www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Orthodox Priest In Coma After Nato Attack

Here's the story http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3593359.stm

The whole situation is so sad.

For those whose lives are in harm's way,
dear Lord protect them under the shadow of your wings.
For those who have been injured or whose loved ones have been killed,
dear Lord comfort them under the shadow of your wings.
For those who rescue and bring aid,
dear Lord guard them under the shadow of your wings.
For those who seek courage to face an uncertain future,
dear Lord renew their strength under the shadow of your wings.
May God's face shine on us and be gracious to us,
that the shadow of God's wings may give us strength and courage!
May God look on us with favor and give us peace,
that the shadow of God's wings may enfold us in love. Amen.

In His Holy Name,
+Father Archimandrite Gregory

Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy!

From the OCA website:

Petitions for insertion in
the Litany of Fervent Supplication
Crisis in Kosovo
March 25, 2004


Again we pray for the suffering peoples of Kosovo, that the Lord our God would hear their cry and deliver them from their great distress: hear us, O Almighty Lord, and have mercy!

Again we pray that the Lord would turn aside all evil intentions and malice directed against His faithful people, preserving and sustaining them in the midst of enmity and cruel violence: hear us, O gracious Lord, and have mercy!

Again we pray that the Lord will stop the hand of those raised up against His Holy Church, softening the hearts of our enemies: hear us, O most merciful Lord, and have mercy!

Again we pray that the Lord would confirm His persecuted people in Christian witness, granting them the grace to bear their sufferings in His Holy Name and to His glory: hear us, O most holy Lord, and have mercy!


Gaudior, on bended knee

This story apparently is even more disgusting than originally reported. Their are several news reports that the US led forces used explosives on an Orthodox Church and rectory http://www.guardian.co.uk/yugo/article/0,2763,1184212,00.html

I wonder how we would feel if Serbian soldiers staged raids into the US and Great Britain for the purpose of capturing the pilots responsible for bombing civilians in Belgrade and Kosovo in the late 1990's.

Regardless of what one believes about whether the NATO actions were or were not justified, let us all remember in our prayers the well-being of Father Jeremija (Starovlah) and his son Aleksandar.

May the Lord who is a merciful and forgiving God look down upon His servant the priest, Jeremija, and his beloved son, Aleksander, give them relief from their suffering, and comfort those who love them.

Many years,

Neil

I think it's time to truthfully ask WHAT BUSINESS DOES THE USA have in promoting islamists in Europe, many with ties to al qaeda and the saudi wahabbis, while fighting a war on terror on them elsewhere? This western patronage of ubl and his ideologically wahabbi mentors during the clinton administration led to 9/11. The history of islam amongst the Albanians and Bosnians is a Greek tragedy worthy of rivers of tears, but militant islam which is a philosophy of force, rapine, conquest can only be combatted with equal and opposing force. What we have a role in promoting is humanity in the face of atrocity and Christian Truth in the face of hatred and intolerance. But islamist militancy must be combatted for the future of civilization as we know it.

OK let me play devil's advocate here. Was the priest harboring Karadzic? At any point was that devil in his house being protected? I have known Serbian people--obstensibly Orthodox--who rejoice in the murder of Albanians. Is that Christian? Karadzic deserves to be captured and put on trial.

My complaint is that the US took out the Bosnian Serb power (a good thing) but did not follow up and protect the Serbs in Kosovo.

anastasios

I would simply counter and say what right is it of any international body to ignore the sovereignty of a nation and impose its own order on it? I also question the information on the Bosnian situation, for what I saw in the NY Times were pictures of mass graves with corpses bearing the garb of Orthodox Priests and raped and murdered women wearing crosses amongst them with the caption, "murdered muslims by barbaric Serbs in a mass grave". I would suggest total honesty on the topic and an examination of such islamists as izabegovic and his followers and their links to al qaeda and the wahabbis, the fedayeen and al qaeda fighting amonst the "kossovars". Why is there not a "manhunt" for them in this climate of the "war on terror". Ultimately, this is the civil war of one nation and one region over the result of centuries of turkish pogroms and programs of "ethnic cleansing". The very history of islam amongst these peoples is a chronicle of that. Were there no janissaries? Was there no burning of the relics of St. Sava? Was there no forced exodus from Kossovo by the turks to humiliate the Serbs by ethnically cleansing them from their ancestral homeland? Was there no rape of the virtue for centuries of Balkan Christian women, the more favoured of them ending up in a pasha's or sultan's harem?! Was there no tax and utter dehumanization of the Orthodox population under the millet system?! How is it that so many of these Balkan mosques were once ORTHODOX CHURCHES?! The very area and the islamist pillage of it are best illustrated by the defaced and desecrated interior of Agia Sophia and the demoniac ravings on medallions now dirtying her holy walls. How can that be discounted?! While I would concede that all atrocities and ignorant rhetoric and intolerance must be averred, I would be first to point out that it is neither exclusive nor even characteristic of Orthodox Serbs, and I would posit my proof as the ideology of the saudi wahabbis and their money which is supporting and funding the other side. That is the ubl alternative and it is much more hateful than ANYTHING the Serbian Orthodox could ever imagine or the lowest depths to which minorities amongst them may have sunk in their history.

I completely agree with you Anastasios.

In Christ,
Anthony

So you agree with going into someone's home, brutalizing the occupants at the behest of another person who has a blood feud with that person who stands to gain from your action and has a shadier history than the person and family you've just violated?! Sounds like something maffia or nazi to me.

Balaban,

I understand where you are coming from. I wouldn't, however, be quite as millitant as you, especially not in this forum.

Anastasios and Anthony, I think you will both have to admit that there is at least some hypocrisy with the capture and immediate release of Agim Ceku. If the US wants to punish war criminals, why was Ceku released? So if the Serbs come out and hide their own, what difference is that from NATO and the EU letting Ceku fly back to Kosovo to continue committing atrocities? If NATO "hides" Ceku from the law, where is their credibility when claiming to fight against those harboring war criminals?

Before I hear a lot of nonsense about all this being Serbian propaganda, you can confirm this information through Amnesty International.
AI Article [web.amnesty.org]

If you're against war criminals, then be against them no matter their ethnicity.


Concerning this particular priest,

Being a priest, he deserves at least a modicum of respect and the benefit of the doubt (what all accused persons are supposed to get in the US anyway). Patriarch Pavle is sticking behind the priest, which means I very seriously doubt he was putting his family and the church at risk by hiding Karadzic.

The US has found itself again and again doing the local's dirty work by settling old scores without intention. So, the US got intelligence that the priest was hiding Karadzic. What was the intelligence? From whom did it come? Did they get it from a local who didn't like the priest or didn't want any Serbs around? It didn't come from del Ponte, since she "knows" Karadzic is in Serbia.

Anastasios, these are all possibilities that must be considered with at least as much enthusiasm as your own theory, especially since, in the end, the soldiers found no evidence of anything and a priest and his minor son were shot. If he was hiding Karadzic, where's the beef? If there is no beef and never was, where are the indictments against whoever ordered the raid or whoever gave them the bad intelligence?

Your post, Anastasios, assumes that the US did good in Bosnia but failed to do the same in Kosovo. The facts, aspects of which the Ceku affair highlights, point to a different scenario, one in which the US, NATO, EU and the UN were a lot more active in supporting evil. They were, in fact, dancing with the devil. I think that is one point balaban is trying to make.

I can tell you where the indictments are for the responsible US, EU, UN and NATO officials who help Ceku; they are in Kosovo in the cemeteries and the rubble of the churches and monasteries. To me, that is a more serious and credible indictment than the theory for which this priest and his son were shot.

"So you agree with going into someone's home, brutalizing the occupants at the behest of another person who has a blood feud with that person who stands to gain from your action and has a shadier history than the person and family you've just violated?! Sounds like something maffia or nazi to me."

1) No, I don't think that way.
2) Don't call me a Nazi.

anastasios

Cizinec, I believe in my post I said it was wrong for the US to attack one group in favor of the other and not do the same for the minority on the other side. All war criminals of whatever background should be treated equally.

That you would assume that my brief, emotionless post above is indicative of me being a conspiracy theorist, indicates that you have already come to some wild assumptions of what I believe.
Yep, that's what I believe.


I merely pointed out what other people were thinking but are afraid to say because of reactionary posts by people like Balaban. I stated a very limited point and that was it. I didn't say I thought it was good that the US brutalized an innocent priest, but rather that if he was harboring a war criminal, what do you expect to happen? Saying "what do you expect" is not equivalent to saying, "he deserved it" by the way.

My "theory" was wholly unenthusiastic, and hardly a theory at that, as I made one point in a devil's advocate sort of way. I think that what I brought forward needs to be considered among the evidence, too, because when I stated what I did, this thread had already degenerated into an anti-US, anti-Nato hatefest.

The intervention in Bosnia ultimately was good but produced some unfortunate acts of violence. The intervention in Kosovo was short-sighted and an utter failure. This is my opinion.

Cizinec, please do not try to put me into an ideological camp. I didn't have many preconceived notions of what is involved in this situation, and I merely wanted to bring forth a point. I don't have a really strong opinion one way or the other as to whether the incident was justified or at least based on a sincere and credible act of intelligence. My only point in making the post was that none of the posters here probably know for sure either, but that did not stop them from the usual anti-US, anti-NATO bigotry.

anastasios