One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church

Should the Orthodox church be in dialogue with the Roman Catholic one? Yes. Will we reunite? It would take a miracle.

By Fr. Patrick Reardon

Were I to list the thousand reasons why Rome is my favorite place in all the world, most of them would have to do the Eternal City’s long association with Christian history. On those all too rare occasions when I am able to get back to Rome, most of my time is spent visiting the catacombs, the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul, the Circus Maximus, the Colosseum, and other sites precious to Christian memory. My personal sentiments about Rome were well summarized by St. Abercius, the second-century Bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor, who had made a pilgrimage to the Eternal City. Later, in the inscription that he crafted for his own tomb, he referred to the church at Rome as “the queen with the golden robe and golden shoes.” Starting with the blood of the Neronic martyrs, there is no city on earth, I think, more deeply saturated in Christian memory.
Surely, then, any Orthodox heart must be saddened when remembering the long and deep estrangement between ourselves and that venerable institution described by St. Irenaeus of Lyons as “the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul.”
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Catholic Bishops Conference, Other Organizations, File Brief in Assisted Suicide Case

link to legal brief: http://www.usccb.org/ogc/ashcroft2.pdf — Catholic Bishops Conference, Other Organizations, File Brief in Assisted Suicide Case WASHINGTON (May 6, 2005)

In a friend-of-the court brief filed today in the United States Supreme Court, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and other religious organizations declared that the U.S. Attorney General was correct in finding that assisted suicide is not a legitimate medical practice under the Controlled Substances Act. The amici asked the Supreme Court to reverse a Ninth Circuit decision striking down the Attorney General’s interpretation of the Act. The high court is expected to render a decision on the case, Gonzales v. State of Oregon, next term.

“The Attorney General’s conclusion that there is a difference between assisting suicide and managing pain, and that the former is not a legitimate medical purpose within the meaning of the Controlled Substances Act…while the latter is, is not only eminently reasonable but also supported by longstanding medical practice and past interpretation of the Act,” the brief said. “Enforcing the distinction leads to improvements in patient care. Blurring the distinction has been harmful to patients and jeopardized their care. Government does not serve the public interest or the common good by facilitating the killing of innocent people, regardless of their medical condition.” The brief noted that medicine by its very definition aims to prevent illness, to heal, and to alleviate pain.
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Why I’m Rooting for the Religious Right

Wall Street Opinion Journal JAMES TARANTO Thursday, May 5, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

Secular liberals show open contempt for traditionalists.

I am not a Christian, or even a religious believer, and my opinions on social issues are decidedly middle-of-the-road. So why do I find myself rooting for the “religious right”? I suppose it is because I am put off by self-righteousness, closed-mindedness, and contempt for democracy and pluralism–all of which characterize the opposition to the religious right.

One can disagree with religious conservatives on abortion, gay rights, school prayer, creationism and any number of other issues, and still recognize that they have good reason to feel disfranchised. This isn’t the same as the oft-heard complaint of “anti-Christian bigotry,” which is at best imprecise, since American Christians are all over the map politically. But those who hold traditionalist views have been shut out of the democratic process by a series of court decisions that, based on constitutional reasoning ranging from plausible to ludicrous, declared the preferred policies of the secular left the law of the land.

For the most part, the religious right has responded in good civic-minded fashion: by organizing, becoming politically active, and supporting like-minded candidates. This has required exquisite discipline and patience, since changing court-imposed policies entails first changing the courts, a process that can take decades. Even then, “conservative” judges are not about to impose conservative policies; the best the religious right can hope for is the opportunity to make its case through ordinary democratic means.

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Mass. Democrats expected to back gay marriage

Boston Globe Raphael Lewis, Globe Staff | May 4, 2005

The Massachusetts Democratic Party is poised next week to add an endorsement of gay marriage to its platform, despite a nationwide backlash against same-sex marriage that led voters to approve bans in 11 states last fall.

Philip W. Johnston, the state Democratic Party chairman, said yesterday that the party’s 3,000 delegates will consider the platform change May 14, three days before the first anniversary of legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. State Democratic parties in Iowa and Colorado added endorsements of same-sex marriage to their platforms last year.

If approved by the party delegates, the new addition to the Democratic Party’s platform will read: ”We affirm our commitment to the Massachusetts constitutional guarantee to same-sex marriage, and all of its rights, privileges, and obligations, and reject any attempt to weaken or revoke those rights.”

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Beijing’s Orthodox community has first Paschal divine service since 1957

English Translation by Nina Tkachuk Dimas

For the first time since 1957, the Chinese capital’s Orthodox community had a festive Paschal service today, reports “ITAR-TASS”. Albazinians – descendants of Russian cossacks from the Albazin fortress of the Amur — adhere to Orthodox traditions. At the end of the XVII century, the Albazinians served in the Manchurian imperial guards.

In the absence of an Orthodox priest who is Chinese, the service was lead by a layman in one of Beijing’s [Roman] Catholic temples.

“Today’s event needs to be considered as a sign of the Chinese authorities’ attention to this problem”, stated ROC/MP priest Dionisy Pozdnyaev, who arrived in Beijing from Xianggang/Hong Kong. Beijing’s Orthodox now have hope that the question of ordaining a priest will be resolved, especially since candidates are available.”

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Benedict XVI Looks Toward Unity With Orthodox

Zenit News

Continues a Tradition From the Window of Papal Apartment

VATICAN CITY, MAY 1, 2005 (ZENIT.org).- Benedict XVI extended Easter greetings to Orthodox Christians, who were celebrating the day, and indicated again he will pursue the goal of Catholic-Orthodox unity.

In his first Regina Caeli address from the window of his papal apartment, the Holy Father today said God is “asking us to travel decisively down the path toward full unity.”

Tens of thousands of people were gathered below in St. Peter’s Square to hear the Pontiff’s address, which continued a Sunday tradition of Pope John Paul II’s.
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Sexual indoctrination of children

Boston Globe
Arrested father had point to make. Disputed school’s lesson on diversity

CONCORD — For David Parker, the first alarm went off in January, when his 5-year-old son came home from his kindergarten class at Lexington’s Joseph Estabrook School with a bag of books promoting diversity.

Inside were books about foreign cultures and traditions, along with food recipes. There was also a copy of ”Who’s In a Family?” by Robert Skutch, which depicts different kinds of families, including same-sex couples raising children.

The book’s contents concerned Parker and prompted him to begin a series of e-mail exchanges with school officials on the subject that culminated in a meeting Wednesday night with Estabrook’s principal and district director of instruction. The meeting ended with Parker’s arrest after he refused to leave the school, and the Lexington man spent the night in jail.

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Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation

Ed. These guys get it. Note Feder’s comment below.

Front Page Magazine
By Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation
Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation | April 27, 2005

The announcement of the formation of Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation (JAACD) came at a press conference yesterday (April 21st) at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Present were JAACD President Don Feder, and several members of the group’s Advisory Board — syndicated columnist Mona Charen, popular talk-show host Barry Farber, Rabbi Joshua Haberman, and Rabbi Yehuda Levin.
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Book recommendation: The Cube and the Cathedral

I’m reading George Weigel’s The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God and want to recommend it to anyone trying to understand more deeply the religious underpinnings of culture.

Weigel posits WWI as the point where the cataclysmic dislocation from a Christian to secular atheist of European society occurred. Of course the ideas of secular atheism have antecedents in earlier epochs, but they emerged as part of Christian culture because of the great dislocation. Only when WWI ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, has it become clear how radical the secularist atheism really is.

I’m only about a third of the way through it but there are quite a few gems in the book. (Missourian, you would like the facts on the decline of European culture; one example: Sweden has a poverty class greater than the US.) One is this: the social structures of secular atheism always work towards the destruction of people. So true when you think of it: abortion, euthanasia, etc. It’s what we call the “culture of death.”

The “Cube” of the title (La Grande Arche de la Defense) serves as counterpoint to the “Cathedral” (Notre Dame) which reflect de-Christianized Europe against a formerly Christian Europe.

Take a loot at the book the next time you are at B&N. (Better yet, order it through the link above and send a couple of quarters my way to help pay for this site.) Many OT readers will like it.

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