Tag: Eastern Christianity

Milan Lach appointed to Parma Eparchy

Today, the Holy Father appointed Bishop Milan Lach, SJ, as Apostolic Administrator for the Eparchy of Parma (OH). He is currently auxiliary bishop of Prešov of the Byzantines, Slovakia.
 
Bishop Milan Lach, S.J. 44, was educated at the Greek Catholic Theological Faculty of Prešov and then in 1995 he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Trnava. As a Jesuit scholastic he earned a degree in theology which led to his being ordained priest in 2001 in Košice.
 
From 2001 to 2003 Lach studied at the Center of Spirituality East-West of Michal Lacko in Košice and later (2009-2011) he was Superior of the same center; he also studied at Rome’s Pontifical Oriental Institute. Among the other ministries he engaged he was the spiritual father at the Pontifical Collegium Russicum and also as spiritual assistant of the Federation of Scouts of Europe in Rome.
On 19 April 2013, Pope Francis appointed Lach as auxiliary bishop of the archieparchy of Prešov of the Byzantines, Slovakia. Since 2016 he has been visitor of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches of the Seminaries and Oriental Colleges in Rome.
The Eparchy of Parma has been vacant since Bishop John Kudrick resigned in 2016. The Eparchy cover 12 US states.
Bishop Milan said,
“It’s interesting that my grandfather on my mother’s side, John Zavacky, was born near Chicago, on the territory of the present-day Parma Eparchy, and at age 4 returned with his parents and siblings back to Osturnja in Austria-Hungary, today in Kežmarok district. And so you see, history repeats itself. Just as my great-grandfather went off to the U.S. to find work more than 100 years ago, so will I go there now, so with God’s help I can guide these faithful and be a father to them.”
May Our Lady and St Ignatius of Loyola, pray for Bishop Milan, and us.

Byzantine New Year 7525

Lord Maker of the UniverseHappy New Year!

September 1st is the Byzantine New Year 7525. Western Christians begin their new liturgical year on the First Sunday of Advent. The Greek Church, today.

Historically, “the First Ecumenical Council established that the Church’s year would begin on September 1st, continuing the practice of the Roman Empire at that time. For centuries, the beginning of the civil year coincided with the Church year, but later changed, first in western Europe, then in Russia in the time of Peter the Great.”

IN the Divine Liturgy we sing the following trope:

O Lord, Maker of the Universe, who alone has power over the seasons and times, bless this year with your bounty. Preserve our country in safety. Keep your people in peace. Through the prayers of the Mother of God, save us. (from the Troparion)

Good Friday for the Orthodox Christians

Cathedral of Monreale, Sicily, Italy. 12th-13th cenToday our Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters are observing their Paschal Triduum according to the Julian calendar. The beauty of our Church is the ability to allow different and venerable traditions to co-exist.

We can do nothing apart from the Paschal Mystery of Christ. Hence, it is key to keep in mind that the Cross and Resurrection is central to our Hope in communion with God. In this Mystery we come to know the transformative nature of Love. Regrettably, too many Catholics and dare I say, Orthodox, have forgotten the centrality of the Mystery.

Let us pray for our Orthodox brethren during these days.

“Today he who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon a Tree,
He who is King of the Angels is arrayed in a crown of thorns.
He who wraps the heaven in clouds is wrapped in mocking purple.
He who freed Adam in the Jordan receives a blow on the face.
The Bridegroom of the Church is transfixed with nails.
The Son of the Virgin is pierced by a lance,.
We worship your Sufferings, O Christ,
We worship your Sufferings, O Christ,
We worship your Sufferings, O Christ,
Show us also your glorious Resurrection.”
~Antiphon XV, Holy Friday Matins

New Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Gewargis III

This is old news for some, but it bears sharing here because it opens up the valued question of communio. The Assyrian Church of the East, of the ancient Christian churches, has good news in their attempt to revision their ministry in the 21st century. Christine Chaillot wrote the following piece trying to explain the complexities of this particular church. Let us pray for the Christians in Iraq, Catholic and Orthodox as they make their way in the face of the Islamist regime. The communion of churches and how we witness to Christ in the error of war and ideology is going to make or break Christianity.

Church of the East Patriarchal electionOn September 22, 2015, the journalist, John Burger [a New Haven, CT resident], entitled his article : «As Refugees Stream. Out of Middle East, One Exiled Church May Be Headed Back. Assyrian Church of the East elects a new leader, and they may be already building his home in war-weary Iraq.

The return of the Church of the East to Erbil to elect the new Catholicos-Patriarch is highly significant. In 1933 Mar Shimun XXIII Eshaia, the Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East was obliged to leave Iraq and went into exile in the USA where the see was established in Chicago. When his successor, Mar Dinkha IV, passed away on March 26 2015 after an incumbency of almost forty years, elections were organised and the Holy Synod chose Mar Gewargis III who was enthroned at St. John’s Cathedral in Erbil on Sunday, Sept. 27 2015.  He had previously been Metropolitan of Iraq, Jordan and Russia. Born in Habbaniyah, Iraq and educated at the University of Baghdad, prior to his ordination as a deacon in 1980, Mar Giwargis taught English in several Iraqi schools. In 1981, he was elevated to Metropolitan of  Baghdad and all Iraq. His long experience of life and politics in Iraq, with its accompanying political upheaval and displacement will be invaluable in steering the Church of the East.

The consecration of Catholicos-Patriarch Gewargis III was attended by an international array of bishops from the Church of the East, who travelled from the USA, Canada, Australia, Iran, Syria and Sweden (where the bishop is responsible for all Europe) and of course India where the Church of the East was the first Christian presence since the beginning of Christianity, in Kerala (south west India). Also present were representatives of several Churches from Iraq  (among them the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Mar Louis Sako and bishops, the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Ephrem and bishops) and from abroad, including from the Vatican and from the World Council of Churches. Political personalities were also present, including a Chinese delegate, recalling the remarkable misssionary activity that the Church of the East conducted for almost a millennium across Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia reaching Mongolia and China. Today, the Church of the East has a new internationalism, but is firmly rooted in Mesopotamia.

Christianity has been present in Iraq since apostolic times; its founders were St Thomas of the Twelve Disciples and Ss. Addai (Thaddaeus) and Mari of the Seventy Apostles. The first location of the see of the Church of the East was in Seleucia-Ctesiphon, then the Persian capital, near present Baghdad. In the 9th century the patriarchate moved to Baghdad and then through various cities in what is now northern Iraq and also northwest Iran. In September 2015 the see was transfered from Chicago to Erbil, the present capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) administered region of northern Iraq, a move that returned to historic roots since Erbil, the capital of the kingdom of Adiabene, was a very early bishopric in the first centuries of the Christian era. Currently, a new patriarchal building (on a grand avenue and opposite a large, new mosque) is being built in Erbil, on land donated by the KRG authorities. At the time of the consecration of Mar Gewargis III, the construction had not yet been completed, but the extensive grounds should also accommodate auxiliary buildings, including a seminary and a print-shop.

As well as physical growth, there have been attempts to heal the schism between the Assyrian Church of the East and the Ancient Church of the East that erupted in the mid 1960’s. The patriarch of the Ancient Church of the East, Mar Addai, has resided in Bagdad since 1964. Talks prior to the patriarchal election aimed at reconciliation. Although the reunification of the two factions has not yet been realised, further negotiation to this end will continue in the future. The patriarchal election heralds a new era for the Church of the East and all Christians in Iraq and the Middle East. As hundreds of thousands of people stream from war-torn areas of the Near East and Africa into Europe and elsewhere —and Christian leaders are desperately trying to keep their flocks in their ancestral homelands— the return of the Church of the East to  the KRG admininistered region of northern Iraq in order to have the see ‘back home’ and for the Catholicos-Patriarch to be close to his faithful and encourage them to stay in their traditional homeland is heroic and very Christian. The return of the Catholicos-Patriarch within their midst is celebrated with great joy by all the faithful of the Church of the East in Iraq and also by the diaspora communities.

Christianity without persecution? Armenian people were persecuted

Pope and Gregory XXThis morning in Rome the Holy Father offered Holy Mass with the recently-elected Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians, His Beatitude Gregory Peter XX Ghabroyan, as well as with the Bishops of Synod of the Apostolic Armenian Catholic Church and Cardinal Leonardo Sandri (Prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches).

The new Patriarch has taken up the spiritual leadership in a time of Christian persecution and I am sure he’s not going to refrain from speaking out against the injustices and spilling of Christian blood. We need his voice, and that of all the Christian leaders to raise our awareness of these crimes.

In recent months more and more attention has been given by the Pope to the tragic events of the early 20th century that killed many of the Armenians and denied by members of the Turkish government. “Perhaps more than in the early days,” said Pope Francis, [Christians] are persecuted, killed, driven out, despoiled, only because they are Christians”:

“Dear brothers and sisters, there is no Christianity without persecution. Remember the last of the Beatitudes: when they bring you into the synagogues, and persecute you, revile you, this is the fate of a Christian. Today too, this happens before the whole world, with the complicit silence of many powerful leaders who could stop it. We are facing this Christian fate: go on the same path of Jesus. One of many great persecutions: that of the Armenian people”:

“The first nation to convert to Christianity: the first. They were persecuted just for being Christians,” he said. “The Armenian people were persecuted, chased away from their homeland, helpless, in the desert.” This story – he observed – began with Jesus: what people did, “to Jesus, has during the course of history been done to His body, which is the Church.”

Armenian Genocide memorial“Today, I would like, on this day of our first Eucharist, as brother Bishops, dear brother Bishops and Patriarch and all of you Armenian faithful and priests, to embrace you and remember this persecution that you have suffered, and to remember your holy ones, your many saints who died of hunger, in the cold, under torture, [cast] into the wilderness only for being Christians.”

The persecution of Christians happens in a profound way today. “We now, in the newspapers, hear the horror of what some terrorist groups do, who slit the throats of people just because [their victims] are Christians. We think of the Egyptian martyrs, recently, on the Libyan coast, who were slaughtered while pronouncing the name of Jesus.”

The Pope’s prayer was that the Lord might, “give us a full understanding, to know the Mystery of God who is in Christ,” and who, “carries the Cross, the Cross of persecution, the Cross of hatred, the Cross of that, which comes from the anger,” of persecutors – an anger that is stirred up by “the Father of Evil”:

“May the Lord, today, make us feel within the body of the Church, the love for our martyrs and also our vocation to martyrdom. We do not know what will happen here: we do not know. Only Let the Lord give us the grace, should this persecution happen here one day, of the courage and the witness that all Christian martyrs have shown, and especially the Christians of the Armenian people.”

Gregory of Narek’s brief narrative

NarekYou may recall that Pope Francis, in February 2015, declared as a Doctor of the Church the sainted Armenian monk and poet, Gregory of Narek (950-c. 1005). He is only one of 36 by the Roman Church.

Many wondered about the person of Gregory and his importance in the Church today. Being declared a Doctor of the Church is one of the most singular distinctions that the Supreme Pontiff could give to one of the saints, but way this monk and poet of the Armenian Church, and why now? Why is this gesture of Pope Francis a key event?

In Michael LaCivita’s article, “Cries from the Heart: Armenia’s Poet of the Soul” gives a fine introduction to this Doctor of the Church.

Saint Sharbel Makhlouf

Today is the feast of Saint Sharbel Makhlouf, the great Lebanese Saint (1828-1898). He is the first Lebanese Ssaint to be canonized formally by the Church of Rome. Most of Sharable’s life was marked chaos in the world, in particular with the Ottoman empire. The war destroyed 40 Lebanese villages and killed over 22,000 Maronites in Lebanon and Cyprus.

The monastic life of Sharbel was that of being a hermit: a life of penance, prayer and supplication before the Lord. His reputation spoke of him as a Miracle Worker of the East. He is an apostle of peace.

A New Doctor of the Church: Saint Gregory of Narek

stgregoryThe Catholic Church has a new Doctor –an Armenian saint —Saint Gregory of Narek.

“St. Gregory of Narek is widely revered as one of the greatest figures of medieval Armenian religious thought and literature. Born in the city of Narek in about 950 A.D., St. Gregory came from a line of scholars and churchmen.”

Saint Gregory of Narek’s feast day in the Armenian Church is October 13.

On the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the Baptism of the Armenian people (2001) Saint John Paul said of Saint Gregory: “Among these illustrious figures, I would like to recall here Gregory of Narek, who probed the dark depths of human desperation and glimpsed the blazing light of grace that shines even there for believers.”

You will note that Saint Gregory, a monk in the Armenian Church, lived at a time when his Church was not formally in communion with Rome and Constantinople. Christian history can be complex to understand.

The Vatican Radio report is here.

The title of “Doctor of the Church” is bestowed on a saint because of his or her contribution to theology or doctrine. There are now 36 Doctors of the Church recognized by the Catholic Church, 4 of whom are women. The Eastern Churches may have a different list for their “Doctors of the Church.”