THE OLD CHURCH IN THE NEW WORLD

Excerpts from:

THE OLD CHURCH IN THE NEW WORLD

By Archpriest Basil M. Kherbawi

St, Nicholas Greek-Orthodox Cathedral

Brooklyn, NY

Published 1930

SOME REASONS WHY ORTHODOXY CAN NEVER UNITE WITH THE PAPACY

SYNOPSIS OF THE LIVES OF POPES

     “History pictures the Popes of Rome intoxicated by the wine of power, courting the favor of monarchs on one hand, and pandering to the superstitions of the people on the other. When Rome separated itself from the Mother Church and laid claim to universal supremacy over the whole church without any right whatever, the Roman Church ceased to be a spiritual community, and the bishops of Rome became much less the ministers of religion, either true or false, than a temporal king, forgetting their sacred function in the eager pursuit of Wealth and Ruling Power . . . 

    The absence of emperors from Rome gave the Popes the chance to establish their powers. They exercised the fearful engine of excommunication by which the consciences of the people were worked upon to believe that they must either be traitors to their sovereigns, or by disobeying Rome be cut off from all hope, not only in this world, but also in the next. It was by such means that the Popes gained the victory over the emperors.

SPECIMENS OF THE LIVES OF POPES

     Pope Formosus who succeeded Pope Stephan VI was before his election to the Papacy Bishop of Porto’ he was excommunicated by Pope John VIII. The election of this Pope was in direct contradiction to the Canon of the Great Nicene Council which forbids the translations of Bishops/ His immediate successor, Pope Boniface VI, was a man of such profligate character that Formosus declared that he doesn’t consider him a Pope at all.  Were these men, of such characters, the successors of St. Peter and Vicars of Christ?

     Not long after the death of Pope Formosus, a schism arose in the Roman church between his opponents and his supporters, and while one Pope revoked orders conferred by him, another, Pope John IX, in a synod st Rome, rescinded the decree of his predecessor, and reinstated those who had been ordained by him. Does this look like Papal infallibility?

   The history of the Popes of the tenth century is indeed the most revolting profanation of religion in the whole history of Christendom, so that it was commonly said among Christians that the end of the world was at hand. But German emperors and several German Popes in succession redeemed the Papacy from its corruption. But alas the Papacy had fallen back again, so that at one time three deeply simonical Popes occupied the Papal throne . They were so wicked that a writer of that century called them: “the wicked devils.

     The period between AD 1378 - 1417 was one of great schism in the Roman church.  There were two rival Popes, each of them claiming to be the true Pope; one of them resided at Rome and the other at Avignon – no one knowing which was the rightful successor of the “Prince of the Apostles;” each anathematizing the followers of the other, so that whole Western Christendom was under the ban of one Pope or the other. I wonder if St. Peter had any choice between the two.

      Pope John II and Pope Sylvestris both obtained the Papal office by bribery, as did Pope Vigilius.  Pope Sylvestius gave his allegiance to Emperor Justinian, and to his enemies the Goths at the same time.

Note: the sordid history of the Papacy has continued into the modern era, for during WWII the Papal Ustashi slaughtered almost a million Serbian Orthodox.

To be continued