"They are heretical ideas. Theologically, they must be seriously deconstructed to reveal their fascistic and authoritarian dimension," he insists.

Hovorun, a 48-year-old native of Ukraine, is an archimandrite in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP).

An important and much published theologian of Orthodox Christianity, he has held important leadership posts in the Moscow Patriarchate over the years.

He served from 2009-2012 as vice-president of the Teaching Council of the Russian Orthodox Church and is currently an associate dean for political ecclesiology at Sankt Ignatios Theological Academy in Sweden, as well as senior lecturer at the Stockholm School of Theology.

Two weeks after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Hovorun gave this exclusive interview to La Croix's Mikael Corre in which he explained the theological foundations underlying the Kremlin's act of war.

La Croix: In a recent interview, you called on the Orthodox Church to re-evaluate its theology, in particular to condemn "the quasi-religious idea that there is a Russian world."

Cyril Hovorun: A war must always be explained before it is launched. Before you need weapons, you need a narrative to convince your people of its validity, to get them to support it.

The idea of a "Russian world" is what underlies the attempted invasion of Ukraine, what gives it a conceptual framework.

In order to understand it well, it is necessary to recall that when Vladimir Putin came to power at the turn of the 2000s, Russia no longer had any ideology. The Kremlin was faced with the void left by the fall of the USSR and the abandonment of communism.

To fill this void, those in power then undertook the restoration of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is the Church that will give the State what it lacks: a goal, a mission, both historical and metaphysical.

And this mission is the defence of the "Russian world"?

That's right. This ideology served first of all to mobilise the Russians, to create the conditions in which they could live together.

It is a logic quite similar to that developed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in The Social Contract. Except that in the Russian situation, we are not just witnessing the emergence of a kind of civil religion that guarantees social cohesion and allows people to meet around common values.

No, in the Russian situation, the ideas are forged in the Patriarchate and mixed with Vladimir Putin's neo-imperialism, in a kind of blend. It is now used to define enemies and draw the outlines of a war against evil.

Do you think that the aggression against Ukraine has other goals than acquiring new territories, new resources, new access to the sea?

The Kremlin does not follow a simple logic of territorial expansion.

The war in Ukraine is of a different nature. It is being waged in the name of a special mission of religious unification, of protection of a kind of "holy land" against the West - against the Western countries considered heretical, bad and liars, because they are Catholic or Protestant.

It is, first of all, a logic of expansion of the "Orthodox civilisation", which is the other major idea that Orthodox theologians must deconstruct today.

Where does this idea of an "Orthodox civilisation" come from?

It comes from a thesis that fascinated the Moscow Patriarchate when I was working there from 2009-2012: The Clash of Civilisations by Samuel Huntington.

What fascinated the Patriarchate of Moscow was not only the notion of civilisation, but also that of a "clash" and conflict.

The "Orthodox civilisation" was immediately thought of in terms of confrontation with others.

And of expansion?

Absolutely. Talking about civilisation allows the Kremlin not to limit Russia to its borders.

In 2016, Vladimir Putin made a very explicit speech during a gala in Moscow. On stage, the Russian president asked a young boy, "Where do Russia's borders end?" "At the Bering Strait," the child replied. "No, Russia's borders have no end," countered Vladimir Putin.

This is an imperialist idea that was already found in the Roman Empire, in Augustus, for example, the successor to Julius Caesar. The empire has no limits...

Let us return to Ukraine. Why should it, in the mind of the Kremlin, necessarily be part of this "Russian world", of this "Orthodox civilisation"?

Because of history. Or rather a reinvented, mythical vision of history.

This is very clearly what came out of Vladimir Putin's speech on February 21. When Vladimir Putin talks about Ukraine, he does not talk about the actual country, the people who live there or their aspirations. He denies these realities.

Instead, he talks about the "idea of Ukraine", in the Platonic sense.

It's as if the feudal kingdom of Kyiv Rus', Christianised in the 10th century under the reign of Vladimir I, was still a relevant geopolitical reality today... It's as if its destiny was to recover Kyiv, seen as the "cradle of Russian Christianity."

As you describe it, this would be a religious war?

You have to understand that Vladimir Putin has a Hegelian relationship with history. For him, history is driven by ideas that justify his actions.

His speech on February 21 was nothing more than an imaginary frieze unrolled to speak of the "Russian world", of which he sees himself as the redeemer.

His relationship to history is also very messianic: the "Holy Rus'", which would embody the good, would be protected against the forces of evil, represented by the West...

It seems so Manichean, and caricatural... How can one believe it?

I'm not saying that Vladimir Putin, who is a cynic, believes it. But if you listen to the speeches, that's really what comes out.

In a sermon on March 6, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow explained, for example, that the war in Ukraine is made necessary by the "genocide" that would be perpetrated in the Donbass by Ukrainians against those who refuse Gay Pride.

This may seem to you a mind-blowing, absurd statement, but it is very coherent: it paints a good picture of this "clash of civilisations" of which we spoke.

On one side, there is Christian Russia. On the other side, there is the West, ontologically evil, which promotes homosexuals, perceived as the incarnation of evil, and which should be exterminated.

Today, there is an urgency in Orthodoxy to attack these discourses. From the moment the world was created by God, it is theologically impossible to argue that any part of this world is essentially evil.

And how can one defend the extermination of gay and lesbian people if one believes that we were created in God's own image?

The ideas of a "Russian world" and an "Orthodox civilisation" are based on bad theology. They are heretical ideas. Theologically, they must be seriously deconstructed to reveal their fascistic and authoritarian dimension.

What should this deconstruction process involve?

Through the same work of critical analysis of texts, of publication of books or articles, which took place in Catholicism and Protestantism after the Second World War.

Some theologians, for example, tried to demonstrate that Jesus was not a Jew, in order to go along with the anti-Semitic theses.

Catholic and Protestant theology had to be de-nazified, purged of these sick analyses.

Orthodox theology today must be de-Putinised, and more broadly rid of these fascist drifts.

In Romania, for example, the theses of an anti-Semitic and pro-fascist theologian like Nichifor Crainic (1889-1972) are enjoying a revival of popularity.

Our weakness today comes from a lot of work that has not been done, that of deconstructing theologies founded under authoritarian regimes in Greece, Serbia, Yugoslavia etc.

The idea of the "Russian world" is unfortunately not the only authoritarian theology of the beginning of the 21st century, but it is the worst.

In what way?

In theory, according to the Russian Constitution, the State and the Church are separate.

But, in fact, we can clearly see that the dream is to recreate a kind of "Byzantine symphony", practically a fusion between political and religious powers.

Rather, I should say to create it from scratch, because this symphony never fully existed in the Byzantine Empire.

This undertaking is dangerous, because it takes any prophetic dimension away from the Church, and makes it a slave of politics. But for some Russian Orthodox, this is a return to a golden age, to past greatness.

So they need a strong man like Putin, who plays the Basileus [i.e. the Byzantine emperor], to dream of an Orthodox empire that is itself strong.

• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

In an era when Kanye West runs gospel-inspired services, and megachurches, like Hillsong, release chart-topping hits, these ancient Christian traditions are, unexpectedly, having a moment.

And they're not just resonating with older generations, either.

Younger people are flocking to late-night Latin Mass — at least they were pre-COVID — and embracing Christian orthodoxy in online spaces.

So says Tara Isabella Burton, America-based author of the forthcoming book Strange Rites and a member of the self-proclaimed "Weird Christian" movement.

"The term is often applied to young, online Christians who embrace the elements of their faith that might be considered weird by the modern world," Burton explains.

Elements, she says, like the death and resurrection of Jesus.

"We don't have to explain away miracles or fit them into a modern scientific system, but actually embrace the strangeness of those ideas."

The allure of Weird Christianity goes beyond an espousal of the Bible. Burton says the otherworldly nature of religious rituals are also appealing to the young and disillusioned.

"There's a sense of enchantment that often comes with the pageantry," says Burton, who attends St Ignatius of Antioch in New York City, part of the Episcopalian or Anglo-Catholic tradition.

Burton says one of the factors uniting this community is their "punk"- like rejection of "contemporary secular capitalist culture" in favour of old-fashioned Christianity.

"[There's a] sense in which the choices we make are part of our personal brand," she says.

"Where we go to church, what newspapers we read, what we buy — all of these qualities together, make up this kind of identity through consumption.

"What it means to belong to a faith is never quite as crystal clear as what you believe in your heart, which itself may change from day to day."

'An element of drama'

While "Weird Christianity" may have a larger following in America, Australian places of worship are also attracting younger congregants through their history and "mystery".

Such is the case at Sydney's Christ Church St Laurence in Sydney's CBD.

Like St Ignatius, the church is part of the Anglo-Catholic or High Anglican strain of Christianity, which places a large emphasis on tradition.

The church's rector Daniel Dries says that while the congregation has an average age of 60, younger people are choosing to attend services that are rich with ancient rituals.

"It's not theatre, but there's certainly an element of drama," he says, pointing to the candles, incense and elaborate liturgical wear that feature in services.

"We sing music here that goes back to the Middle Ages — Gregorian chants — and renaissance choral music, so we rely on young people, who are very involved in those things."

Reverend Dries believes that Anglo-Catholicism has an "element of mystery about it" that can be missing from everyday life or other religious practices.

"Some of our young people come from a more evangelical tradition, which is sort of word-based and very long sermons or improvised prayers," he explains.

"I think for some people ... there sometimes comes a point where they can't deal with words anymore, and there's this genuine desire to enter into silence, mystery, music and ritual." Continue reading

• Tara Isabella Burton is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. Winner of the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for Travel Writing, she completed her doctorate in 19th century French literature and theology.

He then went further, expressing his desire for full communion between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Following a long-standing custom, the Holy See sent a delegation to Istanbul to celebrate the feast of Saint Andrew, the patron saint of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, on November 30th.

The delegation was led by Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

"It is with great spiritual joy and in profound communion of faith and charity that I join the prayer of the Church of Constantinople in celebrating the feast of its holy patron, the Apostle Andrew, the first-called and brother of the Apostle Peter," the pope said in his letter.

"I convey the assurance of the unwavering intention of the Catholic Church, as well as my own, to continue in our commitment to working towards the re-establishment of full communion among the Christians of the East and the West," Pope Francis said.

Francis noted it has been 40 years since the establishment of a Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

"The search for the re-establishment of full communion among Catholics and Orthodox is certainly not confined to theological dialogue, but is also accomplished through other channels of ecclesial life," the pope continued.

"Our relations are nourished above all through authentic gestures of mutual respect and esteem," he said. "Such actions show a shared fidelity to the word of our one Lord Jesus Christ, and the will to remain together in his love."

The pope pointed out that Catholics and Orthodox share a common Baptism, but that joint initiatives take it further.

"The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church," he said, "have already embarked upon this promising journey, as testified by our joint initiatives."

And he urged Catholics and Orthodox faithful to strengthen "the daily dialogue of love and life" by praying and working together in harmony.

Source

• CNA

We accept the same Nicene Creed, we recognize each other's priestly and episcopal ordinations, as well as the sacraments of baptism, confession and Eucharist.

Catholic and Orthodox teaching on morals are also quite compatible, with both being more conservative than their Protestant colleagues.

The touchy issue has always been the role of the papacy, but Pope John Paul II invited a worldwide dialogue on this topic, showing that the Vatican is open to a less intrusive role for the pope in the Eastern churches than in the West.

There were even attempts to resurrect the title of patriarch of the West for the bishop of Rome, in order to distinguish his robust role in the Western church from his role in the East.

Rome is very much interested in improved relations with the Orthodox. It is deferential to Orthodox feelings.

For example, the pope will not visit a country where a majority of the population is Orthodox without an invitation from the Orthodox church.

An invitation from the political leadership is not sufficient.

Rome has constantly reached out to the Orthodox churches, especially to the patriarchs of Constantinople and Moscow.

Relations with the patriarch of Constantinople have improved significantly since the Jerusalem meeting of Pope Paul VI with Patriarch Athenagoras in 1964 and lifting of mutual excommunications in 1965.

Popes and the ecumenical patriarch meet so frequently that it is now hardly newsworthy.

It took much longer for a pope to meet with the Russian patriarch, which finally occurred in Cuba last year.

The meeting between Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow was probably as much a reward to the pope for his opposition to President Barack Obama's threat to bomb Syria as it was a show of ecumenical progress. Continue reading

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter article by Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese, a senior analyst for NCR and author of Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church.
• Image: Catholic World Report

Fires occurred at the churches in New York, Melbourne, Sydney and in Russia during the Orthodox Easter last month.

Officials fear the fires may have been started in retaliation for Orthodox efforts to block the canonisation of Croatian Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac.

The cardinal supported parts of a puppet Nazi regime, the Ustashe, in Croatia in World War II.

The regime persecuted Serbs and Jews and also forced Orthodox Christians to convert to Catholicism.

In the 1990s, Vatican offices and Stepinac's defenders in Croatia produced evidence that the archbishop criticsed the excesses of the Ustashe as early as 1941, and that he personally intervened to save the lives of a number of Jews.

But his criticisms were seen as muted.

After the war, Stepinac spent five years in prison and the rest of his life under house arrest in the small village of Krasic, his birthplace. He died in 1960.

In 1998, Pope John Paul II beatified him.

Cardinal Stepanic's possible canonisation is a point of dispute between Croatia and Serbia, with leaders of both nations lobbying Pope Francis.

Serbian Othordox Patriarch Irinej wrote to Pope Francis and said: "We are afraid that there are too many open questions and wounds which Cardinal Stepinac symbolises."

"His canonisation, to our great regret, would return the relations between Serbs and Croats, as well as between Catholics and Orthodox faithful, back to their tragic history."

Dusan Batakovic, a former Serbian ambassador, told US media: "Too many churches have burned to call it an accident.

"It is very strange that it happened, that the fires all took place on Easter, the greatest Christian Orthodox holiday. Some kind of terrorist action cannot be excluded."

Authorities in Melbourne initially deemed the church fire there to be not suspicious, and the fire at an Orthodox cathedral in New York may have been caused by candles left burning at Easter.

The displaced Orthodox congregation in Sydney has received support from nearby Catholic and Uniting churches, which have offered their buildings for services.

Sources

• Daily Mail
• New York Post
• The Guardian
• Sydney Morning Herald
• New York Post
• Chicago Tribune
• Image: New York Post

Writing in Italy's L'Espresso, Aniello Iannuzzi (Catholic) and Paraskevi Tsironis (Orthodox) say it is impossible for them to receive communion together.

"With many families like our own, we cannot wait for unification," the couple, who are both physicians, noted.

Their article came after the meeting between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Cuba this month.

Speaking of the liturgies of their traditions, the Australian couple stated: "If liturgy were to be resolved in a boxing ring in 2016, the Orthodox would knock out the Catholics early in the first round."

"Until Vatican II, the two liturgical traditions could be compared with respect and seriousness," they wrote.

"The "Novus Ordo" has plunged the Catholic Church into liturgical chaos and confusion, to the point that some Protestant liturgies would give the Orthodox more comfort and security."

The couple continued: "The Orthodox would rightly point to the dilution and tendency towards banality in the modern Catholic liturgical texts.

"The Orthodox would frown upon the express Sunday liturgies that sometimes are over in 30 minutes.

"Other worries for the Orthodox include: secular music, Communion on the hand, Communion without fasting, priests facing the congregation, liturgical dancing, women at the altar and excessive use of the laity. "

The "filioque" clause in the Creed remains problematic, they noted.

The couple added that "Catholics do have a few weak counterpunches with respect to the liturgy".

- Some argue that congregations are too passive and disconnected in the Byzantine liturgies. The long liturgies see very few present for the beginning of the liturgy, with many arriving just before Holy Communion.

- Communion on a spoon is not a reflection of the Last Supper. Many arrive not long before Communion yet still receive the sacrament. Infants are force-fed Communion.

- The "antidoron" - the blessed bread distributed at the end of the rite - is a source of confusion and distracts from the Eucharist.

- The fasting rules are too complex and outdated.

- Not enough use is made of the vernacular.

Sources

• L'Espresso
• Image: Rochester Orthodox Church

This tradition persists in the Orthodox Churches where even today fasting is characterised by abstinence from all animal products.

But while abstaining from meat in the Roman tradition is mainly associated with the sacrifice of the Cross (the Friday penance), in the Orthodox tradition the fast is also a prefiguration of life in paradise, where ‘the wolf shall live with the lamb … and a little child shall lead them' (Isaiah 11:6).

In this way it becomes an act of reconciliation between humanity and the natural world, a restoration of a relationship which has suffered because of the sin of Adam and Eve.

I believe that the meaning of a Lenten fast can be deepened by reflecting on this ancient practice of meat abstinence in the light of reconciliation with creation.

Lent is a time to reflect on our habits, and to become free from habits that are harmful to ourselves and others in order to become healthier people, in body and in spirit.

However, Lent is not an end in itself. It prepares the Christian to become an Easter-person by instilling habits that make one free to live, by the grace of God, a life of charity and justice.

To fast to this effect, the physical fast of Lent must be accompanied by what Origen calls a ‘spiritual fasting', which is characterised by two dimensions: exercise in the virtue of temperance and the avoidance of sin. Continue reading.

Source: Thinking Faith

Image: vegetables.co.nz

The Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Hassoun Badreddin — the spiritual leader of Sunni Islam, said the bishops are now being held in Turkey, according to a Russian news agency.

He said that the abduction of the two prelates — Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Paul Yazigi, both of Aleppo — was staged by Chechen militants and their Turkish confederates.

Previous reports of the kidnapping said the bishops were taken by Syrian rebels.

According to the Grand Mufti, the kidnapping may be linked to Ankara's request to transfer the seat of the Greek Orthodox patriarchate of Antioch from Syria to Turkey.

A similar report came from a Middle East news agency, which claimed that Turkish intelligence services had seen the bishops alive where they are being held, near the town of Azaz, close to the Turkish border.

A Lebanese televison station reported the head of Lebanon's secret services, General Abbas Ibrahim, as saying negotiations are under way for the release of the bishops.

A Vatican Insider report said this statement was probably in response to widespread discontent among Lebanese Christians, who had hoped to see the two prelates included in an agreement which led to the release of nine Shiite pilgrims who disappeared in Syria in May 2012.

General Ibrahim negotiated an exchange of prisoners with Qatar's foreign affairs minister. The agreement ensured the release of two Turkish pilots who were abducted by Shiite militia in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis has met the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Youhanna X Yazigi, who is the brother of the missing Bishop Yazigi.

Youhanna X Yazigi is leader of all Greek Orthodox communities in the Middle East.

Sources:

AsiaNews

Vatican Insider

Vatican Insider

Image: Sat 7 Christian Satellite Television

They highlighted the threat to conscience posed by the mandate requiring almost all employers to cover contraception, sterilisation and abortifacient drugs and devices in their health insurance plans.

The 100-plus leaders included representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Orthodox Christian and Jewish leaders

Continue reading

Catholic World Report had the recent privilege of asking Archimandrite Robert Taft, SJ for his perspective on current Orthodox-Catholic relations. Father Taft has been the leading scholar in Byzantine liturgical studies for decades. Taft has devoted his life to preserving the liturgical treasury of the East and building bridges between Orthodox and Catholic Christians. As a young Jesuit, Taft first became interested in the liturgical traditions of the Christian East while teaching at the Baghdad Jesuit College in Iraq (1956-1959).

In 1963, Taft was ordained a Catholic priest of the Byzantine Slavonic (Russian) Rite. He is Professor-emeritus of Oriental Liturgy at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome, where he received his doctorate in 1970 and remained to teach for 38 years. The Oriental Institute is the most prestigious institute in the world for Eastern Christian studies.

A prolific writer, his bibliography comprises more than 800 articles and 26 books, including A History of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (vols. II-VI), Orientalia Christiana Analecta, Rome, 1978-2013. Several of his writings have been translated into other languages.

Taft is the personal friend of many prominent Orthodox scholars, living and deceased, like Father Alexander Schmemann and Father John Meyendorff. He has many friends in and ties to the Russian Orthodox community, where he is admired and respected. For example, he directed the doctoral studies for both of St. Vladimir Seminary's liturgical professors: Paul Meyendorff and Father Alexander Rentel. Continue reading

Sources

• The Catholic World Report
• Image: Orthodoxy Today

Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, one of the four leaders of Eastern Catholic Churches who will be taking part in the conclave to elect the new pope, said the aim would be "to promote unity among Christians and deal with the problems and suffering that we share in this difficult moment in history".

He said the patriarchs will form an important network of ecumenical leaders, as a support system for the embattled Christians of the region.

Continue reading

For pastoral and ecumenical reasons, the Latin Patriarchate of the Holy Land has decided from this year onwards to follow the Orthodox liturgical schedule.

The change will come as a relief for many mixed families, whose Catholic and Orthodox members up till now have had to celebrate Easter on different dates.

It will also help overcome the impression of division among Christians. A Palestinian man, Ghassan Rafidi, the son of a Catholic mother and a Greek Orthodox father, says: "The Muslims always ask us how many Jesuses do we have."

"The main reason for the unification of the Easter celebration is for members of the same family, village and parish to be able to have one celebration, and one calendar, and to show the unity and enjoy the unity. We want to give a good example of unity to our non-Christian neighbours," said the Latin Patriarchate chancellor, Auxiliary Bishop William Shomali.

Bishop Shomali said although the Catholics did not ask the Greek Orthodox Church to celebrate Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar, he expects they will do so to unite Christians for that feast.

The change will apply throughout Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Cyprus.

Exceptions will apply for Jerusalem (where Christ's Resurrection occurred), Bethlehem and Tel Aviv, where Easter Sunday this year will fall on March 31 — the same date as for the rest of the Catholic world.

The dating of Easter was fixed following the Council of Nicea in AD 325. It was to be celebrated on the first Sunday following the full moon after the northern hemisphere's vernal equinox (which is reckoned to be March 21).

The reason for the difference between Catholic and Orthodox dates goes back to 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar to correct a miscalculation in the rotation of the earth.

The Orthodox continued to use the Julian calendar, which dates back to Julius Caesar.

Sources:

Catholic News Service

Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

Image: Travelujah