I have sympathy for Pope Francis dealing with the Orthodox Church now when they are plagued with problems complicated by their strange Church/State relationships. The ultimate goal is to see the Orthodox back in full Communion with Rome. Any appearance that Pope Francis is exploiting their internal divisions could set back whatever progress has been made towards healing the great Schism. Nearly every statement from clergy (not just Orthodox clergy) has a nationalism tinge to it. It's more obvious in statements from the Orthodox probably due to how they have functioned since the Schism. While the Patriarch of Constantinople has a kind of first among equals role, Constantinople has it's own problems with shrinking numbers and the Turkish State limiting the pool of candidates who can be chosen as Patriarch. Losing Russia must be an enormous blow to then in both membership and financial terms. The long term effects could be catastrophic for the Orthodox churches. Pope Francis has to tread carefully because the Orthodox will probably need a mediator some time in the future and who better to mediate than the Bishop of Rome? One of the Bishops who will be doing the consecration has said that St. John Paul's consecration did bring a period of peace but that period is over. This consecration is a kind of rinse and repeat. I think he handled that well. Please God, it will bring a lasting peace and the full conversion of Russia.
According to Father Hunwicke's recent posing on this matter, the ultimate goal for Pope Francis is not full communion of the Orthodox Church with Rome, but effectively recognition of the Russian Church as an equal equivalent of Rome, an attitude which he also holds towards the Anglican Church, according to Fr Hunwicke. Indeed he considers that Pope Francis dislikes the Ordinariate on account of this. http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.com/2022/03/more-grave-questions.html
It's the ultimate goal of God that matters, and that goal is that we all would be one. I believe that all believers will be one when the Church enters the final battle against Satan. How God achieves the goal of unity remains to be seen. It has been clear to anyone who bothers to take a passing interest that Pope Francis has a preference for the Anglican model whereby the Faith is whatever pleases the majority of members in any region. That the problems for the Orthodox are posing a stumbling block to the Pope's plans for Catholicism may well be God's means of protecting the Church from being harmed by His vicar. The current problems afflicting the Orthodox won't be healed overnight. It's likely there will be a different Bishop of Rome when they seek a mediator. Trust that God will protect the Church. A papacy of ten or twenty years is but the blink of an eye in the Church's 2,000 years existence.
That's a wonderful, perceptive and consoling post, reminding me that when God's involved it is better to take the longer rather than the short term. As the saying goes, 'the devil's in the detail'. May the Lord God have Mercy on us all.
Little known apparition. Apparition at Rianjo 1931 to Sister Lucia I do not know if this is legit. Maybe some can comment.
How simply ugly and sullen does that Pachamama idol look? How beautiful and radiant is Our lady of Guadalupe, who miraculously brought Catholicism to Latin America? Where there is Goodness, Truth and Beauty, there is God.
Whatever, I copied my quote from the attached clip by Taylor Marshall. When you open the clip you will see the quote on the right side of the clip. There is a difference. Why so? I do not know.
Bp. Schneider asks world’s bishops to unite with Pope in consecration of Russia on March 25 https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/...h-pope-in-consecration-of-russia-on-march-25/
It may well be that the Eastern Orthodox (aka Greek Orthodox or Patriarchate of Constantinople) will be reconciled with the Latin Patriarchate. I hold out VERY little hope that the Moscow Patriarchate (ROC) will ever consider joining the apostate, heterodox, and heretical Roman Catholic Church. Just consider the rage the leadership of the ROC has expressed when different Orthodox Churches that have been historically aligned with Moscow wanted to break that alignment and come under the leadership of Constantinople. One thing that separates the ROC and its fellows from Rome and Constantinople is that the ROC for centuries has been a tool of the Russian leadership, be it the Tsars or the Communists. That is a telling mark of those Orthodox Churches aligned with Moscow -- they are basically the tools of their national leaderships and of Moscow. All of the Churches aligned with Rome or Constantinople have REFUSED to put themselves under the control of their national governments. The Concordat signed between the Italian government and the Church in 1929 was not the first or even the 10th effort by the Italian government to come to some agreement with the Church. Previous proposals had offered huge sums of money to make up for all the Vatican lands that had been seized during the Italian Wars of Unification. All had been rebuffed by the Church because they all had one condition: the Pope was to be a subject of the Italian government, i.e., under the control of whoever was in power. It was only in 1929 that Mussolini's government gave in and agreed that the Pope and the Vatican were to be independent of the Italian government. I believe THIS is the error that Russia was to spread throughout the world. Communism was the face of it, but the error is considering the needs of the Church to be subservient to the needs of the secular State. We saw this spread in the past 2 years with governments forcing the closure of churches and in at least one case in Canada, declaring who could and could not receive the Sacraments based on their vaccination status.
Yes, Mario, I had watched that video. That the Pope was to order the Bishops of the world to join in the consecration was news to me. I wonder which is the more accurate account of Heaven's request.
Thank you, ClareG! The music is soothing and will help me focus throughout the 9 days. May Our Lady wrap you in her Mantle of Maternal Love and Protection!
I don't think that Orthodoxy's subservience to the State is peculiar to Moscow. I read recently that in one of the other former Warsaw Pact countries (possibly Romania or Bulgaria) Church membership was decimated when it was discovered that about a third of the priests had been police informants. I also read that in Ukraine it was Poroshenko who decided that the Orthodox there should be independent of the Moscow Patriarch. I don't know much about it so could be completely mistaken but I thought that initially Constantinople was opposed to the new arrangement. Never say never where the Church is involved. Man proposes but God disposes. Christ's Church has outlasted many a super power and will outlast the current super powers. I expect Russia to be converted as Our Lady promised. The Holy Spirit can change and has changed the hardest of hearts.
One further comment by someone who is NOT a history pedant; I simply believe that details matter. I've read as recently as an hour ago a mischaracterization of one of Mary's messages. She warned that if her conditions were not met an even greater war would break out during the reign of Pius XII. Keep in mind that at the time of the apparitions, the Pope was Pius XI; so here Mary was predicting the future regnal name of the next Pope. Some people have said that this shows Fatima is in error, because Pius XII died a few months before Germany invaded Poland, "...which is considered to be the start of WW2." This is a Eurocentric error, that this world war didn't start until 1939 in Europe. World War II actually started in 1937, with the Second Sino-Japanese War. The first war was in 1931-1932, when Japan invaded China and set up a puppet state in Manchuria. In 1937, Japan began a full-scale invasion of China to conquer the entire nation. It is this invasion, which began in 1937 and didn't end until Japan surrendered in 1945, that marks the beginning of WW2. And this is well within the lifetime of Pope Pius XII, fulfilling Mary's prophecy.
No, it isn't. What IS peculiar to Moscow is the length of time. Russia has been Orthodox Christian for over 1,000 years. It had been growing steadily through the years and looked to Constantinople for leadership. In 1448, however, when Constantinople was threatened by Islam, the Patriarch of Constantinople decreed Moscow to be a separate autocephalous patriarchate. He did this so that even if Constantinople fell, Orthodoxy would not perish. The Tsar accepted this, declaring that "Moscow is the third Rome. There will be no others." With the growth of the Russian Orthodox Church, it naturally had its share of heresies. Over the years, it was useful for the Tsar and the imperial court to support the Patriarchate in suppressing these heresies. The Patriarchate, in turn, would support the Imperial government in executing its instructions. By the time the Tsar abdicated in 1917, the imperial rule and the ROC had become so intertwined that many in the ROC didn't think the ROC would survive without the Tsar. It did survive, as an organization totally controlled by the Politburo. So by now, you cannot have an ROC without some measure of control by the government. Other Orthodox churches may have copied this arrangement, but none for so long a period as Moscow.
And to be pedantic, Anschluss and the initial invasion of Czechoslovakia all occurred during the reign of Pius XI, if memory serves me right.
