Armenian-Catholic Relations

Armenian Church (Soviet Era clip)

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State visited Armenia for three days this month. The trip was originally postponed after Presidential election strife left 130 people injured and at least eight people dead.

The trip focused on East-West Church relationships. The director of Aid to The Church in Need has described the visit as a potential “milestone” in improving relations between the Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches. One of the potentialities is improved and closer relationships between Rome and the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The Cardinal met with His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. The Cardinal presented his Holiness with a letter from Pope Benedict XVI. The Church has been an important and active participant in the International Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches.

The Armenian Church is an important church. In 301 AD Armenia became the first nation to become a Christian Nation. The Church, along with other Oriental Orthodox Churches split from communion with Rome and the other Eastern Orthodox Churches during the Council of Chalcedon in the 4th century. The split was related to differences in language about the divinity and nature of Christ.

I find all of this fascinating. First the history is breath-taking. Second, the geography is phenomenal. Here is a mountain country with the music and culture of southwestern Asia. Here is a nation surrounded by Islamic Countries: Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran. This is an ancient church worthy of support.

I am currently taking a course in Systematic Theology. We are studying the First Seven Ecumenical Councils. The very issues that are being addressed by the Vatican Secretary of State and his Holiness are the issues stemming from Chalcedon. The Coptic Church of Egypt and Rome have shown the world that dialogue is possible. We ARE one body, it is good that we are beginning to act like it. The next step will be a visit by His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians to the Vatican.

Muslim-Christian Relations in Azerbaijan

Christian Music in Azerbaijan

The Vatican Secretary of State has stated that the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan is a model of religious tolerance that the whole world could use as a guide. This is clearly very different news from what we are use to hearing. All over the world we hear of religious fanatics of all faiths being intolerant of others. So what makes Azerbaijan so different?

Perhaps it is partly due to history. Azerbaijan, a predominantly Muslim country had been ruled by the atheistic communist regime of the old U.S.S.R. The citizens know what persecution and intolerance feels like. The result is a very different response to diversity.

The country has maintained traces of the early Christian Church. In fact there are two tiny remnant Churches within its boundaries, Orthodox and Catholic. Under the direction of its President the country has reconstructed a Catholic Church that had been destroyed by the communists. The land had been donated to Pope John Paul II by the President of the Republic in 2002. A homeless shelter ran by the sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta is to be part of the new church complex. So on March 19, 2007, the Vatican secretary of State was in attendance for the dedication of the Church of the Immaculate Conception.
This is indeed a gift worth giving thanks for. In a nation that is 99% Muslim it was the leadership, the people and the religious communities that made this possible. It was the Caucasian Muslim Office and the religious leaders of Azerbaijan that made this day possible. Now that is inter-faith dialogue!

Way of the Cross-2008: Station Fourteen

Johnny Cash and The Carter Family: Were you There?

I was fortunate enough to discover the 20th Annual Walk for Justice while I was in Springfield Illinois. The group was inter-denominational. The Stations were landmarks in downtown Springfield that could connect current events to Jesus today. I will review each station one at a time.

Station Fourteen: Governor’s Mansion (Jackson Street)

Station Fourteen: Jesus is placed in the tomb

The human agony is over. Jesus’ body is laid in the tomb. We have walked together and remembered with love and tears the suffering and death of our Lord and Savior. So, too, we have walked and remembered with love and tears the way we, and our world, crucify him still.

Now, may we find strength enough to hum a few notes of a hymn, whisper some bit of a psalm, say a snatch of a prayer, and give thanks for those who journey with us. May we on this day of death, find presence enough to speak our love for all of God’s children. May we find gratitude enough to forgive and ask to be forgiven. May we, even now, see in your face in the faces of those to whom we are blooded and bonded. We humbly pray:

Response:
Our Father who art in heaven
Hallowed be they name.
Thy kingdom come,
They will be done one earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory now and forever.
Amen

And so ended my unplanned pilgrimage among strangers/friends in Springfield Illinois. Franciscans were the protectors of the Holy sites in the Holy Land. When the Ottomans denied pilgrimage to the sites it was the Franciscans that popularized the Stations of the Cross. The pilgrimage became internal but aided by the senses. Over the years there were many different models of "doing" the Stations. The number of Stations varied and actually went as high as 34 Stations.Over time the Stations were standardized. We say 14 Stations and may add a 15th, the Resurrected Christ. The Way of the Cross-2008 was stylized to aid the pilgrim to remember the Passion but also to acknowledge the Living Christ in a specific time and a specific place. Thank you Springfield.

Way of the Cross-2008: Station Thirteen

I was fortunate enough to discover the 20th Annual Walk for Justice while I was in Springfield Illinois. The group was inter-denominational. The Stations were landmarks in downtown Springfield that could connect current events to Jesus today. I will review each station one at a time.

Station Thirteen: Governor’s Mansion (5th Street Gate)

Station Thirteen: Jesus is taken down from the Cross

A disciple of Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, took Jesus’ lifeless body from the cross and carried it to a new tomb, which had been cut out of rock. Laying his body down, he prepared it for burial. Having bound it up with wrappings of cloth with perfumed oil, it was laid in the tomb, as was the custom. Joseph treated our Lord with loving care and respect.

Standing outside the Governor’s mansion, looking out over this beautiful garden, we pray that such loving care and respect might be shown for all people from conception to natural death. Daily, people are dis-respected because of the color of their skin, because of their gender, because of the way they choose to worship, because of their sexual orientation.

We hear voices say, “What we need is tolerance,” No! What we need is respect: the same kind of respect that Jesus showed the tax collectors and the lepers; the same kind of respect Jesus gave to women and children, the same kind of respect with which Joseph treated Jesus’ body even after his death on the cross.

Response:
“Try saying this silently to everyone—you see for thirty days and see what happens to our own souls: “I wish you happiness now and whatever will bring happiness to you in the future.” If we said it to small children we would have to stop abusing them, even in the name of training; if we said it to (all) people, we would have to stop stoking the fires of enmity around us. WE WOULD CHANGE~ In a high Spiritual season, Lord, we ask you to change our hearts!

Way of the Cross-2008: Station Twelve

Wa Habibi, Good Friday Hymn sung by Fairouz

I was fortunate enough to discover the 20th Annual Walk for Justice while I was in Springfield Illinois. The group was inter-denominational. The Stations were landmarks in downtown Springfield that could connect current events to Jesus today. I will review each station one at a time.

Station Twelve: Federal Building

Station Twelve: Jesus dies on the cross

As we stand in solemn witness to the memory of the death, death on a cross, of our Lord, Jesus, we face the fact that he died for us. We also face the fact that the land made holy by Christ’s life, death and resurrection is becoming a more and more difficult place for the followers of Jesus to live.

Since the time of Christ, Christians have lived in the Holy Land with varying degrees of peace and justice. Recent political conditions in the region have made life even more difficult for Christians.

(Much of the body of this meditation is an attempt to be balanced about the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis. I do not doubt the motivation and sincerity of the writers of this meditation or the fact that my own bias is making me less than objective. Still, I found the meditation to be one-sided and excessively blaming of Israel. I believe you do have to be blunt and honest in an assessment of conflict to resolve conflict. I also believe both side must feel heard and understood to trust the process. Therefore, I have left out most of this meditation)…

Palestinian Christians are caught in the middle with little hope for support from either government. The Christian population has diminished from more than 20% in 1967 to less than 2% at present. At the present rates there will be no Christians by 2020 in the land that spawned Christianity.

Throughout the Middle East, Christ is being crucified once again. This time it will be an ever slower, m ore subtle death, but a certain death, if our government doesn’t intervene on behalf of Christian brothers and sisters.

Response:
Lord, your disciples deserted you at the time of your death as a human being. Let us not desert you as our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land die a slow “death” by our apathy and inattention.

The death of Christianity is Israel is a cause for concern and prayer. The problem is far bigger than this one nation even though this nation is the birthplace of our faith. Christians in Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Egypt are all facing persecution. We need to find ways to support them that does not increase their chances of being targets. We need a bridge between two worlds. We need another Francis.

Way of the Cross-2008: Station Eleven

Kenya Dadaab Camp: Somali refugees

I was fortunate enough to discover the 20th Annual Walk for Justice while I was in Springfield Illinois. The group was inter-denominational. The Stations were landmarks in downtown Springfield that could connect current events to Jesus today. I will review each station one at a time.

Station Eleven: Municipal Building 7th and Monroe

Station Eleven: Jesus is nailed to the cross

Jesus-today the world is on the move.

In a Christian village not far from Mosul, a mother and father with two young children are trying to decide whether they should seek refugee status in the United States. Terror surrounds them, but it is 15 hours buy car over dangerous roads to Damascus. And that is only the beginning. They are afraid to go and afraid to stay.

In the Congo, an estimated 5.4 million people have died from war-related causes-not from violence but from its after effects: poverty, disease and displacement. The war began in 1998 and ended in 2000. But people- most of them children—are still dying from malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia, and malnutrition at the rate of 45,000 a month. These people are refugees in their own country.

Foreign workers from southern Asia make up 37% of the 35 million people who live in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. They send money home to their families to pay for housing, education and clean water. They are beginning to be seen as a threat.

The route of illegal immigrants seeking work in the United States begins far south of Mexico. People from Nicaragua, Salvador and Guatemala cross the Rio Negro into Mexico to begin the perilous journey. …

In the United States, the detention of immigrants is the fastest growing form of incarceration in this country and is becoming a lucrative business..

Response:
Jesus, you lived in a global empire where the rich got rich and the poor got poorer. Terror wielded by emperors, kings and insurgents raged throughout your life. The New Testament says that Joseph, warned in a dream, fled with You and your mother into Egypt, escaping Herod’s massacre. You crossed borders. We don’t know if you were legal or illegal.

Jesus, help us to remember your story and the stories from our own families as we look at the intense and polarizing debate over immigration into our country today. What are the core values here? What would you have done?


This is not an intellectual exercise for folks in Fort Wayne. Our Catholic Charities is the catchment area agency for refugees from Burma, Somalia, Afghanistan, Chad, Sudan, central Asia. We also work with asylum-seekers. To the south of the city are farms that are dependent on migrant labor.We are far more diverse than I would have ever guessed when I moved here. Diversity requires understanding which requires exposure. we must get to know our neighbors so they can stop being strangers.

Way of the Cross-2008: Station Ten

Breath In,Breath out, Greenpeace

I was fortunate enough to discover the 20th Annual Walk for Justice while I was in Springfield Illinois. The group was inter-denominational. The Stations were landmarks in downtown Springfield that could connect current events to Jesus today. I will review each station one at a time.

Station Ten: The State Journal Register

Station Ten: Jesus is stripped

At the crossroads of knowledge of the existence of global warming and what is needed to reduce its impact, we are charge with a tremendous task. Do we make the connection between our work of peace and justice and our love and respect for Earth and all her creation? Do we see the connection between a golden sunset, a baby’s smile and the rights of everyone, no matter their skin color or facial features, to adequate housing and a decent life?

De we hear the connection between the call of a gull, the whisper of an evening breeze and the rights of all to live in dignity without war and violence? Do we feel the connection between soft kitten fur, a tiny flower’s petals and the need for all of us to good food, compatible companionship and the rights of all to untainted food and clean water?

Are we willing to make the sacrifices necessary for the life of the world that comes after us: our children, their children, and all living beings throughout this great green pulse? Can we use less, give more and allow for the loving, symbiotic mutual stewardship of all creation?

Response:
Spirit of Wisdom, bless us with a greater knowledge of Mother Earth. Fill us with love for all her sentient beings, the holy ground on which we step, the life-giving air we breath, the healing water to be shared among plants and animals alike, and the finite resources that are gifts not o be taken for granted.
Amen!