Orthodox Outlet for Dogmatic Enquiries	Digital Books Papism and Ecumenism

UNIA: The Face and the Disguise

10.  How is the Pope’s persistence explained?

According to the renowned Papist author Raymond Janin, Unia is "the easiest and most effective method" for subjugating someone to the Pope; it is "the best method for drawing schismatics towards the Pope".  Uniates have proven themselves to be the most fanatic propagandists of Papism and the most reliable securers of the Vatican's interests. Therefore, the Pope nowadays needs Unia more than ever, at a time when his socio-economic pursuits are again at a peak. The existence of Uniates reinforces the Pope's prestige, because the Uniates are the ones who render the Christian East's subjugation to the Pope more perceptible and who give the illusion of a catholicity (oneness) and universality. Those who are aware of the history of the Papacy and its relations to the East are able to understand how, above and beyond whichever economic benefits, that which weighs more for Papism is the recognition of the Pope's primacy of power by the Orthodox. Uniates fulfill this demand, and at the same time they support the Papacy far more than the "Pope-worship" that is especially cultivated in the West as a kind of papal mysticism ("the Pope loves us", "he has us in his heart", "there is no church without a Pope" and other similar displays that one encounters in the pro-Papist circles of the West).

It is therefore our belief that the observation of political commentators and international law experts is absolutely valid, in that the Pope is using Eastern Europe as a springboard for strengthening and solidifying his prestige in the West - and especially in the European Union.  We have been given many an opportunity in Europe to ascertain that the Pope is indeed counting very seriously on the recognition of his person by Orthodoxy; well, Unia has been providing such an illusion to the Westerners.  But this has only been reinforcing the - despite the impressions to the contrary - teetering prestige of the Papacy in Europe.

This pursuit by the Vatican has been pointed out by -among others- the Financial Times of 24 Dec. 1991: "The Pope hopes to benefit from the fall of Communism", because his objective is to be recognized as "the leading religious power in the New Europe". This can also explain the Vatican's demand that Europe's common currency bear the image of the Pope on it!  I believe that the most eloquent presentation of the Pope's objective is portrayed in the caricature below, by the top-ranking Greek cartoonist, K. Mitropoulos:

Given that a picture can say far more than an entire article, the above sketch by K. Mitropoulos is enough to express the Pope's hegemonic inclinations, and at a pan-European level, no less.  The Vatican has returned to the Medieval era and the issue "regarding vestments". Or, rather, it is proving that it has not moved away from the Medieval age at all, thus preserving itself as the sorriest remnant of medieval feudalism.

The current rebirth of Unia is, for the Vatican, a kind of religious colonialism. The Unia of Central Europe or the middle East, compact and organized as it is - and for this reason an overwhelming power in the presence of a native element - can secure that potential for expansionist designs; these plans by the Pope, along with his secret agreements with the USA for the "co-exploitation" of the peoples of the former "existent socialism", are now known facts, thanks to the exposures by the Press. The Vatican is once again hastening to fill the gaps, by exploiting all the negative elements of the Orthodox peoples in every region. That is why it has given even greater authority to the Uniate leaders. The Uniate Primates of Ukraine and Rumania have already been made Cardinals, and furthermore, the number of Papist or Uniate bishops throughout Eastern Europe is ever increasing - bishops with either a minimal flock or without any flock at all.

It is easy to surmise from the above developments what the underlying threat to Hellenism is.  The Papacy has, after all, been using the Slavs for entire centuries against Byzantium. One example is sufficient to express this continuity in Papism with regard to Unia: In the 17th century, there lived a great persecutor of the Orthodox - Jehosaphat Krncevic. In 1623 he had ordered the remains of the Orthodox to be exhumed and thrown to the dogs. Krncevic himself had participated in terrorist activities against the Orthodox, in one of which he was murdered by an Orthodox. Pope Pius IX proclaimed him a saint in 1867. Pope Pius XI in 1923 had referred to him as a "man of virtue". Pope Paul VI in 1923 had transferred his remains into a crypt of Saint Peter's cathedral in Rome, and the present Pope referred to him as an "apostle of...unity" and a "noble personality".

In the Balkans, the Vatican is afraid of the collaboration and the unity between the Orthodox and in view of this, has aligned itself with other powers that have invested their own interests in the region and have designated spheres of influence there.  Two axles of collaboration have been developed by countries of the West (among them are the Vatican and Turkey) for their economic domination in Eastern Europe and the Balkans; that is why the argument of a Roman Catholic official of our Country is at least a ridiculous one, i.e., that the Uniates love the Pope and that he cannot turn them away! Ridiculous, because no-one is asking for them to be turned away! They are free to love the Pope and to belong to him, within the boundaries of Christian and democratic freedom. However, they are not free to collaborate with the Pope against their fellow-nationals - which is what they are doing, by remaining Uniates. If they love the Pope, let them become Roman Catholics. We Orthodox are willing to consent to any honest dialogue whatsoever with the Roman Catholics, but never with Uniates. Just as our Fathers during our enslavement could never enter any dialogue with the "Latin-minded" or the "janissaries", because such a dialogue would have been by definition impossible.

But one might (naively) ask: "Doesn't the Pope desire the Dialogue with Orthodoxy?"  Our reply: The Pope (and this is the Papist method) uses the Dialogue with Orthodoxy as he did in the past, to his own benefit.  That is why "mutual recognition" is constantly being projected, and not the union "in the Truth".  That is why the Vatican constantly demands a Dialogue "on unifying matters" and not "on dividing matters", whereas the Church's fixed praxis is that Orthodoxy's "Dialogue" with heresies be focused on the differences, the deviations from the salvific Faith; those that negate salvation-theosis. This is the uniform practice of the Ecumenical Councils. The Church, as Orthodoxy, never perceives the Faith as a negotiable ideology (compare this against the contemporary "historic compromise" within the sphere of political ideologies), but as a medical-therapeutic method  which alone is able to heal Man and save him.

The Vatican up until 1989 had been using not only Unia but also the Orthodox in the Eastern countries, in order to promote itself as well as its anti-Communist politics in the East, even though the Orthodox of countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia were put under pressure -as they themselves had admitted- both by the Papist and the Uniate element, to the point that they instinctively turned towards the Soviet Union, in spite of their anti-communist trend.  We were the only ones who had naively and from an outsider's viewpoint regarded the confrontation between Papism and Communism in Poland as a victory of Christianity, oblivious to the fact that the conflict aspired to the prevalence and the victory of Papism, and not of Christianity.

As of 1989, the Vatican no longer needs Orthodoxy (as long as it remains Orthodoxy), given that the benefits sought after can easily be acquired through a direct agreement with the Perestroika people (e.g. Gorbachev's visit to the Vatican in 1989) and through diplomatic relations can succeed in increasing its influence, and in fact to the detriment of Orthodoxy. It is precisely in this plan that the Vatican is using Unia - the very same plan that it has perpetually been implementing against Orthodoxy. When Orthodoxy seems weak, it pretends to be offering it assistance with a view to subjugating it; but when Orthodoxy is strong, it does everything possible to destroy it, as Orthodoxy is the debunking of Papism.

In its anti-Orthodox campaign, the Vatican relies on the underlying oppositions among the Orthodox (ethnicities); on the corrosion of people's conscience (attributed to the hyper-enthusiasm of the pro-unionists of our time and their usage of Papist-related terminology such as "sister Church"); on the internal problems of Orthodox peoples on account of political changes, etc. It also relies on the openly declared or the covert "pro-unionists", who are in  essence "Uniatizing". Besides, the Papacy has always relied on  the "Latin-minded" - "pro-unionists" for success in whichever plans it had in the East.  Intellectuals have also proven to be par excellence "pro-unionists" and even more so Politicians, who would usually expect Papist help during the Nation's difficult moments. And they are still waiting for that help....  Finally, the Vatican is benefiting from our mistakes and our divisions and - even more - from the numbing of our self-awareness, to the extent that we are no longer able to place the problem of Unia in the proper context.

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Article published in English on: 20-2-2009.

Last Update: 4-11-2014.