Croatian Orthodox Church Establishment causes anxiety for Orthodox Serbs in Croatia.
Honourable Mr. President,
Let me congratulate You in my name and on behalf of the Diocese of Dalmatia on the recent election to the high office of the President of the Republic of Croatia with a desire to long and successfully perform this delicate and responsible duty.
The reason of our written address to You is meritorious and honest need to point You at the possible danger of announced creation of the so-called Croatian Orthodox community and the yesterday’s announcement in Zadar, that a so-called Croatian Orthodox Church will be soon formed. All this mentioned might seem completely unnecessary, and even our own concern about the formation of these associations, as we are witnesses that in democratic societies various associations are popping up like mushrooms after rain. However, it seems to us that in this case, however, is about something else and it is not so harmless.
Above mentioned “Croatian Orthodox community” in its founding program has its foundation and historical source in Ante Pavelic’s Independent State of Croatia (NDH). After the NDH, as we all know, numerous corpses, caves and camps were left, where innocent people were mostly killed just because they were of other religion or nation. The leader (poglavnik) of Ustashe Pavelic besides the atrocious crimes and the genocide against Serbs, Jews and Roma, in 1942 he formed the Croatian Orthodox Church with the aim of complete destruction and annihilation of Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church on the territory of Croatia. As we do not want to deal with the history much longer, we feel our human and pastoral duty to point out to You at the militant and Ustashe-like nature of this Community that is forming. This Community could contribute with its work and its possible acting to reawakening of the racial and religious intolerance theories, which are unpopular today, and even are prohibited by law in most democratic countries of Europe today.
Our Church and Orthodox Serbs in the Diocese of Dalmatia after the recent tragic war, are trying to live by healing spiritual and material wounds, and also worrying about life and survival of our people, who has lived and are living in this region for centuries. Just when we have thought: “Behold the peace” and that “swords are unminted and plows are made” such a sinister association appears, that in its fundamental program has a denial of the another – currently the Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church.
We hope that You will understand this our short address and that You will help with Your presidential authority to stop and suppress any registration of such association. This association itself does not bring peace or prosperity , but also heralds a new tragedy, from which no one would have use, especially not the Republic of Croatia and its citizens, who aim to join the EU.
With great respect,
Bishop FOTIJE of Dalmatia
Shibenik, 13.03.2010
Serbian Orthodox Church Communique 15/3/2010
News that yesterday in Zadar (12.03.2010) was an announcement on the establishment of the so-called “Croatian Ort hodox Church” caused anxiety for the clergy and the Orthodox Serbs in Croatia. It is known tha t the HOC was formed in 1942 in the time of the fascist and Ustashe regime of Ante Pavelic in the NDH (Independent State of Croatia). Then the Pavelic’s regime committed genocide against the Serbian, Jewish and Roma people in the NDH, and the goal of the phantom HOC was to destroy every trace of existence of the Orthodoxy and the Orthodox Serbs in this region.
The Serbian Orthod ox Church and the Serbian people have been living for centuries in the region of Dalmatia, as it is evident and confirmed the best by its parish churches and monasteries, which were built between XIII to XV century and represent a significant cultural heritage, which as such, is under the protection of the competent institutions of the Croatian state.
Previously during the publication of the website and the program of the forming “Croatian Orthodox community” it became certain that this association identify and organically links with the Ustashe regime from the time of Ante Pavelic and the so-called HOC. It is, as one indivisible whole, had genocidal program of destruction and extinction of all non-Croats in the time of the criminal NDH, thus the formation of this community clearly causes human fear of the possibility of restoring of its program. Behind it numerous camps, scaffolds and pits were left at the time of World War II, of which is certainly the largest and most notorious extermination camp was Jasenovac.
We sincerely hope that this Community, which is associated with the darkest period of the recent history of Croatia – because of his openly militant and pro-Ustashe character will not be able to be registered at the competent institutions of today’s Croatia which is at the door of entry into the European Union.
Also we appeal to the bodies of the rule of law and relevant ministries of the R. Croatia, to protect facilities and property of the Serbian Orthodox Church , as well as our believers from possible harassment and attacks, as some of the leaders of this phantom community announced. They promoted these days and thereby publicly rehabilitated a “ghost from the past”, which reawakens fascism and the ustashism in this region of the European continent.
Our clergy and the faithful in pastoral care and responsibility, we recommend to reinforce their fasting and prayer to God, which is the only Lord and Judge of the world and the guardian of our martyr Church for centuries and still crucified Dalmatia, not to be afraid and do not accept these fake pastors and preachers, “who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15), but to save their world Orthodox church and their faith, their Patron Saint’s (slava) and their Dalmatian shrines, which have preserved and kept it throughout history.
Info service of Diocese of Dalmatia
A note from a man who has inside information nd first-hand experience of reconstruction and revival of the Croatian Orthodox Church (“HPC”). Six years later (after this NFTU news) the HPC is doing fine, there are six full-time parishes across all four historical eparchies of the HPC (Metropolia of Zagreb, Archdiocese of Dalmatia, Diocese of Brannsko, Diocese of Sarajevo), a male monastýr, a theological semnary, several diakons, priests, monks and one ruling bishop and one exarch bishop for Orthodox Croats abroad. No genocides are taking place, only normal parish life, normal Orthodox life. We do not recognize the authority of the schismatic priests and bishops of the Serbian Patriarchate, who are in communion with the heretial Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos, may they one day return to where they belong. Either in Serbia, or to True Orthodoxy. Either would be fine with us. We have no bishops or priests in their country, we see no reason they should have priests and bishops in our country, but so be it, time will tell. We are happy to be in unity with the Metropolitan Synod of Avlona and the R-TOC (Rafail), and this communion of True Orthodox jurisdictions gave us bishops, after almost a century when we were without bishops. May the Most Holy Lady Theotokos bring all her stray children back home, to the open arms of True Orthodoxy. In Christ, +Gavrilo
Dear Gavrilo, Please help us understand what this new Croatian Orthodox Church stands for. Does your new church support traditional Orthodoxy and the Anathema against Ecumenism issued by the Council of ROCOR in 1983, like True Orthodox Christians do? Do you support the principles of the former Croatian Orthodox Church that was founded by the Croatian Fascist dictator Ante Pavelić and that existed during the Second World War and the Nazi occupation of Croatia and Bosnia? Do you accept the verdict of historians that Pavelić’s real goal was to commit genocide against Orthodox Christians in Bosnia and Croatia and that the creation of his Croatian Orthodox Church was only a “Plan B” after full genocide became militarily impossible? Do you support the “cleansing” of Serbian clergy from Croatia today, as your posting seems to imply? It seems to me that True Orthodoxy and the pro-Nazi principles of Pavelić’s church are opposites. What does your new church think about that? Do your sister churches (Metropolitan Angelos of Aulon and Metropolitan Rafail of Moscow) know about the Nazi origins of the Croatian Orthodox Church in the 1940s?
Dear Diakrisis Dogmaton, I would recommend more patience, wisdom, peace and, before all, study. You seem to have somewhere between “zero” and “very little” information and data and yet you boldy skip to conclusions, based on a world that you created in your head. The HPC (Croatian Orthodox Church) is an Old Calendarist / True Orthodox jurisdiction under the omophore of the Holy Synod of Avlona. Its primate is +Andrei (Škulič) the Archbishop of Zagreb and All Croatia, who is a permamnet and full member of the GOC-A synod and is in communion with the R-TOC-Raffail. I myself am also a permanent meber of the same synod. The Croatian Orthodox Church is obviously in historic continuation of Orthodoxy in Croatia, but (and now I do not know, do you know anything about the first Holy Synod of the HPC? You seem to like to slander, but do not seem to have much historic detail…) as the first holy synod of HPC were all executed, for seventy years HPC had no bishops. Now with the help of the GOC-A, the HPC has canonical TruOrth / Old Calendarist bishops (given by the Holy Synod of Avlona), who in turn corrected the holy orders of their clergy. In the Czech Republic the situation is similar. HPC and CPC are thus of the same theology and ecclesiology as GOC-A. Your babble about Ustashi regime has zero meaning or relevance, I bid you to pack a backpack and go to Croatia to experience reality instead of reading a few semi-amateur articles on the Internet or at Wikipedia. Croatian Orthodox are not in communion with the Serbian Patriarhate or any other local World Orthodoxy jurisdiction, as they all fell from true Orthodoxy long ago. HPC is on Old Calendar and her tenets of the faith are those declared on the web of the GOC-A. Our parishes work fine, our faithful receive Holy Mysteries, normal parish life. We are reconstructing several new parishes, as the old ones we “got back” are all in a terrible condition. As to my person, I have been elevated and ordained by GOC-A and am in full communion with GOC-A. As there are Orthodox Croats in my country and as I have Croat blood in me after my grandfather, I offered to serve as an exarch for HPC in my country. I am “everything but” an ecumenist, all my parishes are Old Calendar, I accept people by tripple immersion baptism, except World Orthodoxy, which I accept by myrrhopomazanie. I am no friend of Traditional Roman Catholics,as they fight against me and my work since day one, they write dozens of slanderous and willifying articles on soccial networks against me, they publicly say I am a clown from circus and Avlona is even a bigger circus, etc. Thereeven exists a pastoral letter of the RC Cardinal in Prague reprimanding me that I “repeat the Roman Catholic sacrament of baptism” which the Cardinal considers a scandal. I care little what the RC thinks about what I do in my eparchy. I believe, just like +Andrei of Croatia, that there is only one, true Church, that is the Eastern Orthodox Church that is NOT on New Calendar nor is in communion with the EP or any other local jurisdiction that is in communion with EP or is on New Calendar. I believe that True Orthodoxy is split into numerous jurisdictions, some are in communion with others and some are not, they vary in the spectre of True Orthodoy from ecclesiologicl and theological positions of very strict and extreme (Matthewites) to moderate and mild (Cyprianites), with most being somewhere in the middle. Do I proclaim anything about the mysteries outside True Orthodoxy? Yes, there is no grace there. Do I proclaim anything about the mysteries of other True Orthodox jurisdictions outside our own communion? Yes, that there may be grace, especially in the Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia of North America under the omophore of Metropolitan John of New York. If you have any other questions (not slanders, accusations or lies, that is), please go ahead and ask, I will happily and honestly answer them. In Christ, +Gavrilo
Bishop Gavrilo, I stand by what I wrote, which is mostly mainstream knowledge, which you mostly ignored, and which I suggest you read more carefully. If you study the history of the True Orthodox Christians in Greece with discernment, you will realize that Metropolitan Angelos of Avlona is a schismatic who left the True Orthodox Church of Greece, which is now headed by Archbishop Makarios (Kavakides) of Athens. If you really believe that the ecumenists are anathematized heretics, you should leave the schismatic Avlona synod. That synod has no reason to exist as a separate synod, it is unclear if its bishops really do anathematize the ecumenists, and that synod has even abandoned the name “True Orthodox Christians.” Why then do you call them “GOC,” when they themselves have abandoned the term? Metropolitan Angelos concelebrated recently with Metropolitan Evloghios Hessler of Milan, who is clearly an ecumenist and not Orthodox. If you and Archbishop Andrija Škulić of Zagreb really are against ecumenism, then you need to denounce these evil concelebrations with the ecumenist Milan synod. (Didn’t Andrija Škulić claim to be a Latin bishop very recently?) If you sincerely renounce ecumenism, why does your own Facebook page state that you like numerous Latin religious organizations? If you sincerely renounce ecumenism, then you need to renounce the comment that you yourself wrote on that pro-fascist website about your church being recognized soon by one of the (ecumenist) patriarchates.
The facts about the fascist Croatian Ustasha genocide against the Orthodox Christians in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1941 to 1945 are well documented. There are many scholarly books that deal with that topic. I suggest that you read a few. That way, you would not ridicule the historical facts about this genocide against Orthodox Christians — the historical facts that are accepted by scholars and educated people, and rejected only by those sympathetic to Croatian fascism. The “Croatian Orthodox Church” (1942 to 1945) was not canonical and not Orthodox. It was the creation of the Croatian fascists. It was rightly and officially condemned by Metropolitan Anastasy (Gribanovsky) of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. It was rejected by virtually all Orthodox Christians. If you reject the condemned heresy of ethnophyletism (national/ethnic racism), then you should renounce any continuity with that false, fascist organization, known from 1942 to 1945, as the “Croatian Orthodox Church.” Why won’t you, as a bishop, denounce the genocide committed in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina against the Orthodox Christians under the fascist occupation from 1941 to 1945?
All right, one point at a time.
(1) Fact: the HPC (Crotian Orthodox Church) became an archeprchy of the GOC-A. The GOC is not for Greek Orthodox Church, although it surely is that, too, but the acronym is for Genuine Orthodox Church. A- stands for eithr Avlona or Angelos, take your pick. GOC-A is surely one of the several jurisdictions of True Orthodoxy / Genuine Orthodoy ú Old Calendarist Movement. I care little if you agree or not, these are the facts.
(2) After quite a long time, HPC has canonical clergy.
(3) We care little if any patriarchate recognizes us or not, we have canonical mysteries and are part of a large canonical TruOrth communion (R-TOC-Raffial, Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia of Abkhazia (under Metroplitan Kristafor), True Orthodox Church of Georgia (under Metroplitan Iotam), Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia of Ecuador (under Metroplitan Chrysostomos), Czech Orthodox Church of Patristic Calendar (under Archbishop Gavrilo), Wallachian Orthodox Church (under Archbishop Moisie), Palestinian Orthodox Church (under Archbishop Melchisedech). To my knowledge, after the joining of Cyprianites and Kallinikites, who are now the largest world OldCal communion, partially thanks to the synod of Photie of Triaditse and synod of Vlasie of Romania, we are the seonf largest OldCal communion in the world.
(4) You do not follow TruOrth news too much, do you? We broke communion with the Autonomous Orthodox Metropolia of Milan years ago, when they officially declared they are negotiating with the Moscow Patriarchate to enter under the omophore of the MP. So, no, it is simply a lie when you say our Metropolitan, Angelos of Avlona, recently concelebrated with Metropolitan of Milan, Evlogios (Hessler).
(5) I am not sure how it is that you thought up the lie about us being ecumenists. You are not a member of our TruOrth communion, you have almost zero knowledge of our communion, our eparchies, our hierarchs, so how do ou imagine you have any capacity to write anythng about us? You are a weird man.
(6) Kallinikites are hardly the only Greek TruOrth jurisdiction. To my knowledge, but perhaps not to your knowledge, there are currently some seven existing TruOrth jurisdictions in Greece.
(7) Our communion is canonical, well-respected and has a very large following, unlike for example the Lamia Synod (Makariates). We are doing fine, in all eparchies. Croatia is doing very fine. Czechia is doing very fine, too. We have monasteries, theological seminaries, parishes, summer camps, clergy… all that living eparchies need.
(8) the HPC and also the CPCPK distance ourselves form the Ustashe genocidal activities, murders and terror. However, it would be foolish to believe Serbians did not kill thousands and thousands and thousands of our people in our lands, behaved like pigs and barbarians, raped our women and children (St. Germogen of Zagreb reported 14 evidenced cases of Serbian “soldiers” raped girls under 14 of which 3 died) and stole our property. Thre are currently 11 court petitions from Croats to return property stolen in 1940s lodged with four Serban district courts.
(9) It is also foolish to believe that Serbs have any kind of right, authority or power over the Croat Orthodox. Serbians are most welcome to come to our parishes, receive our Holy Mysteries, they can pray with us, have Eucharistic Communion, we will baptize their children and hear their Holy Confession. But the territory of Croatia is the jurisdictional territory of the Croatian Orthodox Church, not any Serbian jurisdiction. Our churches are ours, our cathedrals are ours, not Serbian. End of story. As simple as that.
In Christ, +Gavrilo, Archbishop of Moravia and First Exarch of HPC
Dear Archbishop Gavrilo (Milan Gavrilo Kucera) of Moravia,
We are discussing important questions. Was the “Croatian Orthodox Church” of 1942 to 1945 a canonical Orthodox Church or a political organization created by the Croatian fascist dictator Ante Pavelić in order to have an “Orthodox” church organization that was subservient to his pro-Nazi, anti-Orthodox agenda? Today, is the Synod of Metropolitan Angelos of Avlona, Greece — which has recently revived the Croatian Orthodox Church — a canonical synod of traditional Orthodox bishops or is it schismatic and semi-ecumenist. The evidence is overwhelming that the Croatian Orthodox Church of 1942 to 1945 was a fascist creation and was uncanonical. The evidence is overwhelming that the Avlona synod is schismatic and not a traditional Orthodox Christian synod, but is uncanonical, schismatic, and semi-ecumenist. The evidence seems to indicate that your Archbishop Bonifacije Andrija Škurlić of Zagreb, the “Metropolitan of Croatia,” may be more focused on extreme Croatian (anti-Serb) nationalism than he is on reviving traditional Orthodoxy in Croatia. Among the people in Croatia who declare their religion to be Orthodox Christianity, 84 percent of them declare themselves to be ethnic Serbs, not Croats. So how can Archbishop Bonifacije Andrija Škurlić of Zagreb be the chief pastor of traditional Orthodox Christians in Croatia (let alone Bosnia) without changing course and showing some sympathy for the 84 percent of his potential flock that does not agree with his strongly-professed ethnic-political views?
I wish you and your synod the best. I believe that it would be best for your own soul, and the souls in your synod, to recognize the schismatic, uncanonical status of your current church structure and your lack of clarity on Orthodox dogma and on the heresy of ecumenism. I also sympathize with your professed desire to revive traditional Orthodoxy in Croatia. The question is: How can this be done in a God-pleasing (canonical and dogmatically Orthodox, non-racist) way?
Archbishop Gavrilo, there are actually *more* than seven groups in Greece that claim to be traditional Orthodox synods. The evidence is overwhelming that the canonical synod is that of Archbishop Makarios (Kavakides) of Athens and All Greece. I have posted on that in the past and I hope to post more in the future. If you can read some Modern Greek, I would recommend that you read a little from Archbishop Makarios’s many writings, online and in print. One of his books is available in English online. I have posted the link previously. My recollection is that Metropolitan Angelos was a member of this canonical synod and that he went into schism with absolutely no dogmatic or canonical justification. You missed my point about “GOC.” GOC (or G.O.Ch.) stands for Gnēsioi Orthodoxoi Christianoi, True Orthodox Christians, or Genuine Orthodox Christians. But — this was my point — Metropolitan Angelos has dropped this from the name of his jurisdiction, even though you, strangely, refer to this jurisdiction as GOC-A. Angelos actually uses the much weaker name “[Church] of the Patristic Calendar.” I believe that virtually all old calendar jurisdictions in Greece call themselves Gnēsioi Orthodoxoi Christianoi. The two jurisdictions that avoided this near-universal term for Greek old calendarists were the group under Metropolitan Cyprian Koutsoumpas of Oropos and Phyle and the group under Metropolitan Angelos. Avoiding the self-designation Gnēsioi Orthodoxoi Christianoi, in Greece, is associated with a semi-ecumenist position that does not anathematize the ecumenists. I ask you once again, Do you confess the Anathema against Ecumenism that was proclaimed by Saint Philaret and all the ROCOR bishops in 1983? This anathema is obligatory on all traditional Orthodox. If your synod is unwilling to accept it, then it cannot be considered truly Orthodox on the dogma of the oneness of the Church.
There are pictures online of Metropolitan Angelos concelebrating with the ecumenist Metropolitan Evloghios. See https://metropoliamilano.com/page/3/, picture posted January 2016; see also https://metropoliamilano.com/page/5/, where the picture is linked to the date of February 21, 2015. According to https://metropoliamilano.com/2014/09/02/visita-fraterna-in-grecia/, Evloghios visited Angelos in August 2014, and concelebrated with a Metropolitan Philotheos of Thessalonica. Evloghios has been in communion with ecumenists going back decades, for example, with Metropolitan Basil of Warsaw and the Kiev Patriarchate. Evloghios has also, reportedly, tried to unite with Monophysites and/or Nestorians. Evloghios also posted a picture of him greeting Pope John Paul II! The fact that Angelos was in communion with Evloghios while Evloghios was behaving as an ecumenist casts doubt on the Orthodoxy of Angelos.
If you are not ecumenist, why do you state on your Facebook page that you “like” all those non-Orthodox (anti-Orthodox in doctrine) religious organizations: Monophysite, Old Catholic, Polish National Catholic, Lefebvrite (the notorious holocaust denier Richard Williamson), Anglican, ecumenist “Orthodox,” and numerous groups of episcopi vagantes (wondering [uncanonical, false] bishops)? A traditional Orthodox Christian bishop would never endorse these non-Orthodox religious organizations!
I condemn the killings by Serbs (whether by Communists or Nationalists, whether in the 1940s or 1990s) of innocent civilians. It is not enough for you to “distance” yourself from the mass murder of an estimated 200,000 non-combatant Orthodox Christians by Ante Pavelić’s Croatian fascists from 1941 to 1945. You need to condemn this mass murder of Orthodox Christians in no uncertain terms. If you can do the moral thing on that, then we can discuss further about the uncanonity of Pavelić’s Croatian Orthodox Church and the heresy of ethnophyletism. Will you condemn this mass murder?
Dear All,
In points, for brevity.
(1) of course these are important matters, nobody disputes this.
(2) unlike you, I have been there, I help Abp. Andrei in reconstruction of the eparchy. Your talk of in what he is more interested than in building of the eparchy are futile and are not based in reality. When you go there, spend a few month, going from parish to parish, seeing his everyday work, then you will have the right to talk about it. Until then…
(3) you know little to nothing about GOC-A. The self-deposed Metropolitan Evlogios has not set foot in Avlona for many years. Does he state all kins of things on his website, along with the self-deposed Archbishop-now-Metropolitan Abbondios? Yes. Is it true? No. He is a poven eccumenist and his word cannot be taken as evidence, my friend. You first of all should know that. Or, are you an eccumenist?
(4) Your weird ideas on what the meaning is or is not of Avlona having or not having this or that word in the name under which it is registered is lots of nonsense. As I say, visit one of our parishes for a few months, or better yet, go to Avlona and come to speak to one of our bishops every day for a couple weeks, then come back here to this public forum and talk about it. Now you know little or nothing and try to look like you know everything.
(5) Whole our communion, not just Avlona, confesses the Anathema against Ecumenism of 1983. We do not commune Latins, World Orthodoxy, Uniates, Monophyisites or any other heterodox. Whoever says tothe oopposite simply lies. As easy as that. We only cmmune our own parishioners, and Latins or Uniates and the like may become our parishioners after a proper catechesis and proper baptism by triple immersion, upon which we commune him, sure, but he is no longer heterodox then. We declare that outside True Orthodoxy thre is no grace, so we are more strict than Cyprianites. Also, we are no Imyeslavists, although some evil people claim it. Those that claim it are spreading evil lies and have no proof for their lies. We deny it and invite anyone to come visit our parishes to listen to what we teach and preach.
(6) drop your nonsense about what I like or dislike on my personal facebook page. You read too much into things. I can click a like or dislike on whatever I want, I am a bishop in my eparchy, an Archbishop to be exact, and manage my affairs the way they need to be managed, in all fronts, and no layman has the canonical right to tell me otherwise. Careful here, my dear son, you are a layman talking to a canonical bishop about how he in your opinion should rule his eparchy, or you at leat suggest it. I need to be able to know and see and read what all kinds of groups in my country and outside my country are up to, as I fight many of them to nail and bone. This is one of the tools making me able to do so, because without it you will not have certain features available. Building a premise that I am in friendly relations with Roman Catholic Traditionalists or the Catholic Resistance on base of seeing them in my circles in Facebook decreases your credibility in everything, it shows your fanaticism.
(7) We do not care about Serbian Orthodox in Croatia, why do you keep going on and on about it? No one cares. It is annoying. We care about our people, Orthodox Croats. There are currently over 16,500 of them officially registered members of the Croatian Orthodox Church, we are having a court battle about it. If True Orthodox Serbs living in our country want to becomee our parishioners, they are most welcome, we will happily have them, and either baptise them or chrism them depending on the specific case of each one of them. After that, all Mysteries are theirs just as they are ours. We are not based on ethnical or nationalist principle, we are just a national jurisdiction. No difference in us and, say, R-TOC (Theodore) or B-TOC (Photie).
(8) Nope, the original HPC of 1942 was not canonical in the true sense, as it was not an eparchy of True Orthodoxy / Genuine Orthodoxy. The HPC of today is, however. Our bishops and priests have apostolic succession from Avlona and from Milano (from time when they were as True Orthodox as anyone else, from 1990s, from long beforre their slip towards ecumenism). You go on and on about how Avlona is schismatic and ecumenist, and it is all nonsense, you in fact know nothing about us. Go and learn something, all right? We are much stricter anti-ecumenists than the new mega-super-ultra large communion of Cyprianites, Kallinikites, Demetriites, Gregoriites, Photiitesa and Vlassiites. We are not schismatic, as we do have autonomy, granted by an Old Calendarist autonomous jurisdiction absolutely in accordance with the Holy Canons, our beloved father and the presient of our Holy Synod, HB +Angelos, is a great theologian and when he left the Cyprianites, he first was part of the Makariites (Lamia Synod), but then he left that, too, as it too went semi-ecumenist (Cyprianites under Cyprian the Elder were not so semi-ecumenist, but under Cyprian the Younger, hmmm, that is a different story), and as he knew he was in potential schism, he asked to be accepted by another autonomous jurisdiction first, and later asked or autonomy and help in consecration of members for his (now autonomous) metropolitan synod. So, everything by the book, not like some well known Greek and Russian jurisdictions that pop up faster than mushrooms after a good rain and all of them in an uncanonical way. We do not base our autonomy on Cyprianites. We base it on the autonomy of the Holy Synod of Milano from 1990s, many years before the “turn of direction” of Milano Synod towars ecumenism. There was a timee that you probably do not know anything about when Milano Synod was the peak of Western True Orthodoxy. That was even before the Autonmous True Othodox Metropolia of North America (under the omophore of HB +John Lobue)
If you have any further semi-truth, I will be happy to put the record straight. Until then, I humbly suggest you learn a bit about the subject matter of which you write. In Christ, +Gavrilo
Dear Archbishop Gavrilo, If you and the Avlona synod believe what you say you believe: that you confess the traditional Orthodox Faith, including baptizing converts from western denominations, and accepting the Anathema against Ecumenism, then we agree on some key dogmatic issues. That is excellent.
However, the official website of the Croatian Orthodox Church under Archbishop Andrija Bonifacije Skurlic speaks positively about ecumenism. I did not see any documents affirming the Anathema against Ecumenism or affirming a traditional Orthodox ecclesiology. The website mentions some churches that you are in communion with, and they do not appear to be True Orthodox Churches, but rather episcopi vagantes (wondering, invalid bishops). Archbishop Andrija Bonifacije Skerlic affirms ecumenism, whereas Metropolitan Angelos Anastasiou of Avlona and yourself claim to condemn ecumenism. There is a contradiction within your synod on its confession of faith.
Metropolitan Evloghios abandoned traditional Orthodoxy in the late 1980s. First, he went into schism from his presiding hierarch, Archbishop Auxentios of Athens, and abandoned the Holy Synod of the Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece. He joined with the semi-ecumenist Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Phyle. Evloghios became even more openly ecumenist around 1990 when he joined the ecumenist Ukrainians, Metropolitan/Patriarch Mstyslav Skrypnyk, Patriarch Volodymyr Romaniuk, and Patriarch Filaret Densysenko. Metropoloitan Angelos should never have been in communion with the ecumenist Evloghios at any time after Evloghios’s break from True Orthodoxy, over a quarter of a century ago. Clearly, the pictures of Angelos concelebrating in Milan and Evloghios being given the throne in Avlona by Angelos are more recent than 25 years ago. Angelos is clearly guilty of having been in communion with the ecumenist Evloghios, during Evloghios’s ecumenist phase — the ecumenist phase that started over 25 years ago.
There was absolutely, positively no dogmatic or canonical reason for Angelos to go into schism by abandoning the Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece under Archbishop Makarios Kavakides of Athens. For this reason alone, Angelos is a schismatic.
Your words about your church being for Croats but also tolerating Serbs seem to cross over into the condemned heresy of ethnophyletism. The condemned heresy of ethnophyletism is the idea that there should be geographically-overlapping dioceses based on national-racist criteria. (When masses of Orthodox flee persecution, overlapping dioceses based on national origin can be canonically permitted for a time.) For many centuries the Orthodox Christians in Croatia have overwhelmingly called themselves Serbs. Today, 84 percent of Croatian citizens who profess Orthodoxy declare themselves to by ethnically Serb. It is not canonical (indeed it is heretical) to establish a church in Croatia only or primarily for ethnic Croats. A true Orthodox Church in Croatia must be for all those people who profess the traditional Orthodox Confession of Faith, irrespective of ethnic identity. Is that something that your church stands for? Lastly, why cannot you, as a bishop and a Christian, clearly state that you condemn the Croatian persecutions of Orthodoxy from 1941 to 1945 that murdered an estimated 200,000 innocent Orthodox Christian civilians?
(1) I will tell +Andrei to check up on his website. It is probably from the “time before Avlona”, i.e. time before he was accepted and xirotoneit by the Hol ySynod of Avlona.
(2) I do not share your opinion on when the ecumenist stage of Milan Synod began, and appparently nobody in our communion does. We consider that time the moment the Metropolitan and Archbishop openly declared they are negotiating with the MP to become a diocese of the MP. That was long after Milan Synod gave Avlona bishops and autonomy.
(3) I do not share your opinion on patriarchs Volodymyr, Mstyslav, and Dmitri, and appparently nobody in our communion does. Our bishops were there, they lived in those times and were in direct contat with those vladykas. Sorry, but I shall take their word over yours, who were not there and are a layman with limited information.
(4) I do not share your opinion that +Angelos should have stayed with +Makarios an that +Makarios was not in schism himself. Either +Makarios is and always was a schismatic himself, or neither of them is. You cannot have it both ways. The reason why +Angelos left the Makarios Synod was the same he left the Cyprianite Synod, ecclesiology going to bad places. But, because +Angelos is a wise man, he did not want to repeat what +Makarios did, so he found an autonomous Old Calendarist jurisdiction, asked for acceptation, then autonomy and help in consecration of bishops. Same that +Evlogios did years before that from +Gabriel da Rocha and his synod. Same that +Gabriel did years before from +Avxentios Pastras. That is absolutely how it works. And, as Avlona has autonomy, we gave autonomy to several small jurisdictions as well. And bishops.
(5) I care little about Serbs in Croatia. I was not made exarch bishop by Old Calendarist Serbs living in Croatia. I will not lead idle discussions with you about the fact that according to holy canons if local church possesses all the elements needed for independent self-ruling, she gets autonomy or autocephaly. Serbs in Croatia can do whatever they want, just like in America or Tanzania, it makes no difference. Thank you for giving me a lesson on canonicity of jurisdictional overlapping and diaspora, I teach this every week in our Holy Cross Theological Seminary. To be straight, the only canonical church the Serbs have is the Tru Orthodox Church of Serbia under Metropolitan Vlasie, and he does not raise any foolish claims over the territory of Croatia, like the clowns from Serbian Patriarchate (world orthodoxy). We do not care about heterodox, unless they want to accept True Orthodoxy and be received by triple immersion or christmation.
(6) The HPC in 1940s, that is before the whole Holy Synod was murdered, was certainly not guilty of any genocide. I do not care about Ustasha regime or Nazis or Communists. I was born in 1980. I am only interested in Church affairs, in serving liturgy, in baptizing people´s children, in hearing their confessions, in repairs of our parishes, in teaching our students in the Holy Cross Theological Seminary. This is important for me, the rest is not. I am happy we were accepted by the second largest communion of Old Calendarist jurisdictions, I am happy our parishes and Mysteries are now canonical. We all confess the Anathema against World Orthodoy, we confess there is no grace in any New Calendar jurisdiction and in any jurisdiction in communion with the EP or MP. I know Archbishop Andrei, he is a good guy and True Orthodox. He was not always so, he is a convert, like myself. We used to be both Old Catholic priests, a lifetime ago. For this reason we follow the holy canons and listen to the opinion of the Greek and Russian bishops in our communion.
(7) One important note at the end, and this is information from behind the scene that I have but laity do not. When there was the huge merger of the mega-union of Cypriantes etc., +Angelos, our beloved father, was invited for a negotiation, both by Cyprianites and by Makariites. Both synods offered Avlona to join. Our father thanked them both (not at the same time, but closely after each other) and said he would think about it. He has decided it would serve us best not to join any of these jurisdictions, even if (or exactly because of it) that the environment and personal rlationships have changed since the 2005.
Dear Bishop Gavrilo,
I am glad to hear that you confess traditional Orthodox Christianity and that you anathematize all ecumenists. We agree on that profession of faith. I pray that God will keep you in that confession of the faith for eternity. Our confession of faith, in word and deed, is most important. I thank God that you have left Old Catholicism and ecumenism and now profess traditional Orthodox Christianity.
I also agree with you (if I understand your view correctly) that the Kallinikos-Vlasie-Agafangel-Photiy union has a weak confession of faith, because its confession of faith blatantly refused to endorse clearly the Anathema against Ecumenism. That church union also has an illegitimate relationship (through Agafangel) with the deposed, ecumenist former Patriarch of Jerusalem Irenaeus. That is unacceptable from a traditional Orthodox point of view.
I am also glad to hear that you “distance” yourself from the Croatian nationalist murders of an estimated 200,000 Orthodox Christian civilians from 1941 to 1945. Would you also “condemn” these murders? Although your former “Croatian Patriarch” Germogen was clearly a condemned schismatic from the Russian Church and also clearly a Nazi-collaborator, his motivation for what he did may have been to save Orthodox lives in the face of the mass murders of Orthodox Christians in that time and place. Therefore, I agree with you that his execution (and the killing of his clergy) after a Communist trial was unjust. I do not believe he deserved to be killed. At the same time, hardly any Orthodox Christians in the world would consider him a saint or martyr. I do not believe he should be considered a martyr. The real founder of the Croatian Orthodox Church in 1942 was not Archbishop Germogen, but Ante Pavelić, the man responsible for the murder of the 200,000 Orthodox Christian civilians. For your own good, and the good of your church, you should not tie your current church to that uncanonical entity from 1942 to 1945. Linking yourself to that entity will not help you get legal registration with the Croatian government, but will hinder your efforts to attain legal recognition.
There is a saying, “You are entitled to your own opinions, but not to your own facts.” This needs to be kept in mind when we look at the basic historical facts concerning the Portuguese, Milanese, Ukrainian, and Avlonian bishops and their actual history of ecumenism.
It is a fact that after a few years under Archbishop Auxentios of Athens, Metropolitan Gabriel (João da Rocha) of Portugal abandoned true Orthodoxy and joined the ecumenist Church of Poland. It is also a fact that Metropolitan Evloghios Hessler definitively abandoned the True Orthodox Church in 1989 when he entered into communion with the ecumenist Ukrainian Metropolitan Mystislav Skrypnyk who was a supporter of Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios and his heretical ecumenism. The Kyiv Patriarchate was an offshoot of the ecumenist and sergianist Moscow Patriarchate. It is a historical fact that the Kyiv Patriarchate never anathematized ecumenism. Thus it is an undeniable historical fact that Evloghios became ecumenist in 1989. It would be completely illogical for you to claim that the Moscow Patriarchate was graceless but its unrepentant offshoot, the Kyiv Patriarchate, had grace. If the first was heretical, then the second was heretical, because the second did not return to a traditional confession of the Orthodox faith.
Archbishop Makarios of Athens and his synod have always had a clear confession of faith against ecumenism, in contrast to the equivocations of the Kiouses/Kallinikos synod, and in contrast to the blatant ecumenism of Evloghios since 1989. Archbishop Makarios’s synod is the canonical Orthodox synod in Greece. Metropolitan Angelos of Avlona had no dogmatic reason to leave that canonical synod. The ecumenist Evloghios (who we both agree is dishonest) had absolutely no canonical right to give “autonomy” to a schismatic bishop in Greece.
You seem to concede that Archbishop Andrija Bonifacije Škurlić was ecumenist until very recently. His current website makes crystal clear that he was pro-ecumenist. I hope he has changed recently, as you claim he has. May God grant that he become more Orthodox in his confession of faith.
Lastly, I hope that you will “distance” yourself from a heretical ethnophyletist (national-racist) approach to non-Croats in Croatia. A canonical True Orthodox Church in the Republic of Croatia will need to be open to Serbs, Croats, and others equally. If it is not, then it will not be the canonical Orthodox Church in Croatia, but an ethnic-nationalist club. We are commanded to confess the faith once delivered to the saints without deviation and commanded to love our neighbor.
–We condemn the mass murders, killings and (more or less) genocide in the Sebo-Croat war, on both sides, that is also on our side.
–Your claim that HB Angelos had no canonical right to leave the synod of Abp. Makarios is your claim alone, as you do not know all the details and specifics. Ask the Abp. why he has never anathemized, deposed or defrocked HB Angelos. Our Synod, to this date, is still in direct contact with Abp. Makarios and with some of the synodal bishops. Abp. Makarios simply let that be, without doing anything either way, he left it all in God ´s hands. He is a wise man.
–Not only HB Angelos, but HB Rafail (Motovilov), HB Kristafor (Tsamalaidze), HB Iotam (Zheghenidze), HB Crysostom (Celi), HE Kyrillos (Alves), HE Profyrios (Alexandrou) et alia all believed HB Evlogios was no ecumenist. He was no longer with Kiev when we went into communion with him. And he was autonomous before that. So, tell me, how is it that you hold a view about the Holy Synod of Abp. Makarios that the Abp. himself does not hold? You know little about the current relationships between our synod and HB Makarios. After the false ecumena super-mega-big merger of Cyprianites, Kallinikites, Demetriates, Vlasiites, Photiites and Agafangelites, having good and honest relationships with those that are left and hold on to the Anathema against Ecumenism is more important than ever. We worry what will come out of this mega-union. Nothing good, we think. The situation was diffferent when HB Cyprian the Elder was alive.
–We do not have a “church for Croats”, that is a misunderstanding. Justl like the Greeks do not have a church for Greeks nor Russians the church for Russians. But, just like Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians and Russians, we are the Croatian Orthodox Church, the juridictional True Orthodox church in the territory of Croatia. HB Vlasie and HE Photie may have some parishes in Croatia, although we are not qaware of any, and even if we are not in communion with their synods, we do not consider them heretics by the sheer association with Agafangelites alone (who commemorate Irineos of Jerusalem, the deposed and imprisoned ex-Patriarch of World Orthodoxy, we know), but we insist HPC is the sole canonical True Orthodox Church in Croatia.
–Metropolitan Germogen did what he could. He was killed for it, by 42 bulets. ALl his bishops were. But not al of his work is tainted. The eparchies he established (Metropolia of Zagreb and surrounding villages and towns, Archdiocese of Dalmatia (where St. Titus the disciple of ApostlePaul was the first bishop of Dalmatia), Diocese of Brannsko, Diocese of Sarajevo) were logical and historically make sense, he established many parishes that exist to date, although in terrible state and in great need of reconstruction (mostly roof, outer walls, courtyards, gates, windows…) etc. +Andrei used to be more or less ecumenist, but since he joined Avlona, like me, we accepted the profession of genuine orthodox faith fully. We come to Avlona often to give account of our work on our eparchies, and the synod instructs us in further course of actions. We declarethere is no grace outside the One True Church, so no grace in any jurisdiction on new calendar and any jurisdiction in communion with any jurisdiction on new calendar. What to think about the tainting of the mega-big joint venture of Cyprianites etc.? They are in full unity with Agafangelites, who commemorate Ireneus of Jerusalem. But is it a true communion, or just a historical “bad habit”? I do not know and I do not care too much anyway. Now, after the heretical Synod of Crete, we all are getting written petitions to accept whole missions and parishes under our omophore. Many World Orrthodox have opened their eyes, and because much information was available online, many were shocked to find out with whom they are in communion (Antioch –communes Monophysites. MP –communes Latins and Uniates and accepts Uniate diakons and presbyters ordained by Uniate bishops by “simple vestment and declaration of faith”. EP –recognizes Anglicans. EP and Athens –call Latins and Monophisites “sister churches”), so they stand up and want to do something about us. HB Chrysostomos of Florina, if he were alive today, would say: “A bit late, but thanks God they finally opened their eyes!”. In Christ, +Gavrilo
Dear Bishop Gavrilo,
We both agree that it is of primary importance that we all confess the one true Church (the Orthodox Church alone) and the one true baptism (Orthodox baptism alone). The Symbol of the Faith teaches these truths (“one … Church” and “one baptism”). The Anathema against Ecumenism safeguards these dogmas. The bishops of the Kallinikos-Cyprian-Vlasie-Photiy-Agafangel-Irenaeus unia committed a crime against the traditional Orthodox Christian flock when they refused to make Saint Philaret’s Anathema against Ecumenism the center of their 2014 ecclesiology statement. In a more recent statement (_Ὁμολογία πίστεως Γνησίου Ὀρθοδόξου Χριστιανοῦ_, _The Confession of Faith of the Genuine Orthodox Christian_, http://ecclesiagoc.gr/index.php/ekklisiologika), which these bishops allegedly approved at their Inter-Orthodox Consultation of May 13/26, 2016, they claim to confess that they “accept the Synodal Decisions of the local Genuine Orthodox Churches, which condemned syncretistic ecumenism: that is, those of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (1983), of the [Genuine Orthodox] Church of Greece (1998), and of [the Genuine Orthodox Church of] Romania, at the same time deeming those who have co-signed ecumenist declarations, and also those who in any way commune with them—clergy and laity—or who accept, or tolerate, or are indifferent to, the outlook of their Ecumenist Shepherds, as being fallen, with them, from the Genuine Orthodox Church.”
It is unclear, however, how many of these bishops actually do confess the Anathema against Ecumenism. I see no signatures of bishops on either the online Greek original or the online English translation. The Diocese of Etna and Portland does not list this document under its ecclesiology section. There is much more evidence (which we can cite later) that many of these bishops do not confess the Anathema against Ecumenism. Their admitted relationship with Irenaeus, even for historical reasons, is completely and totally unacceptable from a genuine Orthodox point of view, and is further evidence that some of these bishops are not as firm in their confession of the faith as is claimed.
We both agree that Archbishop Makarios (Kavakides) of Athens and All Greece is a “wise man.” I would go further and state that he is the sole canonical successor to the saintly Metropolitan Chrysostom (Kavourides) and to Archbishop Auxentios (Pastras) of Blessed Memory. Chrysostomos (Kiouses) and Kallinikos (Sarantopoulos) were uncanonical, schismatic usurpers. They were never canonical archbishops. All genuine Orthodox Christians in Greece should be in unity under Archbishop Makarios of Athens and All Greece. This applies to Metropolitan Angelos (Anastasiou) of Avlona and Bishop Porfyrios (Alexandrou) of Euchaita as well. I pray that the good relations to which you refer result in their submission to the canonical synod in Greece. It is not enough to confess the Orthodox faith in theory, we are required to confess the faith in action, by being obedient to the canonical synod of bishops in our own territory. In Greece today, it is the synod of Archbishop Makarios of Athens and all Greece (and no other synod).
I have listened to or read a little bit of Archbishop Andrija Bonifacije Škulić of Zagreb’s public statements in the Croatian language. They tend to be militantly-nationalistic and pro-ecumenical. There is nothing that I have seen in which he distances himself from the religious relativism of the ecumenical movement. Some of the pro-ecumenist statements seem to be from after the time he received cheirothesia (χειροθεσία) from the Avlona synod. I hope and pray that he confesses the traditional Orthodox faith (and thereby opposes ecumenism), as you say he does. But I have been unsuccessful in my desire and in my attempts to find some evidence of that. Most of us will probably never have the opportunity to visit your parishes in Croatia (or Bosnia), despite your gracious invitation to do so, so people will have to make judgments based on the public confession of faith that you and Archbishop Andrija make. I will check back in a couple months to see if the official website of your church has any changes that confess the traditional Orthodox faith in clear terms.
It seems that you and Archbishop Andrija of Zagreb have adopted a one-sided view of the supposed canonical necessity of so-called “national” autocephalous Orthodox Churches (often “state-churches), a view that does not fit with Orthodox tradition and with the historical record, which is much more complex. The patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Moscow, and Peć have historically been multi-national. Saint Sava of Serbia (with the approval of Constantinople) established dioceses in Ston (that is, Croatia, specifically near Dubrovnik, Dalmatia-Croatia, near Herzegovina), in Prevlaka (near Kotor, Montenegro, bordering Dalmatia-Croatia), in Dabar (Bosnia), and in Prizren (Kosovo), in 1219. Thus, there is a tradition (although there were several interruptions) going back 800 years of the Orthodox Christians in Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia (and sometimes northern Macedonia) being under one archbishop or patriarch. This also occurred during the Turkish yoke, when the Peć patriarchate was multi-regional and multi-national. For much of the Turkish yoke, Macedonia was divided between the Constantinople patriarchate, the Peć patriarchate, and the Ohrid archbishopric/patriarchate. There is no holy canon that would require that the historic patriarchate of Peć be divided into “national” autocephalous churches. There is no holy canon that would require that the historic patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem be divided into “national” autocephalous churches. There is absolutely no requirement that they be “state-churches.” The Constantinople patriarchate has always been multi-national. The Alexandrian patriarchate has historically been “of Alexandria and of All Africa.” The Antioch patriarchate has historically covered southern Turkey (but not northern Turkey), Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and parts of Saudi Arabia (and for shorter periods of time, Cyprus, Georgia, and other parts of the Caucasus). Whereas, the Jerusalem patriarchate covered Palestine, Trans-Jordan, and parts of Saudi Arabia. So, none of these six historic patriarchates were solely “national” churches. They were very often not state-churches. The country of Greece, in the eighteenth and early twentieth centuries was divided between the Constantinople patriarchate and the Athens archbishopric. Even the “Autocephalous Church of Greece” did not cover all of Greece, for example, Crete. I agree with Archbishop Andrija that the idea of an autocephalous church in Croatia was not invented by Ante Pavelić, but goes back to the nineteenth century. However, there is no truth to the idea that an independent nation state always gets an autocephalous national church, let alone a state church. The Czech Republic and Slovakia have been lumped together into one autocephalous church, by the ecumenists. Japan has never been autocephalous. Finland has never been autocephalous. The idea that an independent nation state always gets an autocephalous national church is false, historically and canonically.
You must already know that this issue is complex, because your “autocephalous” Croatian Orthodox Church is under a synod in Greece and because your Croatian Church claims jurisdiction over not one but over two independent nation-states, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. If a Croatia-headquartered church could (theoretically) establish a canonical diocese across the border in a neighboring country, like Bosnia (and you seem to approve of this), then a Serbia-headquartered church could (theoretically) establish a canonical diocese across the border in a neighboring country, like Croatia. We need to have consistent standards. We need to follow holy tradition and historical precedents. What is clear is that any canonical diocese in Croatia (or in Bosnia) must be equally open to Croats, ethnic Serbs, and all traditional Orthodox Christians in the territory of the diocese.
–I understand, but Croatia is not an autocephalous churc, nor does it have an autocephalous church. As we must agree Croatia cannot be under the territorial jurisdiction of the Serbian Patriarchate (which is in unity with the heretical Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople), Croatia has submitted to the Holy Synod of Avlona and is now her canonical eparchy. Your historical discourse has zero relevance, as there is no historical patriarchate that would (1) be canonical, and (2) obviously have any influence, parishes, diakons, priests, bishops, monastýrs, theological seminaries etc. in the territory of Croatia. If you are aiming at “historical countries, states and lands had zero effect on Orthodoxy”, then that is an anti-historical view, and I think you are not aiming at that. The point is simple, accept it or not: Croatia has officially parishes, diakons, priests, one monastýr, one orthodox theological seminary, and it was looking for a canonical TruOrth synod to take her under omophore. It found such a synod, after investigating other synods (Matthewites, Cyprianites and Kallinikites), and submitted to this synod. Croatia, just like Avlona, just like all the jurisdictions in communion with Avlona, do not hare your opinion that the sole canonical option is to submit to Archbishop Makarios of Athens. We have done that once, been there, we are rather fine outside that synod, thank you kindly. In the future, when conditions change, I am told by Metropolitan Angelos and Archbishop Porfyrios there are possibilities of discussion and negotiation. The Makarios Synod is probably the only one left in whole of Greece with whom we would negotiate, the rest are gone, sadly.
–I am not aware of any statements that necesarily have to be interpreted as tendency to false ecumenism, coming from Archbishop Andrei Bonifacie Škulič (official title given by the Metropolitan Synod of Avlona i “Archbishop of Zagreb and of All Croatia”, but Croatia was not granted any autonomy nor autocephaly). If you tell me such a statement on his website, I will investigate, contact the good vladyka and ask him to change the statement, as it certainly must be a misunderstanding or out-of-context issue. In Christ, +Gavrilo, archbishop of Moravia, Metropolitan Synod of avlona
Dear Archbishop Gavrilo and readers of this thread: I stand by what I wrote about the “Croatian Orthodox Church” of 1942 to 1945. What I wrote is mainstream knowledge. That church was created by a man, the Croatian dictator Ante Pavelić, who tried to commit genocide against the 1.8 million Orthodox Christians in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, by murdering one-third, expelling one-third, and forcibly converting one-third to Croatian Roman Catholicism. When that program proved to be too difficult, he decided to create the “Croatian Orthodox Church” that would serve him and his fascist goals. He tried to forbid the Orthodox from using the canonical (old) calendar. He abolished the use of the Cyrillic alphabet used by Orthodox for 1000 years. “Metropolitan” Germogen complied. Germogen was not a saint or martyr. For a mainstream, serious, scholarly analysis of the Croatian nationalist genocide against Orthodox Christians, see Rory Yeomans, _Visions of Annihilation: The Ustasha Regime and the Cultural Politics of Fascism, 1941–1945_, Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013). For the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the Genocide, see Jacques Kornberg, _The Pope’s Dilemma: Pius XII Faces Attrocities in the Second World War_, German and Europen Studies (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015), esp. 86–95. There are also Internet articles that are mostly accurate. The facts are easy to verify.
I stand by what I wrote about the uncanonical and ecumenist nature of the Milan Synod from its beginning. The facts have been documented. Gabriel of Lisbon and Evloghios of Milan left the True Orthodox Church and joined the ecumenist Ukrainians or Poles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Ukrainian “patriarchs” of Kiev desperately wanted to be in full communion with the heretical ecumenists. It is a distortion of reality to claim that the Kiev Patriarchs were truly Orthodox and were not ecumenist. They were Sergianists and ecumenists, who were excommunicated by “World Orthodoxy” because of their declaration of autocephaly. These Ukrainians have always desired to be recognized by the heretical ecumenists. These false patriarchs never had a true Orthodox confession of faith. Evloghios should not have been under them. Evloghios should not have abandoned the True Orthodox Church. I have a lot of historical material on the Portuguese and Milanese bishops. I hope to be able to write a short history of their ecumenism in the future. Most of the evidence can be found on the Internet already, if one knows where to look.
I stand by what I wrote about Archbishop Andrija of Zagreb being an ecumenist. His official website in the Croatian language has many pro-ecumenist statements: “We have ecumenical dialogue in some countries with: the Roman Catholic Church” (U ekumenskom dijalogu smo u nekim zemljama sa: – Rimokatoličkom Crkvom). “[Question:] What is the difference between your and other Orthodox churches? [Answer:] The differences are almost nonexistent, and also we have a great resemblance to Antioch, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), … because they use the Western Divine liturgy in the national language of the country.” “Since September 2012, we have officially operated as the ‘Croatian Orthodox Church’… We received a decree … from His Beatitude the Patriarch of the Belarussian Orthodox Church in the Diaspora… We are in communion with many Orthodox churches around the world: [including] the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Canonical, in America, … [and] the Genuine Orthodox Christians of the Patristic Calendar in Greece and in Romania. We are a member of the Orthodox Bishops Conference, [and] the Council of Autocephalous Orthodox Churches. We have ecumenical dialogue in some countries with the Roman Catholic Church.”
So, even after your “Avlona synod period” began, your archbishop brags about his ecumenism.
Bishop Gavrilo, I have searched for two weeks for any evidence that the Avlona synod was not in communion with ecumenists, at least for a “golden age.” I could find no evidence. In fact, there is evidence that Metropolitan Angelos left his canonical synod and primate, Archbishop Makarios, and then immediately petitioned the semi-ecumenist Cyprian synod, and, when the Cyprianites delayed their decision, Angelos entered into communion with the ecumenist Ukrainian autocephalists, Montenegrin autocephalists, Bulgarian alternative synod, and the Milan synod. In short, Angelos left the True Orthodox and joined himself to the ecumenist heresy.
I stand by what I wrote about Archbisop Makarios (Kavakides) being the sole canonical archbishop of Athens and all Greece. Both Metropolitan Evloghios and Metropolitan Angelos are declining in health. I pray that they and their followers repent of their ties to ecumenism in the past and that they submit themselves to the True Orthodox Church. That would be the best thing that they could do for their souls.
Bishop Gavrilo (Milan Gavrilo Kucera) is lying to NFTU readers about his church organization, the “Croatian Orthodox Church.” It is pro-ecumenist, and even pro-fascist, not traditional Orthodox Christian. On NFTU, which has a traditional Orthodox readership, he pretends his church is a traditional Orthodox Church. He does that by condemning the heretical ecumenism of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. But on a pro-fascist website, http://croatiaandcroatianorthodox.blogspot.com/, the same bishop indicates a completely opposite stance: his church has as a goal to be recognized by one of the (ecumenist) patriarchates. Gavrilo’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/milan.kucera, indicates that he likes Latin (Roman Catholic) Tridentine traditionalism. Gavrilo is an ecumenist, not a traditional Orthodox Christian.
Bishop Gavrilo’s pro-fascism is as follows: He claims that his church has direct continuity with the “Croatian Orthodox Church” of 1942 to 1945, which was created by the Croatian terrorist-fascist leader Ante Pavelić, so that there would be a pro-fascist and pro-Nazi church that would support his regime. The ultimate goal of Pavelić and his Ustashas (Croatian terrorists and fascists) was to murder one-third of the Orthodox Christians in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, expel one-third, and forcibly convert one-third to Croatian Roman Catholicism. The Roman Catholic bishops in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina were outright collaborators with the fascists from 1941 to 1945. The (Croatian) Roman Catholic Bishop of Bosnia, Ivan Šarić, was fanatically pro-Nazi. In contrast, the leading Orthodox bishops (the patriarch and Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović) were kept under arrest. When the Orthodox Christians rebelled against the genocidal violence committed by the Roman Catholic clerical-fascists, Pavelić decided on creating a pro-fascist “Orthodox” church. Pavelić made the Russian Archbishop Germogen the “Metropolitan” or even “Patriarch” of this pro-Nazi “Croatian Orthodox Church” from 1942 to 1945. This church may have received some form of recognition from the Bulgarian and Romanian churches, which were both under the thumb of fascist regimes at that time. The few priests and laypeople who joined this new church seem to have been mostly Serbs who were trying to avoid martyrdom and to save their earthly lives. Germogen was excommunicated (for the crime of schism) by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) and the Serbian Church, which had canonical jurisdiction throughout occupied Yugoslavia and which produced many holy martyrs during 1941 to 1945. Germogen was tried and executed by the Communists for being a collaborator (which he was) with the fascist forces occupying Yugoslavia. Most traditional Orthodox have rejected the assertion that Germogen was a martyr. Today, Gavrilo brags on NFTU that his church is not committing genocide. That is good. But he does seem to say that ethnic-Serb clergy should not exist in Croatia — and maybe not even in the neighboring country of Bosnia-Herzegovina, where his uncanonical church also claims jurisdiction. (His church’s claim to jurisdiction in Bosnia, shows that it does not respect national borders, as it claims). Serbian Orthodox clergy have been in several of these territories (outside of Serbia, narrowly defined) for 800 years, since the time of Saint Sava. Of all those in Croatia who identify as Orthodox today, 84 percent identify as ethnically Serb. Gavrilo has allied himself with the Croatian fascists who claim these Serbs are “really” Vlachs and that these Orthodox Christians have no right to exist as Serbs, in a Serbian Orthodox Church, in these territories. Gavrilo clearly advocates the heresy of ethnophyletism (rascism) in church life. He also claims (http://croatiaandcroatianorthodox.blogspot.com/), bizarrely, that his church is “autocephalous,” but here he claims that he is subordinate to the Avlona synod under Metropolitan Angelos of Avlona (Aulon) in Greece. Gavrilo is not canonical. He is not Orthodox. He is clearly an episcopus vagans, a wondering (and false) bishop. He should repent of his rascism, and join a real Orthodox church, as a repentant layman. Likewise, the Avlona synod in Greece, the Rafail synod in Russia, and the Evloghios synod in Italy should renounce this type of ecumenism that seeks recognition from ecumenist patriarchates and that will even resort to consecrating as bishops people who are racist fascists and who have no relationship to traditional Orthodoxy. God grant that there will be a united True Orthodox Church on the entire territory of the former Yugoslavia that will welcome Orthodox believers whatever their ethnic identity is.