Your All-Holiness!
From the Holy Fathers we inherited the testament that in the Church of God, all must follow a lawful order, in unity of mind and in concordance with ancient traditions. If any of the bishops or even the leaders of autocephalous Churches commits an act in discord with that which the Church teaches, then each of Her members may declare his objection. The 15th Rule of the Double Council of Constantinople of 861 recognizes as worthy of honor suited to Orthodoxy those bishops or clergymen who depart from communion from even their own Patriarch, if he publicly preach heresy or teach it openly in Church. In this way, we all are guardians of the Church's truth, Which always protected Herself with care that nothing having general ecclesiastical significance occured without the agreement of all.
For this
reason, our attitude towards various divisions beyond the divisions of the
Local Churches was determined by nothing more than the consent of all the
Churches involved. If our division with Rome was first given its direction by
Constantinople, it was still subsequently accepted by all. The Orthodox Church
became the business of the entire Orthodox world. Not one Local Church alone,
nor even the Church of Constantinople, which we had esteemed from olden days,
from which our Russian Orthodox Church received the treasure of Orthodoxy,
cannot change anything in Orthodoxy without the consent of all. Moreover, we,
the ruling bishops, cannot carry out decisions which would be in discord with
the teachings of the Holy Fathers who lived before us, specifically, when it
comes to the West of SS Photios of Constantinople and Mark of Ephesus.
In light of these
principles, although we are the youngest of the leaders of the Church, for we
head the autonomous, free part of the Russian Church, we deem it our obligation
to decisively object to the act of Your All-Holiness in connection with the
ceremonial declaration together with the Pope of Rome on the removal of the
excommunications decreed by Patriarch Michael Cerularius in 1054.
We heard many
expressions of indignation when Your All-Holiness, before the entire world, did
something new, something unheard-of by Your predecessors and against the 10th
Apostolic rule in meeting with the Roman Pope Paul VI in Jerusalem. We will
state outright and without mincing words: the temptation was great. We heard
that as a result, many monasteries on the Holy Mountain of Athos have refused
to commemorate the name of Your All-Holiness at services. Now You go further,
when by the decision made by You and the bishops of Your Synod, You rescind the
decision of Patriarch Mikhail Cerularius, which was confirmed and accepted by
the entire Orthodox East. In doing so, Your All-Holiness acts in discord with
the attitude assumed by our entire Church with regard to Roman Catholicism.
This is not a matter of one evaluation or another of the behavior of Cardinal
Humbert, it is not a matter of some personal conflict between the Pope and the
Patriarch, which could easily be healed through mutual Christian forgiveness;
no the essence of the question
is the departure from Orthodoxy, which has taken root in the Roman Church over
the course of centuries, beginning with the teaching of the infallibility of
the Pope, which was finally formulated during the First Vatican Council. Your
All-Holiness' and the Pope's Declaration fairly recognizes that the act of mutual
forgiveness is insufficient for the cessation of both former and more recent
divergences. But this is not enough: this act erects a symbol of equality
between heresy and Truth. Over the course of centuries, the entire Orthodox
Church fairly believed that She in no way departed from the teachings of the
Holy Ecumenical Councils, while the Roman Church accepted a series of novelties
in its dogmatic teachings which contradict Orthodoxy. The more novelties
introduced, the deeper the division between the East and West became. The
dogmatic deviations of Rome in the end of the 11th century did not contain
those errors that were introduced later. For this reason the dismissal of the
mutual censures of 1054 would have meaning at that time, but now--it serves
witness to the dismissal of the most important and essential, to wit, the new
teachings declared, unfamiliar to the ancient Church, of which some, exposed by
St. Mark of Ephesus, caused the Holy Church to reject the Florentine Union. We
declare decisively and categorically:
No union with
the Roman Church is possible for us, as long as it does not reject its new
dogmas, and reestablishing prayerful communion with it is impossible without
the agreement of the entire Church, which, at the same time, does not seem to
us to be possible until the Church of Russia is emancipated, for it is now
forced to live in the catacombs. The hierarchy now led by Patriarch Alexei
cannot express the true voice of the Russian Church, for it is under complete
subjugation to the atheist state, obeying its will. Shackled are also the heads
of some other Churches which are found in communist countries.
Since the
Vatican is not only a religious center, but also a center of government, and,
as the recent visit of the Pope to the United Nations has clearly shown,
relations with it also carry political significance, it is impossible to ignore
the possibility that the captive Churches are swayed in one direction or
another by the atheistic authorities in the matter of the Roman Church. History
has shown us that negotiations with the heterodox under political duress never
brought the Church any benefit, only troubles and divisions. For this reason we
feel obligated to state that our Russian Church Abroad is, as is, undoubtedly,
the Church in Russia, now in the "catacombs," cannot agree to any
"dialogues" on dogma with other faiths, and in advance rejects any
accords with them, for accepting the possibility of the reestablishment of
unity is possible only if they fully accept Orthodox teaching in the form that
it has been preserved to this day by the Holy, Conciliar and Apostolic Church.
Until such a time--the excommunication of Patriarch Michael Cerularius retains
its full force, and the removal of such by Your All-Holiness is an unlawful and
invalid act. Of course, we are not against amicable relations with the
representatives of other faiths, since this does not betray the truth of
Orthodoxy. For this reason our Church at one time accepted the friendly
invitation to send an observer to the Second Vatican Council, just as it had
sent an observer to the Protestant conference of the World Council of Churches
in order to have a first-hand account of the work of these meetings yet without
any participation in their decisions. We value the kindly attitude towards our
observers, and study their detailed reports with interest, which witness the
advent of significant changes in the Roman church. We would thank God if these
changes serve to draw them closer to Orthodoxy. Yet if Rome must change a great
deal in order to return to "the expression of the faith of the
apostles," then the Orthodox Church, preserving this faith whole until
now, must change nothing.
Church tradition
and the example of the Holy Fathers teach us that there must be no dialogue
with those who have fallen away from the Orthodox Church. Rather, a monologue
of preaching is addressed to them, in which the Church calls them to return to
Her bosom through the rejection of any teaching inconsistent with Her. Genuine
dialogue necessitates the exchange of opinions, allowing the possibility of
winning over its participants in order to reach agreement. As the encyclical
"Ecclesiam Suam" shows, Paul VI sees dialogue as a scheme for our
union with Rome or the reestablishment of relations with them through some sort
of formula, leaving untouched, however, its teaching of the faith, and, in
part, its dogmatic teaching of the role of the Pope in the Church.
But all
concord with heresy is alien to the entire history of the Orthodox Church and
Her essence. It would lead not to the profession of faith in unity of mind, but
to a phantom, external union, similar to the agreement of discordant Protestant
unions in the Ecumenical Movement.
May such
betrayal of Orthodoxy not invade our midst.
We earnestly
ask Your All-Holiness to put an end to such temptation, for the path chosen by
You, if it did lead You to union with the Roman Catholics, would cause division
within the Orthodox world, for, without a doubt, many of Your spiritual
children prefer loyalty to Orthodoxy to the ecumenical idea of a union of
compromise with heterodox without their full concord in truth.
Asking for Your holy prayers, I remain Your All-Holiness' humble servant,
+Metropolitan
Philaret
President
of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
15 December 1965
The First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia,
Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky)
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου