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According to Catholic World News, the Congregation for the Eastern Churches will publish a work on the martyrs of the 20th century, with a special focus on Byzantine Catholics who suffered under Communism.

The book, Faith and Martyrs , will be presented to the public on March 23. Patriarch Ignace Moussa I Daoud, the prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, will conduct a press conference announcing the book's publication. The volume will be published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Dear Father Deacon,

We should start producing icons of these and promoting their veneration!

Alex

Here, here, Alex! And also of course the necessary liturgical texts. Daniel Galadza, sometime of this Forum, has talked about doing so on several occasions. I wonder if he has started anything in this regard...

Yes, good point, Alex!

I think also our New Romanos should be employed for a few Akathists to the new martyrs as well.

Does anyone know if there is an organized commission, etc. that has been established to work on new liturgical propers? I had started composing some texts for New Martyr Leonid Federov for Vespers and Matins as a lark sometime ago and it precipitated interest in a larger effort.

There may be people in diverse places working on the same sorts of things and it would be great to compare notes.

Dear Friends,

I'll see what I can do - just as soon as I wrap up my latest akathist to Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky . . .

God bless,

Alex

Good evening.

To the best of my knowledge, this book is available only in Italian at this time. It can be ordered on the Paxbook.com website, www.paxbook.com, [paxbook.com,] which used to be known as the Vatican Bookstore. This site provides books published by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana and several pontifical universities in Rome.

I just placed my order. The price in US dollars is $25.94 with expedited UPS shipping costing $19.44. Express shipping via UPS costs about another $4.00. Paxbook.com accepts Visa and MasterCard, but not American Express.

The title is listed as:


Fede e martirio Le Chiese orientali cattoliche nell'Europa del Novecento

Congregazione per le Chiese orientali
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
12 Febbraio 2004 /Paperback
Price US$ 25.94

Having ordered from paxbook.com previously, I can advise, from my inquiry to their staff, that UPS picks up shipments from them on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Peace,

Charles

While looking through the above website, I noticed several books are marked "folia soluta." What does that mean? Unbound?

Dave

Hello Dave,

Unbound or looseleaf would be good translations of "folia soluta". At first I was thinking Italian, but when I found some of the works with this notation, I realized that the notation is in Latin.

Peace,

Charles

Good evening.

I received my copy of Fede e martirio yesterday. I am happy to advise that many sections of this book are in English, and the sections which are in other languages (Italian mostly, but some French) have short English summaries. This book is extremely interesting and has excellent documentation, including photocopies of documents from the archives of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches. Some of these documents are in Latin, others in Italian, and a few in English.

Peace,

Charles

In a very polemical argument I was in recently, the other party referred to this book as evidence of Orthodox having the blood of innocent Greek Catholics on their hands. Since you have the book, Charles, can you tell me if this is indeed what the facts in the book support, or is this other person confusing Orthodox with Communists (which would be reprehensible)?

jbosl (an interesting acronym?) There is, unfortunately, abundant evidence of Orthodox collaboration with the Communists in the persecution of the Greek-Catholics - demonstrates the melancholy possibility to be simultaneously persecuted and persecuting.
Incognitus

Dear Incognitus,

But, apart from Met. Andrew Sheptytsky, when the RC's were burning Orthodox Churches in Volyn, the Greek-Catholics were rather silent in opposing this and there are some other examples in our history.

The story of Orthodox collaboration with the Soviets is a sad one, and I don't think anyone of us is in a position to judge this period of history.

Alex

Thank you. I know there were certainly collaborators, but the assertion he was making was that basically it was the Russian Orthodox Church itself that was setting the policy and pushing the murder of Greek Catholics. It is this assertion I'm wondering about.

Actually, incognitus, my screen name is that I'm probably too cognitus for on-line. Bosl is my last name.

Dear Alex,

My assumption is that you are refering to the interwar period.

(1) During the interwar period in Volyn, the 'minority' Roman Catholic Poles were in fact conducting a program of rapid Polish colonization, and political pacification and forced assimmilation of the Ukrainian majority. In many cases this included the burning of Orthodox churches. This was a direct breach of the Treaty of Versaille which obliged them to respect the ethnic minorities (Ukrainians and Belorussians) within their 'newly acquired eastern lands'. The flare-up in 1943 between the Poles and Ukrainians which Mateusz mentioned in another thread was precipitated by another significant event, but was the product of the years of mistreatment of the Ukrainian majority by the Polish colononizing minority - a direct breach of the Treaty of Versailles.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Volyn were a minority and whose numbers were far inferior to the Ukrainian Orthodox. The Greek Catholics in Volyn were 'walking on thin ice' and were in no position to publicly voice their objections to these happenings without immediate and swift retribution by the Poles. The only person who could reasonably object without fear of revenge against himself was Metropolitan Andrej Sheptytsky of the UGCC. To blame the whole UGCC episcopate or clergy for not reacting in Volyn would be an unfair assesment of the events of the era.

Later on during WW2, Metropolitan Andrej Sheptytsky also publicly condemned Himmler and the NAZIS for their mistreatment of the Jewish minority. There is no other individual in the UGCC in that era who would not have been immeditelly executed by the Germans for such public condemnation - the Germans told him so. The NAZIS told Metropolitan Sheptytsky that they would have executed him for such comments but did not because of 'his advanced age'. In reality, they did not execute him because of the immense respect he had not only within his own church but also the Orthodox and many Roman Catholics within the Vatican curia. If you kill a guy like that, you suddenly bring the cause to world attention. The same was true with the interwar period in Volyn - only Sheptysky could be so open.

(2) The evils of the Communist Soviet era can't be judged by us humans. However, those who continue to cooperate and publicly reward the Communists for their 'work for the people and the church' should be condemned. I'm sorry to say that the Russian Orthodox Church CONTINUES to cooperate with the communists and their members turned 'businessmen'. They do not seem to see the evil in continuing along this evil path.

Hritzko