Letter #20, 2017: After Fatima, #2

Acasă > Ştiri > Arhiva Ştiri

Timp stanga: 0.03s...

Ştiri şi Evenimente

Letter #20, 2017: After Fatima, #2

[2017-05-16]

[Engleză]

May 15, 2017, Monday

"What united Orthodox and Catholics in those years was far more important than that which divided them, for they were united by love of Christ.”— Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, "Foreign Minister" of the Russian Orthodox Church, in his address on May 11 to the "World Summit of Christian Leaders in Defense of Persecuted Christians" (link), a Christian religious conference sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, founded by the famous American evangelist and preacher Billy Graham and now led by his son, Franklin Graham. As reported earlier today, on the margins of the conference, on May 11, Hilarion met with US Vice President Mike Pence (link)

Earlier today I sent a letter reporting on the meeting on May 11 between Metropolitan Hilarion of Russia and Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States, in Washington, D.C. on May 11.

Here I send the text of the address Metropolitan Hilarion gave to the assembled delegates: 800 men and women from more than 135 countries who gathered at the "World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians" in Washington D.C. from May 10 to 13, 2017.

I note only that Hilarion refers toward the end of his talk to a conference of Catholic and Orthodox bishops in Paris in January, in the following terms: "The Russian Orthodox Church played an active part in preparing and holding the V European Orthodox-Catholic Forum, which took place in Paris from 9th to 12th January 2017. The main topic of the forum was resistance to the terrorist threat." This Forum was supported by a grant by our Foundation, the Urbi et Orbi Foundation. The Foundation needs and deserves further support so that it may continue to do work of this kind.

=====================

https://mospat.ru/en/2017/05/12/news145803/

PRESENTATION BY THE DECR CHAIRMAN METROPOLITAN HILARION OF VOLOKOLAMSK AT THE WORLD SUMMIT IN DEFENSE OF PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS

(Note: DECR means "Department of External Church Relations," meaning Hilarion is in charge of relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and other Churches)

By Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

Your Holinesses, Beatitudes, Eminences, Excellencies and Graces,

esteemed fathers, brothers and sisters,

On behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church, I would like to greet you all at the session of the World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians.

First of all, I would like to thank the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for organizing such a large-scale forum that has set itself the task of bringing the world community’s attention to the terrible tragedy of the persecution of Christians throughout the modern world.

The two-thousand year history of the persecution of Christians

The persecution of Christians is not something new to us. “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake,” our Lord Jesus Christ said (Mt 5:11).

The leitmotif of persecution runs through all of his preaching and through all of his exhortations to the apostles.

Let us recall what he said to the Twelve Apostles after he had chosen them and sent them out to preach: “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; And you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles … And the brother will deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children will rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all men for my name’s sake: but he that endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 10:16-22).

In addressing these words to his disciples, the Saviour emphasizes that the Christian mission bears within its origin the nature of conflict, and that this mission will be accomplished in spite of the established laws in both the Jewish and Gentile worlds, that it will evoke irritation, non-acceptance and aggression, and that it will be the cause of family division.

Jesus acts not at all in the way in that a conventional Jewish rabbi of his time would act, who most likely would have promised his disciples various good things, would have predicted success and would have taught them how to achieve it.

Jesus says nothing at all like this. He does not promise to his disciples either success, or happiness in their personal lives, or material well-being, or peace of mind. He does not promise them either recognition by the Jews, or by the Gentiles, or even by their closest family members.

The scarlet thread of the subject of persecution runs through the apostles’ letters.

St. Peter says: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if any man suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf” (1 Pet 4:12-16).

It is important to note that Peter, when speaking of persecution, uses the word “Christian,” which is encountered throughout the whole body of the New Testament only twice (Acts 11:26 and Acts 26:28).

Not all persecution is for salvation, the apostle emphasizes, but only that which is “for the name of Christ,” and not everyone who is reproached is blessed, but only he who is reproached as a Christian.

As “strangers and pilgrims” (1 Pet 2:11), Christians find themselves to be in inward opposition to this world and its vices, in spite of the fact that they are loyal to the civil authorities on all levels, from the emperor down to governors (1 Pet 2:14-17).

We cannot but recall the words, too, of the apostle Paul. His words from the Epistle to the Romans today resound as an exhortation and support to all suffering Christians: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:35-39).

The great apostle, who himself underwent a severe school of persecution and privations, in these words calls the Christians of Rome to love and uncompromising fidelity to Christ, making it clear what for they must endure tribulation, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, peril and the sword: not for a future reward in heaven, but from love of Christ. It is love which is to be the impelling force which helps them overcome all trials.

The Church was universally persecuted throughout the first three centuries of her existence.

In the fourth century, a period of prosperity came along for Christians in the Roman empire, but in the Persian empire the persecution of Christians continued right up until the sixth century.

Throughout the following centuries Christians were subjected to a great variety of persecution from the Arabs, Turks, Mongols and various representatives of other peoples who were adherents of Islam.

There has almost never been in the history of Christianity a century when they were not persecuted – if not in one region of the world, then in another.

The twentieth century has highlighted with particular poignancy the price Christians have had to pay for their faith. Numerous revolutions shook many countries of Europe, Asia and Latin America, provoking a powerful wave of violence against Christians.

In Turkey, the mass destruction of Armenians, Assyrians and other Christian peoples heralded the beginning of the twentieth century. The government of the Young Turks that had come to power initiated a genocide against the Christian population of the Ottoman empire, which continued after its fall. More than a million people were affected by the brutal executions, massacres and mass deportations.

This year Russia and other countries of the “post-Soviet expanse” recall the hundredth anniversary of the 1917 Revolution, which opened an era of cruel persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the persons of Lenin and Stalin, the authorities initiated repression unprecedented on its scale against their own people.

Tens of millions were its victims.

The Church was subjected to almost total destruction: bishops and priests were shot without trial or due process, churches were blown up, monasteries and theological schools were closed. Tens of thousands of Christians became martyrs and confessors in glorifying Christ by their deaths. The Church gave to the world a great multitude of saints who, as the apostle says, “were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment” (Heb 11:35-36).

“In our troubled times the Lord has revealed a host of new sufferers,” wrote St. Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow in 1918. “If the Lord sends us the trials of persecution, bonds, torments and even death, then we will endure all of this with patience, believing that nothing happens to us if it is not the will of God and that our spiritual exploit will not remain without fruit in the same way as the sufferings of the Christian martyrs conquered the world for Christ’s teaching.”

The feat of the martyrs is the common legacy of Christians of all denominations. In the years of persecution directed against the Church, both Orthodox and Catholics and Protestants were all subjected to persecution in the USSR.

It was not unusual for representatives of various denominations to find themselves in the same prison cell.

At that time the inter-confessional barriers disappeared, the inter-religious boundaries ceased to exist.

What united Orthodox and Catholics in those years was far more important than that which divided them, for they were united by love of Christ.

In the twentieth century, the new martyrs and confessors of the Church of Russia were condemned to death not for any particular personal qualities or acts, not for any particular misjudged actions or transgressions: they were deliberately and systematically annihilated solely because they believed in Jesus Christ as God and Saviour.

Christian churches were blown up for no other reason than they were Christian.

Icons were burnt on bonfires because the face of Christ was depicted on them.

In National Socialist Germany and the Second Spanish Republic in the 1930s, Christians of all denominations were subjected to persecution on a varying scale.

The persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico in the 1920s was particularly brutal and bloody: had it not been for Graham Greene’s novel The Power and the Glory, few people would have known about it. In the mid-twentieth century the Cultural Revolution in China was accompanied by the mass repression of Christian clergy.

The sad list of countries where Christians were subjected to persecution throughout the twentieth century could go on almost indefinitely.

Persecuted Christians once more discovered for themselves the power and relevance of the words Jesus once addressed to his disciples and through them to all subsequent generations of his followers for all time: that they will be persecuted, killed and tortured for his name. The destiny of millions of Christians in the twentieth century replicated the situation in which the Christian community found itself in the first three centuries of its existence. Once more each Christian was confronted by the choice between fidelity to Christ and renouncing his faith, compromising his conscience or serving mammon.

The persecution of Christians in the twenty-first century

The twenty-first century ushered in a new vast wave of persecution of Christians in various regions of the world.

Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com

Contor Accesări: 781, Ultimul acces: 2026-10-24 22:56:28

Timp total: 0.06s...

[]:1