I read this article in the latest issue of Orthodox Heritage and thought it's worth posting here:
The Papacy and Its Unholy State: A Worldwide Wake-up C a l l to Orthodox Leaders
By Raphael Masterjohn, from The Light of Orthodoxy, Vol. 1, No. 1 (07/15/2007).
FROM THE EDITOR of "Orthodox Heritage:" In light of recent events, related to the self-declaration of the Latin Pope Benedict XVI and his reassertion of universal primacy for the Latins church, Orthodox Heritage has published this excellent and theologically correct article, written from the heart of an Orthodox layman. May our Lord reward him for his courageous stand and may all of our clergy, and especially our hierarchy, heed to this laymans wake-up call.
Our position will remain that the current philo-papist and the related ecumenical movements are (at their best) a sell-out of Orthodox dogma, tradition and values. May our Lord and Savior grant His mercy and protect Orthodox faithful from the treacherous progression of ecumenism whose primary goal is the wipe-out of Orthodoxy!
The Faith which I was taught by the Holy Fathers, which I taught without adjusting according to the times, this Faith I will never stop teaching; I was born with it and I live by it.
On July 10, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI reasserted the universal primacy of his Roman Catholic church, approving a document released on Tuesday, July 10, 2007, proclaiming that Orthodox Churches are defective. This was the Pontiffs latest manner of insulting Jesus Christ and His True Church.
For almost a thousand years since the great Apostasy of Rome, having separated from the true Catholic and Apostolic Church, the Papacy has falsely proclaimed itself the Catholic Church. Orthodox leaders of our times know that the Orthodox Church alone is the true Catholic Church, and we all confess this in our Holy Creed. These leaders have thought that dialogues with the Papists could bear fruit, hoping that Rome would renounce its errors and embrace the unchanging Orthodox faith. The Papacy will never budge a single inch away from its fundamental dogma: the Pope is the only super-bishop ruling over all, to be questioned by no one, and the infallible representative of God on earth.
The Pope says that the Orthodox Churches are indeed churches and that they enjoyed many elements of sanctification and truth. But, he said, they lack something because they do not recognize the primacy of the Popeand are defective causing them harm.
The Pope insults the Lord Christ Himself, who is the Head of the Orthodox Church, His Body, for there is no separation between Christ and Orthodox Christians who live in Christ and in whom Christ lives. The Pontiff thus insinuates that Christ is defective and wounded to His harm. For whatever is said about Christs body, the Church applies to the Head of the Body. Christ established this truth, saying: And the King shall answer them, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me. (Mt 25:40). Insulting the Body of Christ necessarily redounds upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Body.
A Loud, Wake-Up Call to All Orthodox Leaders, Worldwide
Be not deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows that shall he reap. (Gal 6:7).
Papal primacy, with its infamous and inane self-proclamation of infallibility, is the most damaging heresy ever to wage war against the true Church and Body of Christ, and it has been waging this war for over a thousand years. The Pope shamelessly proclaims to the world that the Papacy is the Church that Christ founded on earth. No wonder the name of Christ is blasphemed among the nations, for the Pope is not at all like Christ. Christ said of Himself, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and humble in my heart and you shall find rest for your souls. (Mt 11:29). Christ descended into the world to offer Himself as a ransom, to be mocked and spat upon, to be struck and crowned with thorns, and be crucified. Then, as our Creed says: On the third day He arose from the dead . . . and He shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, whose Kingdom shall have no end.
In 1870, the Papacy proclaimed the wretched idea of its own infallibility to all its followers and the whole world. Many Papal bishops protested vociferously but to no avail, for the travesty was already accomplished. Their protests fell on deaf ears, and gradually the whole Papacy accepted the most unacceptable dogma of supreme arrogancethe infallible man! With an infallible man sitting in Rome, what need is there for the God-Man Christ? They assert that He is away up in heaven, but we have our own man-god sitting in Rome. All our hope is in him, for he can never lead us astray as he is protected with infallibility. The Pope, having the only keys to heaven, promises to open the pearly gates for those who honor him and pay him homage.
Poor deceived people, is your promise of salvation in the Pope or in Jesus Christ? Was the Pope incarnate and crucified for you? Christ is calling you to abandon the Papacy. I am the light of the world, whoever follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. (Jn 8:12). The Pope is not the light of the world, and he knows it well. All the Vatican knows that the Roman Papacy was officially established on forged documents which supposedly gave him all religious and secular power in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, holding all the keys to everything. Open your Bibles and you will see that the Pope cannot bring you to heaven, for each one of us will stand before God alone and be judged for what we have done in this world. Christ does not call us to honor and pay homage to a particular Bishop, Patriarch or Pope. He does call us to abandon all sin, to pray with fasting and tears, to struggle, and as He commands: Be holy for I am holy. Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Mt 5:48).
Deception, Slaughter and Forced Conversions
Billions have been deceived into believing that the Papacy, even after 1870 with the Pope now propelled to the utter pinnacle of haughtiness, is the same Church that Christ founded. But it is not the same for the Light of Orthodoxy, Christ, is the Good Shepherd, and arrogance and falsehood are foreign to the God-Man. For nearly a thousand years, since the great schism, or more properly, the
Great Apostasy, the Papacy has both openly and clandestinely waged war against Christ and His Orthodox Church, slaughtering countless martyrs and witnesses, who refused to become enslaved to the Pope of Rome, if only by commemorating his name. As recently as WWII, the Papist Archbishop Stepinac was behind the Ustashis slaughter of almost a million Serbian Orthodox Christians. Many were offered a single opportunity to surviveto reject Holy Orthodoxy with Christ as their Head and Leader in faith and recognize the Supreme Pontiff and Pope of Rome as their head and leader in faith. The bloody Stepinac, the war criminal who blessed the slaughter of Orthodox Serbs, was recently sainted by the Pope of Rome. As St. John of Kronstadt declared: The Pope usurped the authority of Christ a string of blood runs through their history. (from My Life in Christ). Much of the blood spilled and blessed by Papal agents was that of Orthodox Christians, as history confirms.
Dialogue with this heretical enemy is forbidden by Holy Scripture. A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonishment, reject, knowing that such a man is subverted and sins being self-condemned. (Tit 3:10-11). If some say that the Papacy is not heresy, St. John the Theologian and Holy Apostle advises: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us they would have continued with us: but they went out that they may be seen, that they were not of us. (1 Jn 2:19).
The Pope Does Not Desire Union
The Pope has no desire for union, and this demonstrates the hypocritical intent of the Papacy. The dialogues that are taking place are a sham, for why are there dialogues when the Pope openly declares that he does not seek union. The Pope cannot possibly alter his concept of being the true church. He does not want to repent and join Orthodoxy, and for this reason, in his mania, he calls us defective. His statement assures us of these things. His only goal is absolute dominion and authority over the Orthodox Church of Christ. The Devil has tried this in the past and he will try again. The Popes desire is one: to seize us and place us under his dominion and authority and thus succeed in robbing us of our freedom in Christ. He has said that he will seek a new way to exercise his authority as a robber who tells you that he will find a new way to rob your house.
The Pope has always sought to spiritually plunder and rob Orthodox Christians of their true Faith. He has demonstrated this many times, especially during the Fourth Crusade, when the Papists sacked the City, raping and slaughtering its inhabitants. Later, his soldiers of fortune violated the Holy Mountain and massacred many monastics. What was the monastics crime? They refused to pray with the Papists and pay homage to their unholy leader, the Pope. The Pope went on to invent Unia, wherein Orthodox Christians receive significant material help from the Pope and keep all their traditions, but lose their Orthodoxy, for they were forced to commemorate the (un)Holy Father, the Pope of Rome. These ex-Orthodox traitors became know as Uniates. What is their goal since abandoning the true Faith? They join the Pope and wage war against the faithful Orthodoxa war that continues to this day. The instant they accepted this offer and fell into the trap, they lost the grace of the Holy Spirit as well as their eternal salvation, for they chose the Pope in preference to Jesus Christ. They are despised by Catholics and shunned by the Orthodox Christians; they have accordingly surrendered their eternal inheritance found only within the true Faith, the Orthodox Faith. This is what will happen to all Orthodox Christians who join the Pope. It is spiritual suicide, for Christ will place them among the goats.
The Pope Provides Clarity of His True Position
The Pope has indeed cleared the air. He has proclaimed all future discussions to be null and void, for he has made it perfectly clear that nothing expected will come of them, and the Papacy will never change. It is the duty of all Orthodox leaders to immediately cease the folly of wasteful and dangerous dialogue with the enemy of Orthodoxy. He has insulted Christ and His Body as defective, which includes the Theotokos, the Holy Apostles, Holy Orthodox Fathers, and millions of Saints, Martyrs and Confessors. For all of these constitute the Body of Christ..

