A Pope had once spoken of an “ecumenism of holiness” that would bring us closer together. But, what holiness was he referring to, when these people don’t believe in the uncreated sanctifying energies of God; they don’t believe in theosis (deification) through partaking of the uncreated energies of God (=the actual union with God, through His uncreated energies); when they believe in an intellectual approach to God with their medieval, Aristotelian Scholastic “theology” and in legalistic vindication?

After the Schism, to this day, our Saints (Father Philotheos, Elder Paisios, Elder Porfyrios, Elder Jacob), just as our older Saints (Saint Kosmas of Aetolia, Saint Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain), and even the much older Saints (Saint Gregory Palamas and the Blessed Hesychast Fathers), all had the same God-communion as the holy Fathers of the 4^th century, the Martyrs, the Apostles, the Prophets...

However, Papism’s ‘saints’, who are merely declared ‘saints’ by the Pope (not as if he actually “identifies their true holiness”, as does our Orthodox Patriarchy; instead, he simply declares them - he “manufactures” them into 'saints'), who can easily be common criminals like the cardinal Stepinac, who was beatified as a ‘saint’ by a recent Pope, even though he was the instigator of hideous crimes in Croatia during World War II!

The Orthodox Church has true communion with God, through His uncreated energies.  Papism doesn’t believe in such a communion; it upholds that God can be approached with intellectual, scholastic thought and with good deeds, with remission documents, with faithful services to the Pope. 

We truly love the Latins; and it is precisely because we love them, that we don’t want them to remain inside these fallacies and the dark, where the Pope and his associates want to keep them. We sincerely want them to breathe the “fresh air” of freedom and Orthodoxy.

This is our contribution to our friends, who were forsaken by the Ecumenists and out of ignorance have remained in Papism. With their fake, self-serving “love”, Ecumenists have condemned the innocent victims of Papism to ignorance. 

But let’s take a look at one more deception, again originating from a pseudo-council of Papism.

The Papist Council of Trent (1545-1563) was considered by it as the “sacred and oecumenical Council of Trent” which “holds the first place on the list of general councils”, because it re-defined the Latin dogma and introduced significant reforms; events that had important effects both within and outside of Papism. [1]. 

But, very few people are aware –as Dositheos of Jerusalem writes– that this council «anathematizes the Catholic (Greek = univeral, overall) Church, the holy Fathers, the Apostles and Christ Himself » [2]!   The purpose of this study is to make these blasphemies more widely known.  Our main source is the Minutes of this same Papist pseudo-council [3]. We shall only point out a few of its clauses herebelow.

a) The Third Session (February 1546), 

       “DECREE TOUCHING THE SYMBOL OF FAITH”

While outlining the Symbol of Faith with the inclusion of the filioque (“…and in the Holy Ghost the Lord, and the giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son;…”) , the council  “…ordains and decrees that, before all other things, a confession of faith is to be set forth;…………. For which cause, this council has thought good, that the Symbol of faith which the holy Roman Church makes use of,--as being that principle wherein all who profess the faith of Christ necessarily agree, …………….. --be expressed in the very same words in which it is read in all the churches….”.

Hence, those who don’t accept the council’s decree are considered heretics.

This was how the Church and the holy Fathers who had originally drafted the Symbol of Faith without the filioque, were anathematized.

b)  The Seventh Session (March 1547),

   “DECREE ON THE SACRAMENTS”  -  ON BAPTISM

CANON III.- "If any one says, that in the Roman church, which is the mother and mistress of all churches, there is not the true doctrine concerning the sacrament of baptism; let him be anathema."

As Dositheos writes, “the catholic Church (catholic = the whole, Orthodox Church), having received this from the Apostles, baptizes with three immersions and three emersions, thus representing the three hypostases of Godhood and the third-day Resurrection. Papists, on the other hand, who innovated baptism, have anathematized in this council whoever says that this innovation to the Sacrament is not good. In short, they anathematize the whole Church, the holy fathers, as well as the Apostles who had left very clear instructions as to the ritual of baptism.” [4].

c) The Thirteenth Session (October 1551) and 21 (July 1562),   

“DECREE CONCERNING THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST”

Here, the Papists have corrupted this major Sacrament in two ways. First of all, they decided that it is not necessary to distribute both of the sanctified gifts – the bread and the wine – but that one of the two is sufficient. Secondly, they decided that it is not necessary for children to also partake of the sanctified gifts.

They furthermore anathematize all those who say that these reforms were not proper.

Specifically, in the fourth chapter of the 21^st session they ordained the following canons:  

c)  The Twenty-first Session

“DECREE ON COMMUNION UNDER BOTH SPECIES, AND THE COMMUNION OF INFANTS”

CANON I.--"If any one says, that, by the precept of God, or, by necessity of salvation, all and each of the faithful of Christ ought to receive both species of the most holy sacrament not consecrating; let him be anathema."

CANON 11.--"If any one says, that the holy Catholic Church was not induced, by just causes and reasons, to communicate, under the species of bread only, laymen, and also clerics when not consecrating; let him be be anathema."

CANON IV.--"If any one saith, that the communion of the Eucharist is necessary for little children, before they have arrived at years of discretion; let him be anathema."

Dositheos comments that :

«The very Lord Himself ordained: ‘Take this, eat of it’ and ‘drink this, all of you’, and the holy Fathers duly accepted those words of the Lord, so that all Christians would thus be eating of His body and drinking of His blood; however, the Pope has innovated against the Saints and against the very Christ Himself, by judging that the laity should partake only of the one gift, that is, the bread; this was furthermore verified previously, in the Latin synods of Constance and Basle, and was also accepted by the present (synod) with immense blasphemy, by anathematizing those who will say that the Roman Church was not justified in doing this.”

And he continues, saying: “The Lord said ‘Take this and eat of it, and drink of this, all of you' and the catholic (=whole) Church from the beginning made available the communion of this Sacrament to the children also, while the roman one –the papist church – appointed only the adults to take holy communion and not the children; and to those who say that the papist church was not justified in doing these things and thus ordaining, it anathematizes them, thus again anathematizing the catholic (=whole) Church and the holy fathers, and even the Christ Himself.”

d)     The Twenty-fourth Session (November 1563),

          “DOCTRINE ON THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY”

CANON VlI.-"If any one says, that the Church has erred, in that she hath taught, and doth teach, in accordance with the evangelical and apostolical doctrine, that the bond of matrimony cannot be dissolved on account of the adultery of one of the married parties; and that both, or even the innocent one who gave not occasion to the adultery, cannot contract another marriage, during the life-time of the other; and, that he is guilty of adultery, who, having put away the adulteress, shall take another wife, as also she, who, having put away the adulterer, shall take another husband; let him be anathema."

Dositheos comments on this Canon, saying that this council “anathematizes those who provoke divorce on the grounds of adultery, thus anathematizing those who might say ‘whomsoever drives away his wife for reasons other than fornication’, the catholic (=whole) Church, and the holy fathers.”

Even though Christ Himself had told us [5] that He makes allowance for divorce for reasons of fornication, the papists anathematize Him Who had said this!!

When Dositheos had written that «Papism is anti-Christian» and «papists are confessed falsifiers», he was well aware of what he was saying. Was he perhaps lying, when he described facts like this:

“…in order that the Latins prove themselves ancient and relentless enemies of the orthodox, they smashed the holy Altar partition in the Temple of Bethlehem… they scoffed at - and trampled on - the blessed Crucifix and the holy Icons, which they claimed were supposedly Roman drawings, and as for the holy Altar that was in the archway in front of the Holy Sepulcher, where the Patriarchs distributed the Holy Light, they dug it up completely.” [6]

As the Archbishop of Athens, Christodoulos, had said:

“Ecumenism, as the term has eventually become prevalent to be called, is of course a heresy, because it signifies a renouncing of basic characteristics of the Orthodox faith, such as –for example- the acceptance of the ‘branch theory’, that is, each Church possesses a portion of the Truth and that all “churches” must unite, and place all the portions of the truth on the table in order to compose the whole.  We believe that Orthodoxy is the One, Holy, Catholic (=whole) and Apostolic Church. That’s it. There can be no argument about this, so, consequently, anyone who professes the opposite, can be called an ecumenist and is thus a heretic.” [7]

We shall again stress that WE SHOULD LOVE the ordinary folks of Papism. And we do love them, because they are oppressed and kept in the dark by their ‘custodians’. The opponent is Papism and not the Papist faithful - just as to a doctor, the enemy is the disease and not the patient.

____________________________________

[1] Ref. Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, English transcript by Rev. H.J. Schroeder, O.P., Tan Books and Publishers, Illinois (1978), page. iii· and Ecclesiastic History: From the beginning to this day, by Archm. V.K. Stefanides, Papadimitriou Publications, 2^nd Edition, 1959, pages 606-611.

[2] Ref. Dodecabiblos, Books XI and XII, V. Rigopoulos Publications, Thessaloniki, 1983, pages 34-36.

[3] Ref. Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, as above.

[4] Ref. 50^th Canon of the Holy Apostles, Pedalion, 11^th Edition, «Astir» Publications, Athens, 1993, pages 62-63.

[5] Ref. Matthew 5:32 and 19:9.

[6] Ref. Dodecabiblos, as above, pages 19, 191 and 211.

[7] Archbishop of Athens Christodoulos, Interview by the Radio Station of the Church, 24/5/1998.

 

Translation by A.N.