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Year: 2007

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Everything Else

2007 Armenian Festival

Hagop Torosyan, Etchmiadzin

The 2007 Armenian Festival will be held at St. Peter Armenian Apostolic Church, 100 Troy-Schenectady Road, Watervliet, New York 12189 (Call 518-274-3673) on Sunday, June 10th from 12 noon to 6pm.

The festival features Armenian food, music, dance (including the Sipan Dance Group and the Armenian School Student’s Group), as well as all the normal festival fun for young and old.

If you’re in the Albany, Troy, or Schenectady area I encourage you to attend and support my Armenian friends. Stop by and say hello to Father Stepanos and Father Bedros, and save a few pastries for your local PNCC deacon.

Everything Else,

Monks are funny

By the way, the monk having trouble is Ansgar, as in St. Ansgar. Just wondering if the producers had that in mind when they created this. It is in Danish I think.

I think the whole thing is great, but what stood out for me was when Ansgar held up the scroll and stated that books are more time consuming…

Calendar of Saints, Christian Witness, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Saints and Martyrs

May 10

Joseph Padewski, Bishop and Martyr, (1951)
St. Calepodius, Martyr, (222)
Saints Gordian and Epimachus, Martyrs, (250)

Bishop Joseph Padewski

Bishop Joseph Padewski was born February 18, 1894 in Antoniów, a small farming village near Radom in Poland. He emigrated to the United States in 1913 and moved to Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit he came into contact with the Polish National Catholic Church. In 1916 he entered the PNCC Seminary. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 16, 1919 by Prime Bishop Francis Hodur. He celebrated his first mass at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Plymouth, Pennsylvania.

In 1931 Father Padewski was sent to Poland as part of the PNCC mission of evangelization in Poland, and to work on consolidating the structures of the PNCC (PNKK) in Poland. He was appointed assistant to Bishop Leon Grochowski.

In January 1933 at a meeting of the Supreme Council of the PNCC in Poland attended by Bishop Hodur, Father Padewski was appointed administrator of the PNCC in Poland. At the Second Synod of the PNCC in Poland in April 1935 Father Padewski was elected Bishop. Father Padewski was elevated to the Episcopacy on August 26, 1936 in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Before the Second World War the PNCC had 100,000 members, 52 parishes, 12 affiliate churches, and 52 priests in Poland.

On September 1, 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west and the Soviet Union invaded from the east. The losses to Poland and to the Church in Poland during the Nazi German and Soviet occupation were devastating. Over 6 million Poles died including 3 million Polish citizens of the Jewish faith. Many priests were sent to concentration camps. In all, 28% of PNCC priests were killed.

In part, Bishop Padewski was able to save the church from complete liquidation by bringing the church under the control of the Old Catholic Church’s Bishop in Bonn, Erwin Kreuzer.

In 1942 Bishop Padewski was arrested by the Nazis and was held at the Montelupich prison in Krakow. He was then transferred to the Tittmoning POW Camp in Germany where he was held for 18 months. Through the intervention of the Swiss Red Cross he was freed and returned to the United States in March 1944.

Between 1944 and 1946 Bishop Padewski served as pastor of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Czestochowa Parish in Albany, New York.

Bishop Padewski returned to Poland on February 20, 1946 to resume his duties as Bishop of the Polish branch of the PNCC.

Shortly after his return, the Soviet Union completed its takeover of Poland and asserted Communist control. In this atmosphere of Stalinist terror, Bishop Padewski was arrested by the Communist Secret Police (UB) in Warsaw and was held at their prison on Rakowieckiej Street.

Bishop Padewski died on May 10, 1951 as a result of secret police questioning and maltreatment.

Bishop Padewski with Servicemen and Gold and Silver Star Mothers and Wives in Albany, NY

Perspective, PNCC,

Take me home, EWTN road…

With my apologies to John Denver.

Anyway, I read a post that Ben Johnson put up on his Western Orthodoxy site, regarding an Orthodox deacon who became Roman Catholic. This clergyman appeared on the EWTN show “The Journey Home.”

This show drags out various people who have come over to the Roman Church, primarily from other Christian Churches, but not only. In the past it has featured Jews who have converted as well as people of various non-Christian backgrounds.

It is a tortured show that exposes all the ‘faults’ of the person’s prior church, how the opinion of family and friends is unimportant, how much resistance the person received in making the changeover (yes, they are all martyrs), and how some family and friends now accept the person’s choice. It also highlights their moment of conversion, you know, the one they failed to discuss with their spiritual father. Didn’t St. John warn us:

Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

I think that if you added a little bling and spiced up the set a bit you’d have an infomercial for Roman Catholicism.

You don’t want to shop there, their Eucharist is hokey, shop here and you’ll not only receive the reeeeeal Jeeeesus, but eternal life as well. Listen to how Bob found the truth… 100% guaranteed, some restrictions apply. Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, Inc.

What I find particularly sick is that the show flies in the face of the Roman Church’s teaching on Orthodoxy and other Catholic Churches, which the Roman Church deems to be “true particular churches” like the PNCCsee DOMINUS IESUS.

But ultramontanes, neo-conservative Catholics, and EWTN have never been ones not to foist their beliefs upon the Pope or the Vatican. They obviously know the way far better than those whose office is to teach.

For us, in the PNCC, we follow Bishop Hodur’s message – simply, allow God to enlighten and direct you:

The National Church does not recognize any anathemas. We are a group of free people and if, therefore, someone comes to know that our principles appeal to his soul, his education, and temperament, then we acknowledge him as our brother or our sister. In the same manner, if a person changes his conviction and leaves us, we do not condemn him because this is his free and Christian right. When new religious groups emerge, we do not curse them but acknowledge them as brothers. We, therefore, invite all the people of good will to our Church and if they do not come to our side, we will not degrade or ridicule them.

Something to be said for trusting in God.

Current Events, Perspective, Political, Saints and Martyrs,

Doing the devil’s work

From the AP via the International Herald Tribune: Iraq’s Christian minority flees from violence

BAGHDAD: Despite the chaos and sectarian violence raging across Baghdad, Farouq Mansour felt relatively safe as a Christian living in a multiethnic neighborhood in the capital.

Then, two months ago, al-Qaida gunmen kidnapped him and demanded his family convert to Islam or pay a US$30,000 ransom. Two weeks later, he paid up, was released and immediately fled to Syria, joining a mass exodus of Iraq’s increasingly threatened Christian minority.

“There is no future for us in Iraq,” Mansour said.

Though Islamic extremists have targeted Iraqi Christians before, bombing churches and threatening religious leaders, the latest attacks have taken on a far more personal tone, with many Christians being expelled from their homes and forced to leave their possessions behind, police, human rights groups and residents said.

The Christian community here, about 3 percent of the country’s 26 million people, is particularly vulnerable. It has little political or military clout to defend itself, and some Islamic insurgents view it as a fifth column —” calling Christians “Crusaders” —” whose real loyalty lies with the U.S. troops they are fighting.

Many churches are now nearly empty during religious services, with much of their flock either gone or too scared to attend. Only about 30 people sat scattered among the pews at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in the relatively safe Baghdad neighborhood of Karradah during this week’s Sunday Mass. About two dozen worshippers took communion in the barren St. Mary’s Church in the northern city of Kirkuk on Sunday…

After I had read that article, I came across an article on church closings at the Buffalo News. In Under canon law, Catholic parishes rarely ‘close’ I found the following:

Closing a parish is a rare and rather involved legal process that extends all the way to the Vatican.

…

—No parish is really ever closed unless there are no Catholics left there,— said Litwin. —In reality, what seem to be closings are not really closings. You’re closing buildings perhaps, but you’re merging parish boundaries.—

The Vatican clarified the issue last summer in a letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in which Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, a high-ranking prelate, wrote: —Only with great difficulty can one say that a parish becomes extinct.—

—A parish is extinguished by the law itself only if no Catholic community any longer exists in its territory, or if no pastoral activity has taken place for a hundred years,— Hoyos wrote, according to the Catholic News Service…

President Bush has done quite the job in ridding Iraq of Christians. By 2108 the Canons regarding church closings will become operative. No Christians, no pastoral activity, no churches in Iraq.

Mr. Bush is the real problem, not the jihadists pushing dhimmitude, who in reality have been given license to run rampant under the ‘government, we don’t need no stinkin’ government’ situation in Iraq.

I would say, beyond much doubt, that President Bush considers the Christians of the Middle East anything but Christians, maybe dogs, but certainly not Christians.

You see, our President is firmly aligned with the Evangelicals whose rhetoric, practice, and belief, denies the fact that anyone of the ‘catholic’ persuasion is a Christian at all.

  • Christians in Lebanon – nope.
  • Christians in Iraq – nope
  • The Orthodox, Romans, Orientals – who dat.
  • Christians in Israel – just those awaiting the rapture

Mr. Bush, pay attention to scripture. A house divided and all…

You are working against these ancient communities of faith, and the responsibility for their fall lies at your feet. You’ve just about accomplished what the Roman Emperors, the Hun, the Horde, the Sultans, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Kim Jong-il, all combined couldn’t accomplish. You’ve just about rid a huge chunk of the earth of Christianity.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, ,

Michal Urbaniak in New York at the Polish Film Fesitval

Michal Urbaniak plays New York City again and performs as a part of the Polish Film Festival in New York at the Europa Night Club, 98-104 Meserole Ave., (corner of Manhattan Ave.) Brooklyn, NY this coming Sunday, May 6th at 7pm.

After his extensive European tour, he is back home. Michal Urbaniak will appear with his legendary all stars outfit including Donald Blackman on keys and vocals, Barry Johnson on bass, and Lenni Christian on drums, the team that created the hit —Funking for Jamaica— and is a part of Michal’s famous Urbanator Band.

Mika Urbaniak who is just recording her first solo album, will lend her smoky vocals in her New York debut.

Among the films featured during the festival will be Who Never Lived/Kto nigdy nie żył.

Kto nigdy nie zyl

Synopsis: A young priest works with drug addicted youth. His supervisors do not like his attitude towards his work and the fact, that he is very well liked by his pupils. When he gets an order to start studies in Rome, he is convinced the authorities are attempting to isolate him from his believers.

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