Patriarch Bartholomew has reportedly stated that he does not care that the Russian Orthodox Church has broken communion with Constantinople. This is a statement that only serves to further demoralize those of us under Constantinople’s omophorion who do care that we are not in communion with the Russian Church. Patriarch Bartholomew has no right to speak for his flock.
He speaks only for himself. As a member of his flock, I am opposed to everything that Patriarch Bartholomew has done in Ukraine. His actions violate canon law and the precepts of Orthodox ecclesiology. He has made the Church of Constantinople complicit in the violence and persecution of Orthodox Ukrainians by the government in Kiev and the fake and artificial “church” established by the Patriarchate.
This madness must end. Patriarch Bartholomew sucked the Patriarchate of Alexandria and the Church of Greece into the madness. Sentimental Greeks have closed their eyes and followed Constantinople down the path of ruin. Patriarch Bartholomew has created division among the bishops of Cyprus.
It is apparent that Patriarch Bartholomew does not care about any of this any more than he cares about being out of communion with the Russian Church. It is hard to see how this ends except with Patriarch Bartholomew being deposed. The Orthodox Churches can remain patient for only so long before they convene a council and choose to depose the Ecumenical Patriarch.
Patriarch Bartholomew visited the White House and President Joe Biden. Two elderly men declining in health who should be prayed for. One has damaged his country by his reckless actions because of how he withdrew from Afghanistan while the Patriarch damaged the unity of the Orthodox Church as a result of his uncanonical actions in Ukraine.
Patriarch Bartholomew called the President a “man of faith”. This President began his Presidency by restoring funds for the World Health Organization for use in supporting abortions around the world. This President passed the “equality act” which supports transgender ideology and enables boys at school to use the girls restrooms and play in girls sports. What “man of faith” supports anti Christian policies such as these?
It should be remembered that as Vice President, Biden presided over a marriage between two men. He was also a supporter of the bombing of Serbia and the seizure of Kosovo with its historic Serbian Churches and Monasteries which was followed by the ethnic cleansing of Orthodox Christians. As a Senator, Joe Biden voted in favor of the Iraq war and as Vice President supported the arming of jihadists in Syria. The Christians of Iraq and Syria became victims of genocide as a result of these policies. Man of faith?
Patriarch Bartholomew has tried to cover his ecclesiastical crimes in Ukraine under the Greek flag. Former Vice President Biden’s Syria policies helped to flood the Greek islands with Syrian refugees. Both Patriarch and President are intent on keeping Greece (Church and Country) in a state of permanent tension with Russia.
Patriarch Bartholomew’s referring to Biden as a “man of faith” is indicative of how isolated the Patriarch has really become. Between 1994 and 2013 there were about eight assassination attempts on the life of the Patriarch by jihadists and Turkish nationalists. Patriarch Bartholomew admirably stood his ground and refused to leave Constantinople.
The one thing that the Church of Constantinople had going for it was that it was a martyred Church. It should be remembered that the Russian Church supported Patriarch Bartholomew when Russian bishops participated in liturgies served in the old caves of Cappadocia and the Monastery of Panagia Soumela in Trebizond. Regrettably, Patriarch Bartholomew by his actions in Ukraine and his chosen alliances has damaged Orthodoxy and his own Patriarchate.
Aside from Biden, the Patriarchate has aligned itself with the American foreign policy establishment which is as anti Christian as Biden’s social policies. The Patriarch forgets that the Greek Orthodox faithful of Constantinople and the islands of Imbros and Tenedos were ethnically cleansed by the Turks during the the 1950’s and 1960’s with the support of Washington.
Washington supported the Turkish invasions of Cyprus long before the destruction of Serbia and the genocide of middle eastern Christians. Patriarch Bartholomew should have aligned the Ecumenical Patriarchate with Russia. Instead, he is working to estrange the Greek Churches from the whole of Orthodoxy.
Patriarch Bartholomew came to the throne of the Church of Constantinople with the honorable aim of protecting the rights of the Church of Constantinople and the small Greek Orthodox minority that remain in Turkey. He should have spent his energies on that noble effort. Tragically, he became a partisan in Church matters and began a quest for grabbing complete and total authority over the Orthodox Church.
Tragic decisions have been made. It is not too late for the Patriarch to repent. Otherwise, he can and will be deposed.
Patriarch Bartholomew arrived in the United States and was soon hospitalized. We wish the Ecumenical Patriarch a speedy recovery. This blog has been critical of the Patriarch over Ukraine and other issues but the Christian way is to pray for even those who happen to be in the wrong.
Joe Biden’s doctor has offered his services to the Patriarch. This was very kind gesture. Politics aside, acts of compassion should always be acknowledged and recognized. Best wishes for the Patriarch’s recovery.
Celebrations are due to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the enthronement of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. Tragically, there is nothing for any Orthodox Christian to celebrate. On this anniversary, the Orthodox Church faces a schism that could very well become permanent and irreversible. The tenure of Patriarch Bartholomew that began promisingly will end in the total destruction of Orthodox unity, the destruction of the Greek speaking Churches and Mount Athos, and the destruction of the Church of Constantinople itself.
In March 1992, only a few months after becoming Patriarch, Bartholomew presides over a rare gathering of Orthodox primates in Constantinople. Only the Archbishop of Cyprus and the the Georgian Patriarch were absent. The Churches at the time agreed by consensus to terminate all discussions with the Vatican except on the matter of the Uniates (so called “Eastern Catholics”). This was the period when the Soviet Union collapsed and the opportunity to establish real Orthodox unity was at hand.
The primates that met in Constantinople did so under the Presidency of Patriarch Bartholomew in his capacity as “first among equals”. In 1993, Patriarch Bartholomew visited Russia where he was well received. What could have been?
By 1995, Patriarch Bartholomew alienated the Russian Church by establishing a parallel jurisdiction in Estonia. In 2003, Patriarch Bartholomew provoked a reaction from Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens when he began meddling inside the Church of Greece. These were the warning signs of what would come later in Ukraine.
Patriarch Bartholomew had his moments when he concelebrated the liturgy in the long abandoned monasteries and Churches of Trebizond and Cappadocia. He forgot that Russian Church hierarchs were with him when he celebrated the liturgy in those holy places. The Patriarchal reign of Patriarch Bartholomew is a disastrous failure.
In addition to the Ukrainian mess that the Phanar created, the Patriarchate has presided over the destruction of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. Everything is in ruins! Patriarch Bartholomew has also harmed the Monasteries of Athos and the Church of Greece by making them accomplices to the ecclesiastical crimes in Ukraine.
Patriarch Bartholomew has attempted to hide behind the Greek flag. Greek and non Greek Orthodox are all mistaken if they believe the Patriarch cares about Greece. The appearance of Archbishop Elpidophoros at the Turkish center alongside the ethnic cleansers who preside over the occupation of Cyprus demonstrates how much the Patriarchate cares about Greeks.
For the hierarchs serving Constantinople’s uncanonical expansionism, Greece and Cyprus are useful as weapons in their anti Russian campaign. Beyond that, the Ecumenical Patriarch and his exarch in America have no use for Greece or Cyprus. It is a tragedy that so many Greeks support Patriarch Bartholomew uncritically.
It should be remembered that Patriarch Kyril of Moscow and Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev (the real bishop of Ukraine) congratulated Greece on independence day last March. Guess who did not not? The Ecumenical Patriarch did not.
Patriarch Bartholomew’s primary purpose thirty years ago was to open the theological school of Halki. If he had stuck to fighting for the Patriarchate in Turkey, things might be well today in Orthodoxy. But the Patriarch became a partisan figure demanding complete power and authority over the other Churches.
The conversion of Hagia Sophia into a Mosque was a disaster. The bigger disaster was the downfall of the Church of Constantinople as a result of Patriarch Bartholomew’s anti canonical actions which have resulted in schism. The present situation was not inevitable.
There is only one way out for the Church of Constantinople. Repentance by withdrawing entirely from Ukraine and humbly asking forgiveness from the bishops of Russia, Ukraine, and the whole of Orthodoxy.
Greece, Cyprus, NATO, in the Context of Afghanistan
Αssociated Press
A Taliban soldier walks on the tarmac at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Sept. 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon)
9/21/2021
By Theodore G. Karakostas
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All people should be sympathetic to the plight of the refugees in Afghanistan. Orthodox Greeks should feel sympathy as the conquest of Kabul by the Taliban resembles in some ways the horror of the conquest of the liberated Christian city of Smyrna by the Turkish Kemalists in September 1922. The Turkish conquest in Smyrna was accompanied by the wholesale and indiscriminate slaughter of Greek and Armenian Christians in the city. The book The Great Fire that was written by historian Lou Ureneck a few years ago did a masterful job in documenting and describing the genocidal campaign by the Turks. In those days also there was widespread panic and fear that preceded the arrival of Kemal’s murderous armies.
With regard to the events that are still playing out in Afghanistan, American and European advocates of internationalism and interventionism are lamenting that perhaps NATO will lose credibility.
For Greeks, NATO does not have credibility for several reasons. It should be recalled that during the anti-Greek pogroms in Constantinople in September 1955, the Greek Orthodox community (along with Armenians and Jews) were terrorized in a campaign of violence and terror. Greek army officers who were serving with NATO in Smyrna were assaulted and beaten by Turkish hoodlums. Neither the NATO alliance collectively nor its individual members condemned the attack on the Greek community or on their Greek colleagues serving as members of NATO.
We are now supposed to be horrified by the prospect that NATO’s ‘credibility’ will diminish. In 1974, NATO member Turkey invaded the Republic of Cyprus which is not a member of NATO but was a nonaligned country during the Cold War. The Turkish army ethnically cleansed over 200,000 Greek Cypriots and committed war crimes including murders and rapes against Greek civilians. There are over five hundred and fifty Greek Orthodox churches and monasteries that have been destroyed by Turkey which has been actively Islamicizing the occupied territories.
In 1999, under the leadership of the Clinton administration, NATO engaged in an act of aggression against Christian Serbia. The Serbs were forced to withdraw from their ancestral homeland of Kosovo and instantly became the targets of violence, persecution, and pogroms. NATO has never intervened to stop the violence against Serbs and hundreds of Serbian Orthodox Monasteries and Churches were destroyed.
While the news media focuses on the crisis in Afghanistan (and one cannot help but have sympathy for the people who are at risk from the Taliban) it has ignored two other instances of horrific crimes against humanity. The western world has ignored the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated against the Armenians by the aggressor terror states of Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Azerbaijani forces have committed horrific war crimes against Armenians and this humanitarian crisis has been completely ignored by the powerful of NATO, Europe, America, and the world’s media.
The Kurds of Syria fought heroically on the American side against the genocidal Islamic State which was supported by Turkey. The Trump administration betrayed the Kurds in an act of appeasement and permitted Turkish forces to occupy Syrian territory.
This was another crisis featuring the fanatical jihadist regime of Turkey which was ignored by the powerful of the world.
There is more. The Germans have denounced the Biden administration. Now, it is certainly true that the Biden administration chose to withdraw from Afghanistan in a terrible way and created a crisis. The Germans however are the best example of the hypocrisy of NATO and the European Union. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has asked Germany to stop arming Turkey. The Germans have refused to do so.
Turkey has threatened war against Greece and claims several of the Greek islands. If Turkey were to invade and occupy any Greek islands, the result would be ethnic cleansing and genocide which are the polices of any and all Turkish conquests. The likelihood that Germany, Europe, or NATO will show any support for Greece or will condemn any Turkish atrocities against Greece are non-existent.
It is quite possible to have empathy as a Christian and as a human being for the suffering people of Afghanistan. It is also possible to simultaneously reject the propagandistic false image that NATO and the West are trying to present to the world.
Both NATO and the European Union have been disastrous for Greece and Cyprus. Even at this late date as Turkey has openly become a jihadist state aligning itself with ISIS and Al Qaeda, Ankara continues to enjoy uninterrupted support from America, NATO, and the European Union.
It is unclear what repercussions the crisis in Afghanistan will have for Greece and Cyprus. More migrants flooding into Greece is possible. The Syrian war which the Obama administration pursued flooded the Greek islands with Muslim refugees. Greece pays the price for the military adventures of the West even though Athens does not participate in them.
Commentators on cable television are warning of the ‘Russian threat’ in the midst of the Afghanistan crisis. This does not bode well for Greece or Cyprus. When the western world finds enemies either in the Middle East or Russia, it will look to Turkey for support. The abolition of NATO and the weakening of Europe may very well be to the best interests of Greece, Cyprus, and Armenia over the long term.
After fourteen years, the Sopranos are back. The long awaited prequel, “The Many Saints of Newark” finally arrived in theaters. It is not a bad film overall, but it is disappointing owing to the fact that the film did not live up to the expectation that we would see how young Tony Soprano was corrupted. What was expected was to see Tony make his bones (commit his first murder) the way we see Christopher make his bones in the pilot episode of the Sopranos.
Mafia films are fascinating largely because of how they show the ease in which people can be corrupted. Goodfellas did a great job depicting the corruption of young Henry Hill. The first two Godfather films brilliantly showed how once honest men such as Michael Corleone and Vito Corleone can go down the dark path. The Sopranos series also touched on the corruption of Christopher.
The main problem with the film is this is about the Moltisanti family and less about the Sopranos. Dicki Molisanit is the star of the film and he is a great character. His life choices foreshadow the choices that his son Christopher takes in his life. Both father and son murder their girlfriends (for different reasons) and both are murdered leaving behind a wife and baby.
The movie has its moments. The acting is great. Michael Gandolfini is great in the role his father played. But there is no real transformation. There is is no equivalent of Micheal Corleone the nice guy going bad. That is what this film is missing.
Too much time on the race riots. It is one thing to show the background of racial tensions, another to focus too much on them. “A Bronx Tale”, the 1993 mob classic featured the problem of racism but wisely kept it to a minimum. The Sopranos series occasionally featured flashbacks of Johnny Boy Soprano. He was a fascinating character and regrettably was not used very much in the film.
In episode three of the third season, young Tony walks in as as his father cuts off the finger of Mr. Satriale (the guy whose butcher shop Johnny Boy took over and we learned during the series committed suicide). There should have been more of Johnny Boy and more of Tony proceeding with his criminal career.
Tony being inducted into the Mafia would have been a great ending. In the end we learn that Dickie Moltisanti was murdered on the orders of Uncle Junior. This brings into question the information given to us in season four episode one that Dickie was murdered by a dirty cop on the orders of another wiseguy. It also raises the possibility that if Tony was in fact murdered in the series finale (as many fans believe) then perhaps he was murdered on the orders of Uncle Junior as Dickie Moltisanti was.
It is true that Uncle Junior was sick and no longer in good standing with the family during the last two seasons of the shows run, but might it not have been possible he still had friends and could have given one last order? In the film, Uncle Junior ordered the murder of Dickie Moltisanti because he felt disrespected.
In his stay in a nursing home, Uncle Junior was beaten by a younger resident. Humiliation would have been a strong motivation for Uncle Junior to have Tony hit.
