Yet Another Reason To Reconcile With The Russian Orthodox
We sure could use more than a few like him

Three cheers for Russian Orthodox Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev! With a few notable exceptions, we here in the Catholic Church have a hierarchy of milquetoasts, wimps, "go with the flow"-ers, and flat-out heretics. Don't get me wrong... we have some damn fine leaders out there in Catholicland. But lets be brutally honest with each other... for the most part, it's an endless sea of disappointment and embarrassment. So much for the "fruits" of Vatican II.

Russian prelate decries "politically correct Christianity"

Vienna, Jan. 29, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The Russian Orthodox Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev of Vienna has criticized "politically correct" Christianity, and denounced anti-Christian bias in Europe, in a pair of provocative public addresses during the past week.

On January 22, in a talk to the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Austria, the Russian prelate said that some Christian leaders, in their rush to be seen as acceptable to the modern world, are leading their people on "a direct route to spiritual collapse." (As Pope Benedict has said the same thing over and over.)

"Christianity that has renounced itself will not be able to oppose challenges of the modern world," Archbishop Hilarion argued. To maintain their strength, he said, Christian bodies must cling to the Gospel rather than seeking accommodation with the secular world. (And that is exactly what the so-called "Spirit" of Vatican II is.)

Three days later, in a meeting of Orthodox leaders with José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, the Russian archbishop made a similar point from a different perspective, insisting that European governments must recognize and respect their Christian cultural roots. If Christian moral principles are ignored, he argued, the basis for a common European culture will be lost. (Again, our very own Holy Father has said the same thing)

Archbishop Hilarion warned that in practice, Christianity is under siege in today's Europe. "We often hear about anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and very little is said about Christianophobia," he said.Maybe this is exactly why His Holiness is trying so hard for a reconciliation with The Eastern Orthodox. God knows that clerics who have the 'nads to speak the truth are few and far between in the Western Church.

Personally, I hope this is a trend. Let the wimps within Catholicism simply become the Protestants that everyone knows that they already are... and let the Traditional Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Orthodox, et al, come home to Rome, and for us to work out some type of ecclesiastical union with the rest of our separated, yet completely valid Eastern Orthodox brethren.