FROM the EDITOR... Binsley, Jenna Binsley, Fr

NEWSLETTER OF THE YOUNGSTOWN-WARREN CHAPTER OF THE SOCIETY OF SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM VOLUME 14, NUMBER 4, JULY-AUGUST, 2015 VITO R. CARCHEDI, EDITOR, 35 SCHENLEY AVE. STRUTHERS, OH 44471, PHONE: 330-755-5635 EMAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: www.byzcath.org/stjohnchrysostom/

FROM THE EDITOR... Binsley, Jenna Binsley, Fr. Dear Members and Friends, Our Schmidt, Chorbishop Kail, next regular chapter meeting will Msgr. Spinosa, Fr. Bleahu, be Tuesday, September 15, 7pm at Jim Dershaw, Esther St. Christine Catholic Church, Dershaw, Beri Berardi, 3165 S. Schenley Ave. Chris Berardi, Kolitsos, Youngstown, 44511. Our speaker Basista, Jacquet, Borak, will be Father Christiaan Kappes a Msgr. Siffrin, Fr. Manning, priest of the Archdiocese of Fr. Feicht, Fr. Indianapolis, ordained in 2002. He Witmer,Mattiussi, Fr. formerly served in his home Rudjak, Perantinides, diocese in both Anglo and Benedictine Sisters, Hudak, Hispanic ministry. Also he was variously Comichista, Chiu, Fr. Fiala, Fr. Loveless, assigned to aid missions in Ecuador and Mexico Vasilchek, Nakley, Katz, Democko, Deckant, Fr. and more recently finished doctoral studies in Ettinger. Italy and Greece. He was granted bi-ritual faculties in 2007 and currently is full-time professor of Patristics and Liturgy at SS Cyril *WE WILL HAVE CHAPTER MEETINGS IN and Methodius Seminary in Pittsburgh. He has OCTOBER & NOVEMBER--SYRO- written on a variety of topics, especially the MALABAR PRIEST IN NOVEMBER.* Theotokos. His topic will be "Reading the Fathers without denominational prejudices: The PRAYER OF SOUFANIEH Immaculate Conception in Orthodox theology as a case study for overcoming other assumed UNITY OF HEARTS! disagreements between the Roman and UNITY OF CHRISTIANS! Orthodox Churches." UNITY OF THE FEAST OF EASTER!

Chapter dues 2015 paid: Demiduk, Fr. Conoboy, Fr. Rohan , Br. Calabro, Br. Scalise, Sleever, Tavolario, Billcheck, Sarantopoulos, BRING A FRIEND TO OUR MEETING. Limbert, Fr. Gage, Carchedi, Fr. Hilinski, Joan Many, perhaps most, Catholics in North Lessons From the America are unaware of the UGCC and the other nearly two-dozen Eastern Churches in Christian East communion with the bishop of Rome and therefore with the much larger Latin or Roman Catholic Church. July 02, 2015 Though collectively Eastern Catholics are tiny— perhaps 20 million around the world compared The twentieth anniversary of St. to well over a billion Latins—it occurs to me Pope John Paul II apostolic letter that we may have learned some over-sized "Orientale Lumen" is an lessons of immediate relevance to Roman occasion to reflect on what can Catholics today. Here are three of those lessons. I. Persecution be learned from Eastern Some people, including the recently deceased Catholics cardinal-archbishop of Chicago, Francis George of blessed memory, have begun to think Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille seriously about the increasing pressure on and outright persecution of Catholics in North America, not least at the hands of the LGBT crowd and their friends in media, academia, and government. Whether their machinations portend a sustained and systematic campaign of increasing persecution of the entire Church cannot be said just now, although plenty of learned commentators fear the worst. But if it comes to it, Eastern Catholics, especially those in the UGCC, have long and painful experience here of refusing to buckle to ideological enemies. Until 1990, the UGCC was the largest banned religious body in the world. Existing in the underground in Ukraine after having been officially eliminated by Stalin in 1946, this church saw most of her bishops sent to the Gulag or shot outright, along with many of her Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev- clergy and religious. (Dozens of these were Halych, major archbishop of the Ukrainian beatified as martyrs by Pope John Paul II in Catholic Church, gives the homily during a Ukraine in 2001.) Those who remained had to Divine Liturgy for Ukrianian expatriates at the meet secretly in apartments and houses for Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome Feb. 19, liturgy, baptize at night in ponds in remote 2015. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) forests, hear confessions while hewing rocks in a labor camp, and catechize children and train priests in covert ways. Twenty years ago, in his apostolic Every such act—liturgical, sacramental, letter Orientale Lumen (May 2, 1995), the late catechetical, prayerful—was enormously risky St. Pope John Paul II called on Roman Catholics and could result in the infamous 3:00 a.m. knock to deepen their knowledge of and love for the on the door as people were arrested and never Christian East. I was thinking of his exhortation seen again. It was a brutal, bloody time, with as I recently returned from a colloquium in millions killed, but Ukrainian Catholics Canada on the future of the Ukrainian Greco- persevered. Why? Because of their loyalty to the Catholic Church (UGCC) in North America. Gospel and to the (Continue next page)

2 bishop of Rome as an embodiment of the When the UGCC emerged twenty-five years ago Church’s refusal to be compliant to any worldly it did so not with a few dozen or few hundred or tyrant. even few thousand surviving members. When it Other Eastern Christians—especially today in began pouring out of the underground, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq—have more recent nobody—not the KGB, CIA, or the Vatican experience of persecution and execution, as even—could foresee the hundreds of thousands many of us are aware from ISIS-inspired and eventually millions who would emerge. headlines of the past year. Collectively these Today the UGCC has about 5 million members, churches have learned costly lessons after mostly in Ukraine but also many in North and surviving for decades (in the case of Ukraine South America, Western Europe, and Australia. under communism) and centuries (in the Middle How could so many survive in Ukraine under East under Islam) as persecuted minorities. the many-eyed totalitarian monster of Christians in North America, please God, will communism? They did so frequently in very face nothing nearly as serious and lethal as small, tight-knit communities. With no visible communism or Islam, but today’s increasing hierarchy (though bishops in the underground pressure and persecution, even in more took great pains always to ensure at least one attenuated forms, is an unfamiliar experience for man with apostolic succession in Ukraine many of us on this continent. Eastern Catholics, survived), and no way to receive direction from however, have learned important and costly a pope of Rome (in an era before cell phones, lessons about how to survive persecution in Twitter, e-mail, and Facebook), they had only many forms. What are those lessons? themselves for direction. Having been deeply Catechesis grounded in the faith, and availing themselves of Nobody is willing to die—or be hounded out of the sacraments—especially Confession and the a job by gangs on Twitter and Facebook—for a Eucharist—whenever and wherever they could question mark. If Christians today are facing find them, they were given the strength to increasing pressure and persecution, they can persevere. only survive by knowing the faith deeply and Today we have advantages those in the Soviet living it daily. “Sunday Christians” are Union did not, especially in the realm of Monday’s apostates. Shoddy catechesis, in short, communication: it is easier to stay in touch with will be deadly: in difficult times, there is a great people whose help and support we need. But we winnowing that happens as Christians who are must not make the mistake of relying only on lukewarm, ignorant, or otherwise non-committal technology. As embodied worshippers of an fall away. It is much easier to deny Christ, incarnate God, we cannot baptize, ordain, or whom one does not see, than to defy the bullies commune by texts or tweets. We need to gather whom one does see and who threaten one’s job in person for support and sacramental grace. or family or life. I have often thought that Catholics have much to Those who are willing to remain and suffer do learn from the Amish in living a life of deep so because they have a deep understanding of faith and personal accountability in a local, the faith and a deep formation through frequent tight-knit community that is largely self- reception of the sacraments. For them, Jesus is sustaining economically. The Amish deliberately not a sunbeam but the suffering servant and keep their communities both small in size and tortured Son of God who is with them intimately close to the earth through farming. That is no even as they are being starved or water-boarded. small advantage: as the UGCC priest-theologian For them Jesus is the very model par Andriy Chirovsky likes to point out, when you excellence of someone falsely and unjustly are very small and humble (a word whose root arrested, tortured, and executed. God himself has means “on the ground” or “close to the earth”), experienced all these horrors before and in not only do you please God, but you make person, and thus he shows Christians not only yourself a much harder target for the giants to how to persevere, but how the story ends: with hit! the death of death itself. Some Catholics already understand the need for Community and Communication such community.(Continue next page)

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I think of organizations such as local elsewhere in the Middle East. As the Catholic associations of home-schooling Catholic anthropologist Mary Douglas has shown in her families. Or more clearly organized groups like 1970 book Natural Symbols , “thin” rituals have Opus Dei or “third-order” associations. Or even no staying power and no power to transform groups like the City of the Lord in Arizona and peoples and cultures; only “thick” traditions can California: a group of “charismatic” Catholics do that. who live in the same neighborhood and have a For Latin Catholics still struggling to re- deep community life together. We need groups pristinate their liturgical life, the East has gifts to like this who will keep their structures very low offer. The very liturgical culture and ethos of the and simple, their reach very local, but their roots East offers much that the West has often lost but very deep. needs to find again: a culture of transcendence, II. Liturgy and Beauty awe, and staggering beauty such that, as with the Though I support many of the reforms of the embassy of Grand Prince Vladimir in Hagia Second Vatican Council, I share the critiques of Sophia, we may say of the liturgy in all our many—e.g., Joseph Ratzinger, Jonathan churches: “We knew not whether we were in Robinson, Aidan Nichols, Louis Bouyer, and heaven or on earth; but we know that God Catherine Pickstock—that things were done that dwells there among men. For we cannot forget ought not to have been done in changing the that beauty!” Latin liturgy. Here I share Pickstock’s critique Calendar and Fasting (see her brilliant 1997 book After Writing: On The East also has much to offer about related the Liturgical Consummation of Philosophy ) matters, including a liturgical calendar not about the structural defects in the Novus Ordo. pockmarked by such bizarre inventions as As she has put it, the Vatican II reforms, far Ascension ThurSunday; and retention of a cycle from being “progressive” or “liberal” in fact of four major fasts each year. The loss of fasting “participated in an entirely more sinister in the West has, in itself, been a source of untold conservatism. For they failed to challenge those damage. structures of the modern secular world which are III. Married Clergy and Elected Bishops wholly inimical to liturgical purpose: those Last October, many Catholics got an experience structures, indeed, which perpetuate a separation of the messiness of synodality—an experience of everyday life from liturgical enactment.” The that will be repeated this autumn in another particular aspects of anti-ritual modernity that session on marriage, re-marriage, divorce, and need challenging, according to Pickstock, annulments. For those who prefer that all include “such anachronistic structural concepts decisions in the church be made in a tidy, dry, as ‘argument,’ ‘linear order,’ ‘segmentation,’ quick fashion by a pope simply issuing a decree, ‘discrete stages,’ and the notion of ‘new this was a rude wake-up call. But, in fact, messy information’ outside ‘linguistic redundancy’ or synods and chaotic councils are the norm, not repetition” ( After Writing , 171-75). the exception. Anyone who knows the slightest Eastern liturgies of all traditions—the thing about the ecumenical councils of the first Byzantine, Armenian, Alexandrian, and Syrian millennium—from Nicaea I in 325 through traditions—have never undergone a massive Nicaea II in 787—will know that they were not revision at the hands of experts the way the composed of clubby men sitting around in Latin tradition did in the 1960s. Eastern liturgy scarlet silk sipping sherry and tidily disposing of today remains stable, traditional, and all disagreements with a quiet nod of the head conservative, with inbuilt structural repetitions and puff of the cigar. They were fractious, that are in fact welcome, healthy, and raucous affairs not excluding outbreaks of necessary for they correspond to how real fisticuffs. people really pray—by stuttering, stumbling, Synodality and starting again and again and again. It was The Eastern Churches today continue to be precisely these rich, elaborate, conservative, and governed by such synods (though fist-fights are, repetitive liturgies that were so deeply sustaining thankfully, rare). Such synods are a part of their to Christians in the catacombs of Ukraine, and churches’ more (Continue next page)

4 decentralized structure, a structure that, in part, fallen more deeply in love with—or at least allowed them to survive persecution, especially knowledge of—the Christian East? Her liturgies, in case of the Armenians. Synodal structure synods, married priests, and histories of allows for things like the local election of persecution are just some of the treasures bishops without waiting around for a functionary Western Christians will find. Eastern Catholics, in Rome to send the name of someone he’s to be sure, don’t have all the answers—far from never met to the pope for Francis to “promote” it. But their lessons from the past may well offer to a diocese he’s never heard of. much wisdom for our shared future today. As I have been asking, in diverse places, for more than a decade: if election of bishops is Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille is Associate Professor good enough for Eastern Catholics, why is it not and Chairman of the Department of Theology- good enough for Roman Catholics? (For those Philosophy, University of Saint Francis (Fort who don’t know the history, the papal monopoly Wayne, IN) and author of Orthodoxy and the on episcopal appointments is a wholly modern Roman Papacy (University of Notre Dame, invention, placed into the 1917 code of canon 2011). law and having no theological warrant whatsoever.) Synods and elections do not, of course, in It’s time to reset our themselves guarantee any better quality of leader pastoral strategy: or process of governance. But they do give people a much greater sense of ownership over Ordain married men their own local ecclesial affairs. If the commission Pope Francis has appointed for reorganizing the Curia and restructuring the Church recommends, as seems likely, much greater decentralization and much more frequent synodality, Roman Catholics will not have to re- invent the wheel in either case, but have centuries of Eastern experience to draw on. Married Clergy Finally, if Pope Francis—who recently changed an obscure and unjust rule on this very point— decides that married men can be ordained priests more widely in the Latin Church than they already are, once again Roman Catholics need The Rev. Jonathan Duncan of St. John not panic and see this as some bizarre or Vianney Catholic Church in Cleburne, Texas extraneous tradition: it has been part of the East with his wife Elizabeth and children Bennett (as it was of the West until early in the second (lower right), Alexander, and Lucy. Duncan is millennium) from the beginning. Where a former Episcopal priest who converted and properly lived and supported it works very well, was accepted into the Catholic priesthood. though it presents certain challenges at the same time. (I address these joys and challenges in a (Photo by Donna Rychaert) book coming out late next year on married Catholic priests, including Eastern Catholic By The Rev. Bernard R. Bonnot priests and Latin priests in the Anglican Special to Crux June 16, 2015 ordinariates.) Twenty years ago, when he Orientale Holy Thursday commemorated the day Jesus Lumen first appeared, some commentators said “conferred his priesthood on his Apostles” that the late Pope John Paul II had written a (Chrism Mass). Most of those apostles were “love letter to the Christian East.” In the probably married. (Continue next page) intervening two decades, how many of us have

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In doing so, Jesus effected a pastoral reset. That Typically such plans are prepared through memory suggests the Church in the US could consultation and the reasons for the decisions are use a strategic pastoral reset and ordaining explained to parishioners. Nonetheless, the married men needs to be part of it. For our strategy nearly always provokes anguish, current strategy seems headed toward consternation, and alienation among clergy and catastrophe — sacramental drought and faithful. Most often these steps are rationalized Eucharistic starvation. on financial or demographic grounds. The Observers might reasonably conclude that the growing shortage of priests is unavoidably Catholic Church’s pastoral strategy in the US is mentioned, but seldom is the truth of the matter bigger is better, so merge/close/megachurch. In flatly stated: We simply don’t have the priest the north, we are merging parishes and closing personnel available to staff all these churches. churches, disrupting many communities of faith. A few statistics may help. As detailed by Across the south, we are building mega- Christine Schenk in a Feb. 26 essay for the churches or grouping several small parishes, National Catholic Reporter , New York’s 1991 often separated by large distances, under one numbers reported 2,177 priests serving 2.24 pastor. million Catholics (1 priest per 1,030 Catholics) This strategy is driven by multiple factors: the in 411 parishes (5.3 priests/parish). The 2013 movement of urban Catholic populations in the numbers report 1,343 priests serving 2.62 north to suburbs or to the south/southwest, the million Catholics (1 priest per 1,950 Catholics) financial stress of settlements for clergy abuse, in 368 parishes (3.7 priests/parish). and the declining number of priests available to The national picture pastor parishes. A March 6 Commonweal essay by CARA’s The rapidly declining number of priests seems to Mary Gautier reports that since 2000, just 15 be the tail that is wagging the dog. It is that years ago, the number of parishes nationally has factor this essay addresses. It is that factor that declined 7.1% to 17,800 while the number of most needs to be reset, for bigger entails less Catholics has risen 17% to 66.6 million. There engagement by more Church members, more are today fewer than 26,265 diocesan priests in passivity when we are called to be more the US, of whom only 17,900 are in “active missionary. The Church of Jesus Christ of ministry.” That means on average 1.006 priests Latter-day Saints is growing rapidly, in part per parish serving 3,741 people per parish and because it limits its base congregations, called 3,720 people per diocesan priest. The other wards, to 25-500 active members and assigns 8,365 of today’s diocesan priests are formally most members specific responsibilities, with no retired. Happily many of them continue to serve full-time, paid clergy! in some way, but it’s about to get much worse: Mergings and closings “half of all priests currently in active ministry In the 1980s, the late Cardinal Edmund Szoka of also expect to retire by 2019” according to Detroit took the dramatic step of merging and an NCR front page story , using CARA statistics. closing dozens of parishes and churches. That Half in the next four years! That’s crippling. was four decades ago. Since then, there has been Gautier reports that the decline in the number of a steady drumbeat of mergings and closings in priests has been in process since the late 1960s, US dioceses from Boston to Cleveland and but the problem is becoming ever more severe. beyond. Between 1991 and 2013, the “Only about a third of the number needed to Archdiocese of New York closed 43 parishes, replace priests who are retiring, dying, or then in November 2014 announced the leaving” each year are being ordained. “More merging of 112 of its remaining 368 parishes priests die each year than are ordained.” That and the closing of 31. In May, the archdiocese means we face a 67% decline in priests available said it would merge an additional 31 parishes in the coming decades. Meanwhile, the number into 14 new parishes. When the mergers are of Catholics keeps growing. completed in August, the total number of This reality is crushing priests carrying the parishes in the New York archdiocese will go growing burden of priestly ministry. They have from 368 a year ago to 296. That’s a body blow! hunkered down to carry on,(Continue next page)

6 but many are discouraged, if not panicked. Many Chief among those alternatives is the possibility are scandalized that episcopal leadership seems of ordaining married men to provide priestly unalarmed by this situation and uncreative in ministry to local communities of faith, as Jesus responding to it. For 40 years, our hierarchy has id on that first Holy Thursday. proposed that the solution is to pray for What can be done? vocations, increase vocational PR, and trust in There are to be sure several factors at play, but I God while they merge/close/mega-church their focus on the declining number of priests parishes. Other steps, if any are being taken, are available to serve our growing Catholic not shared or discussed publicly. Priests are community. That shrinking number is the result concerned that the Church they care about and of the shrinking number of candidates. Factors have served faithfully is about to go over a cliff contributing to that shrinkage include certainly One favored response is to recruit “international the smaller number of children in families, the priests.” Their number has grown from 3,500 in reduced number of Catholic schools, and the 1999 to nearly 7,000 today (Gautier). That tactic reduced number of Catholic children attending has brought successes, but also problems and those schools. Talented men also have an failures. It also depletes the priests available in increased number of attractive career options in lands where the Catholic population is exploding our society and economy, even in the Church. or recovering from decades of Communism. Younger Catholics have grown up during an This suggests that the Catholic Church in the increased affirmation of marriage as a path to United States has become a mission church holiness and the hyper-sexualization of our again rather than a missionary church, a culture. Today’s parents look forward to the shrinking Church needing outside help rather time of becoming grandparents, a hope invested than a thriving one sharing with others. Dare we in their few offspring. Some argue that women say a failing Church? We look big and have been so offended by various aspects of prosperous, but we are collapsing. Even with Church discipline and behavior toward them and such recruiting, nearly 3,500 of the now 17,800 their daughters that they do not encourage their parishes in the United States are without a sons to become priests — perhaps even resident priest pastor. discourage them. However much this pastoral strategy of These complex factors result in a hugely reduced merging/closing/mega-churching may seem to pool of candidates for the priesthood. The alleviate the crisis of insufficient priest insistence of our leadership on limiting the pool personnel, it merely covers a festering wound. to men willing to accept celibacy has contributed The wound is getting worse, and the patient’s greatly to our priest famine. The Vatican’s condition is increasingly critical. However much hitherto refusal to seriously explore the option of our current strategy seems to address the ordaining married men, silently acquiesced by problem, its de facto impact is to deny laity our US bishops, dooms our Church to a failing everywhere ready access to the sacraments, pastoral strategy. We need a reset. especially the Eucharist. It imposes a fast from Fortunately we currently have a Pope whose our most basic nourishment, forcing laity to mind is not closed to exploring that option. Pope travel further – sometimes much further — to Francis has stated his readiness to consider find celebrations occurring at times available in requests from episcopal conferences for their jammed and complicated schedules. It permission to ordain married men of proven imposes a crushing burden on priests, forcing quality to meet pastoral needs. To my them to spend more time and energy managing knowledge, no episcopal conference has yet and running from one responsibility and location made such a request. To my knowledge our own to another. It sounds callous, but it in effect says, US Conference of Catholic Bishops is not even “Let the people do without and let the clergy talking about the possibility. Their public carry their cross.” strategy remains ‘pray, promote vocations, trust All this is largely due to a lack of strategic God, merge, close and mega-church.’ We have creativity, fear about changing the status quo, been doing that for 40 years. Perhaps God is and resistance to alternate pastoral strategies. answering our prayers by(Continue next page)

7 inviting us to explore expanded consideration of have no solution. Your/our prayers are not being whom God might be calling and whom the answered,’ … so we have to close your church Church might ordain. and you’ll just have to travel further to get to Ordaining married men is not an outrageous Mass and have a priest available to serve you. idea. I need not repeat here the many arguments We need a reset. We need at least to look at such for entertaining the idea — the fact of married a reset. priests through several centuries of our Roman Such exploration of a different pastoral strategy Church’s life, the fact of married priests serving could open still other helpful pastoral avenues. It the Orthodox churches and also many Catholic would enable communities to identify potential Rites other than our Roman tradition from the leaders from within their communities and beginning to this day, the fact that we already propose them for training and ordination, have married Roman Catholic priests serving including women as deacons. It might lead to our people as ministers of other traditions ‘turn restoring to service some of the many men to Rome,’ the enrichment of experience and ordained to celibate priesthood in recent decades wisdom a married and celibate clergy could who resigned the priesthood to live the vocation bring to the service of God’s people, of marriage. Many of them continue to see strengthened credibility of the Church in dealing themselves as priests, ordained to serve, and with family and sexual matters. strive to minister to God’s people to the extent To be sure, instituting such a component of an they can within Church law. They are many. alternate pastoral strategy would require They are willing. They are waiting to be asked. adjustments, bring different challenges, and The Church in the United States faces a introduce new sets of problems. But it can be deepening of the crisis we have been done, and it could bring near-term relief. experiencing for five decades — the declining One immediate avenue could be to call select number of ordained priests to serve the growing men from among married deacons to priesthood. number of Catholics. Our overall pastoral The Catholic Church in the United States today strategy has not addressed that situation and our has some 18,725 ordained deacons, 94% of them current pastoral strategy is more destructive than married men and 12,358 of them in their 50s and effective. If continued, it will be increasingly 60s, according to CARA’s 2013-14 study for the disastrous. The Church in the United States USCCB. A few single and/or widowed needs to reset its pastoral strategy, soon. permanent deacons have taken additional Ordaining married men of proven ability and training, become priests within a few years, and character would be one step in that direction. are serving well. The same could be done with The Rev. Bernard R. Bonnot is a select married permanent deacons, individuals of priest and pastor of the Diocese of proven qualities discerned apt to serve as priests, Youngstown ordained in 1967. He able and willing to do so. serves also as chairman of the If just 10% of our 18,725 permanent deacons Leadership Team of the Association were discerned and called to priesthood in the of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP), next few years, the looming disaster of losing which has endorsed this essay. 50% of currently active priests to retirement Father is a member of the would be alleviated — not sufficiently, but Youngstown-Warren Chapter of the somewhat. That could provide breathing space Society of St. John Chrysostom. for the Church to train and prepare many other ***PLEASE NOTE THAT IN THE INTEREST married men willing to serve as priests. OF INQUIRY, OUR NEWSLETTER Such priests would not have to be full-time SOMETIMES PRESENTS ARTICLES WITH Church employees. Many, if not all, could be POINTS OF VIEW WITH WHICH WE DON’T tent-maker clergy, maintaining their careers and NECESSARILY AGREE.*** day jobs, as was St. Paul and as are most permanent deacons today. PRAY TO THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR The alternative is to continue telling Catholics, UNITY! in effect, ‘you will just have to do with less. We

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Saint Charbel’s memory, the native village, a ceremony attended by the Apostolic Nuncio, and a patriarchal Mass. future of Lebanon and the These events are intended to breathe new life Maronite Church into the Maronite Church, as well as restore its Fady Noun identity and courage under fire, in light of Celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the saint’s everything that is happening in the Middle East. beatification will be held between 18 and 25 July. In view What challenges does the Maronite Church face of future tragedies for the Church, Pope Paul VI’s decision today? In the past two years, some wise was prophetic. For Abbot Naaman, a new leadership is Maronites like Father Michel Awit, the veteran needed to protect the Maronite community. The failure to head of protocol at the patriarchal seat in elect Lebanon’s president “is one of the Bkerké; Father Boulos Naaman, former Superior symptoms”.Celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the General of the Lebanese Maronite Order; and saint’s beatification will be held between 18 and 25 July. In Patriarchal Vicar Samir Mazloum have tried view of future tragedies for the Church, Pope Paul VI’s each to answer that question. decision was prophetic. For Abbot Naaman, a new All three have written some short pieces about leadership is needed to protect the Maronite community. the Maronite Church, its identity and its mission The failure to elect Lebanon’s president “is one of the for the core matter is short. In their writings, symptoms”. they have made some recommendations, confiding their loving thoughts and issuing

priestly warnings. Basically, all their recommendations come Beirut (AsiaNews) – together and be summarised by John Paul II's The Maronite Church words: "Against the spirit of the world, the has decided to Church takes up anew each day a struggle that is commemorate none other than the struggle for the world’s officially the 50th soul" ( Crossing the Threshold of Hope , p. 62, anniversary of the from Excerpts of Inri pdf edition ). beatification of Saint Charbel by Pope Paul VI "The first Maronite elite was educated at the (1965) by holding a novena of prayers and school in Hawqa, in the heart of the mountain various events between 18 and 25 July. (Mount Lebanon),” Fr Naaman said. Its Maronite Patriarch al-Rahi recently described members “were raised in the school of the saint’s beatification as a prophetic deed asceticism, sobriety of life and love of God,” he intended to focus the world's attention on the added. “From the small seed planted by Saint importance of the Eastern Church, perhaps in Maron, who found refuge in Lebanon, a anticipation of the dramatic hours it would later homeland for men was born, not only for experience. Christians but for everyone, for this man was the Indeed, the fate of this part of the world was message of Christianity." partly sealed by 1965 because the minds behind "Unfortunately,” Fr Naaman went on to say, “we the Caliphate and Islamism were already at turned into a nation of interested, opportunistic work. The devastation of the Lord's vineyard people. We have gone backward, to a time that we see today was announced through before Emir Bashir, scattered in branches prophetic messages and supernatural events that (joubab) and communities. From farmers linked the patriarchs of the East failed to see at the time to the great feudal lords, we had managed to or openly mocked. bring all communities under one national roof, Events associated with the 50th anniversary will Lebanon. At present, because of our selfishness, be held in Bekaa Kafra (Bsharri), Saint inwardness, love of power and money, these Charbel’s birthplace. They will include communities have scattered." discussions, processions, the launch of a small Of course, external causes have played a role in business making local products, the procession this process of dissolution, the former superior of Saint Charbel’s relics in Bsharri, his mother’s of the Lebanese Maronite Order said. However, history has summoned(Continue next page)

9 a new elite. Either our vocation will disappear, "He took himself away from his family and or Providence will entrust it to another people. I village without any fuss or farewell ceremony,” do not want to be pessimistic, but I know that it said in reference to Charbel Makhlouf’s entry Providence will find those who will complete to the convent. the course of this story. For the history of Let us make sure that the honours we render him humanisation of this part of the world will not today are not tainted. We may be a people of stop with us." ascetics, but let us not become managers of Spirit of exploitation asceticism, nor turn our monasteries into For Fr Naaman, "the Church, both priests and supermarkets. Why did Michel Hayeck and monks, universities, and schools are now Youakim Mubarak go to live in Paris? Did they animated by a spirit of exploitation. People are feel stifled in Lebanon? tired, exhausted. External factors are obvious, but it is high time we realise that we have something inside that we are neglecting. We must go to the people, and stop lecturing it. One of the main qualities of a leader is his capacity to listen." For the abbot, like Pope Francis, in the life of the Church it is necessary to identify and fight clericalism, careerism and love of money. "In schools and universities, we need more mercy, teaching by example, more models,” he said. “We need to limit gain whilst reinvesting. We must give to the people what comes from the people." Obviously, Fr Naaman is really concerned by the danger that the Maronite Church, as God's people, might lose its spiritual identity and the role it performed through in history as a nation builder. For him, the great danger facing Newly ordained Fr Marc Khouryhanna, carried Lebanon, its civilisational challenge, is not the on the shoulders of the faithful in priestly physical disappearance of the Church that saw vestments, at Zgharta, in northern Lebanon. the birth of a giant of holiness like Saint From the Portuguese-language facebook Charbel, but rather its spiritual demise. The page Direto da Sacristia . political rivalries that has prevented the election of a president for more than a year – traditionally a Maronite - is one of the Pope Recognizes Heroic Virtues symptoms. of Ukrainian Archbishop By chance, in the convent library, I came across Recognition Brings Metropolitan a book by Father Michel Hayek on "Father Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky Closer to Charbel." Published by La Colombe, the old Beatification edition is now out of print. Since it was by Rome, July 17, 2015 (ZENIT.org ) Junno Arocho Michel Hayeck, I borrowed it. What could be Esteves said about St Charbel had been said many times. Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtues of However, what Hayeck had to say delighted me. Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archbishop Andrey Describing Annaya in the 1950s, he mentioned Sheptytsky. According to a communique "American Buicks driven by ascetic tourists released by the Holy See Press Office, the Holy seeking a place for a spiritual weekend" and Father met this morning with Cardinal Angelo people "coming together as joyful insurance Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the companies". Causes of Saints. (Continue next page)

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The Pope also recognized the heroic virtues of our lifestyles have become unsustainable. " several religious/lay men and wom en from Italy, Ecological crisis is first and foremost spiritual Spain, France & Mexico. problem Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky is considered "The ecological crisis - continues Zizioulas in the to be one of the most influential 20 th century conversation with the director of the Jesuit magazine figures in the history of the Ukrainian Church. - is essent ially a spiritual problem: the encyclical says Enthroned as Metropolitan of Lviv in 1901, so clearly. With original sin the proper relationship Archbishop Sheptytsky was arrested shortly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914 by the between man and his natural environment is Russians. After his imprisonment in several broken. This break is sin, sin ecological, that is both prisons in Russia and the Ukraine, the individual and social. Those who think of their Archbishop was released in 1918. salvatio n can not look upon sin ecological result of The Ukrainian Greek Catholic prelate was also human greed. " Metropolitan of Pergamon underlines an ardent supporter of the Jewish co mmunity in the strong commitment of the Ecumenical Patriarch Ukraine, going so far as to learn Hebrew to Bartholomew I on environmental issues and recalls better communicate with them. He also was a that back in 2002, along with John Paul II, was vocal protestor against atrocities committed by signed a joi nt document, the Declaration of Venice, the Nazis, evidenced in his pastoral letter, "Thou "in which the two leaders of the Church They Shalt Not Kill." He was also known to harbor declared their concern for the protection of our planet thousands of Jews in his residence and in Greek threatened by the current ecological crisis. " Now, he Catholic monasteries. adds, "on behalf of the Ecumenical Patriarch, His Following his death in 1944, his cause for Holiness F rancis I expressed the gratitude of the canonization was opened in 1958 Orthodox world for having raised its authoritative . voice at this critical time in human history." Zizioulas in Civilta Environment and social justice Cattolica: Praised central to ecumenism be 'is appealing to "Churches - reiterates Bishop Zizioulas - must try their unity not ecumenism only with respect to the past, but also with respect to the current conditions Pope Francis with in which they live. Even the real needs of humanity must be taken into Metropolitan Zizioulas - AP account in ecumenism existential, and (computer translation) this means that issues such as social http://it.radiovaticana.va/ ju stice and the protection of creation must play a central role in ecumenical "The Praised be You 'is a call" relations. "Moreover, he continues, ecumenism "existential". It 'as "the ecology is not preservation, but said the Metropolitan of development".Metropolitan then Pergamon, Ionannis Zizioulas, returns to revive its proposal so that in a long interview with Father Antonio Spadaro, Christians can celebrate a common da te to pray for published in the latest issue of Civilta Cattolica. The the land. "The Ecumenical Patriarchate - he explains - Orthodox bishop, who was among the speakers at the decided in 1989 to dedicate the date of September 1 to prayer for the environment", "on this day we pray presentation of the encyclical of Pope Francis - last for the prayers composed specially created with a June 19 in the New Synod - points out that " in the hymn writer of Mount Athos. It would be a sign, face of great problems of humanity and the planet our whichever had value for all Christians. " (By differences and divisions relativize. There's some Alessandro Gisotti) issues ecumenism already made. Therefore, the encyclical is really a call to Christian unity, to ARE YOU A CHAPTER MEMBER? WHY NOT? common prayer and the conversion of our hearts and

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OTSA anticipated what might be a monumental "Does the Council matter event in Orthodox Christian history: the first to my mother?” recognized Council of the Orthodox Church in from: http://www.firstthings.com/ over twelve hundred years. The papers, the This question was posed at the Orthodox questions posed to the presenters, and the open Theological Society of America’s (OTSA) discussions were duly weighted with hopes and conference held last month. It was asked in fears about the Council of 2016. reference to the anticipated Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church planned for Though there were different voices in the room Pentecost 2016. It was offered tongue-in-cheek and dissenting opinions (one of the things I find and was directed at the speculation about so refreshing about OTSA is that it is a place whether anything of substance will come out of where disagreement is quite comfortable, and the Council, but it expressed well the hopes and handled in a collegial manner), there seemed to concerns held by the scholars of the Orthodox me to be a few areas of majority accord. Church. The ninety or so scholars, including myself, attending the OTSA conference represented One of those areas was concern around the many Orthodox jurisdictions in America as degree to which allegiance to nation-states, or well as abroad, were comprised mostly of ethno-nationalist tendencies might dominate or laity—but included several priests and two limit the Council. It was noted that the hierarchs—were made up of a mix of cradle Orthodox Church’s organization into and convert Orthodox and other Christians, and autocephalous churches (with a total of included an impressive number of female fourteen recognized autocephalous churches scholars. We met in New York City in around the world today) initially happened conjunction with Fordham’s Orthodox along the political boundaries of the Empire for Christian Studies Center. practical, organizational reasons. In more recent history, however, the political boundaries aligned with some autocephalous OTSA convened to discuss the planned Council churches have been closely identified with of 2016, visiting many of its proposed agenda ethnicity and nationalism, and often coupled items in papers and open discussions. (The sum with a fundamentalist and insular ethos. total agenda is, roughly: fasting, canonical Connected with this concern was the impediments to marriage, calendar issues, understanding that the Council will be diaspora, relationship of the Orthodox Church conducted by consensus rule. This was to other Christian Churches, ranking of the assumed to mean that all bishops present (each autocephalous churches, autonomy and autocephalous church can bring up to twenty- autocephaly, manner of granting autocephaly, four bishops) must unanimously agree on an presence of the Orthodox Church in the World item in order for it to stand. The OTSA Council of Churches, and the contribution of attendees were concerned that a consequence of the Orthodox Church to the realization of consensus rule might be that one group, or even justice, freedom, brotherhood, and love among one bishop, could control the outcomes of the peoples.) Council. This concern was underscored by the awareness of the historical anomaly of a Many scholarly conferences are organized consensus Council—no previous council has around a topical theme; for example, last year’s operated under unanimous rule—and by the OTSA conference held forth on “The Orthodox realization that a Council so structured will Church in America in a Post-Modern World.” inevitably be a conservative council, in terms While this year’s meeting was thematically of both the quality and quantity of what is focused on the Council of 2016, the tone and accomplished. Some scholars expressed the tenor of the conference was markedly different hope that consensus rule might be interpreted in that a purely thematic conference because a Quaker fashion; that (Continue next page)

12 as accord grows on a given item, those in process for the reception of a council, no canon disagreement would respectfully step back and or doctrine dictates its acclamation, and nothing support the decisions made by the body of the that precedes a council recognizes its truth in Council. advance. The reception of a council happens on the schedule of the Holy Spirit, and this An additional concern held at OTSA was the nebulous, unfettered, and spirited process question: Who else might be present at the encapsulates for me all that is good and true Council, in addition to each church’s allotment about the Orthodox Church as a body. of bishops? Will there be any lay theologians? Any non-Orthodox? Any women of any kind? One of the strongest hopes of those at OTSA The idea of a Council composed strictly of was that the Council simply come to pass, and bishops did not sit well with the members of that all the autocephalous churches attend. OTSA, and not just because of twenty-first While this may seem like a meager hope century notions of representation, but because indeed, the Orthodox Church, as noted, has not of the real awareness that Ecumenical Councils met in council in over a millennium; it has no past always included members of the greater method or manner of worldwide conciliarism, royal priesthood of believers beyond the and this Council of 2016 may be a necessary hierarchs. Just as St. Ignatius of Antioch pilgrim’s rest on the path to the autocephalous championed the role of the bishop in the churches being able to function in a symbiotic Church, he also insisted, “Wherever the bishop manner. Were a harmonious state of shall appear, there let the multitude [of the collaboration among the Orthodox achieved, people] also be.” the Council of 2016 would strengthen and illumine the Orthodox Church into its third There were three hopes for the Council that millennium, and it might well matter to our seemed to be universally held by OTSA mothers. members, and that I perceive to be held by Carrie Frederick Frost is a scholar of most American Orthodox faithful. The first is Orthodox theology and mother of five living in the reorganization of the Orthodox world in Washington state. western countries—in the so-called diaspora— to the theologically and canonically sound position of one bishop per city. The process for on friday, marriage this would be arduous, but possible, but the likelihood of it being endorsed by this Council from: was questioned. The other two broadly held http://janotec.typepad.com/terra hopes for the Council are the hope of restored communion with the Oriental Churches, and ce/ June 29, 2015 the hope of the restoration of the female diaconate. “Restored” is the critical word in On Friday -- on a day that the news should have both cases: while both issues contain not focused entirely on the funeral of +Rev inconsiderable theological and pragmatic Clementa Pinckney (attended by His Eminence concerns, these concerns can be addressed, Archbishop Demetrios) -- the Supreme Court these restorations are attainable, and they thought it appropriate to announce its decision would benefit Orthodox faithful the world over. on the case Obergefell v. Hodges : the Court Although much of the OTSA discussion was determined that there is now a federally- protected right of same-sex couples to be centered around what will happen at the Council, what will happen after the Council married under civil law. was acknowledged as greatly important. What does this mean? And what does this mean Councils of the Orthodox Church must be for us? received by the Church; they must be accepted Historically speaking (that is, outside the by the baptized faithful. There is no formal Church), this is (Continue next page)

13 something new. In general, cultures across the part and a beginning of the cosmic reconciliation world made marriage a “legal” thing between a of Christ returning all of Creation to the Father man and a woman for the purposes of bearing in universal transfiguration. Marriage includes children (i.e., “procreation”) and owning the possibility of children, but it extends into property. That is why society in general has love and joy in every moment between the always been so interested in marriage, and it has husband and wife. -- across the board -- legislated various laws to We Orthodox have deep and eternal view of regulate and to support marriage. marriage. This is what is called “civil marriage.” And because of that, we venerate and protect it - We should remember that one of the main - not just as a civil institution, or as a “contract” reasons why society upheld marriage by law was that will cease at the end of life. Marriage, for for the purpose of procreation. That is why us, is forever, always initiating a return to marriage has been limited, historically and even Par adise, always transforming a home into a outside Christianity, to a rel ationship between a “Garden of Eden.” man and a So what do we do woman. when the Supreme As far as Court, in a very the Church poorly written, is poorly argued and concerned, irresponsible marriage opinion, has changed goes far the legal definition of beyond the marriage? legalized (The gaping holes in “civil this opinion, written union” that by Reagan -appointee society or Anthony Kennedy, the State is are egregious. One interested unanswered question in in this statement -- as upholding. if it didn’t matter -- is Marriage, in whether religious Holy Tradition, is a “sacrament.” It is one of the institutions who choose not to perform such seven primar y “means of grace” that God has unions will receive adequate legal protection.) given us for the sake of our salvation. We say First of all, we ne ed to remain “courageously confidently that we can be “saved” through peaceful” and remember that while this decision marriage. is huge for civil law, it does nothing to the For the first few centuries of the Church (until Orthodox definition of marriage. about 900 AD), when early Christians got I doubt that the Church will ever be forced, by married, they first went to the ci ty magistrate law, to perform same-sex marriages. Such a (kind of like our “Justice of the Peace”) and thing has n ot happened once in Massachusetts, entered into a “civil union.” Then, soon which has legalized such marriages since 2004. afterward, they had their marriage blessed in But in the event that everyone who performs the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning. “civil marriage” within the church ceremony -- The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony -- or, better, which I and every other clergy do for the State the “Holy Mystery of Nuptial Union” -- goes far in a wedding -- might be requi red by law to beyond the interests of society. Marriage, in the perform a same-sex marriage … then I -- and Holy Tradition of Orthodoxy, is an eternal union every other traditional priest -- will stop of a man and a woman (just like Adam and Eve, performing the civil part (i.e., I would no longer and -- more profoundly -- Christ and His Bride sign the marriage license). (Continue next page) the Church). Every sacramental marriage is a

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I do not think this is a very big deal in itself. The when usury was legalized in modern Europe, “clergy-signed marriage license” was always a and everything became commoditized (even government function, starting around 900 AD human labor). Maybe even further back as when with the hugely significant "Novella 89" of Leo Christendom lost its soul when the western VI. Historically, I think that any and every Church itself began contractualizing the concept entanglement with the State has turned out to be of "covenant" and all relationships, and a huge mistake. secularity was thus invented and set loose upon We need to remember that there have been, for a human society. long time, many “civil marriages” that the Why do we notice how bad things are only when Church does not recognize as “sacramental”: our hot buttons are pushed? I think our surprise “same sex union” is not the only impediment to and shock about Friday June 26th reveal not so Church-blessed sacramental marriage. There are much the badness of the world, but our other “impediments": marriage between too egregious lack of wisdom, and failure to discern. close of blood relations is prohibited; so also is For now, I will offer only this, in the particular habitual adultery and criminality. Age and subject of marriage: consent also factor as significant concerns. The best thing to do, in response, is this: We We need to also keep in mind that not only does need to understand and reveal the truth of the Church warn against homosexual activity, Orthodox Marriage. Our homes need to be but it warns -- just as strongly -- against all islands of the joy and peace of the Risen Christ. sexual behavior outside of sacramental marriage Our marriages need to reveal the possibilities of (like adultery). It is usually overlooked that the Trinitarian love in our time. And we need to be Church warns against all lustful or fetishizing able to talk freely, peacefully and courageously, sex -- even within marriage. The Church warns, about what our marriages mean in Orthodoxy. too, against childbearing attempts that take place outside sacramental marriage: e.g., sperm or egg donation; in vitro fertilization; surrogate motherhood; and any and all manipulations of When Did the Schism human life, including DNA modification. Actually Occur? But most importantly, we need to consider that these warnings are for the conservation of formal human life and culture, and for the https://ecclesialvigilante.wordpress.com/ beautification of human existence for eternity: The question has been asked elsewhere , but I so the Church warns against all destructive thought I’d ask it again and look into a few passions -- not only sexuality outside Holy striking particulars. While 1054 is commonly Tradition, but also greed, anger, gluttony, pride seen as the magic date there and despair. seems to be much in the way We are now in a moment when we need to think of evidence to contradict it. carefully about our response to this cultural The “theological watershed moment. Unfortunately, it is a differences” between watershed: but our response does not need to be Rome and Constantinople so chaotic or reactionary. It is not the best thing, were nothing new in the surely, to wage another round of "culture wars." 11th century and had been Neither is a retreat from full-on engagement of debated as far back as the from contemporary society (and history): we are 8th. Maximos the Confessor neither Amish, nor are most of us monastic. So once wrote back to in general, I reject the "Benedict Option." It is Constantinople that the perceived neither robust nor comprehensive as a real differences were nothing more than a difference strategy. of expression due to linguistics, and that the two Frankly, we should have been thinking about Romes shared the same doctrines in essence. "responses" to the devolution of contemporary Photios would later (Continue next page) society a long time ago. Maybe as far back as

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– most likely due to ignorance – reject the schism is the Order of the Dragon, an alliance of “Roman heresies” and later calm down after the regional monarchs created to unite them being deposed and re-reinstated as patriarch. against the enemies of Christianity (usually the Michael Celarius began a cycle wherein Ottomans, but also “Heretics and Schismatics”). Constantinople would be generally anti-Roman Its members included: the Prince of Wallachia in its outlook but sometimes swing back to (more famously known as Vlad Dracul), the tolerating or befriending Rome at whim. The Prince of Serbia, the King of Hungary, the Tsar disaster of the Fourth Crusade solidified the anti- of Bulgaria, the Ban of Croatia, the Duke of Roman sentiment that had existed for a few Bosnia, the King of Bohemia, and many Polish centuries and guaranteed that there would and Hungarian nobles. While not official always be a strident and loud faction that saw members of the order, the kings of Poland and Rome as the enemy. England and the Grand Duke of Lithuania allied In Rome, the Greeks were seen as the brother themselves with the order. If the idea of a 1054 who one day decides he hates you and wants instant schism held any ground, such an alliance nothing to do with you for no good reason. between “Catholic” and “Orthodox” should have When Pope Nicholas intervened in been inconceivable. Constantinople it had nothing to do with theology, but was a move to restore the rightful ECUMENICAL MOVE patriarch from an imperial usurper (and Photios Vatican City, Aug 10, 2015 / (CNA/EWTN News ).- Pope was acknowledged as rightful patriarch when he Francis has instituted a new day of prayer and was reselected after Isidore’s death). The Fourth celebration for the Church entitled the “World Lateran Council urged the Greeks to calm down Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation,” to be and restore the unity, but interesting to note is celebrated on September 1 each year. that the council – without precedent – demanded The day of prayer is in keeping with the theme the Greek submit themselves to the one of the Holy Father’s newest environmental Holy Roman Church. This strikes as nothing encyclical “Laudato Si.” It is also seen as a sign more than stepping up the rhetoric as Rome was of unity with the Orthodox Church, which in prior centuries often the most reasonable and established September 1 as a day to celebrate reconciliatory of the patriarchates when creation in 1989. differences arose. An overemphasis on “The celebration of this Day, on the same date submission probably occurred at Florence and as the Orthodox Church, will be a valuable threw some Greeks into a fit, causing many opportunity to bear witness to our growing Orthodox today to remember it as the time when communion with our Orthodox brothers and they were made to “kiss the Pope’s toe”. sisters,” Pope Francis said. (edited LOE) Oft forgotten in the debate is the rest of Christianity. Outside of the West and Greece, few knew of this ongoing slap-fight and no one This Syriac bishop will be beatified seems to have cared. Until Florence, the Rusyns (pre-occupied with surviving the Mongols and on the 100th anniversary of Tartars) do not appear to have involved his martyrdom themselves in it while the Melkite patriarchates of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria were too Bishop Flavien-Michel Malké of the busy surviving and Byzantinizing. The aftermath Syriac Diocese of Gazireh, who was of Florence divided the Rus, but made no impact martyred Aug. 29, 1915, and will be on the others. In fact, if one wants to put a date beatified Aug. 29, 2015. Public on the schism they should look to Florence and domain photo the controversy that surrounded it in Byzantium. Even the Balkans, where Latin and Greek Rite Christians lived close together, do not seem to have thrown themselves into the conflict. An interesting counter-point to the idea of an instant

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