Catalonia pays for Athos fix-up

Exactly 700 years after a band of Catalan mercenaries rampaged through Mount Athos, a ceremony was held yesterday at one of the holy site�s monasteries to mark a major restoration project which was funded by the local government in Catalonia.

The Vatopedi monastery held a low-key ceremony to mark the end of two years of restoration work which, according to some reports, cost more than 200,000 euros. The money was put up by the Catalan administration as a goodwill gesture after it became aware that mercenaries known as Almogavers had ransacked one the holiest sites in Christian Orthodoxy in 1305, the monastery�s Father Arsenios told Kathimerini.

The Almogavers had been hired by the Byzantine Empire to help in the fight against the Ottoman Turks. They fell out with their paymasters when their leader was thought to have been assassinated by killers hired by the Byzantine rulers.

Thousands of Byzantine documents and icons are housed in the monastery�s vestry, which was the focus of the restoration work and which will be turned into a museum.

www.ekathimerini.com [ekathimerini.com]

Glory to God for all things!

Incognitus

Dear Alice,

What a nice gesture...after so many years!

Zenovia

Dear Incognitus and Zenovia,

This is indeed a beautiful gesture, and one that promotes peace, love, and forgiveness--a gesture that is pleasing to our God! May we all love one another as He loves us!

In Christ,
Alice

Many strident Catholic traditionalists took the late John Paul II to task for asking forgiveness of those whom Catholics had offended in the past; "but no one else is asking forgiveness. What about those who offended US?" seemed the common theme, one I am not aware is a gospel standard.
I always said "God bless John Paul the Great" and this is further evidence that public repentence for the sins of one's forebearers [for which of course one has no personal responsibility] can only create good will.
-Daniel

Daniel,

While it does create goodwill, perhaps we should ask ourselves why any rational person or group of persons should ever demand an apology from another person or group of persons who were not at all personally (or impersonally) responsible for a transgression?

Logos Teen

It isn't so much a matter of who demands reparation as of generosity and charity by those who acknowledge fault.
In Cathlolicity, there is a fundamental principle called "solidarity", which applies to both the unity in virtue and the unity in acceptance of sin in our forebearers...
-D