ARCHBISHOP GALLAGHER IN MINSK, RUSSIAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS TAKE STAND WITH ARCHBISHOP KONDRUSIEWICZ (VIDEO)
from: Asia News

(12 Sep.) In the absence of an apostolic nuncio to Belarus, the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States wishes to dialogue with the government authorities over their ban on allowing the Archbishop of Minsk, Metropolitan Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, to return home. The Russian bishops say: Do not be afraid! God's people pray for Belarus. New arrests and violence by OMON (special police) took place at the "Red Church" in Minsk.

The Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, has come to Belarus to meet with political authorities. On 11 September evening he was due to meet the foreign minister Vladimir Makeev, his "peer" in diplomatic relations. Archbishop Gallagher has personally travelled to the nation in an attempt to clarify the difficulties that led to the refusal to allow the archbishop of Minsk, Metropolitan Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, return home as protests rage throughout the country. The news of Msgr. Gallagher’s trip was first reported by the Belarusian website Naviny.by.

The vicar general of the archdiocese of Minsk, Bishop Jurij Kosobutsky, had declared in recent days that the metropolitan’s case was not an isolated one; on the contrary, the authorities are putting pressure on the Catholic Church at various levels, which is committed to sharing the Belarusian people's concerns for truth and justice. The Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) on September 2 in turn published a declaration regarding the exiled archbishop, hoping "that it is only an unfortunate misunderstanding, that it can be resolved as soon as possible and that such incidents do not reoccur in the future."

After the refusal of Kondrusiewicz, the situation in Belarus worsened with the expulsions of the leaders of the opposition to President Lukashenko. Olga Kovalkova, Anton Rodnenkov and Ivan Kravtsov were forcibly transferred abroad; Maria Kolesnikova ripped up her passport to avoid deportation, and is now in solitary confinement on charges of conspiracy against the established order. Even the writer and Nobel laureate Svetlana Alekseevic was threatened by Omon agents in her own home, and only the intervention of Western diplomats prevented her arrest.

As is usually the case in such delicate situations, the Holy See has so far abstained from official comments on the Belarusian domestic front, and on the case of Msgr. Kondrusiewicz. A further difficulty is constituted by the absence of the apostolic nuncio to Belarus, whose official rotation has not yet been completed. This is another reason as to why the Vatican “foreign minister” Gallagher has taken the responsibility of conducting negotiations with the local authorities upon himself.

On 10 September a letter was also published addressed to Msgr. Kondrusiewicz by the Episcopal Conference of Catholic Bishops in Russia, signed by its president, the archbishop of the diocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, Msgr. Paolo Pezzi. Together with his confreres, Msgr. Klemens Pickel of Saratov, Msgr. Josif Werth of Novosibirsk and Msgr. Cyryl Klimovicz of Irkutsk, Kondrusiewicz's successor in Moscow addresses him with the words of St. Francis of Assisi:

"Peace and good will! We know of the trials and difficulties of your people and yours. (...) Dear brother Tadeusz, let us remember how at the dawn of the rebirth of the Church in our country you obediently assumed the office of archbishop to serve Russia, and many years later Belarus again. (…) We thank the Lord and we are grateful to you for the bonds of communion in the Church of God, which may be of support and help for you in the hours of trial and suffering. (...) Dear brother, now you miss your country and suffer for its destiny, the destiny of your people, you are anguished by the impossibility of carrying out your pastoral service. Do not be afraid! God's people pray for Belarus. Trusting in the power of prayer, we express the hope that by the grace of God you will soon be able to return home and continue your ministry, as we invoke daily in our supplications to the Most High."

During new protests in the center of Minsk, around Independence Square, OMON agents tried to disperse and arrest a group of women who demonstrated in the churchyard of the "Red Church" of Saints Simeon and Helena, the Catholic church at the center of the clashes of the past weeks (photo). The events were filmed by Tut.by correspondents (https://t.me/tutby_official/14445). The video shows how the women try to take refuge in the red church, while the masked men block the entrance to the building. One of the women, 72-year-old activist Nina Baginskaja, was beaten with a truncheon, only to be surrounded by a group of men who parked a van in front of her. Protests are intensifying in view of Lukashenko’s announced meeting with Russian President Putin on September 14, in which Russia will officially recognize the disputed outcome of the elections of August 9. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: The situation in Belarus is beyond words. My wife Cheryl and I have traveled behind the Iron Curtain, being followed by secret police, we lived through the collapse of the USSR with its massive street demonstrations, the August 1991 coup against Gorbachev, the 1993 counter-coup by disgruntled communists, and the bankrupt ex-Soviet economy, personally experiencing one-million-percent inflation. But this is worse. Pray for Belarus!

BELARUS: CATHOLIC CHURCH "CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT ITS LEADER"
by Olga Glace: Forum 18 News Service

(1 Sep.) Border guards denied Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, head of Belarus' Catholic Church, re-entry to his own country on 31 August. President Aleksandr Lukashenko says he is on the shared Belarus/Russia entry ban list. The Belarusian border guards gave no reason for the decision, the Vicar-General of Minsk-Mogilev Diocese Bishop Yuri Kasabutsky announced. No officials have yet explained to Archbishop Kondrusiewicz – a Belarusian citizen – why he is barred. "The right of a citizen to enter the Republic of Belarus cannot be restricted," says the Law on Exit and Entry for Belarusian Citizens.

Archbishop Kondrusiewicz was seeking to return to Minsk after a one-week visit to Poland, travelling in his official car. He tried to cross at the Kuznitsa Belostokskaya Bruzgi border crossing near the city of Grodno when border guards refused him entry. After waiting several hours in vain he returned to Poland, while his driver continued to Minsk in the official car, Catholic spokesperson Fr. Yuri Sanko told Radio Free Europe's Belarusian Service.

"We will protest here and reach out to all Belarus' government structures," Fr. Sanko added, "because the Catholic Church of Belarus cannot exist without its leader." Fr. Sanko confirmed to Forum 18 on 1 September that neither Archbishop Kondrusiewicz nor the Church has received any explanation for the entry denial from the authorities. The Archbishop sent an inquiry to the State Border Committee, he wrote in a 1 September letter from a parish in the Polish city of Bialystok, where he is having to remain while waiting to re-enter his homeland.

President Aleksandr Lukashenko told journalists that Archbishop Kondrusiewicz is one of a number of people on an entry ban list, which is shared between Belarus and Russia. He claimed the Archbishop had been given "some assignments" at "consultations" in Warsaw before his planned return. He did not explain.

It remains unclear if the denial of re-entry to his own country to Archbishop Kondrusiewicz is related to the government crackdown following the disputed 9 August presidential elections. The Archbishop called for fair elections before they took place, and condemned police violence and called for dialogue afterwards. On 21 August he was received by the Interior Minister Yuri Karayev.

Following the blockading of Saints Simon and Helena Church (the Red Church) in central Minsk by OMON special forces on 26 August with about 100 anti-government protestors sheltering inside, Archbishop Kondrusiewicz described the 40-minute blockade as "illegal" and called on those responsible to be punished. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: How can any government prevent its own citizens from coming home to their own country? I suppose it is the same kind of government that regularly poisons its own citizens, at home or abroad: Litvinenko, Skripal, Navalny.

METROPOLITAN KLYMENT OF THE OCU TELLS ABOUT THE BEATING OF THE NOW COMATOSE VOLODYMYR BALUKH
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine

(9 Sep.) According to Metropolitan Klyment, Volodymyr Balukh, a former political prisoner of the Kremlin, was found severely beaten in the area of the Hydropark in Kyiv. Metropolitan Klyment of Simferopol and Crimea, who was Balukh's public defender, told 'GORDON' media outlet that all information about the attack on former political prisoner Volodymyr Balukh and his place of residence had been classified so far.

"I managed to get through to Volodymyr Balukh's phone. The woman who found him this morning received the call. She's terrified. We agreed that I would call her from time to time. She said that she saw him in a forest near the Hydropark in Kyiv. She said that Volodymyr was badly beaten. He had a broken arm at the collarbone (an open fracture) and a badly bruised head. He was losing and regaining his consciousness over and over again. The police and ambulance were called. After Volodymyr was taken away by doctors, they managed to find a bag with his personal belongings and documents. This made it possible for the woman to contact Volodymyr's relatives," Klyment said. According to him, it was not yet possible to find out to which hospital in Kyiv Balukh had been taken.

"Now Balukh's sister and other close relatives, with whom he kept in touch, are on their way to Kyiv. Now the main thing is to find out what information the police have about the incident in the Hydropark, and where, to which hospital Balukh was taken. The team that was carrying Balukh said nothing to the woman who found Volodymyr. We try to call the emergency hospital, but they don't give us any information. We asked the police to help us, but so far all information is classified," Klyment concluded.

The investigation into the attack on Balukh is being carried out by employees of the Dniprovsky Police Department in Kyiv. They said that an investigation team of the most experienced and highly qualified police officers had been set up. Law enforcement officers work out the crime scene, identify witnesses and eyewitnesses of the incident. Also, the police are in a medical facility to communicate with the victim as soon as they have the permission of doctors.

Balukh, a farmer, was detained in the Russian-annexed Crimea after a search in December 2016. According to the FSB, cartridges and TNT bombs were supposedly found in the attic of his house. In August 2017, another criminal case was initiated against Balukh – according to the statement of the head of the Razdolnensky temporary detention center, Valery Tkachenko, who claimed that the activist beat him. According to the Ukrainian's defense, Tkachenko himself attacked Balukh, hit him and insulted him. Lawyers and human rights activists claim that Balukh was the victim of reprisals for his pro-Ukrainian position – for the flag of Ukraine, which was hung in the courtyard of his house. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: What more can I say? - More thuggery on the part of Moscow's gangster-style government, that's all. They can send their secret agents into foreign countries to try to assasinate dissidents. It's a sad commentary on us that we've come to expect this kind of behavior, so we just shrug it off, ignore, and forget it.

LET'S MAKE AMENDS FOR THE ETHICAL LAPSE IN CREATING HELA CELLS, SAYS NATURE
from: BioEdge

(6 Sep.) The year 2020 marks the centenary of the birth of Henrietta Lacks, the African-American woman who achieved a measure of immortality when some of her cells were used to create the first immortalized human cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research.

The story is well known. Ms Lacks, a mother of five, died in 1951 of an aggressive cervical cancer. Doctors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, in Baltimore, had used samples of her tissue while diagnosing and treating her. And they gave some to a researcher without her knowledge or consent. A 2010 New York Times best-seller by Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, made the public aware of the unresolved ethical issues surrounding the HeLa cell line.

Now, in the light of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and a keener awareness of system racial injustice, Nature has published an editorial calling for tighter rules for consent to use tissue samples and "to acknowledge and undo the disparities that are baked into basic research — because the systemic racism that existed when Lacks's cells were taken still exists today."

The editorial fails to discuss how other biological samples have been used and abused – like the cells from aborted foetuses which were used to create other immortal cell lines. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: What was done to Henrietta Lacks is trendy today to call "racial injustice" and an example of " systemic racism" ...but that was one hundred years ago. We were just getting over the Civil War, we had Jim Crow laws and de-facto segregation. But that's been largely overcome in the last 50 years. Let us hope that one hundred years from now, our descendants will realize and publicize the many "systemic injustices" now being practiced on unborn babies, the disabled, and the elderly!

INFLATABLE CHURCHES & MILITARY CANDLES: HOW THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH HELPS ITS COUNTRY'S MILITARY
from: Russia Beyond The Headlines

(31 Aug.) Mobile chapels on wheels, inflatable churches and khaki-colored candles for the military are just a small part of the cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Defense Ministry. Here is how the Orthodox Church got its own military department and how it works.

One of the highlights of the Army-2020 forum, which was held by the Ministry of Defense from 23 to 29 August in the Moscow Region, was martial robes for the clergy. Photos of several models of cassocks, including camouflage ones, have caused a bit of a sensation online. In fact, the Russian Orthodox Church has long had its own military department.

The first military priests and a church on a KamAZ truck

In 1995, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church established a department for liaison with the Russian Armed Forces. One of its first tasks was the establishment of prayer rooms and small chapels in military units and divisions, says the department's website. The following year, in 1996, military universities began to set up departments of Russian Orthodox Culture.

In 2009, then president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, ordered for the institution of the military clergy to be revived. Gazeta.ru reported that the post of assistant commander for pastoral work with believers would be introduced in military units and would be open to clergymen. A total of 242 vacancies were opened. In 2011, priests' influence in the armed forces expanded: they could not only conduct services for officers and soldiers, but also offer "moral guidance" to service personnel. In addition, priests consecrated all types of military equipment, from ships to missiles.

The report, however, continued to mention that there was an acute shortage of priests, with some 90 percent of positions unstaffed. Then in 2012, Medvedev allowed priests to take a deferment from military service. A year later, the first batch of military clergymen graduated from the Defense Ministry's Military University, said Alexei Artemyev, a lecturer with the Information Support Department at the university.

"The Russian Orthodox Church seeks to position itself as a spiritually influential ideological entity in the Russian armed forces. It sees its main goal in developing those qualities in military personnel that would allow them to achieve spiritual superiority over the enemy," wrote Artemyev in an article. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: We should be pleased that Russian soldiers and sailors have an opportunity to worship God. But I question the propriety of priests consecrating ships, submarines, and nuclear missiles - weapons of mass destruction.

ECHR REFUSES TO GRANT ORTHODOX CHURCH OF UKRAINE REQUEST TO REMAIN IN CRIMEAN BUILDING
from: Interfax-Religion

(4 Sep.) The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has sided with Russia, having compelled representatives from the Crimean Diocese of the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) to vacate the premises in Simferopol and Yevpatoria, the Russian Justice Ministry said.

Having examined the information provided by the Justice Ministry "the ECHR saw no grounds for application of any injunctive measures and did not relieve the applicant of the responsibility to comply with earlier Russian court rulings on the vacation of the illegally occupied premises in the cities of Simferopol and Yevpatoria," the ministry said in a statement obtained by Interfax on Friday.

It was reported that on August 5 the Russian Supreme Court threw out an appeal from the Crimean Directorate of the OCU against three lower-court rulings ordering the termination of a lease on a building in central Simferopol, which was used as the church.

"To deny handover of the cassation complaint of the directorate of the Crimean diocese of the (self-proclaimed - IF) Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate for examination by a Russian Supreme Court judiciary panel for economic disputes," the August 4 ruling, published in the catalogue of arbitration cases, reads.

At issue is the Cathedral of Saints Vladimir and Olga. It is situated inside a building which used to house a former military-political school building in Simferopol. It is a three-storey edifice with classical columns and a small cross above entrance. The church was the main OCU temple on the peninsula. [read more~~]

COMMENTARY: We should wonder what the real reasons were for the ECHR's decision: was it the result of some secret political pressures being applied by various governments in order to bring about a resolution to the whole Ukraine-Russia conflict? We may never know... until some historian a hundred years from now digs into the archives.

RUSSIA'S DESTRUCTION OF THE AUTOCEPHALOUS UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IN CRIMEA HITS UNEXPECTED HURDLE
from Christian Persecution

POLICE SHOOT 13-YEAR-OLD WITH AUTISM AFTER MOM CALLS 911 FOR HELP
from Disabilty Scoop

UGCC ARCHEPARCHY OF PHILADELPHIA RAISED ALMOST $50,000 IN A SOCIAL NETWORK TO AID FLOOD VICTIMS
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine

UZBEKISTAN MAINTAINS CONTROL OVER RELIGION WITH NEW LAW
from Mission Network News

DURING VATICAN REP'S VISIT, BELARUSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER INVITES POPE TO MINSK
from Interfax-Religion

HIS HOLINESS PATRIARCH KIRILL MEETS WITH NEW HIERARCH OF BELARUSIAN EXARCHATE
from Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate

WE NEED A CHANGE IN WORLDVIEW TO OVERCOME ADDICTION, PATRIARCH KIRILL EXHORTS ON SOBRIETY DAY
from Orthodox Christianity

EPIC OF MEDIAGENIC ORTHODOX FUNDAMENTALIST APPROACHING ITS INEVITABLE END
from Eurasia Review

RUSSIAN EVANGELICALS FINED FOR 'MISSIONARY ACTIVITY' DURING PANDEMIC
from Christianity Today

Perhaps you've taken a look at my www.Agape-Biblia.org website: it lets you compare any chapter between various languages: Russian, Ukrainian, English, French, Spanish, German, and Hebrew (OT) / Greek (NT), listen to audio readings of the four Gospels in English, French, Spanish, and German, plus the ability to make notes on each chapter. But here's another website that I had a hand in: www.NETbible.org that has the most extensive translators' notes you'll find anywhere, compare chapters between various English versions and Hebrew (OT) / Greek (NT), listen to audio readings of the NETBible in English, plus the ability to make notes on each chapter. Both websites are free to use.

Today would be my father's 104th birthday: he was almost 27 years old when I was born, the fourth of six children. In contrast, I was almost 27 years old when our first child, Rob, was born. Here's some good news: this past week we celebrated our 54th wedding anniversary, my visit with the cardiologist was very positive: my a-fib has almost totally gone away. All I need is a six-month check-up and one-year check-ups thereafter. Thank the Lord! I also "attended" (virtually, via Zoom) classes for the next-to-last semester of my diaconate program. "All" that remains is to read a half-dozen more books, pass exams, and then write a thesis next semester.