A Letter to Pope Francis Concerning His Past, the Abysmal State of Papism, and a Plea to Return to Holy Orthodoxy The lengthy letter that follows was written by His Eminence, the Metropolitan of Piraeus, Seraphim, and His Eminence, the Metropolitan of Dryinoupolis, Andrew, both of the Church of Greece. It was sent to Pope Francis on April 10, 2014. The Orthodox Christian Information Center (OrthodoxInfo.com) assisted in editing the English translation. It was posted on OrthodoxInfo.com on Great and Holy Monday, April 14, 2014. The above title was added for the English version and did not appear in the Greek text. Metropolitan Seraphim is well known and loved in Greece for his defense of Orthodoxy, his strong stance against ecumenism, and for the philanthropic work carried out in his Metropolis (http://www.imp.gr/). His Metropolis is also well known for Greece’s first and best ecclesiastical radio station: http://www.pe912fm.com/. This radio station is one of the most important tools for Orthodox outreach in Greece. Metropolitan Seraphim was born in 1956 in Athens. He studied law and theology, receiving his master’s degree and his license to practice law. In 1980 he was tonsured a monk and ordained to the holy diaconate and the priesthood by His Beatitude Seraphim of blessed memory, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. He served as the rector of various churches and as the head ecclesiastical judge for the Archdiocese of Athens (1983) and as the Secretary of the Synodal Court of the Church of Greece (1985-2000). In December of 2000 the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarch elected him as an auxiliary bishop of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia in which he served until 2002. He was then appointed preacher and Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Piraeus in 2002, where as in 2005 he was chosen as the Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. He was elected as Metropolitan of Piraeus on the 28th of February, 2006. Metropolitan Andrew was born in Patra in 1939 and is a graduate of the Theological School of the University of Athens. He was ordained to the Holy Diaconate (1968) and to the Holy Priesthood (1969) by the Metropolitan of Dryinoupolis, Pogoniani and Konitsa Sebastian of blessed memory. From 1968 until his election as Metropolitan he served as a Preacher of the Metropolis. He was elected as Metropolitan of Dryinoupolis, Pogoniani and Konitsa by the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece in 1995. 1 HOLY AUTOCEPHALOUS ORTHODOX CATHOLIC CHURCH OF GREECE THE HOLY METROPOLIS OF DRYINOUPOLIS, POGONIANI AND KONITSA 44002 Δελβινάκιον / 44002 DELVINAKION, GR www.imdpk.gr, e-mail: [email protected], Τηλ. Κέντρο / Tel. +3026570 22203, Fax +3026570 22344 THE HOLY METROPOLIS OF PIRAEUS AND FALIRO Ἀκτή Θεµιστοκλέους 190, 18539 ΠΕΙΡΑΙΕΥΣ / 190 Themistokleous Coast, 18539 Piraeus, GR www.imp.gr, e-mail: [email protected], Τηλ. Κέντρο / Tel. +30210 4514833, Fax +30210 4518476 April 10, 2014 Greece To His Excellency, Francis, Head of State of the Vatican City Vatican City, Rome Your Excellency, With due respect and sincere love, we send you this Episcopal letter, the purpose of which doesn’t come from any selfish motive, but from pure, sincere and selfless Christian love, from Christian duty, from an essential commandment of our Savior Christ, Who “desires all men to be saved and to come to a full knowledge of the truth,”1 and finally from a warm and ardent desire for your salvation. Because of this we feel it to be our holy and mandatory duty, as the least of the members of the All-holy and All-pure Body of Christ, and especially as Orthodox Bishops, who belong as such to the Holy Synod of the Holy Autocephalous Church of Greece, which is our highest ecclesiastical authority, as to the whole and Undivided One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church, to endeavor with all our might to restore you to the Mother Orthodox Catholic Church, from which you left and from which you were cut off, a work which we hope, the Uncreated 11 Timothy 2:4 2 Divine Grace of the Lord cooperating, shall be achieved. This holy obligation of the return of heretics to the Orthodox Church has, of course, holy canonical grounds and basis and is supported by the 131st, 132nd, and 133rd holy Canons of the Local Council of 2 Carthage (418 or 419 A.D.). From the outset we must clarify that we Orthodox, not taking part in the politically- correct spirit of western and especially ecumenist “Christianity,” do not refer to those religious communities who have, sadly, been separated from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church as “Churches.” But, following the example of our Holy Fathers throughout the ages, refer to them as heretics, and you, Your Excellency, and your followers, we denominate as “Papists” and your heresy as “Papism.” These terms are, for us, not derogatory, neither are they slurs, but they are theological and even technical terms which best describe the spiritual and ecclesiastical delusion and error in which you find yourselves. We, in fact use them with love, for when one loves his brother he tells him the truth hoping to bring him back to his senses. It should also be made clear that the following words are written with pain of heart and not from some personal bitterness or hatred towards your respectable personage. Our purpose is not to offend you, but to reveal, rebuke, admonish and to refute your deluded and heretical ideas, theories and actions. Our basic rule is that we should love the heretics but rebuke and hate their heresy and delusions. Our only interest is our Holy Orthodoxy, the only place in which humans have salvation. We unceasingly pray that our Lord Jesus Christ gather together the deluded “Pope” and his followers, through repentance and the renunciation of your delusion and heresy, into the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, Orthodox Church and to assume as an Orthodox Pope, according to seniority of honor of the Pentarchy and in agreement with the Divine and Holy Canons, the Chairmanship of honor of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches as “primus inter pares.” An additional reason, which shows the timeliness and importance of our present Episcopal epistle, are the intrigues in the realm of the modern heretical Ecumenical Movement with its ecumenist theological dialogues between Orthodox and Papists, where the representatives from the Orthodox side, animated unfortunately by the pan- heretical spirit of inter-Christian and inter-religious syncretistic ecumenism, and employing the false ecumenist love, a “love” without true love and unity in the Orthodox faith, deceive you, Your Excellency, claiming that Papism is a so called “Church,” and moreover a “sister Church,” with valid Mysteries (Sacraments), Baptism, the Priesthood and Grace, that Papism and Orthodoxy make up the so-called, “two lungs,” with which the Church of Christ breaths, that you, the heretical “Pope,” are a canonical bishop, successor of the Apostle Peter and Vicar of Christ on earth, who possess the Apostolically, Scripturally and Patristically groundless and non-existent “Petrine” primacy of power over all the Church, and the blasphemous “Papal Infallibility,” instead of the true primacy of honor (διά τό εἶναι τήν Ρώµην πρωτεύουσα) as is commanded by the Holy Canons of the undivided Church of the first millennium to which the Orthodox Pope of Rome and Patriarch of the West is entitled, doctrines that are totally unknown and without foundation or witness in the general Tradition of the Catholic Orthodox Church of the first ten centuries and of the eight Holy Ecumenical Councils, doctrines which are a clear blasphemy against the All-Holy Spirit and which show your theological 2 ΟΣΙΟΣ ΝΙΚΟΔΗΜΟΣ ΑΓΙΟΡΕΙΤΗΣ, Πηδάλιον, pp. 533-535. 3 departure and the satanic pride of which you are possessed. Clear proof of the absurdity of the Orthodox Ecumenists is that, while they attribute to you ecclesiastical titles, you who are obviously heretical and erroneous in belief, they do not dare, even though it would be in keeping with their declarations, to come into sacramental communion with you, because they know from that moment they will immediately lose their own ecclesiastical identity. Does this not make up the most blatant proof of the false doctrines of Ecumenism? If they indeed believe their unacceptable and provocative declarations, then let them dare to take the step into sacramental communion, because otherwise they prove by their actions the emptiness of the ecclesiastical titles which they give to you false bishops of the false believers. Clear conformation of the above was the last-minute cancellation of your personal attendance at the celebrations of the 1700th anniversary of the Edict of Milan in Niš, Serbia, on June 10th, 2013,3 and the cancellation of your visit to the Holy Mountain of Athos the same month,4 as rumor has it. In communicating with you through this present Episcopal letter, we desire that it be made known to you that, according to the diachronic Holy Scriptural, Canonical and Patristic Tradition and according to the infallible conscience of the fullness of the Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church, Papism, of which you are the leader, Your Excellency, is not a “Church,” but a religious community, a parasynagogue, a heresy, an alteration, a demolishing and a total perversion of the Truth, namely, of the very God-man, Christ. Hosts of Orthodox Councils have condemned Papism as a heresy. We will cite some significant examples: The Council of 879-880 in Constantinople, under the Ecumenical Patriarch, Archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome, Saint Photios the Great, Equal to the Apostles, which condemned as heretical the teaching of the Filioque, and is considered by the consciousness of the Church to be the 8th Ecumenical Council, because in it were representatives of all the Patriarchates, including the then Orthodox Pope of Rome, John the 8th, and because the decisions of this council were universally accepted.