The Shepherd, September 2004
NEWS SECTION, 2
HINDU RITES AT FATIMA
APPROXIMATELY 60 HINDUS from Lisbon visited the Roman Catholic Shrine at Fatima on 5th May this year. With official authorisation from the RC authorities, they entered the place of the apparition, and performed rites there. A Hindu priest recited a prayer at the altar, and they presented flowers to the statue of the Virgin. The bishop of Leiria-Fatima and the shrine rector, Mgr Guerra, were decked with wreaths of flowers by the Hindu worshippers, and presented with shawls covered with verses from the Bhagavad Gita. Our readers will know that Traditionalist Orthodox Christians are extremely sceptical of the veracity of the visions at Fatima and do not accept them as true. Nonetheless it is a sorry thing to see RC churchmen allowing such ceremonies in what they believe to be a Marian shrine, and indeed participating in those ceremonies.
POPE RETURNS ICON TO RUSSIA
AN ICON reputed to be one of the original copies of the Wonder-working Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, which was brought to the West almost a century ago, and acquired by the Vatican for nearly £600K is being sent back to Russia by His Holiness Pope John Paul II. When, for the last time the icon was displayed for veneration at St Peter’s, the Pope expressed the wish that its return would speak to Patriarch Aleksii II of Moscow and to the Orthodox Church of “the Pope’s affection for them.” He said:“May it speak to him of the desire and firm will of the Pope of Rome to progress together with them on the path of mutual understanding and reconciliation, to speed the day of full unity of the faithful, for which the Lord Jesus ardently prayed.” Orthodox would of course disagree with the papal interpretation of the Lord’s High-Priestly Prayer, but further than that with events such as the syncretistic joining in pagan rites by ranking RC clergy, as reported above, one wonders what reconciliation there can ever be.
SERBIAN HIERARCH SENTENCED TO PRISON
HIS GRACE, Bishop Jovan of Ochrid, has been sentenced by a court in Bitolje to eighteen months imprisonment, convicted, according to the media agencies in Macedonia, of “inciting ethnic and religious hatred, discord and intolerance.” In fact, Bishop Jovan is a hierarch of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate and his being in Macedonia is to pastorally care for those Orthodox Christians there who wished to be joined to the canonical hierarchy of the Serbian Church, having been wrested from it during the regime of Tito, when the Macedonians formed their own separatist ethnic state Church, which has so far been recognised by no other Orthodox Church.
GEORGIAN HERITAGE IN THE HOLY LAND THREATENED
THE ANCIENT MONASTERY of the the Cross in Jerusalem, was until the nineteenth century a Georgian Orthodox community, but was then taken over by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. The monastery was adorned by ancient frescoes which are a prized part of the Georgian national heritage. Some of the most important of these were removed and sold on the international antiquities market soon after the creation of the State of Israel. Others, as visitors to the monastery can observe, have had their Georgian inscriptions removed and replaced by Greek ones. With Georgia now enjoying independence some of the stolen works have been traced and are being recovered by wealthy Georgians. Unwilling to return them to the Monastery of the Cross, they are at least donating them to cathedrals in Georgia. Last month, the President of Georgia visited Israel, and his visit is reported as having caused tensions between the Greek and Georgian Orthodox. The Greeks are suspicious that the Georgians may want to reclaim their former holdings in the Holy Land, and apparently a fresco depicting Georgia’s national poet, Shota Rustaveli, was defaced immediately before the presidential visit. The Greek Patriarchate denied any responsibility for this act of vandalism, but transferred a sum for the portrait’s restoration to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). The fresco was hastily and unprofessionally restored, but without the knowledge of the IAA. Professor Tamila Mgaloblishvilli, head of the Georgian heritage centre in the diaspora, wept when see saw the damaged portrait. She said that they had wanted to return frescoes now in Georgia to the Monastery of the Cross, but now did not feel sure they would be properly protected there.
|
