The Vatican HAS Tried to Interfere With U.S. Politics

Published by The National Herald, June 3, 2005

In response to Jon Marc Teusink’s letter last week, which was in response to my May 7 column ("Is Benedict XVI Really Innocent III?"), I believe Mr. Teusink’s letter reflects the sad state of Orthodox theological education in the America, as well as the reluctance of our higher clergy to help us understand what our faith requires of us beyond building brick and mortar churches and paying our dues.

To argue that the Vatican did not interfere in American politics is naοve at best, and disingenuous at worst. The facts speak for themselves. American Catholic bishops wrote a new chapter in political history just a few months before the elections. They intimidated American voters and politicians by announcing that they would refuse communion to American Catholic politicians and voters who did not work to impose Vatican law on abortion in the United States.

The Vatican is smart enough to realize that if it actually carried out its threat, it would provoke rebellion among American Catholics. The Vatican has used the threat of refusing communion, imposing that ban on Catholic countries, and excommunication, for centuries - for political, rather than spiritual coercion. The events of 2004 fit this pattern like a glove.

I recommend that Mr. Teusink research the controversy surrounding John Kennedy’s election as America’s first Catholic President. Mr. Teusink should also do some research on Vatican rules on abortion.

Until the late 19th Century, the Vatican held to the ancient Aristotelian view that terminating a pregnancy was not abortion until after the baby moved, a moment described by the Catholic Church as "quickening." One might ask why modern Popes decided that the previous 200 or so Popes were wrong. If current Popes are believed infallible, does this mean that earlier ones were not? The laws on abortion in many Catholic countries in Europe are still faithful to the old rule.

Mr. Teusink might also note that the law in Orthodox countries generally reflects the teachings of the Orthodox Church, which does not innovate, and which still holds to the same unchanged ancient doctrine.

I was not impugning Saint Benedict. Rather, I take issue with how the Church of Rome has manipulated his legacy. Anyone interested in how the Catholic Church used the Benedictines as propagandists in the Crusades and the wars against Orthodoxy should read Karen Armstrong’s "Holy War" and Sir Steven Runciman’s landmark "History of the Crusades."

In any case, I find Mr. Teusink’s call for excommunication of Orthodox politicians more frightening. I would be interested in knowing which politicians should be excommunicated, and on what grounds. The Orthodox politicians I know are faithful adherents to our Church’s paramount doctrine of "oikonomia." Roughly interpreted, "oikonomia" requires Christians to use the brains God gave us to think out decisions so as to cause the least harm.



Volume 7 Number 23 - Tuesday, June 7th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY