Many Russian Christians Are Furious About the Meeting With the Pope

While the recent Pope/Patriarch meeting in Havana, Cuba generated very little interest in the West, it became a topic of heated public discussion in Russia.

Mainstream opinion – both religious and secular – heralded the mission as a sane call to terminating repression in the Middle East, and support for traditional values irrespective of their origins.

But a significant minority of Christians are furious. This is a representative example from a popular blogger.  He is a former major in the General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).  

He argues that the meeting was a deliberate attempt to foment a schism within the Russian church, as a way to weaken and destroy Russia, and that it is succeeding, because many bishops and lay people have now lost trust in the patriarch.

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On February 12, 2016 a historic event took place: Pope Francis and His Holiness Patriarch Kirill met in Cuba,  paving the way for the reunification of the two Churches – the Eastern and Western.

No doubt other Orthodox Churches will join the Uniate (the act of unity) between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches. There is still time left before the all-Orthodox Council for all Orthodox Church leaders to meet with the Roman celebrant, who is also a Jesuit.

Thus the Vatican can finally become the Church of Freemasonry: Templars, the Society of Jesus, the Order of Malta and Opus Dei, which henceforth will determine the policy  of the Orthodox Churches.

Is that good or bad? For the Russian Orthodox Church it is a sign of end times, according to Jesus: 

“And I say unto thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Gospel According to Saint Matthew, Chapter 16, Verse 18)

In other words, the Russian Church that has kept the apostolic tradition until this day, would not be destroyed, would not be an abode for heretics like the Catholic Church, but would stay alive until the last day. How can this be possible, since the Uniate was signed with the Catholics, signifying the violation of apostolic rules and the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils? This can only be explained by the mighty works of God that are beyond human understanding. 

Preparations for the meeting of Pope Francis and the Patriarch of Moscow Kyrill started long before 12th February 2016, according to the chairman of the Department of External Church Relations, the Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, Hilarion  before his departure to Cuba.  

Federico Lombardi, the director of the Holy See Press Office, confirmed that they have been preparing the meeting for several years. The head of the patriarchal press, the priest Alexander Volkov was even more candid about the upcoming meeting, saying that he expected a joint declaration to be signed as witness to the unity between our churches. The subject of the Uniate would also be discussed, hopefully initiating a new stage of relations between the Russian Church and the Catholic Church, a new page in the relationship and new joint endeavors.

They prepared for the meeting of the Pope and the celebrant of the Russian Orthodox Church for several years, agreeing on various documents and the text of the joint declaration. The Vatican and the Department of External Church Relations of the Russian Church were aware of that and supposedly the church hierarchy also knew, but ordinary people – the millions of parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church knew nothing.

Why were preparations carried out in secret?

Why were the documents not discussed at the meeting at the Council of Bishops held between 2-3d February, 2016 at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior? Or was there no need, since it had already been agreed by the church hierarchy? 

Or maybe they were kept in the dark? It's hard to believe that, because the agenda of the 350 member Council of Bishops was to approve the materials of the Pre-Council Conference of the leaders of the Local Churches held in Chambesy, signaling approval of the activities of Patriarch Kyrill, giving him a vote of confidence for the upcoming meeting with the Pope, where they would sign the Uniate of the two churches.

Consequently the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church were aware of what would happen next and fully approved the Uniate with the Catholics.

What treachery, what a betrayal of millions of Russian believers!

Anyone who doesn’t understand these events should not doubt Metropolitan Hilarion who said that the leader of the Department of External Church Relations called the fundamental dogmatic differences between the Eastern and Western Churches ‘details’ which can be neglected.

To realize what these ‘details’ mean, one needs to read the words of St. Theodosius Pechersky, one of the founders of Russian monasticism, on the Christian faith and the Latin one, dated 1068: 

“Be not appealed by the Latin faith, do not follow its custom, and avoid its Communion, and all its teachings, and abhor its manners.

You must neither fraternize with them, nor bow down to them, nor kiss them, nor eat or drink with them from the same dish, nor eat their food.

And the episcopacy kept their concubines and went to war, and conducted services with wafers, and kiss no icons or relics of saints, but they kiss the cross, depicting it on the ground and trampling it underfoot.

And they place the dead with their feet westwards, his hands along the body. And they have many other evil deeds; their faith is corrupted and full of destruction.

Even the Jews do not do what they do ... If someone praises another's faith, then he is a blasphemer of his own faith. If he continually praises both his and another’s faith, then he is practicing two different religions, and is close to heresy.

You have rejected the apostolic commandments and teachings of the Holy Fathers and accept the untruth and faith that is corrupted and full of destruction. Because of this, we were rejected. Because of this, it is no good for us to either live together with them, nor share the divine mysteries with them - neither they join ours, nor we join theirs, because you serve the dead body calling upon the dead Lord.

For we conduct the service with the living body of the Lord, seeing him alive, sitting to the right of the Father. And then he will come to judge living and dead.

You are dead, you sacrifice to the dead and we make a living sacrifice to the living God – pure, immaculate, and we will have eternal life. 

Here are some of the heresies of the Catholic Church, which Metropolitan Hilarion called ‘details’: 

1. Filioque – the descent of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son and thus human nature of the Savior and His suffering on the cross are denied, leaving Jesus Christ only his divine essence,

2. The infallibility of the Pope as the Priest of God on earth,

3. The Pope may, at his discretion, unilaterally change the tenets of the Christian faith through the right of succession from the Apostle Peter. The keys of the kingdom of heaven shown on the Vatican coat of arms mean that the Pope is entitled to absolve or forgive sins, 

4. The distortion or simplification of the liturgical canons, the communion of parishioners only with the Body of Christ and yet only with unleavened bread, not yeasted dough, while the priests take communion with the Body and the Blood,

5. The gradual replacement of the God-centered religion with a self-centered one, where not God, but a human is the center of the universe naturally results from the status of the Vatican as the state authority connected with the Christian religion where the government is foundational. 

6. Thomas Aquinas: “Christ is fully and completely in the mystery and power with every Pope”, i.e. a Pope shares God’s will and they jointly manage the Church, practically replacing Jesus Christ. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “The Roman archpriest in virtue of his office of Priest of Christ and pastor of the whole Church, has full, supreme and universal power over the Church and the right to exercise it forever”, emphasizing the monarchical power of the Pope. 

Accepting even of this non-exhaustive list of catholic heresies as ‘details’ exposes Metropolitan Hilarion as a philo-Catholic, if not a secret cardinal of the Holy See, finalizing a secret mission, which the head of the Department of External Church Relations conducted for a  long time, often meeting with the Pope.

The final document of the meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Kyrill signed in Cuba on February 12th 2016 includes these important provisions:

- By meeting far from the longstanding disputes of the “Old World”, we experience with a particular sense of urgency the need for the shared labour of Catholics and Orthodox,

- We share the same spiritual Tradition of the first millennium of Christianity,

- Notwithstanding this shared Tradition of the first ten centuries, for nearly one thousand years Catholics and Orthodox have been deprived of communion in the Eucharist,

- Orthodox and Catholics must learn to unanimously give witness in those areas in which it is possible and necessary,

- Differences in the understanding of religious truths must not prevent people of different faiths from living in peace and harmony,

- We call upon Christians of Eastern and Western Europe to unite in their shared witness to Christ and the Gospel,

- It is clear that the past method of “uniatism”, understood as the union of one community to the other, separating it from its Church, is not the way to re–establish unity,

- In the contemporary world, Catholics and Orthodox are called to work together fraternally in proclaiming the Good News of salvation.

My Conclusion:

1. Catholic and Orthodox priests and bishops can now participate in a joint Eucharistic canon, flouting apostolic rules,

2. The aims and objectives of a collaborative effort between Catholics and Orthodox are not clear, since these goals were different from all eternity. Presumably, the Masonic-Jesuit Vatican will never back down from its proselytizing, with all Orthodox Churches coming under the Vatican for that is the very nature of papal authority, 

3. They can only bear witness to the truth if there are no doctrinal differences between Catholics and Orthodox. It makes no sense to hope that the Pope will lessen his power in order to accept the dogmas of the Eastern Church, therefore, it means that the Orthodox churches will accept the dogmas of the Vatican,

4. It is clear that the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church that signed the Uniate with the Vatican, will encourage the signing of the Uniate by the other Eastern Churches, hoped for by the Holy See, aware that today it is not Patriarch Bartholomew but Patriarch Kyrill who sets tone in the Eastern Church,  

5. It makes no sense for the Vatican to sign the Uniate on the same terms, with the absorption of the Local Church, which might cause a schism and other disruptions. It is much easier to sign the Uniate as a way to unite the Churches, preserving the covenants, traditions and calendar, gradually replacing the orthodox covenants with the Catholic ones through Pan-Orthodox and Bishops’ Councils, as well as by creating new catechisms and typikons for the local churches.

From all of the above you can see the dangerous path that hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church have followed by signing the Uniate with the Catholics who are much more powerful and strong and able to completely destroy the ROC in a few years together with Russia, because our country is inconceivable without the Orthodox faith, the only force holding the Russian State together.  

But ‘the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it’. From now on, our country will experience a period of tremendous turmoil and division. It is obvious that some of the bishops who abstained at the Council, cease to commemorate His Holiness Patriarch Kyrill, thereby creating a schism, but that's exactly what Jesuit expansion in Russia needs. Because the weaker the Russian Church is, the easier the Vatican subjugates it. Also, there is no way to obey the decisions of Patriarch Kyrill for those who still retain the faith and loyalty oaths taken at ordination.  

The primatial visit to Cuba will result in a split in the ROC. The break-up of the country will inevitably follow – whether it be the separation of Siberia, the Southern District, the Republic of Tatarstan, the Republic of Bashkortostan and other regions, together or separately. Whether it will be the creation of new principalities, the integrity of Russia will be disrupted from this day since the purity of apostolic succession in the ROC has been broken.

Our Church and the country will have to go through many trials to cleanse itself and appear as a new, young power of  Russian Orthodoxy and the Russian spirit under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the holy martyr Tsar Nicholas II.