Benedict XVI's first homily 20 April 2005

[Priest Siluan]

hank you for your concern.

I read perfectly in English, although I speak it not good, my native language is Spanish. There are times for further speed I translate what I will say from Spanish.

With Love in Christ and ask your prayer for me

Fr Siluan

[Mor Ephrem]

Christ is our compass, not the Vatican II documents.

Christ is our compass, not the Ecumenical Councils.

Doesn't that sound silly? After all, we'd say that the Councils wouldn't steer us away from Christ, but would bring us closer to Him. For Catholics, Vatican II is an ecumenical council, and so they'd say the same thing about it that we might say about Ephesus. We may not recognise their councils, but we can certainly identify with the sentiment.

[Anthimos]

After viewing the funeral of Pope John Paul and the rest of the Churches services , I got the impression that the Roman church is trying hard to convince the world that the Pope is the leader of the Christian Church with absolute Authority because the Pope is the only one who carries the Keys to Heaven. They keep quoting Christ Words to Peter, which was meant to all the Apostles.
This is theology was not accepted by the Christian church during the first eight Centuries.

[Anthimos]

Unfortunatly, yes the Antiochian Bishop Antonius Chedrawi of Mexico city is lax in the Canons of the Church. I did visit the Cathedral of St. George in Mexico City and it was nearly empty. Some of the Antiochian Orthodox have left the Orthodox church and converted to the Roman Catholic church or do not attend any church Services.

I must confess with honesty that when I visited Syria, I attended many Antiochian Orthodox Churches, and I saw very pious priests and people .The churches with filled. I witnessed traditional Orthodoxy.

I believe that the problem is in the Western World and South America where our Traditions are lost because of the influence of Western christianity, and also for some reason immigrants are always trying to blend with western Christianity .

[Anthimos]

This is a very interesting web site about the Papacy
http://jmgainor.homestead.com/files/PU/PU.htm

especially the early writings of the Fathers and Papacy

http://jmgainor.homestead.com/files/PU/ECW/ecw.htm