a cardiac surgeon of the highest order. The operation went brilliantly that night. Just like always…

***

Then there he was—Dr. Feofanov himself was coming towards us down the corridor! He, the head of the thoracic department of the Ulyanovsk Regional Hospital, had just one question for me, a journalist:

“I don’t understand how something like this could happen, how a bullet flying, by all physical laws, straight for his heart, against its initial trajectory, turned away from it literally two millimeters away. I’ve been in this profession for more than twenty years now, but I’ve never seen anything like this in my practice!”

***

Fr. Germogen in the hospital with his surgeon, Dr. Feofanov, 1997     

Our meeting was coming to an end. As strong as his body was, Batiushka still needed rest.

“Let’s go, Sergei, I’ll walk you out.”

We slowly descended from the third floor and sat down at a table in the lobby.

“You know, Sergei, I had my second birth that fateful evening!”

“Amazing!” I exclaimed. “The bullet changed its trajectory BY ITSELF! It’s a miracle! Right, Batiushka?”

“Remember,” Fr. Germogen said, looking at me sternly, “When God so wills, the order of nature is overruled, for He does whatsoever He wills.” This is from the Great Canon

“>Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete.

I shook my head obediently.

“Listen again: ‘When God so wills, the order of nature is overruled, for He does whatsoever He wills.’”

I shook my head again.

“God cancels or changes what is dictated by the laws of nature, time, and physical space. He ordered them Himself—He’s free to change them. He’s the Master.”

“Understood. Bless, Batiushka.”

***

Soon after he was discharged from the hospital, his sister came from Sverdlovsk to help him move all his poor belongings back home, to the Urals.

​Fr. Germogen and Ludmila Zykina     

Since then, I’ve followed him only through the Church press. I know that in 2007, Father Germogen graduated from seminary, became an archimandrite, and built a beautiful church in Ekaterinburg, named for St. Seraphim of Sarov. It’s also noteworthy that for many years he shared a great friendship with our great Russian singer Lyudmila Zykina.

The robbers, by the way, were never found.

What can be said here? Perhaps the best thing is to recall the words of Apostle Paul: Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord (Rom. 12:19).

In a moving letter, Pope Francis expressed his closeness with the people of Nicaragua as Central American bishops called for a day of prayer for the country on the feast of the Immaculate Conception amid constitutional changes that will lead into an even darker dictatorship.

Expressing his “affection,” Pope Francis said: “I profess for the Nicaraguan people, who have always been distinguished by an extraordinary love for God.”

Expressing his “affection,” Pope Francis said: “I profess for the Nicaraguan people, who have always been distinguished by an extraordinary love for God,” noting that the people affectionately call God “Papachú.”

“Precisely in the most difficult moments, when it becomes humanly impossible to understand what God wants of us,” he wrote, “we can understand what God wants from us, we are called not to doubt his care and mercy.”

Central American bishops have called earlier for a day of prayer for Nicaragua as the country slides deeper into totalitarianism and constitutional changes threaten the Nicaraguan church’s relationship with the Vatican.

The Episcopal Secretariat of Central America called for the day of prayer on Dec. 8, when Nicaraguans celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception — a national holiday in the deeply Catholic country.

“We express our deep solidarity and communion with the people of God in Nicaragua, who often confront a challenging reality,” the episcopal secretariat said in a Nov. 28 statement after its 82nd general assembly held in El Salvador.

Dioceses, parishes and church communities across Central America were invited to join the Nicaraguan tradition of “la gritería,” or “the shouting.” It’s a deep expression of popular piety and Marian devotion, in which people pour into the streets and visit altars built for the Virgin. They shout, “Who is it that brings this joy?” to which the response is given, “The conception of Mary” — a phrase Pope Francis reminded the faithful of in his letter.

The feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is widely celebrated in Central America. But it has special significance in Nicaragua, where it is known as La Purísima and is observed with a novena.

Pope Francis in his letter told the people of Nicaragua: “Be certain that faith and hope work miracles. Let us look to the Immaculate Virgin, she is the luminous witness of this trust.” Nicaraguans, he added, “have always experienced her maternal motherly protection in all your needs and you have shown your gratitude with a very beautiful and spiritually rich religiosity.”

“I wish that this celebration of the Immaculate Conception, which prepares us for the opening of the Jubilee of 2025, may give you the encouragement you need in your difficulties, uncertainties and hardships,” Pope Francis wrote.

“For this year 2024, we call on everyone to join in prayer with this cry of faith and hope, peace and freedom, which the faithful direct to their Mother and Patroness,” said the statement of the Central American bishops, which was read at a celebration of Mass by Bishop José Antonio Canales of Danlí, Honduras.

“Our thoughts are with you, Nicaraguan brothers and sisters. We fraternally join your cry, which respectfully hopes to find an answer,” Bishop Canales said, adding, “We cannot be indifferent to what is happening there.”

The ruling Sandinista regime, however, has curtailed religious celebrations, including a ban on processions during La Purísima. Parishes have limited celebrations to church property.

Celebrations of La Purísima this year follow the introduction of a constitutional overhaul granting President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, sweeping powers, which include making the couple “co-presidents” with the authority to “coordinate” the other branches of government.

The draft constitution, which is expected to be enacted in January, declares Nicaragua a “revolutionary” country with “socialist ideals.” It regularizes “voluntary police,” which would effectively be paramilitaries — thugs used to besiege protesters in 2018 demonstrations that human rights groups say left more than 300 dead. The revised constitution also introduces the concept of statelessness for people deemed “traitors” to the homeland — such as the political prisoners and clergy sent into exile and stripped of their citizenship.

The constitutional overhaul changes 143 articles of the 202 existing articles and eliminates 37 articles entirely.

Martha Patricia Molina, an exiled lawyer who tracks church repression, raised concern over changes to the sections pertaining to religion. Article 14 states, “The state is secular and ensures freedom of worship, faith and religious practices in strict separation between the State and churches,” Molina posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Article 69 guarantees the individual and collective right to express “religious beliefs in private or public with respect to the fundamental principles established in the constitution.”

But the revised constitution also says that religious groups must remain “free from all foreign control.”

“The reforms propose a definitive break between the Pope, Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church and the Nicaraguan Catholic Church,” Molina posted on X. “With these reforms, a parallel church can be created that is not in communion with the Pope. … The discretionary power enjoyed by the Ortega-Murillo dictators will consider any opinion expressed by Pope Francis, cardinals or foreign bishops as aggressions.”

In consoling words for the people of Nicaragua, Pope Francis assured in his letter: “I pray unceasingly to the Blessed Virgin to console and accompany you, confirming you in your faith. I want to say it forcefully, the Mother of God: God does not cease to intercede for you, and we do not cease to ask Jesus to keep you always by his hand.”

Pope Francis encouraged Nicaraguans to pray the rosary in the moments of trial and finished his letter with the words of a special prayer he wrote for the Jubilee Year.

Solba, Yaroslavl Province, December 2, 2024

Photo: solba.ru     

In December 1918, the St. Nicholas-Solba Convent in the Yaroslavl Province was closed by the Soviet authorities. In November 1999, the convent was reopened.

Over the ensuing decades, under the guidance of Abbess Erotida, the holy habitation has been beautifully rebuilt from a state of ruin.

On November 24, the 25th anniversary of this revival was festively celebrated, gathering numerous guests and pilgrims. The feast began with a solemn service in the monastery’s Holy Dormition Church, led by His Grace Bishop Theoktist of Pereslavl, with His Grace Bishop Theodosy of Isilkul and diocesan clergy, the monastery reports.

Services were simultaneously served in the Church of St. Spyridon and the Church of St. Nicholas.

After the Liturgy, Bp. Theoktist congratulated the abbess on the anniversary, wishing her strength to carry out her duties.

Photo: solba.ru     

Following the services, the monastery hosted an international conference on decorative arts and crafts, along with an extensive exhibition-fair featuring various traditional Russian crafts including Bogorodsk toys, Rostov enamel, and Gzhel ceramics. The celebration concluded with a fashion show of handcrafted lace dresses and a theatrical performance by students of the Good School at Solba, which is operated by the monastery.

During the celebrations, Abbess Erotida received several high-level governmental and institutional recognitions. She was awarded honors from the Federation Council for her contributions to preserving folk arts and cultural traditions, as well as regional awards from the Yaroslavl Territory for her work in tourism development. She also received local honors from the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky and recognition from the Children’s Rights Commissioner of the Yaroslavl Region for her extensive work in protecting and supporting minors’ rights and interests. These awards reflect the monastery’s significant impact and recognition at various levels of government and society under her leadership.

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Photo: solba.ru     

The St. Nicholas-Solba Monastery was established in the 16th century, likely as a dependency of Moscow’s Simonov Monastery. Initially a men’s monastery, it was destroyed by Polish forces during the Time of Troubles and restored a century later under Archimandrite Varlaam, who was Empress Catherine I’s spiritual advisor.

The first known leader was Hieromonk Serapion (from 1711), who built the monastery’s fence and began construction of the stone Dormition Church. In 1903, it was converted to a women’s monastery under Abbess Makaria, reaching its peak between 1904-1917 with 115 sisters. It was closed in 1918 during the Soviet period.

During WWII, the monastery served as a children’s home and later a psychiatric hospital. By 1994, when returned to the Orthodox Church, it was completely destroyed and desecrated.

Only the ruined Dormition Church and a small two-story building survived from the original monastery. The current architectural ensemble was created since 1999 under Abbess Erotida’s direction. The unique architecture of the new churches has attracted interest from architectural experts.

Several prominent church figures lived there, including Hieromonk Arkady (later Archbishop of Olonets) and Hieromonk Vladimir (future Archbishop of Tobolsk). St. Nicholas Ershov, who served there 1912-1918, was canonized in 2000 after his martyrdom in 1937.

The monastery’s main relic is an ancient icon of St. Nicholas with a particle of his relics. Other important items include St. Spyridon’s shoe, three reliquaries, and a holy spring known for healing properties.

In 1999, Abbess Erotiida arrived with three young sisters (ages 16-18) to find the monastery in complete ruins. Under her leadership, the monastery has been transformed with modern infrastructure (electricity, phone lines, internet, gas), ten churches, four chapels, living quarters, a children’s shelter, school, college, and craft workshops. Today it houses over 45 sisters and continues to develop various social projects.

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The world was left stunned when the first images of the rebuilt Notre Dame were published and spread with viral speed as President Emmanuel Macron walked through the bright, unrecognizably beautiful Parisian cathedral on Nov. 29, a week ahead of the Dec. 7-8 official reopening.

Accompanied by first lady Brigitte Macron, the president was welcomed on the forecourt of the cathedral by Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris and the rector-archpriest of Notre Dame Cathedral, Father Olivier Ribadeau Dumas. As he entered the cathedral, he shared with them his first impression — describing the cathedral’s interior as “sublime,” evoking the inner light that now characterizes it.

All traces of construction work had disappeared for this visit, and the liturgical furnishings had been installed. The only thing missing were the chairs. The nave was empty and spacious. The light from its white stone and cleaned stained-glass windows now make the cathedral appear much larger than it once did when it was dark.

President Macron was also accompanied by Philippe Jost, president of the public entity that was responsible for the reconstruction after the April 15, 2019, fire, Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris, Minister of Culture Rachida Dati and Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo.

The delegation was welcomed in the cathedral by Philippe Villeneuve, chief architect of the historical monuments and a great Notre Dame enthusiast.

Macron toured the cathedral and at every point he was greeted by workers of dozens of trades responsible for explaining the work that had been carried out.

Briac Thomas, head engineer for the stonecutters and stonemasons of the French company Lefèvre, was present in the cathedral for the president’s visit. He worked on Notre Dame’s stones full time for two and a half years.

“The pace of work was intense,” Thomas explained. “Two teams worked every day, the first from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., then the second until 9 p.m.”

“Our first mission was to secure the cathedral,” Thomas explained. “We had to reinforce the base of the damaged vaults, to prevent stones from falling, and causing them to collapse completely.”

“First we worked on the stones that were to receive the wooden framework,” he said. “We had to prepare the stones on which the carpenters would lay it.”

From providing stones matching the original materials to securing the famous gargoyles, Thomas said that finally, in May, once the spire construction was complete, “we returned to the transepts crossing, to plug the arches of the central vault, and thus close up the cathedral.”

“This last job was repetitive and very delicate,” he said. “Crane-mounting the 7,000 custom-cut stones was complex, with the spire framework already rebuilt, and the pace to keep was demanding.”

As TV cameras were able to go all the way up to the roof structure, where the woodwork was described in detail, for the presidential visit and for television viewers, President Macron admired the new, particularly shiny reliquary of the crown of thorns, and spoke with Guillaume Bardet, the artist responsible for the liturgical furniture.

Another significant moment was spent at the foot of the Pieta, at the back of the cathedral. There, sculpture restorer Nathalie Pruha explained the decision to leave a few traces of the lead that had fallen from the roof timbers on the statue of the Virgin carrying her crucified son.

This charred piece of lead, intended to preserve the memory of the fire, was shown up close on television, in the hand of Christ lying on his mother’s lap.

The second part of the visit consisted of a meeting with some 1,300 craftsmen who were invited to enter the nave, all lit up. “You have transformed coal into art,” President Macron told them. “The blaze at Notre Dame was a national wound, and you were its remedy through will, work and commitment.”

The president spoke of the successful completion of the work in five years. “You have achieved what we thought impossible,” he said. “This is an immense source of pride for the entire nation.”

Macron’s voice was veiled with emotion as he spoke of Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, former Army chief of staff, who died in a hiking mountain accident in August 2023, while presiding over Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris.

“I believe that he would have been proud and happy, that he would have greeted each of you by name, your first name,” the president said.

After visiting the cathedral, President Macron posted a picture on X, formerly known as Twitter, with over a thousand trade workers inside the cathedral, with a comment: “Achieving the impossible together. That’s France.”

Confirming the team effort, stonemason Thomas said, “Working together at Notre Dame helped make this an exceptional project, one that will go down in the history of French heritage restoration and conservation.”

“We were aware of the world’s expectations as we worked,” he said, and today “just a few days before the reopening, we realize the magnitude of the work accomplished. The result is magnificent. Being able to return the cathedral to everyone in due course is a great source of pride, gratitude and joy, which outweighs the sadness of leaving this exceptional construction site.”

Thomas emphasized that “we have all left a bit of ourselves in these stone walls that are almost a thousand years old.”

“Working on a project like this pushed us all, whatever our religious convictions, to put our heart and soul into it. We really wanted to lead this rebirth as best we could, whether for urban architectural reasons or to give the faithful back their place of worship.”