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Post by hibernicus on Jan 9, 2016 20:02:27 GMT
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Jan 11, 2016 10:22:21 GMT
So once again I immerse myself in material concerning the Moscow Patriarchate, the Russian government, the relationship between the two and how it affects the rest of the world, in both secular and religious terms. It seems to me that there were several simplistic takes here, but I would be sympathetic to the position of Sergei Chapnin, which I discovered before Christmas. Chapnin may be starry-eyed about the situation in the west, but there are many in the west who are starry-eyed about Holy Russia. It's worth stating the Russian Federation is among the world's worst in its abortion and divorce rates. In coming days, the next Brandsma Review will be available which will contain a lengthy analysis of the situation with both Church and State in Russia and it is far from flattering - Hibernicus might have a few comments when he reads it. On the other hand, someone like George Weigel, an accomplished intellectual, seems to wish to advocate a highly idealised view of the west which he must realise is very hostile. I see many issues in regard to Russian Orthodoxy which is pertinent to traditional Catholicism. There is some sympathy from Moscow, but remember as it is Russian policy to stir up discontent in the west by supporting groups on both the right and left in secular politics. The Church do something similar in terms of religious groups. The thing to remember is that they will make the same promises to ecumenical groups. For traditionalists, I would advise them to know the case of the Old Believers well as there is a danger of going in the same direction.
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Post by hibernicus on Feb 19, 2016 23:51:00 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on May 19, 2016 21:44:02 GMT
Interesting CATHOLIC WORLD REPORT piece on the early history of conflict between Eastern Rite and Latin Rite Catholicism in the US, and the subsequent defections of many Easterners to Orthodoxy. Irish-American clerics played ha prominent and on the whole ignoble role in this. A few points may be noted: (1) The idea that there should only be one bishop in a diocese is not as eccentric as the author makes out. For example, I have seen Orthodox denunciations of Rome for recognising more than one Patriarch in the Eastern Sees (e.g. giving the Maronites their own patriarch instead of subjecting them to the Melkite Patriarch of Antioch) on the grounds that this is a "divide and rule" tactic intended to perpetuate Roman dominance. (2) The Irish-American distrust of the Easterners was part of a wider desire to Americanise immigrants; in the same period Bishop Ireland and his pals regularly denounced German-American Catholics for allegedly wishing to perpetuate their ethnic identity instead of joining the melting pot. (3) The idea that clerical celibacy and Latin should be universalised was not confined to America either; the Ambrosian theology of celibacy as modelled on the periodic continence of the Old Testament high priest would logically have that implication, and the promotion of the Roman rite over local rites by C19 ultramontanes often encouraged hostility to the Eastern Rites at various levels of the church. www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/4790/fr_alexis_toth_bishop_john_ireland_and_the_grace_of_reconciliation.aspx
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Post by hibernicus on Jun 28, 2016 21:29:43 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Jul 9, 2016 18:52:21 GMT
A British convert to Eastern Orthodoxy discusses the differences between Eastern and Western Christianity as many Orthodox see them. Note BTW that although very strong on the alleged superiority of the East and opposed to the concept of separating church and state, he is in no doubt that Vladimir Putin and his associates are frauds, cynics and opportunists. I post this for information only and do not endorse all the views expressed: www.quadrapheme.com/byzantium-2-0/
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Post by hibernicus on Aug 4, 2016 20:30:02 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Sept 4, 2016 21:36:57 GMT
I attended the EF pilgrimage at Knock on Saturday 3 September, and encountered a large pilgrimage of Syro-Malabars. They seem to come at this time every year, whether because it is close to the apparition date or coincides with some feast of their own calendar but do not know. I had thought they might be Copts when I saw them in previous years, because of the covering on the priest's head - I have seen pictures of Coptic priests with similar head coverings - but they were processing across the car park with a banner saying SYRIAN JACOBITE CHURCH, and during their Mass the priest wore a stole with a picture of the Holy Spirit descending as a dove, resembling the vestments of Cardinal Alencherry at the Eucharistic Congress. I did not go in when I saw them at Mass in the apparition chapel, because I was afraid I might behave inappropriately without meaning to do so. (I thought they were at the final blessing because the priest had turned and was blessing the people, but some minutes later he washed his hands and I realised they were approaching the Consecration. I noticed that at the Consecration the priest remained on his knees at the altar for some time.) Truly that early C19 Knock PP saw well when he set up the inscription: "My house will be a house of prayer for all nations".
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Post by hibernicus on Sept 16, 2016 23:10:25 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Dec 14, 2016 20:50:50 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Jan 5, 2017 21:04:13 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Mar 7, 2017 21:21:28 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on May 5, 2017 21:47:11 GMT
I have been reading a bit about Vladimir Soloviev lately, and one thing that strikes me is that his TALE OF THE ANTICHRIST is superior to Benson's LORD OF THE WORLD for the same reason that CS Lewis's SCREWTAPE LETTERS are superior to most of their later imitators. Most imitators of Screwtape make the Devil the voice of their factional enemies, who are indeed often wicked. While Lewis draws some characteristics of the patient from himself, he was also sufficiently aware of his own dark side (which could be very dark indeed) to put a lot of himself in Screwtape. In the same way, Soloviev allows his Antichrist to actually accomplish many of the plans Soloviev had entertained in his own earlier career for setting the world to rights, and gives him some features of Soloviev's own life; Benson on the other hand identifies himself with the Angel Pope to a troubling degree and never seems to entertain the possibility that he might have something in common with Antichrist. Indeed, the grim thought occurs to me that Benson's later Catholic utopia DAWN OF ALL might well have been written BY Antichrist, as a modern reworking of the Third Temptation (which Antichrist offers in a new form to the remaining Christians towards the end of Soloviev's tale) and there have been all too many Christians on Left and Right (myself included) who succumbed at varying times and degrees to that temptation. Some people claim that Soloviev supplied Dostoevsky with the idea for the Parable of the Grand Inquisitor; even if the influence went the other way, the two tales have more in common than may appear at first glance. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grand_Inquisitoren.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Solovyov_(philosopher)
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Post by hibernicus on Jun 10, 2017 22:37:12 GMT
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Post by hibernicus on Sept 11, 2017 19:51:15 GMT
Rod Dreher posts an interview with an American campaigner who works on behalf of Middle Eastern Christians. Some of his views may be a bit rosy (I can thinkof some very nasty secular Arab nationalists who have been Christians, and atrocities were committed by Maronites as well as by the Muslim factions during the Lebanese civil war) but the point about Western indifference to the plight of Eastern Christians is painfully true www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/agony-middle-east-christians-9-11/
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