The Shepherd, December 2009
NEWS SECTION
PATRIARCH PAVLE OF SERBIA REPOSES
HIS BEATITUDE, Patriarch Pavle of Serbia reposed in the Lord on Sunday, 1st /14th November, in Belgrade’s Military Hospital where, for various ailments, he had been under treatment for two years. The faithful flocked to churches throughout the country when his death was announced, and the government ordered three days of national mourning. The Patriarch’s body lay in state in the capital’s Cathedral Church, and reports indicate that approximately half-a-million people lined the streets for his funeral procession. The Patriarch was born Gojko Stojcevic in 1914 in Kucanci, a village now in Croatia. In 1957, he became bishop in Kosovo, by then already home to an Albanian majority. He openly spoke of the hardships faced by the province’s minority Serbs, and on one occasion in the 1970s was attacked and beaten for his defence of his flock. He was staunchly opposed to the Pope’s visiting Serbia, and maintained a conservative, if not strictly traditionalist, position for the Serbian Church. He had the difficult task of leading his people from the period of Communist oppression, through the Milosevic years, the various civil wars and the bombardment of Serbia by NATO, into a period which appears to be headed, for better or worse, for liberal democracy. Perhaps his most valuable legacy was the example of his modesty and his ascetic manner of life. Even as Patriarch he would travel by public transport rather than being chauffer-driven; he mended his own clothes and shoes, and refused to be driven while other clergymen had to walk. May his rest be with the Saints and his Memory Eternal, and may the orphaned Serbian Orthodox Church be guided aright in the election of his successor.
POPE’S MESSAGE TO THE ORTHODOX
ON THE NEW CALENDAR FEAST of St Andrew, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI sent his customary message to His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomeos of Constantinople, the Œcumenical Patriarch, saying “the journey toward union with the Orthodox must continue despite those who are blocking the Holy Spirit by being ‘bound to the remembrance of historical differences.’” He noted how the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have been committed to “the path towards the re-establishment of full communion.” Yet in speaking of one of the main stumbling blocks to unity, his own position and the so-called Petrine claims, he re-affirmed the Roman Catholic understanding of the topic, saying that the Church sees the Petrine ministry as “a gift of the Lord to his Church.” It would seem in this respect, while denouncing Orthodox Traditionalists as “bound to the remembrance of historical differences,” he is falling into the same trap (as he sees it). The Zenit report then continues: “The Holy Father suggested that as the journey toward full communion continues, the Churches ‘should already offer common witness by working together in the service of humanity, especially in defending the dignity of the human person, in affirming fundamental ethical values, in promoting justice and peace, and in responding to the suffering that continues to afflict our world, particularly hunger, poverty, illiteracy, and the inequitable distribution of resources’ [Nothing about salvation here! - ed.].... The safeguarding of creation is another common task, he observed, and he assured his appreciation of the initiatives ‘supported and encouraged’ by the patriarch.”
DIALOGUES “IN TWO DIRECTIONS” IN MINSK
THE HEAD of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (Roman Catholic), Cardinal Walter Kasper visited Belarus in mid-November at the invitation of Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk (MP). He and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired Archbishop of Washington, participated in a conference on Christian-Jewish dialogue. Speaking of his accord with Metropolitan Filaret, he said, “We already became good friends as we are guided by the same objective: to work together in order to reach full communion of the Catholic and the Orthodox Church.” He described “three columns of ecumenism: dialogue with the Orthodox Church, dialogue with Protestant communities -- such as that with the Anglicans that has been recently furthered by the document on those wishing to enter the Catholic Church (!) -- and working with new movements in the Church.” [Source: ZENIT]
