Christian Presence, Peace and Living Together in the Middle East

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Good day!

To all of you dear people, greetings from the East, birthplace of religions, especially in the Holy Land, of which Pope Saint John Paul II said, "The Holy Land is the home of all Christians, because it is the home of Jesus and Mary." It is the home of every man, as Psalm 86 (LXX) says of Jerusalem, "A man shall say, Sion is my mother."

God has established the heavenly Jerusalem as the home of all people. Therefore, the earthly Jerusalem must not be bound to a person or a people, for Jerusalem is the mother of us all. I consider Jerusalem, where I served as bishop for twenty-six years, as the capital of our faith, whether we are Jews, Christians or Muslims. That is its future and task. This is the future and mission of the Middle East and all its inhabitants - Jews, Christians, Muslims – who have been living together for thousands of years.

Photo: courtesy of Böblinger Bote

“The most important task is making terrorists into human beings again”

Renningen, Germany 11 September 2018

The visit of Patriarch Emeritus Gregorios III to Renningen came as a complete surprise. He was able to tell us something about current events in Syria today. It seems as though the struggle against so-called Islamic State is drawing to an end. What the country needs is not a military victory on the part of the Russians or the Americans, but readiness for reconciliation. “People who are not ready for reconciliation have no place in this country. We just can’t go on living in a state of war,” said the patriarch.

His main concern is with those who want to return to their ruined homes. Many are still undecided, as the patriarch reported, but the majority would like to go back. He is particularly concerned with Daraya, to which some fifty families comprising some six hundred persons are about to return: they need help.

It is also important for the sixty-bed hospital in Khabab, some forty miles from Damascus, to be completed. For this, furnishings and beds are required.

The most important task, according to the patriarch, is to make the terrorists human again, and do away with their hatred and enmity, in order to reintroduce peace to the country.

Renningen’s Catholic priest, Father Franz Pitzal has pledged support to the patriarch and even given a small contribution towards the reconstruction.

The patriarch, who also used to have responsibility for Jerusalem, bestowed on Father Pitzal the patriarchal Cross of Jerusalem, and, which is much more important for an orthodox Church, an antimension too. That is an altar-cloth, which in the Eastern rite acts as a reliquary cover, similar to the way relics are placed below the altar in catholic Churches.

In Renningen city centre, the patriarch noted enthusiastically the capital letter H standing for the one hundred and one countries, including Syria, to which Renningen sends help. He was also very interested in the Way of the Cross, which Father Pitzal has created for the Renninger Church and which connects current developments with the Passion of Christ.

See also Kreiszeitung: https://www.krzbb.de/krz_51_111588031-13-_Wichtigste-Aufgabe-aus-Terroristen-wieder-Menschen-machen.html

24 September 1918 - 22 September 2018

Patriarch Emeritus Gregorios III was happy to participate in the abbey’s celebrations. In the morning, a solemn mass had been celebrated by Bishop Stefan Oster in the basilica, after which followed a concert in the upper church, with speeches from the abbot, Marianus Bieber, the state-minister Bernd Sibler and the district councillor, Christian Bernreiter. In the afternoon, His Beatitude presided at Byzantine Vespers in the St Nicholas Church. The whole occasion offered a good opportunity for him to visit the abbey and join in the festivities.

He brought the monks greetings from the Holy Land, and from the countries suffering from war, from Palestine with its seventy-year long conflict, from Iraq, and from Syria, now in its eighth year of crisis.

He writes, “My presence was a reminder of my predecessor, Maximos IV’s visiting Niederaltaich during the International Eucharistic Conference in Munich (1960), and later, on the occasion of the Second Vatican Council, together with some bishops of the Melkite Church.

By Sean Salai, S.J. - America Magazine

Bishop Milan Lach, S.J., is the fifth Byzantine Catholic ordinary of the Ruthenian Eparchy of Parma, covering several Midwestern U.S. states. Enthroned as bishop on June 30 at his cathedral in Ohio, the 44-year-old Jesuit (an ethnic Ruthenian from Slovakia) is now the youngest Catholic bishop in North America.

Born 1973 in then-Czechoslovakia, Bishop Lach was ordained a priest in 2001. Before Pope Francis sent him to the United States to replace retired Bishop John Kudrick, he served as an auxiliary bishop of Byzantine Catholics in Presov, Slovakia.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

By Perry West

(CNA) - Centralia, Pennsylvania, is on fire … literally: a coal fire has been raging underneath the town for more than 50 years, but a century-old church still stands, drawing hundreds of Catholics for an annual Marian pilgrimage.

“The town is essentially gone, for all intents and purposes dead, but the Church is what gives life,” said Father John Fields, communications director and vice-chancellor for the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

“Jesus Christ gives life to the whole location,” he told CNA.

On August 26, four bishops and more than 500 pilgrims gathered to celebrate the Feast of Assumption of Mary, known in the Eastern rites as the Dormition of the Theotokos.

Pilgrims came from nearby and as far away as Texas and Florida for the third annual pilgrimage at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in Centralia, a nearly deserted town where a fire still burns up to 300 feet underground.  

Laura Ieraci | Aug 28, 2018 | CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

MERRILLVILLE, Indiana - The priest who was attacked by an unknown assailant in the sacristy of St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Parish in Merrillville Aug. 20 was admitted to the hospital two days later, where he continues to recover from the assault and resulting trauma.

Bishop Milan Lach of the Byzantine Ruthenian Eparchy of Parma in Ohio shared an update on Father Basil Hutsko in a letter read at all weekend services throughout the eparchy Aug. 25-26.

Lach read the letter personally to members of the northwest Indiana parish after the evening Divine Liturgy, Aug. 25.

Hutsko, 64, was assaulted as he prepared to celebrate morning Divine Liturgy. The assailant came up behind him, threw him to the ground and beat his head against the sacristy floor. The priest lost consciousness and never saw his assailant

By Catholic News Service • Posted August 21, 2018

MERRILLVILLE, Ind. (CNS) — A Byzantine Catholic priest was attacked Aug. 20 in the altar servers’ sacristy of his church in Merrillville, near Gary in the northwestern part of the state.

The priest, Father Basil Hutsko, suffered a concussion in the attack at St. Michael Church, and was scheduled to undergo further tests to determine the extent of his injuries.

The attacker, who was still at large, jumped Father Hutsko from behind, according to Father Thomas Loya, director of the Respect Life Office for the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Eparchy of Parma, Ohio, and a member of the eparchy’s presbyteral council.

In a Facebook posting after the attack, Father Loya said, “The attacker choked him and slammed his head to the ground. Father Basil lost consciousness. Before going unconscious, Father Basil heard the attacker say, ‘This is for all the kids!'” — a reference to clergy sex abuse scandals that have resurfaced in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

Father Hutsko, who is in his 60s, is not suspected of any abuse, Father Loya told Catholic News Service in an Aug. 21 telephone interview.

Press Release from Diocese of Phoneix:

WASHINGTON — Pope Francis has appointed the Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted as the Apostolic Administrator Sede Plena of the Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix. Bishop Olmsted will also retain his current Office as Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix.

The announcement was publicized in Washington on August 1, 2018 by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop Olmsted has served as the fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix since December 20, 2003.

WASHINGTON (USCCB)—Pope Francis has appointed the Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, as the Apostolic Administrator Sede Plena of the Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic eparchy of Phoenix. Bishop Olmsted will also retain his current Office as Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix.

The announcement was publicized in Washington on August 1, 2018 by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop Olmsted has served as the fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix since December 20, 2003.

Prior to his arrival in Phoenix, Bishop Olmsted served as Bishop of Wichita, Kansas from 2001-2003, after being ordained Coadjutor Bishop on April 20, 1999. Before serving in Wichita, he served as the Rector and President of the Pontifical College Josephinum, a Catholic Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. Since 1974, Bishop Olmsted has been a member of the Jesus Caritas ­fraternity of priests. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., July 2, 1973.

For 16 years, Bishop Olmsted lived in Rome, Italy, where he obtained a master's degree in theology and a doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Gregorian University (1981) and worked more than nine years as an official in the Vatican Secretariat of State from 1979 to 1988. During his time in Rome, he was also an assistant spiritual director at the Pontifical North American College.