Remembering Their Deeds and Thanking Them Before They're Gone

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Freedom In Ukraine: Good Bye USSR

Clicking on the link “Read more” below will bring up the full texts of two interesting articles contrasting freedom of conscience and worship in Ukraine vs. elsewhere in the former Soviet Union.
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     As Freedoms Roll Back in the Ex-Soviet World, Ukraine Becomes an Island of Freedom
By Maria Danilova
AP—09 May 2008
     Kyiv, Ukraine—A gloomy Vladimir Putin wears a Czarist crown, clutching a bag full of dollars and a miniature television tower.
     Filipp Pishchik says this and similar cartoons, depicting the former president as a corrupt leader who stifles free speech, got him in trouble with authorities and forced him to leave Moscow last year for neighboring Ukraine.
     "Ukraine is just great," said the 37-year-old designer and architect. "Here there is hope."
     Since the 2004 Orange Revolution ushered in a vigorous, sometimes chaotic democracy, Ukraine has become an island of freedom and tolerance in an ex-Soviet bloc still dominated by authoritarian regimes, and journalists, political activists, artists, and business professionals have flocked here.
     In Soviet times, a dissident wanting to live free had only the West to look to. Getting there was hard, the culture alien, the language foreign. Ukraine, however, is an easy visa-free destination for most, Russian is spoken and speech is free.
     Rights groups complain that Ukraine is stingy with granting asylum, which guarantees the applicant’s right to stay and work indefinitely. But still, the influx vividly illustrates how far the country’s path has diverged from that of Russia, which by the time of the Orange Revolution had already begun rolling back democratic reform.
     The number of foreigners registered as living in this country of 46 million doubled to nearly 200,000 from 2003 to 2006, according to United Nations statistics; that does not include the unregistered. The number applying for political asylum rose from 1,800 in 2005 to 2,300 last year.
     Pishchik said he moved here after architecture magazines stopped publishing his work, longtime clients left him hinting they were forced to do so by authorities and he got threats from security officials. The reason, he says, was the cartoons he displayed in galleries and on Web sites.
     Today, he lives in a spacious Kyiv house loaded with exciting new projects and is married to a Ukrainian artist.
     "I tell all my friends that they all will end up here one day," Pishchik says.
     Similar stories abound in today’s Ukraine.
     Yuriy Svirko, a 33-year-old journalist from Belarus, decided he’d had enough of President Alexander Lukashenko’s iron-fisted rule after he was accused of attacking a presidential body guard and threatened with arrest. (He says it was the guard who attacked him.)
     Svirko arrived in Kyiv right after the Orange mass movement overturned a fraudulent election and brought reformist Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency.
     Ukraine today is awash in competitive elections, noisy street protests and heated debates on TV shows and occasional fist fights in Parliament. Opposition rallies are held under the windows of the president’s office, and many have forgotten a time when TV channels were state-controlled.
     Savik Shuster had a TV political talk show in Russia until it was closed in 2004 as the Kremlin tightened the screws on media. Now he’s in Kyiv, hosting a similar program on a Ukrainian channel.
     "In Ukraine, freedom of speech still exists," said Shuster, 55. But for Russia today, "openness is like light for a vampire."
     During the past two years, Belarusian expatriates have held an annual "Belarusian Spring" festival, featuring fare banned back home movies, poetry readings, underground rock bands.
     This year’s festival kicked off with a dozen activists racing down Kyiv’s main avenue on cross-country skis when snow was nowhere to be seen. It was a poke at Lukashenko, a winter-sports fan who every year makes government officials and professional athletes compete with him in a ski competition which he always wins.
     But rights groups say that while Ukraine is good at welcoming professionals, it is still inhospitable to relatively unskilled political refugees, granting only 3 percent of applications for political asylum, compared with over 30 percent in neighboring Poland.
     Ulugbek Zainabudinov, an Uzbek opposition activist, fled to Russia after a bloody crackdown on an uprising in his country. But Russian authorities began arresting the refugees at the Uzbek government’s request, so in 2006 he moved to Ukraine.
     That year, Ukraine deported 11 other refugees back to Uzbekistan, drawing harsh criticism from human rights groups. All the deportees have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms, the groups say.
     "The very idea of freedom exists here and it is developing," said Zainabudinov said. "But I don’t feel safe."
     His asylum application has been turned down, and fearing deportation, he is seeking refugee status in Western Europe.
     Experts say Ukraine has neither the resources nor the political will to take care of asylum-seekers. Natalia Prokopchuk of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Ukraine also does a poor job of helping asylum-seekers while their cases are being considered.
     Natalia Naumenko, spokeswoman for the State Department on Migration, counters that most applicants are illegal migrants caught en route to Western Europe.
     Dmytro Groisman of the Vinnytsia Rights Groups said the influx of asylum-seekers does not prove that Ukraine has developed into a tolerant and democratic society. Instead, he said, refugees simply had nowhere else to go.
     "When your apartment is on fire, you would jump anywhere in the snow, in the water, from the 6th floor," Groisman said. "People are running where they can."
     Olga Kudrina, 22, is one of the lucky few who received political asylum. Sentenced to prison for unfurling a Putin-must-go banner near the Kremlin, she fled to Ukraine and lives with her baby daughter in a tiny apartment in Vinnytsia, 160 miles (260 kilometers) southwest of Kyiv.
     Two colleagues from her banned National Bolshevik Party share her apartment in Vinnytsia and are seeking asylum.
     One of them, Mikhail Gangan, 22, came here to escape arrest for breaking into a government building in Moscow and demanding that Putin step down.
     "You live calmer, better here," said Gangan. "You won’t see as many cops on the streets you can walk down a street and not see a single one. In Russia that cannot happen."

Belarus: KGB Pressure Orthodox Not to Venerate Soviet-Era Martyrs
By Geraldine Fagan
Forum 18 News Service – 12 May 2008
     Belarus discourages the commemoration of Orthodox Christians killed for their faith by the Soviet Union, Forum 18 News Service has found. Today’s KGB secret police have sought to have icons of the New Martyrs, as they are known by the Orthodox Church, removed from Grodno Cathedral. Russian Orthodox Deacon Andrei Kurayev told Forum 18 that "Some comrades from the local KGB asked local clergy why they were inciting the people in such a way." While there was no official order to remove the icons—"it was on the level of a chat"—Kurayev reported that Bishop Artemi (Kishchenko) of Grodno and Volkovysk refused to take them down. "He told the KGB that he couldn’t rewrite history." KGB officers also often monitor visitors to Kuropaty, where New Martyrs are probably among mass graves of Stalinist repression victims, a local Orthodox source told Forum 18. The act of going there—even to light candles—is "fraught with tension" with the current Belarusian regime, according to the source. An Orthodox chapel planned for the site has never been built.
     A generation after the Soviet Union’s demise, Belarusian state representatives continue to discourage commemoration of Orthodox Christians killed for their faith by the Soviet regime, Forum 18 News Service has found. The KGB secret police have sought to have icons of the New Martyrs, as they are known by the Orthodox Church, removed from at least one cathedral. Belarusian Orthodox Church representatives appear to be nervous about publicly acknowledging New Martyrs believed to be among the many victims of the Stalin-era secret police at the mass killing grounds of Kuropaty (Kurapaty) on the northern edge of the capital Minsk.
     The Moscow-based St Tikhon Orthodox University estimates that approximately 90,000 Orthodox were killed for their faith by the Soviet state. Over 1,000 New Martyrs were formally canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) in August 2000.
     In the western city of Grodno [Hrodna], however, the KGB have advised local Orthodox clergy to remove New Martyr icons depicting Red Army executioners with rifles from the city’s cathedral, leading Russian Orthodox missionary Deacon Andrei Kurayev told Forum 18 on 5 May. Visiting Grodno in late 2006, Kurayev learnt that, "Some comrades from the local KGB asked local clergy why they were inciting the people in such a way." While there was no official order to remove the icons from the Cathedral of the Protection of the Holy Veil—"it was on the level of a chat"—Kurayev also reported that Bishop Artemi (Kishchenko) of Grodno and Volkovysk refused to take them down. "He told the KGB that he couldn’t rewrite history."
     A spokesperson at Grodno’s KGB Department refused to provide information to Forum 18 by telephone on 8 May.
     The ten icons in Grodno cathedral depict one-time bishops in Belarus killed by the Soviet regime elsewhere before the Second World War. Grodno was at this time in Poland.
     "There is a certain circle of people who don’t like these icons," dean of Grodno Fr Aleksandr Veliseichik would only comment on 5 May. "Similar to Christ in the Gospel," he told Forum 18, "let those who can read, understand."
     Fr Aleksandr did point out to Forum 18 that icons may be removed only if they are not Orthodox, "but these were painted entirely according to church canons." He said some of the ten icons were copied from one in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour painted for the August 2000 canonization of the New Martyrs and blessed by Patriarch Aleksi II (http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Images/im609.htm). (see here)
     Others—such as that of St Pavlin, Bishop of Mogilev (1879-1937)—are new depictions produced at St Elizabeth Women’s Monastery outside Minsk (http://orthos.org/grodno/gev/june2006/images/5_st_pavl_b.jpg). (see here)
     Aleksandr Shursky, editor of Grodno’s Orthodox diocesan newspaper, stated to Forum 18 only that there was "no official appeal from KGB representatives" on 22 April. He acknowledged, however, that "many Party workers of the old formation could not possibly like such icons."
     The Belarusian KGB—which has not changed its name since Soviet times—has made no attempt to distance itself from its Soviet past. It proudly traces its history back to the first Soviet secret police, the Cheka, which was founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky. In the 1920s "Chekists stood shoulder to shoulder with the entire Belarusian people in resolving the most difficult and pressing economic and social tasks before them," its official website maintains, before claiming that the organization was actually a victim of Stalin’s purges in the 1930s: "23,000 Chekists were repressed—the very best professionals, moreover, Dzerzhinsky’s comrades, outstanding people with rich and sensitive souls, selflessly serving the Motherland and fighting for a bright future for their country."
     KGB officers also often monitor visitors to Kuropaty, a wooded area on the northern outskirts of Minsk, a local Orthodox source told Forum 18 on 5 May. Possibly 100,000 victims of Stalin’s purges are thought to have been shot and buried at Kuropaty in 1937-41, but no archaeological research has been conducted at the site since the 1990s. The act of going there—even to light candles—is "fraught with tension" with the current regime, according to the source.
     During the 1920s-30s over 20 clergy—including 3 bishops—were shot in Minsk for their faith, states research by local church historian Fr Feodor Krivonos cited in a 2001 Minsk Orthodox parish directory. Contacted by Forum 18 on 8 May, Fr Feodor described the question of whether Kuropaty could be considered a New Martyr burial site as "very difficult". Other than to confirm that Belarusian New Martyrs were killed in Belarus as well as Russia, he preferred not to discuss the subject by telephone.
     Andrei Petrashkevich, Minsk Orthodox diocesan press secretary, told Forum 18 on 8 May that, "We have no information on whether there are New Martyrs canonised by the Church at Kuropaty."
     Local Orthodox parishioner Anatoli Kuznetsov believes Kuropaty to be a New Martyr burial site. Icons painted on a number of rocks there include five Belarusian priests martyred in Minsk in 1937-38, he told Forum 18 on 8 May. "And Kuropaty is where people were shot."
     Several icon rocks feature in footage of restoration work at Kuropaty following vandalism, available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MunN2dCqoN0. (see here)
     Visiting Minsk in June 2001, Patriarch Aleksi gave his blessing for the nearby Orthodox parish of the Resurrection to build a chapel at Kuropaty. A 2001 directory of Minsk Orthodox churches describes the parish’s affiliate chapel of Our Saviour Not Made by Human Hands as "being built at the mass burial site of repression victims (Kuropaty)."
     No Orthodox chapel has been built to date, however. An open-air "chapel" area contains the icon rocks and two high crosses erected by Anatoli Kuznetsov in February 2006 and May 2007, he told Forum 18. As Resurrection Orthodox parish’s custodian of the site, Kuznetsov has visited Kuropaty daily for nearly five years.
     Plans for a chapel as blessed by the patriarch were altered because Metropolitan Filaret (Vakhromeyev) of Minsk and Slutsk, who heads the Belarusian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), gave a further blessing for it to be built instead at Resurrection Church—approximately 1km (half a mile) away in Minsk city—Kuznetsov told Forum 18. "There was no explanation why—only that it should be moved."
     The initiative of Resurrection parish, the Kuropaty chapel plans have not been realized because parishioners have been concentrating on finishing their own church building, the Orthodox Church’s press secretary Petrashkevich told Forum 18. "The question remains open—although it hasn’t been discussed recently," he remarked. "That’s all I can say."
     The situation surrounding Kuropaty is in sharp contrast to that at another site of mass executions at Butovo on the outskirts of Moscow. Of at least 20,000 Soviet repression victims shot and buried there, almost 1,000 have so far been verified as martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church. Visiting the site in October 2007, then President Vladimir Putin attended a memorial service led by Patriarch Aleksi at a church dedicated to the Butovo New Martyrs and Confessors. Hundreds of clergy attend the annual commemoration of their feast day.
     To Forum 18’s knowledge, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has never mentioned Kuropaty publicly.
     The 2001 Minsk Orthodox parish directory also states that Resurrection Church holds services alongside Kuropaty at 2pm on particular days in the Orthodox calendar set aside for prayer for the dead. On one of these, Radonitsa (the ninth day after Easter), the memorial service this year was held at Resurrection Church itself, however, Forum 18 was told by a female parishioner on 6 May. Kuropaty custodian Kuznetsov told Forum 18 that services are not held at the site because "the question hasn’t arisen."
     Orthodox memorial services are usually held in church buildings, Belarusian Orthodox Church press secretary Petrashkevich maintained to Forum 18. While acknowledging that Radonitsa services are normally held at cemeteries or burial sites, "I have no information as to whether they are held at Kuropaty," he added.
     Separated from the Moscow Patriarchate and outside the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA) was free to canonize the New Martyrs in November 1981. The ROCA took the Moscow Patriarchate’s continued failure to venerate the New Martyrs as a sign of compliance with Soviet ideology. It formed one of the main obstacles to reconciliation, finally overcome in a formal Act of Canonical Communion signed in Moscow on 17 May 2007.

• The influence of Soviet-style militant atheism also remains strong among state officials in Belarus (see F18News 18 November 2003 (here)).
• Although President Lukashenko publicly stresses the role of Orthodoxy, Forum 18 has found little evidence of state support for the Belarusian Orthodox Church (see F18News 10 August 2006 (here)). The Church’s leadership publicly supported the harsh 2002 Religion Law, under which home worship by its own adherents has been targeted by the Belarusian state for the first time since the Soviet period (see F18News 6 June 2007 (here)).
• Even during the recent reconciliation process between the churches, Belarusian Orthodox Church representatives have sought to restrict worship by local ROCA parishioners (see most recently F18News 22 October 2006 (here)).
• For more background information see Forum 18’s Belarus religious freedom survey (here).
• Full reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Belarus can be found ( here).
• A survey of the religious freedom decline in the eastern part of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area is ( here).
• A printer-friendly map of Belarus is available ( here).

non creatio ex nihilo

Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus – II

No Salvation Outside The Church
by Fr. William Most
     It is a defined doctrine that there is no salvation outside the Church. Yet, as the Holy Office pointed out in condemning L. Feeney (DS 3866) we must understand this the way the Church means it, not by private interpretation.
     First we find that the Church insists many times over that those who through no fault of their own do not find the Church, but keep the moral law with the help of grace, can be saved:
     Lumen gentium #16 says: “For they who without their own fault do not know of the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but yet seek God with sincere heart, and try, under the influence of grace, to carry out His will in practice, known to them through the dictate of conscience, can attain eternal salvation.” John Paul II in his Encyclical on the Missions in #10 says the same: “For such people [those who do not formally enter the Church, as in LG 16] salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church.” We underline the word “formally” to indicated that there may be something less than formal membership, which yet suffices for salvation. A similar thought is found in LG #14 which says “they are fully incorporated” who accept all its organization…” We will show presently that there can be a lesser, or substantial membership, which suffices for salvation.
     What should we say about a line in LG #8: “This Church, in this world as a constituted and ordered society, subsists in the Catholic Church… even though outside its confines many elements of sanctification and truth are found which, as gifts proper to the Church of Christ, impel to Catholic unity.”
     We must not overlook the words in LG #8 which speak of “this one and only [unica] Church of Christ, which we profess in the Creed…” Similarly the Decree on Religious Liberty in #1 says that “it [this decree] leaves untouched the traditional Catholic doctrine about the duty of men and societies to the true religion and the one and only [unica] Church of Christ.”
     So there really is only one true Church. But really, we it seems that some think that protestant churches are as it were component parts of the Church of Christ. And they think that follows from the words about “subsisting in” and the statement that elements of sanctification can be found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church.
     This does not mean that there are other legitimate forms of Christianity. Pope Gregory XVI (DS 2730. Cf. Pius IX, DS 2915 and Leo XIII, DS 3250) condemned “an evil opinion that souls can attain eternal salvation by just any profession of faith, if their morals follow the right norm.” So although people who do not formally join can be saved, as LG #16 says, and Redemptoris mission #10 also says, they are not saved by such a faith. It is in spite of it.
     Yet we can account for the words about subsisting in and about finding elements of salvation outside. For this we need the help of the Fathers of the Church.
     In this way we find a way of filling in on what the Magisterium teaches:
     We begin with St. Justin the Martyr who c. 145 A. D. in Apology 1.46, said that in the past some who were thought to be atheists, such as Socrates and Heraclitus, who were really Christians, for they followed the Divine Logos, the Divine Word. Further, in Apology 2.10 Justin adds that the Logos is in everyone. Now of course the Logos, being Spirit, does not take up space. We say a spirit if present wherever it produces an effect. What effect? We find that in St. Paul, in Romans 2:14-16 where he says that “the Gentiles who do not have the law, do by nature the works of the law. They show the work of the law written on their hearts.” and according to their response, conscience will defend or accuse them at the judgment.
     So it is the Logos, the Spirit of Christ, who writes the law on their hearts, that, it makes known to them interiorly what they need to do. Some then could follow it without knowing that fact. So Socrates: (1)read and believed what the Spirit wrote in his heart; (2) he had confidence in it; (3) he obeyed it. We see this obedience in the fact that Socrates went so far as to say, as Plato quotes him many times, that the one who seeks the truth must have as little as possible to do with the things of the body.
     Let us notice the three things, just enumerated: St. Paul in Romans 3:29 asks: “Is He the God of the Jews only? No, He is also the God of the gentiles.” It means that if God made salvation depend on knowing and following the law of Moses, He would act as if He cared for no one but Jews. But God does care for all. Paul insists God makes salvation possible by faith for them (cf. Romans chapter 4). Faith in Paul includes the three things we have enumerated which Socrates did.
     So in following that Spirit of Christ Socrates was accepting and following the Spirit of Christ, But then, from Romans 8:9 we gather that if one has and follows the Spirit of Christ, he “belongs to Christ.” That is, He is a member of Christ, which in Paul’s terms means a member of the Mystical Body, which is the Church.
     So Socrates then was a member of the Church, but not formally, only substantially. He could not know the Church. So he was saved, not by his false religious beliefs but in spite of them. He was saved by faith, and similarly protestants and others who do not formally join the Church today are saved not as members of e.g., the Baptist church, which some seem to think is an integral part of the one Church of Christ—no, they are saved as individuals, who make use of the means of sanctification they are able to find even outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church.
     Many other Fathers speak much like St. Justin. A large presentation of them can be found in William Most, Our Father’s Plan, in a twenty-eight page appendix.
     Lumen gentium also likes to speak of the Church as a mystery. This is correct, for it is a mystery, since it is only partly visible. It does have visible structure, and no one who knowingly rejects that can be saved. It has members visibly adhering. But it also has members who belong to it even without knowing that, and without external explicit adherence. Hence there is much mystery, to be known fully and clearly only at the end.
     So all other forms of Christianity are heretical and/or schismatic. They are not legitimate.
     The Decree on Ecumenism states that the worship and liturgical actions of other Christian bodies can truly engender a life of grace and can be rightly described as capable of providing access to the community of salvation.
     Here is the actual text of the Decree: “In addition, out of the elements or goods by which, taken together, the Church herself is built up and made alive, certain things, or rather many and excellent things can exist outside the visible bounds of the Catholic Church: The written Word of God, the life of grace, faith, hope and love, and other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit and visible elements: all these things, which come from Christ and lead to Him, belong to the one-only Church of Christ. Even not a few sacred actions of the Christian religion are carried out among the brothers separated from us… which beyond doubt can really generate the life of grace, and are to be said to be apt to open the entry into the community of salvation.”
     We notice the things mentioned: (1)Scripture—Protestants read it. (2)the life of grace— yes, one can reach the state of grace without formally entering the Catholic Church, as Lumen gentium 16 says: “They who without fault do not know the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but yet seek God with a sincere heart, and try with the help of grace to fulfill his will, known through the dictate of conscience, can attain eternal salvation.” Even pagans can do this. (3)faith—yes, outsiders can have faith, at least if they are not misled by Luther’s great error on what faith is. (4)hope and love—again, even a pagan may attain these. (5)other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit— yes, if outsiders reach the state of grace, they also have the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. (6)and visible elements—Baptism if validly given. BUT we must note the next words in the decree: “all these things… belong to the one-only Church of Christ.” In other words, it is not a Protestant church as Protestant that can provide these things—these are things that belong to the Catholic Church, which the Protestants have not completely rejected. So some religious actions are carried out in Protestantism which can really generate the life of grace. Yes, Baptism does that. Reading of Scripture, prayers, and other things enumerated above in the first six items can do that. But again, it is not Protestant worship as Protestant that gives grace—it is things the Protestants have retained even after breaking with the one-only Church of Christ. As the previous sentence said:
     So the Decree continues in the next sentence cited above: “they belong to the one-only Church of Christ.”

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     The Catholic Church has solemnly defined three times by infallible declarations that outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation. The most explicit and forceful of the three came from Pope Eugene IV, in the Bull Cantate Domino (1441) who proclaimed ex cathedra: “The Most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, also Jews, heretics, and schismatics can ever be partakers of eternal life, but that they are to go into the eternal fire “which was prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41) unless before death they are joined with Her… No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ can be saved unless they abide within the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.”
     The other two infallible declarations are as follows: “There is one universal Church of the faithful, outside of which no one at all can be saved.” Pope Innocent III, ex cathedra, (Fourth Lateran Council, 1215). “We declare, say, define, and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” Pope Boniface VIII, (Unam Sanctam, 1302).
     Other important references from throughout the history of the Church include the following:
     St. Irenaeus (130-202), Bishop and Martyr: “The Church is the entrance to life; all others are thieves and robbers. On this account we are bound to avoid them… We hear it declared of the unbelieving and the blinded of this world that they shall not inherit the world of life which is to come… Resist them in defense of the only true and life giving faith, which the Church has received from the Apostles and imparted to her sons.”
     St. Augustine (354-430), Bishop and Doctor of the Church: “No man can find salvation except in the Catholic Church. Outside the Catholic Church one can have everything except salvation. One can have honor, one can have sacraments, one can sing alleluia, one can answer amen, one can have faith in the Name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and preach it too, but never can one find salvation except in the Catholic Church.”
     St. Fulgentius (468-533), Bishop: “Most firmly hold and never doubt that not only pagans, but also Jews, all heretics, and all schismatics who finish this life outside of the Catholic Church, will go into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
     Pope St. Gregory the Great (590-604): “The holy universal Church teaches that it is not possible to worship God truly except in Her and asserts that all who are outside of Her will not be saved.”
     St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226): “All who have not believed that Jesus Christ was really the Son of God are doomed. Also, all who see the Sacrament of the Body of Christ and do not believe it is really the most holy Body and Blood of the Lord… these also are doomed!”
     St. Thomas Aquinas (1226-1274), the Angelic Doctor: “There is no entering into salvation outside the Catholic Church, just as in the time of the Flood there was not salvation outside the Ark, which denotes the Church.”
     St. Louis Marie de Montfort (1673-1716): “There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. Anyone who resists this truth perishes.”
     St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), Bishop and Doctor of the Church: “Outside the Church there is no salvation...therefore in the symbol (Apostles Creed) we join together the Church with the remission of sins: ‘I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins… For this reason the Church is compared to the Ark of Noah, because just as during the deluge, everyone perished who was not in the ark, so now those perish who are not in the Church.”
     St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696-1787), Bishop and Doctor of the Church: “All the misfortunes of unbelievers spring from too great an attachment to the things of life. This sickness of heart weakens and darkens the understanding, and leads to eternal ruin. If they would try to heal their hearts by purging them of their vices, they would soon receive light, which would show them the necessity of joining the Catholic Church, where alone is salvation. We should constantly thank the Lord for having granted us the gift of the true Faith, by associating us with the children of the Holy Catholic Church… How many are the infidels, heretics, and schismatics who do not enjoy the happiness of the true Faith! Earth is full of them and they are all lost!”
     Pope Pius XII (1939-1958): “Some say they are not bound by the doctrine which teaches that the Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are one and the same thing. Some reduce to a meaningless formula the necessity of belonging to the true Church in order to gain eternal salvation. Others finally belittle the reasonable character of the credibility of Christian Faith. These and like errors, it is clear, have crept in among certain of our sons who are deceived by imprudent zeal for souls or by false science.”

The Disordered Childhood of Richard Dawkins

Adoro Te Devote, Latens Deitas

Devoutly I Adore Thee, Hidden God
     One of the five beautiful hymns St. Thomas Aquinas composed in honor of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament at Pope Urban IV’s request when the Pope first established the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1264 (celebrated on 25 May this year). The hymn is found in the Roman Missal as a prayer of thanksgiving after Mass.

     Hidden God, devoutly I adore Thee,
          truly present underneath these veils:
     all my heart subdues itself before Thee,
          since it all before Thee faints and fails.

     Not to sight, or taste, or touch be credit
          hearing only do we trust secure;
     I believe, for God the Son has said it—
          Word of truth that ever shall endure.

     On the cross was veiled Thy Godhead’s splendor,
          here Thy manhood lies hidden too;
     unto both alike my faith I render,
          and, as sued the contrite thief, I sue.

     Though I look not on Thy wounds with Thomas,
          Thee, my Lord, and Thee, my God, I call:
     make me more and more believe Thy promise,
          hope in Thee, and love Thee over all.

     O memorial of my Savior dying,
          Living Bread, that gives life to man;
     make my soul, its life from Thee supplying,
          taste Thy sweetness, as on earth it can.

     Deign, O Jesus, Pelican of heaven,
          me, a sinner, in Thy Blood to lave,
    to a single drop of which is given
          all the world from all its sin to save.

     Contemplating, Lord, Thy hidden presence,
          grant me what I thirst for and implore,
     in the revelation of Thy essence
          to behold Thy glory evermore.

     Amen.

Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus – I

On the Sin Against Unity: Fragmentation of the Christian Communities
New York, ecumenical meeting in the church of Saint Joseph, Friday 18 April 2008
     Pope Benedict XVI explains that Christians are divided because they conform themselves to the world—the world of relativism that eventually leads to fragmentation and death. In fact, truth cannot be divided against itself: instead of teaching the objective truth of the faith, Christians outside the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church (and even some within it!) urge believers to choose the community that best meets his or her tastes.
     [...] Too often those who are not Christians, as they observe the splintering of Christian communities, are understandably confused about the Gospel message itself. Fundamental Christian beliefs and practices are sometimes changed within communities by so-called “prophetic actions” that are based on a hermeneutic not always consonant with the datum of Scripture and Tradition. Communities consequently give up the attempt to act as a unified body, choosing instead to function according to the idea of “local options.” Somewhere in this process the need for diachronic koinonia—communion with the Church in every age—is lost, just at the time when the world is losing its bearings and needs a persuasive common witness to the saving power of the Gospel (cf. Rom 1:18-23).
     Faced with these difficulties, we must first recall that the unity of the Church flows from the perfect oneness of the Trinitarian God. In John’s Gospel, we are told that Jesus prayed to his Father that his disciples might be one, “just as you are in me and I am in you” (Jn 17:21). This passage reflects the unwavering conviction of the early Christian community that its unity was both caused by, and is reflective of, the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This, in turn, suggests that the internal cohesion of believers was based on the sound integrity of their doctrinal confession (cf. 1 Tim 1:3-11). Throughout the New Testament, we find that the Apostles were repeatedly called to give an account for their faith to both Gentiles (cf. Acts 17:16-34) and Jews (cf. Acts 4:5-22; 5:27-42). The core of their argument was always the historical fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the tomb (Acts 2:24, 32; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30). The ultimate effectiveness of their preaching did not depend on “lofty words” or “human wisdom” (1 Cor 2:13), but rather on the work of the Spirit (Eph 3:5) who confirmed the authoritative witness of the Apostles (cf. 1 Cor 15:1-11). The nucleus of Paul’s preaching and that of the early Church was none other than Jesus Christ, and “him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). But this proclamation had to be guaranteed by the purity of normative doctrine expressed in creedal formulae—symbola—which articulated the essence of the Christian faith and constituted the foundation for the unity of the baptized (cf. 1 Cor 15:3-5; Gal 1:6-9; Unitatis Redintegratio, 2).
     My dear friends, the power of the kerygma has lost none of its internal dynamism. Yet we must ask ourselves whether its full force has not been attenuated by a relativistic approach to Christian doctrine similar to that found in secular ideologies, which, in alleging that science alone is “objective,” relegate religion entirely to the subjective sphere of individual feeling. Scientific discoveries, and their application through human ingenuity, undoubtedly offer new possibilities for the betterment of humankind. This does not mean, however, that the “knowable” is limited to the empirically verifiable, nor religion restricted to the shifting realm of “personal experience.” For Christians to accept this faulty line of reasoning would lead to the notion that there is little need to emphasize objective truth in the presentation of the Christian faith, for one need but follow his or her own conscience and choose a community that best suits his or her individual tastes. The result is seen in the continual proliferation of communities which often eschew institutional structures and minimize the importance of doctrinal content for Christian living.
     Even within the ecumenical movement, Christians may be reluctant to assert the role of doctrine for fear that it would only exacerbate rather than heal the wounds of division. Yet a clear, convincing testimony to the salvation wrought for us in Christ Jesus has to be based upon the notion of normative apostolic teaching: a teaching which indeed underlies the inspired word of God and sustains the sacramental life of Christians today.
     Only by “holding fast” to sound teaching (2 Thess 2:15; cf. Rev 2:12-29) will we be able to respond to the challenges that confront us in an evolving world. Only in this way will we give unambiguous testimony to the truth of the Gospel and its moral teaching. This is the message which the world is waiting to hear from us. Like the early Christians, we have a responsibility to give transparent witness to the “reasons for our hope,” so that the eyes of all men and women of goodwill may be opened to see that God has shown us his face (cf. 2 Cor 3:12-18) and granted us access to his divine life through Jesus Christ. He alone is our hope! God has revealed his love for all peoples through the mystery of his Son’s passion and death, and has called us to proclaim that he is indeed risen, has taken his place at the right hand of the Father, and “will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead” (Nicene Creed). [...]

Four Marks of the Church – I
by Kenneth D. Whitehead
from “The Church of the Apostles” in This Rock, March 1995
     We can show how the Church of the apostles resembles in all essentials the Church of today by showing how the early Church already bore the marks, or “notes,” of the true Church of Christ which are still professed today in the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed declares the Church to be One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.
     Thus, the Church of the apostles was definitely one: “There is one body and one spirit,” Paul wrote, “just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all” (Eph. 4:4-5). Paul linked this primitive unity to the Church’s common Eucharistic bread: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17). Jesus had promised at the outset that "there would be one flock, one shepherd" (John 10:16).
     Similarly, the Church of the apostles was holy. When we say that, we mean among other things that it had the all-holy God himself as author. We do not mean that all of its members have ceased to be sinners and have themselves become all-holy. On the contrary, the Church from the beginning, on her human side, has been composed of sinners: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). The Church was founded for no other reason than to continue Christ’s redemptive and sanctifying work with them in the world.
     One of the things implicit in the appellation “holy” as applied to the Church, then, is that the Church from the beginning has been endowed with the sacramental means to help make holy the sinners who are found in her ranks. The Church has been given the sacraments along with the word precisely in order to be able to help make sinners holy.
     It was in this sense that Paul was able to write, “Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27). The holiness of the Church, of which the creed properly speaks, has always had reference to her divine Founder and to what the Church was founded by him with the power and authority to do, not with the condition of her members.
     The third great historic mark or note of the one true Church was that this Church was Catholic. “Catholic” means “universal.” It refers as much to the fullness of the faith which it possesses as it does to the undeniable extension in both time and space which has characterized it virtually from the beginning. At the very beginning, of course, it was no doubt difficult to see how the “little flock” (Luke 12:32) of which the Church then consisted could by any stretch of the imagination qualify as “universal.” Still, just as the embryo contains in germ the whole human being, so the Church already contained the universality that would quickly begin to manifest itself.
     It is not without significance that the Holy Spirit came down upon the Church at Pentecost at a time when “there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5). It was to them that the Holy Spirit temporarily enabled the apostles to speak in the languages of all these various nations—a powerful sign that the Church was destined for all men everywhere, represented at that first Pentecost in Jerusalem by those of many nations who had come there from afar. Many accepted the faith then and there and presumably began forthwith carrying “the Catholic Church” back to the four corners of the earth.
     The Catholicity of the Church in any case resides as much in the fact that the Church is for everybody at all times as it does in the fact that it was indeed destined to spread everywhere throughout the whole world. Within a few years of the foundation of the Church, Paul was writing that “the word of truth… in the whole world… is bearing fruit and growing” (Col. 1:5-6).
     Finally, the Church that issued from the commission of Christ to the apostles was necessarily apostolic. Christ founded the Church upon the apostles and in no other way: “Did I not choose you, the twelve?” he asked them (John 6:70). The apostles of all people understood perfectly well that they did not set themselves up in their own little community, as we sometimes today see “gospel churches” set up in store fronts or in the suburbs. The New Testament teaches, “One does not take the honor upon himself” (Heb. 5:4).
     Nothing is clearer, then, that the Church started out as “apostolic.” The question is whether the apostles had the power and authority to pass on to others what they had received from Christ. We have already seen that they very definitely did have this power and authority; the New Testament evidence is clear about that. The subsequent historical evidence is equally clear that they did pass it on to successors (the bishops). Indeed there are already references in the New Testament itself to the appointment of bishops by the apostles, as well as to the appointment of further bishops by them (Titus 1:5-9).
     When we ask where, if anywhere, is to be found the same Church which the New Testament tells us Christ founded, we have to reformulate the question to ask: What Church, if any, descends in an unbroken line from the apostles of Jesus Christ (and also, not incidentally, possesses the other essential notes of the true Church of which the creed speaks)?
     Further, to introduce a point we have not dwelt upon at all up to now, What Church, if any, is headed by a single recognized designated leader, just as the apostles of Jesus plainly functioned, on the evidence of the New Testament, under the headship of Peter?
     To ask these questions is to answer them: Any entity or body claiming to be the Church of Christ would have to be able to demonstrate its apostolicity by demonstrating an organic link with the original apostles on whom Christ manifestly established his Church. Nothing less than this could qualify as the “apostolic” Church which Jesus founded.
     As much for our instruction as for the assurance he intended to give to the apostles to whom he was actually speaking, Jesus said, “He who hears you, hears me” (Luke 10:16). Do we take these words seriously today? Do we listen to the teachings of the successors of the apostles of Jesus, the bishops, in union with and under the successor of the apostle Peter, the pope, as if these teachings were the words of Christ himself?
     If we do, we are properly members of the Church which Jesus Christ founded on the apostles and which has come down to us from them. If we do not, how can we pretend that we take anything seriously that Christ said and taught?
     He said nothing more solemnly and categorically than these words, in which he declared that the apostles and their successors would speak for him in the serious business of gathering in and sanctifying his people and leading them toward the salvation he offers. Jesus intended that the fullness of his grace should come to his people in a Church that, from the beginning, was what the creed still calls it today: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.

Four Marks of the Church – II
     ONE – The unity of Christ’s Church refers to the need for the Church to be undivided. There are to be no divisions among the members of the Church. For the Church to be one with Christ it must first maintain unity with itself. This aspect stems from Christ’s remarks to the same point. “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (John 10:16)
     HOLY – The sanctity of Christ’s Church is derived from the fact that it is Christ’s church: “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” (Matthew 16:18) Since the Church was established by Christ, it is said to be holy. This does not mean that the members of the Church are free from sin, neither than that the institution of the Church cannot sin. However Christ loves, supports and guides the Church.
     CATHOLIC – The universality of Christ’s Church establishes the Church as being open to all: all races, both sexes, all nationalities. Christ refuses no one from His grace; therefore, the Church cannot refuse anyone as long as they accept Christ’s teachings and Church. “Then Jesus approached and said to them, ‘All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.’” (Matthew 28:18-20) Christ sent His apostles to preach to the whole world - to all mankind. The catholicity of the Church also refers to the fact that the Church is the same everywhere (universal). In every land, with every people, the Church maintains the same rituals and beliefs.
     APOSTOLIC – The Church is apostolic, handed down from Christ through the Apostles to mankind. The Church must have come directly from Christ and can be traced back through history to show that those who lead the Church were commissioned to do so by the Apostles, who were in turn commissioned by Christ. “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.” (Ephesians 2:19-20)

Atheists and Muslims: Two Blood-Thirsty Peas In An Extremist Pod?

Hamas MP/Cleric’s Friday Sermon: “We Will Conquer Rome, the Two Americas, and Eastern Europe”
     The two videos below are chilling and quite revealing. Contrast these against Pope Benedict XVI’s messages during his trip to the United States. I don’t recall the Holy Father ever threatening language like Islam (the religion of “peace”) and Atheists (the worldview of “reason”) do.
     Kinda like the almost unimaginable body count left in the wake of atheism. Kinda of like the Russian Federation threatening to aim rockets at Ukraine and Georgia because of their aspirations to join NATO… all while Russia assists Iran to complete nuclear reactors as a cover for the enrichment of uranium for nuclear weapons. Kinda of like philosophically-inept Richard Dawkins claiming that raising children Catholic is tantamount to child abuse. Kinda like the ignorance and frothing rage of Christopher Hitchens. Kinda of like the tee-shirts atheists wear that read, “Too many Christian. Too few lions…” Kinda like Transhumanism. Kinda like the elitism of Barack Obama’s rant against mom-and-pop American “clinging to God and guns…” Kinda like atheist Peter Singer’s justification for killing newly-born infants simply because they’re not up to snuff (health wise) for eugenics-crazed atheists. (Darwin, by the way, promoted eugenics… as did Margaret Sanger…) Kinda like the stupidity of Jimmy Carter “talking” to an organization that will stop at nothing to obliterate Carter’s own country… along with three-quarters of the world’s population. Atheism, Islam, violence... synonyms? (Caveat: the criticisms of Europe the cleric in the second video clip makes are largely correct...)



In a Friday sermon that aired on Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV on April 11, 2008, Yunis Al-Astal, Hamas MP and cleric, told worshipers that Rome, “the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital,” would soon be conquered by Islam, just as Constantinople was. It then, he said, would become “an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe.” The following are excerpts from Al-Astal’s sermon:
     Hamas Cleric Yunis Al-Astal: “Allah has chosen you for Himself and for His religion, so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security, and consolidation of power, and even to conquests thorough da’wa and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world.
      “Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad.
      “Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam. This capital of theirs will be an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe.
      “I believe that our children, or our grandchildren, will inherit our jihad and our sacrifices, and, Allah willing, the commanders of the conquest will come from among them.
      “Today, we instill these good tidings in their souls—and by means of the mosques and the Koran books, and the history of our Prophets, his companions, and the great leaders, we prepare them for the mission of saving humanity from the hellfire at whose brink they stand.”

Berlinski Goes “Medieval” on New Atheism

     In his newest book The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions, David Berlinski (a secular Jew) rips the foolishness of new atheism to smithereens. (By the way, the anti-reviews at Amazon are hilarious for their ineptitude.) Here’s just a small sample of excerpts (pages 21, 26, 34) from Berlinski’s book:

     … Just who has imposed on the suffering human race poison gas, barbed wire, high explosives, experiments in eugenics, the formula for Zyklon B, heavy artillery, pseudo-scientific justifications for mass murder, cluster bombs, attack submarines, napalm, intercontinental ballistic missiles, military space platforms, and nuclear weapons?
     If memory serves, it was not the Vatican.

     [It is a fact that the greatest mass murders of history were atheists of officially atheistic regimes whose acts far, far outperformed any killing done in the name of warped interpretations of religious faith.]
     … Richard Dawkins is prepared to acknowledge the facts while denying their significance. Neither the Nazis nor the Communists, he affirms, acted because of their atheism. They were simply keen to kill a great many people. Atheism had nothing to do with it…
     [Such atheist “logic” is actually the fallacy of special pleading. Consider rephrasing Dawkins’ inept vision: “Neither the Protestant faith of those perpetrating the Salem witch trials in New England nor the Catholic faith of the Inquisitors had anything to do with the resulting suffering and death.” See here.]
     What Hitler did not believe and what Stalin did notbelieve and what Mao did not believe and what the SS did not believe and what the Gestapo did not believe and what the NKVD did not believe and what the commissars, functionaries, swaggering executioners, Nazi doctors, Communist Party theoreticians, intellectuals, Brown Shirts, Black Shirts, gauleiters, and a thousand party hacks did not believe was the God was watching what they were doing.
     And as far as we can tell, very few of those carrying out the horrors of the twentieth century worried overmuch that God was watching what they were doing either.
     That is, after all, the meaning of a secular society.

     Why should people remain good when unobserved and unpoliced by God? Do people remain good when unpoliced by the police? If Dawkins believes that they do, he must explain the existence of the criminal law, and if he believes that do not, then he must explain why moral enforcement is not needed at the place where law enforcement ends.

Who Says the Homosexual Movement Isn’t Fascist and Anti-American?

New Mexico Commission Orders $6,000 Fine for Christian Beliefs
Jeff Johnson
OneNewsNow – 11 April 2008
     A Christian law firm will appeal a ruling by the New Mexico Human Rights Commission fining a photographer who refused to take photos of a homosexual commitment ceremony.
     Elaine Huguenin and her husband Jon, who co-own Elane Photography in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are both Christians. So when a lesbian couple asked them to photograph their "commitment ceremony" in Taos, the Huguenins politely refused. In response, Vanessa Willock filed a complaint with the New Mexico Human Rights Commission claiming the Huguenins discriminated against her because of her "sexual orientation." On Wednesday, the Commission found the Christian couple guilty of discrimination under state anti-discrimination laws and ordered them to pay more than $6,000 in costs.
     Jordan Lorence with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) represented the Huguenins. He contends the lawsuit reflects an attitude among homosexual activists.
     "This decision is a stunning disregard for religious liberty and First Amendment freedoms of people of faith, of Christians, and those who believe in traditional marriage defined as one man and one woman," says the attorney. "This shows the very disconcerting, authoritarian face of the homosexual activists, who are using these non-discrimination laws as weapons against Christians in the business world and Christians in their churches."
     Lorence believes the Huguenins will win an appeal of the decision. But he warns this is how similar laws in 19 other states, and the proposed federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act, can be misused to silence biblical beliefs.
     "There is a great threat to our religious liberties and our ability to speak out in favor of traditional marriage when these non-discrimination laws are interpreted in such a harsh way to censor Christians and others," he asserts.
     Lorence said Americans do not surrender their freedoms of speech or religion just because they choose to open a business. He added that the Commission’s decision is tantamount to the State of New Mexico forcing a vegetarian videographer to create a commercial for a butcher shop.