On the Pope's Visit to Cyprus

[John of the Ladder]

Q: Shouldn't there be any communication between the Churches? We are living in the 21st century; we are in the European Union.

We can have dialogues with any person, even more so with the heterodox and those of other religions. But it is one thing for a dialogue to take place, and another to receive the Pope as a canonical Bishop, who, for us Orthodox, is a heretic, outside of the Church, and, hence, not even a bishop.

Q: On account of the Schism?

He [the Pope] has been outside of the Church for ten centuries now, he is not a canonical bishop, he has no relation whatsoever to the reality of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Christ. It is one thing to receive him as a canonical bishop and quite another to speak to him as [being] a heterodox in order to reveal to him the truth of the Orthodox Faith and Tradition.

Q: The Ecumenical Patriarch has met with the Pope and a dialogue has already begun between the Churches.

As I said, dialogue is not a bad thing when it is carried out based on correct presuppositions. However, it is wrong to say to these people that we recognize them as a Church, that we recognize the Pope as a Bishop, as our brother in Christ in the priesthood and in [the] faith. I cannot accept this, because we are lying [when we say this], since all of the Holy Fathers teach exactly the opposite. Papism is a heresy and the source of many other heresies which trouble the entire world today. A contemporary Saint of the Church, Saint Justin Popovich, said that in the history of the human race there have been three tragic falls: of the first-formed Adam, of the disciple of Christ, Judas, and of the Pope, who, when he was the first Bishop of the Church, fell from the apostolic faith, was cut off from the canonical Church and lured away a host of people with him until today.

Q: What does the Pope say about the Orthodox?

The Pope said that we Orthodox are a deficient Church

To be continued<<<

[John of the Ladder]

Q: God is One


Yes, God is One and the Church of God is one, and that is why we say in the Symbol of Faith [that we believe] "in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church". This is the Orthodox Church, there do not exist many Churches.


Q: Isn't it egotistic, to regard that it is "only us"?


It is not egotistic. When, for example, you say that "Italians aren't Greek" - which is a truth - you do not offend the other. By saying to the other that it doesn't matter that you are Catholic and that we all belong to the same Church, I am playing with him [or mocking him] since all of the Holy Fathers teach that the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ is one.

Q: Why is that one Church ours, and not the Papist one?


Because the Orthodox Church preserves the faith of the Apostles and the experience of the prophets unshakeable up until our own days. The Papists, unfortunately, from the time when they were cut off from the Church added many heretic dogmas to their [confession of] faith, changed the Symbol of Faith [the Nicene Creed] and above all elevated the Pope to the level of being the eminent and unique representative of God on earth. They claim that the Pope is infallible, and that whoever has no communion with the Pope has no communion with God. They teach these things officially, from within their Synods.

When you add things to the Symbol of Faith that the Holy Fathers did not write, and many other false teachings, this is heresy. This is the reality of things.

Q: How does the Orthodox Church encounter/deal with heretics?

With much love. We love the Pope, we love the papists just as we love every person; we do not despise them, we do not reject them as persons, but we do not accept [their] heresy, we do not accept the false teachings, we do not accept [their] delusions. It is because we love them that we must tell them the truth.

Q: Of course each one has his own truth...

That is why the dialogue takes place - to prove on the basis of historical sources which Church has preserved the apostolic faith and the apostolic experience of the Saints.

>>>To be continued