tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post5538855374418665753..comments2023-12-16T16:17:43.886+00:00Comments on Fr Ray Blake's Blog: Turkish Stranglehold on the PatriarchateFr Ray Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05584140126211527252noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-35314781235354345512006-11-30T22:20:00.000+00:002006-11-30T22:20:00.000+00:00From an Inside the Vatican article available onlin...From an <a href="http://www.insidethevatican.com/newsflash/2006/newsflash-nov28-06.htm">Inside the Vatican</a> article available online <a href="http://www.insidethevatican.com/newsflash/2006/newsflash-nov28-06.htm">here</a>:<br />I turn to Elia. "If the patriarchs of Constantinople for 150 years were all students at this seminary, and the seminary has now been closed for 35, where will the next patriarch come from?"<br /><br />"That is the question," Elia replies.<br /><br />"Then it will be hard to find a successor for Patriarch Bartholomew, in time to come?"<br /><br />"Very hard," he replies. "Because there is a law in Turkey that the head of the patriarchate must be a Turkish citizen, and there are only about 2,000 Orthodox who remain, and only a handful of men who might be qualified to be patriarch, perhaps five."<br /><br />I am astonished. I had known the situation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was not easy, but had never realized until this moment how truly difficult its position is. I turn to Josh, expressing my surprise.<br /><br />"It's true," he confirms. "The situation of the Patriarachate of Constantinople is dire. It has been official Turkish policy since the founding of modern Turkey in the 1920s to reduce the Greek Orthodox presence in the country. ..."Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15093254913880842806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-59884643776577979162006-11-29T09:41:00.000+00:002006-11-29T09:41:00.000+00:00Interesting that all the sympathy available is use...Interesting that all the sympathy available is used up on the Palestinians.<br /><br />Opprobrium is reserved for the Israelis and right-wing oppressive regimes supported by the Americans.<br /><br />All the other nasty oppressive regimes (China, Turkey, Sudan) get little or no opprobrium at all. When was the last demonstration in Trafalgar Square against any of these?<br /><br />Sympathy and opprobrium are soooooooo... selective.Physiocrathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13682019625346594568noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-87538755659982131922006-11-26T21:36:00.000+00:002006-11-26T21:36:00.000+00:00I've recently been looking at some history. The sc...I've recently been looking at some history. The schism of the Eastern Churches was finally healed at the Council of Florence (1438-1445). <br /><br />All but one of the Eastern Bishops voted in favour, and the union was supported by Emperor John VIII Palaeologos, and by his successor Constantine IX, who perished in battle as Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453.<br /><br />The civil authorities of the Byzantine Empire and the common people rejected the Union.<br /><br />After the Ottoman Turks conquered the Empire, the Sultan appointed Gennadios II as Ecumenical Patriarch, who definitively repudiated the Union.<br /><br />So you see how a false vision of God, namely the assumption of Replacement Theology that He would ever cast aside His chosen people, introduces a spirit of schism into the body of the Christian faithful.<br /><br />Islam is founded on Replacement Theology analogous to the <i>adversus Iudaeos</i> of the early Christians, and has imposed division on the Christian Church for all these centuries.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com