Frick & Frack Build Orthodox Monastery Under Catholic Diocese

So, people are abuzz that Pope Francis has endorsed same-sex civil unions.  It’s a pretty safe bet that these civil unions will materialize into "marriages" within the Catholic Church. (What now, my Tradcat friends?)

Elpi has broached the same subject on our own front, albeit a little differently.  At a Leadership 100 meeting in Boca Raton, he turned off the mic and spoke about allowing spouses of Orthodox Christians to take the Eucharist.  The fact that these spouses could have been "married" as same-sex couples outside the Church was the elephant in the room. 

March of 2018, I posted something I found curious.  Cardinal Kurt Koch and the Bishop of Eisenstadt (capital of the Burgenland), Ägidius Zsifkovics, presented Bartholomew with a donation from the Pope of 100,000 Euros to start the first Orthodox monastery in Austria.  It was to be built at St Andrä in Austria’s easternmost province of Burgenland over which the Bishop of Eisenstadt presides.

Koch recalled that Pope Francis had supported the monastery project “from its very beginnings” and recalled that Pope John Paul II had underlined the importance of Austria’s easternmost diocese’s bridge building function between the people of eastern and western Europe.  https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/8686/pope-donates-100-000-euros-90-000-towards-first-orthodox-monastery-in-austria

Recently, they began breaking ground in the presence of state, local, diplomatic and church authorities, as well as many faithful.  Neither the Pope or Bartholomew were there, but Bartholomew sent his good wishes and “Cardinal Kurt Koch conveyed the wishes on behalf of Pope Francis, stressing the importance of the Holy Monastery for the unity of Christians.”

There’s that pesky word “unity,” again.

Bartholomew previously stated that, “. . . the establishment and operation of an Orthodox monastery in the jurisdiction of the Diocese and Exarchate was a wish from the beginning of his priesthood in December 2011.” https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/07/04/first-orthodox-monastery-in-central-europe-to-open/    

Although the new monastery is to be known as the Monastery of Agia Skepi and Saint Paisios, its Brotherhood (Catholic) has been established since 2016.

The Orthodox monastery will exist under Austria’s easternmost Catholic diocese.  https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/10/02/foundation-stone-laying-ceremony-for-the-first-orthodox-monastery-in-central-europe/

I may be wrong, but I think this is the first "Orthodox" monastery under Catholic administration, folks.