A Reflection -- IN DEFENSE OF THE POPE

Source: oca.org

 Christ is Risen!

"Peace be with you!" (Jn. 20:19)

As Orthodox Christians, we have some real differences with the Roman Catholic Church. Simply stated, these are both ecclesiological and theological. Yet, in the recent ongoing tension between the Pope and the President - played out very publicly through interviews and social media communications - I would clearly defend the pope for injecting an authoritative "religious" voice into this debate. In a Christian spirit, the pope criticized the choice of war in Iran (which does not meet the criteria in the Roman Catholic Church for a “just war”), and in the process he exhorted all world leaders to seek peaceful resolutions to the seemingly endless conflicts engulfing the contemporary world. The pope brought a voice of sanity into an increasingly insane world. 

It would be purely cynical to mistrust his sincerity in upholding the Gospel teaching that "blessed are the peacemakers." His voice represents the voice of Christ speaking to the world a word of peace and reconciliation. This is not pious or ethereal idealism. It is the Gospel proclamation of the "peace of God which surpasses all understanding" (Phil. 4:7) to a world deeply wounded by sin and death. And whatever one thinks of the papacy, the pope is clearly the most renowned universal religious figure in the world. His voice is respected.

It would also be cynical to challenge his honest claim that he is not making political pronouncements, or trying to determine any government's foreign policy. When life and death decisions are being made on a political level, profound moral and ethical issues are at the heart of these decisions. And those moral and ethical issues cannot be ignored. If they are, we can make no claims at being civilized. War means death and destruction, and beyond that, profound mistrust and open hostility against one's enemies that endure for generations. As Pope Leo recently reminded us: “Too many innocent people are being killed. Someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.” 

Public voices invoking the Old Testament image of a "Warrior God," or quoting Old Testament texts to the effect of vanquishing one's enemy are hardly consistent with the image of Christ in the New Testament. In fact, once the bombs start raining down, I prefer that the sacred Name of Jesus Christ remain unspoken. 

Attacking the pope for his plea for peace makes no real sense, especially when accusations are made against him with no basis in reality. Such accusations go far beyond genuine disagreements. We should bear in mind that the pope is not speaking only of America's involvement in the Middle East and the current war with Iran. He is clearly speaking to such dictators as Vladimir Putin and his murderous assault on Ukraine, in which thousands of innocent Ukrainians have been and are being killed, wounded or displaced on a daily basis. 

In early 2025, I defended an Episcopal bishop for challenging our administration to treat immigrants with "compassion." There was nothing wrong with that challenge, and it was not an example of a religious person meddling in politics. It also was a call to moral and ethical thinking and action. The current pope, Leo XIV, is simply doing the same thing about our war of choice with Iran and beyond. That is far more helpful than harmful.

The Death of Alexei Navalny

Photo: free.navalny.com

Dear Parish Faithful,

I am sure that most of you have heard that the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny died last Friday while languishing in a Siberian prison near the Arctic circle (a prison that was formerly part of the Soviet Gulag slave labor camps), the victim of an oppressive authoritarian system that is responsible for his death, regardless of what the final "medical" reason behind his death actually is. That is something we may never know. And only God knows what he suffered in that prison for the last three years. 

In an age seemingly devoid of heroes, Navalny happens to be precisely that - a man of great courage and integrity. In short - a real hero. And these powerful virtues are in sharp contrast with the dictator who feared his principled opposition and then persecuted him. After nearly dying from an attempt to poison him, Navalny bravely returned to Russia to resume his role of opposition to the Putin regime. He was immensely popular. But he clearly understood the danger of returning to his home country and putting himself within the grasp of the authorities. As put in a new article in "Foreign Affairs" by the journalists Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan:

For Russian society, confused, depressed, and constantly besieged by an ever more repressive regime, Navalny was a lone unifying figure. Although Russian authorities isolated him in increasingly restrictive layers of confinement since his arrest on his return to Russia in 2021, he continued to have that stature right up to the moment of his death. Navalny’s demise marks a dark new step in Putin’s ruthless pursuit of power. But it also raises a stark challenge for Russia’s opposition, which must now figure out how to sustain the unity he created and seize the movement he left behind.

I do believe that it is "meet and right" to acknowledge Alexei Navalny's tragic death so that we can think about what it means to stand up today for truth and honesty in a time when posturing and rhetoric are being rewarded by a great deal of public opinion. If the word martyrdom means "witness," we can say that Navalny was a martyr, for he was a witness who gave his life for the sake of defending justice and honesty - what we would call "righteousness" -  as did St. John the Forerunner. Like St. John, he boldly stood up to and spoke against a leader who ruled through fear and oppression. The Herods of old have been replaced all through history by latter-day tyrants exhibiting the same dreary traits of corruption and cowardice. They can only respond to strong morally-based opposition by repression and persecution. That is precisely why history judges them as "infamous." But their victims are deeply respected and remembered as heroes and "icons" of goodness and moral integrity. 

I would like to also share a couple of paragraphs from an article by the esteemed journalist and historian, Anne Applebaum, a scholar who has spent most of her professional life studying and writing about totalitarian regimes in which basic civility is cynically trampled on. The article from which this paragraphs is taken, was published on Friday in the Atlantic Monthly and is entitled "Why Russia Killed Navalny."

The enormous contrast between Navalny’s civic courage and the corruption of Putin’s regime will remain. Putin is fighting a bloody, lawless, unnecessary war, in which hundreds of thousands of ordinary Russians have been killed or wounded, for no reason other than to serve his own egotistical vision.

Even behind bars Navalny was a real threat to Putin, because he was living proof that courage is possible, that truth exists, that Russia could be a different kind of country. For a dictator who survives thanks to lies and violence, that kind of challenge was intolerable. Now Putin will be forced to fight against Navalny’s memory, and that is a battle he will never win.

Alexei Navalny was a man of great moral integrity. His untimely death is a tragedy. We hope that it was not in vain. As we exclaim in the Church: Memory Eternal!

 

The 'Spiritual Damage' of War

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

"Put not your trust in princes, nor in sons of men, in whom there is no salvation." (Psalm 145:3 LXX)

"For the peace of the whole world ... " (Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom)

"Nothing is more contrary to God's will for creatures fashioned in his image and likeness than violence one against another, and nothing more sacrilegious than the organized practice of mass killing. All human violence is in some sense a rebellion against God and the divinely created order." (For the Life of the World - Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church)

The anticipated invasion of Ukraine - a sovereign country - by overwhelmingly superior Russian forces - is now underway. This invasion has nothing resembling a justifiable cause. Yet, leaving "politics" aside for the moment, we must acknowledge the grave "spiritual damage" this war will extract from its participants and for the entire world. 

 

 

I am shaken by the spectacle of Orthodox Christians slaughtering one another. In fact, the strong historical, cultural and religious bonds of both countries has recently been stressed by the aggressors. As is well-known, Russia and Ukraine are both primarily Orthodox Christian countries. I am sure that the vast majority of the Russian armed forces - both men and women - are Orthodox Christians. Ukraine has a much larger Roman Catholic population than Russia, but Ukraine remains a predominantly Orthodox country (67% according to a recent survey). These soldiers will probably be "blessed" by a bishop or priest, together with their weapons, with Holy Water and then begin the carnage of killing one another. In fact, they may "prepare" for their war effort by first going to Confession and then receiving Communion. So, after being united in the common chalice as "brothers and sisters" in Christ, they will then go about the business of killing these very "brothers and sisters." And then there could be a horrific death toll among the innocent civilian population of Ukraine. 

What a sad and tragic reality! The sheer madness of it is staggering: Praying to the "same God" for protection and victory in battle as Christians and then killing each other with impunity. I am certainly not implying that it is less sinful or spiritually devastating to kill non-Orthodox Christians or non-Christian peoples! But I am speaking as a member within the Orthodox Church and stressing the total incompatibility of the vision of life within the Church and its perversion in "real time." 

We can only pray to God for peace and that the human suffering and death will be limited.