Breaking News! The Cyprus Mail knows more than The Holy See!

A Pope can never say anything right for non-Catholics, can he? 

If I'm not being clear, just ask Ian

Too hard-line and he’ll get labelled a “Rottweiler”, out of touch with the world.  

Too down to earth and he’s called a namby-pamby liberal, laicised in reductive terms such as “like a normal human being”, as Professor Ian Buruma writes in his syndicated piece in The Cyprus Mail today (print edition 11/10/13, p.13).

Our trendy Enlightenment thinkers of the 21^st century have a knack for taking a clergyman's words out of context and twisting them into something different. 

It’s not my usual style to go for Christian Apologetics, nor is it my job to interpret or explain the teachings of the Catholic Church or the pronouncements of our Pope – I am not a priest or a theologian.  All I can do is paraphrase or repeat what's already been said.  However, if the secular press is going to focus on the Catholic Church, then I expect it to at least get it right, in terms of journalistic truth and accuracy.  

The letter Buruma refers to from Pope Francis to Dr. Eugenio Scalfari, one of the co-founders of the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, is not that recent, it was published one month ago on 11^th September 2013.  Pedantic, I know, but it’s hardly today's news.   The Cyprus Mail needs to catch up with VaticanNews.   

The Cyprus Mail:  we don't check everything

If the CM’s editors had bothered to check Pope Francis's words (preferably in the original Italian, but if not, at least in a reliable translation), they would have seen that nowhere does it say “non-believers are safe from the fires of Hell”, as Buruma claims.  In fact, Pope Francis never mentions Hell once in 2,745 words.  That’s Buruma’s fantasy, and it’s been copied mistakenly by The Cyprus Mail.  Shoddy. 

Francis’s words on conscience, in context, refer to a specific answer to a specific question put to him previously by Dr. Scalfari.  The Holy Father’s exact response was:

First of all, you ask me if the God of Christians forgives one who doesn’t believe and doesn’t seek the faith. Premise that – and it’s the fundamental thing – the mercy of God has no limits if one turns to him with a sincere and contrite heart; the question for one who doesn’t believe in God lies in obeying one’s conscience. Sin, also for those who don’t have faith, exists when one goes against one’s conscience. To listen to and to obey it means, in fact, to decide in face of what is perceived as good or evil. And on this decision pivots the goodness or malice of our action.[paragraph 19 of letter 11/9/13]

Even an alien sun-worshipper raised in the jungle by she-wolves would be hard-pressed to conclude from this that the Pope meant neither God nor The Church are needed for our salvation.  If Buruma or the CM’s editors had bothered to read the previous 18 paragraphs and the following 3, it is quite clear that Pope Francis is pointing to faith in Jesus Christ as the key to a non-believer's issues.  He is also pointing to man’s relationship with Him through the teachings of the Catholic Church.  He is also talking about the duty of every Catholic to engage in a dialogue with unbelievers because “the truth is a relationship”. 

Pope Francis begins with reference to his Encyclical Lumen Fidei, which he acknowledges was conceived and written mostly by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, as the springboard instructions for the relationship, or dialogue between believers and non-believers.  He also refers to this “precious and necessary” dialogue as one of the intended aims of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).  He speaks personally and humbly of his own faith, a personal encounter with Jesus, made possible “by the community of faith in which I lived” [i.e. The Church] “thanks to which I found access to the intelligence of Sacred Scriptures [and]... to the Sacraments.”  [my emphasis]  Nowhere in the letter does he say or imply that “sacred texts can no longer [tell] us the difference between good and evil”, as Buruma claims.  On the contrary, Pope Francis is saying that access to the true meaning of Holy Scripture and the Sacraments only comes about through the Sacramental Church.   

Pope Francis also says that it is only because of the faith “experienced in Church” that he (and by extension all believers) are capable of dealing with non-believers. 

Buruma claims, ridiculously, that “Francis’s words suggest that it might be a legitimate option to cut out God Himself”.  There is no such suggestion at all.  

Ian Buruma:
thinks he knows more about 
The Church than The Pope

Nor is the Pope condoning “the extreme individualism of our age” – this is Buruma’s self-projection.  Buruma is a proponent of Classical Liberalism, which emphasises the supposed freedom of the individual, which leads to moral relativism, otherwise known as “anything goes”.  Pope Francis clearly rejects moral relativism:

“... each of us sees the truth and expresses it, starting from oneself: from one's history and culture, from the situation in which one lives, etc.  This does not mean that the truth is variable and subjective. It means that it is given to us only as a way and a life.  Was it not Jesus himself who said:  "I am the way, the truth, the life"? [paragraph 20 of letter, 11/9/13]

It’s actually a very simple teaching for anyone who seeks the truth.  The Pope is actively ‘talking’ in a very humble and direct way to what sounds like a rather irritating former newspaper editor and to all those who don’t get the meaning of DIALOGUE either.  

Greek 101 for the day:  διάλογος – dialogos, dia = inter, through, logos = speech, discourse.  Primarily the dialogue between man and God through The Sacraments, and The Magisterium, but also the dialogue between believers and non-believers, in which we are all called upon to engage with in the path towards Truth.  

If Buruma practises what he preaches, i.e. everyone is free to make up their own mind, then readers are free to read the Pope's words themselves before reaching a conclusion. 

Read the full letter here.  

Read the Encyclical here.  

Then if you still have questions, go and ask a Catholic priest.  Dialogue.  

Lord Jesus, shelter our Holy Father, the Pope, under the protection of your Sacred Heart.  Be his light, his strength, and his consolation.  Amen.   

Consalvi says: No foundations without Law

A Larnaca businessman prophetically advised me in 2010:  “Just remember, Englishman:  in Cyprus there is no law, no police, no courts, no justice.  We’ve just been lucky up to now.” 

In 2013, it looks like Cyprus’s luck is running out. 

Just before the 53^rd anniversary of Cyprus’s “independence”, President Anastasiades said that the state of Cyprus created in 1960 has run its course.  “It is time to build a new state model that will respond to the new era, that will respect and serve the public, restore meritocracy, also define the responsibilities of politicians.”

Fine words, but what are to be the foundation stores of the new Cyprus?  A hard-hitting and persuasive editorial in The Cyprus Mail (1^st October 2013) went straight to the heart of the problem:  “We cannot even boast that after 53 years, we built a state in which there is the rule of law, let alone equality before the law.”

Two weeks ago, the British wife of one of Cyprus’s most eminent criminal lawyers - a Greek-Cypriot trained in England - lent me a book, which I read cover to cover:  Tom Bingham’s The Rule of Law (Penguin Group Publications, 2011), winner of The Orwell Book Prize of 2011. 

Lord Bingham, a former senior law lord in Britain, is superbly qualified to quantify sixteen principles underpinning a rule of law and to construct a route map for its achievement.  As a former Lord Chief Justice and Master of the Rolls, he has both the knowledge and experience to assist the builders of a new Cypriot state.  This very special publication should be distributed widely and read among the public and private enterprises, institutions and educational establishments of Cyprus.

Bingham makes it clear that the rule of law is not an arid legal doctrine, but the foundation of a fair and just society, a guarantee of responsible government, and a significant contributor to economic growth. 

Wishful thinking for Cyprus?

The blood is on whose hands?

The Sicilian-style vendetta killing of a 66-year-old man in Ayia Napa points yet again to lax government controls on gun ownership in Cyprus. 

Your family could be next

The victim was shot dead with a hunting gun after a family feud, according to The Cyprus Daily (print edition).  So your brother-in-law and your sister get divorced, then you kill him?  That's really going to help the sister’s life.  Not to mention the shame brought upon the family.  

But more senseless is the ease with which any Tom, Dick and Harry in Cyprus can acquire a hunting gun, and use it for purposes other than hunting.  Does the government carry out psychometric tests before issuing hunting licences?  I doubt it.  

I know one of my neighbours has a hunting gun because I’ve seen him go out dressed like Rambo.  He’s in his 70s.  He’s also a suspected cat-poisoner in this neighbourhood.  Should he be the sort of person allowed to have a gun?  

Who's the chump?

I’ve got nothing against hunting per se.  Regulated hunting.  God gave us animals to eat and I’m quite partial to a bit of game myself:  roast pheasant or venison with plum sauce, mmm.  But I don’t classify shooting hare and wood pigeon as real hunting.  Big boys with big toys.  The noise of gunfire terrifies domestic animals, and every year hundreds of hunting dogs in Cyprus are dumped and left to starve on the roadside when the hunting season is over. 

As for the abhorrent and barbaric practice of trapping tiny birds alive on glue sticks and then stabbing them in the throat with a toothpick, before pickling, grilling or boiling them, not only has it been illegal since 1974, but it continues in Cyprus to this day, and the government turns a blind eye.  The ambelopoulia industry brings in an estimated 5 million euro annually. 

Before....

... After

Perhaps when Mr. Resurrection (President Anastasiades) has finished sucking up to the Kuwaitis, he might want to think about getting a grip on gun laws and hunting laws in this country before another human life is lost.  Otherwise, their blood is on his hands too. 

Material prosperity of a nation is one thing but it counts for little in a lawless society. 

Almighty and Eternal God, may Your grace enkindle in us a love for the many unfortunate people, whose poverty and misery reduce to a condition of life unworthy of human beings.  Arouse in the hearts of those who call you Father, a hunger and thirst for social justice, and for fraternal charity in deeds and in truth.  Grant, O Lord, peace in our days:  peace to souls, peace to families, peace to our country, and peace among nations.  Amen. 

A contributor's piece

Getting from A to B ... the long way round

Readers of advancing age might remember a popular sit-com from the late Sixties and early Seventies in England.

On the Buses was a weekly comedy show depicting a chaotic bus company in London.  The management had a marginal grip on the staff, causing mayhem for everyone.  Timetables were a moveable feast depending on the vagaries of the employees’ lives, domestic and romantic.  Crews of both sexes afforded Carry On-style fun and frolics.

1971 London ... not so different from Cyprus today

The government-controlled bus company of Cyprus is doing its best to emulate the worst practices of this ‘fictional’ company in England 40 years ago. 

The local bus service in Larnaca is not run in the interest of customers, timetables are changed at whim, and routes seem to be more and more arbitrary every day. 

The main bus route on the Larnaca-Dhekelia road, between the tourist area and the town centre, is an open sore for everyone using public transport in Cyprus.   Well-heeled tourists who do not wish to drive in Cyprus (because it’s scary) or simply do not drive, college students, hotel workers, and ordinary citizens suffer alike. 

When the bus reaches the Makarios Avenue roundabout (the one with the pointless 2 million euro water fountain), it inexplicably heads for Larnaca Port, down narrow back streets jammed on both sides with badly parked cars, but strangely, makes no stop there.  Back into Makarios Avenue, down Archbishop Kyprianou Avenue into a bus depot, where it parks up briefly for no clear reason while passengers look at each other in perplexity, then on to Phinikoudes beach: the central point where most people want to get off. 

The rationale for this circuitous and pointless route is mystifying. 

People trying to meet other bus connections at the seafront, local and inter-city, miss them because of all the faffing about.  I have seen many passengers express their frustrations to the drivers, but what can the drivers do?  They’re just following orders. 

Does anyone know where we're going?

Buses in Cyprus have become a metaphor for the directionless, chaotic state of this nation.  Let’s not allow Cyprus to become an old sit-com. 

Football: greed in shorts

While some Cypriot families are starving, and paying new taxes through their noses, Marios Lefkaritis recently pocketed 32 million euro from the Qataris to secure his vote on Qatar as a World Cup location, the UK’s Mail on Sunday alleged yesterday.

 

Marios Lefkaritis:
not starving but
suffering with ingrown toenails

 Lefkaritis is one of the 22 FIFA Executive Committee  members, 14 of whom voted in favour of Qatar for the World  Cup.  Three of those fourteen have already stepped down  from FIFA over allegations of vote-fixing. 

 As the MoS went to press yesterday, Lefkaritis was not available for comment.  His spokesman said he was  recovering from surgery.  He has backed out of FIFA  meetings early this month citing a foot injury.

 In the wake of the dodgy land deals involving CYTA's pension  fund, the QIA, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, allegedly  bought land in Cyprus from Lefkaritis, so we should be seeing  a new influx of Qataris on the island soon. 

Has Marios paid tax on his bank deposits?  I hope Angela Merkel is taking note.

 

Almighty God, you alone can order the unruly wills and affections of sinful people: grant that we may love the things you command us and desire the things you promise, so that among the many and various changes of the world, our hearts may be surely fixed where true joys are to be found, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

-The Book of Common Prayer

Cypriot donkeys in Cypriot law

A 32-year-old Cypriot man who killed his wife, injured their child, then committed suicide, owned an Army-issue assault rifle which was given back to him by the Cypriot police, despite the authorities’ awareness of his violent past, Sarah Fenwick reported last week.

Cypriot Police:
we like issuing speeding fines
but don't expect us to do any real police work

   

Georgia Georgiou, 27, of Limassol, had complained to the police about her husband’s violence.  In September 2013, Pantelis Charilaou’s military-issue G3 rifle was confiscated by the police, but returned to him within 24 hours because the police were unable to obtain a court order legally permitting the permanent confiscation of the weapon.  

Were all the judges on holiday?  Or was it a weekend?

Another excuse from the police was that the complaint was not made in writing, so they couldn’t do anything about it, Maria Gregoriou reported on Saturday. 

Can't anybody in the Cypriot police force write?

In fear and despair, Georgia moved back to her mother’s house in the village of Ayios Ioannis, about 30 km outside Limassol, in the foothills of the Troodos forest. 

Last Monday (30/9/13) around 10:20 p.m. after an argument at Ayios Ioannis, Charilaou shot his wife dead in front of their ten-year-old daughter, before killing himself.  The child was wounded in the hand and underwent surgery, but survived. 

There are 3 surviving orphans.

The Cypriot National Guard:
get your free guns here

Under Cypriot law, it is illegal for civilians to own firearms without a permit showing “valid cause” such as “hunting, target shooting, collectors’ items, or for personal protection.” (Target shooting?)  However, National Guardsmen (military service is compulsory in Cyprus) are issued with G3 A3 rifles.  Are reservists allowed to take weapons home and nobody in the army notices?

   

This terrible tragedy highlights the ongoing failures of the Cypriot law and justice system, the police, the Ministry of Defence, military commanders at grass roots level, and government initiatives.  Saddest of all is that that young woman who lost her life unnecessarily received no help at all from the authorities.  

"It could have been avoided," said the government advisory committee.  Understatement of the year.  

The Association for the Prevention and Handling of Violence in the Family 

is an EU-funded, non-profit NGO based in Nicosia that operates a free helpline, from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily, including weekends and holidays.  The charity can arrange safe house accommodation.  Freephone 1440.  

More helpline volunteers are always needed.  Training provided.  

Patron saint of abused women: Saint Rita of Cascia.  
Novena to Saint Rita.  

Whom you know, not what you know

Students in Cyprus

Teachers in Cyprus state schools get a pretty cushy deal, really. 

Students in the UK

They teach 26.5 contact hours a week.  Their working day ends at 1.35 p.m., after which they’re free to go home, although most moonlight on the side with private tutorials after a big lunch and a siesta.  The academic year runs from early September to late May during which they get two weeks holiday at Christmas, two weeks at Easter, three months in the summer, plus national public holidays - about one every month. 

Meanwhile, while employed, there’s sick pay, maternity pay, a marriage grant, and work-related injuries benefits.  The mandatory retirement age for Cypriot state teachers is 60 for both sexes, but early retirement is common, permitted at 45 (pensions suspended until 55).  If service spans 33.3 years [why this strange fraction?] or longer, pensions amount to 50% of the final salary, plus a lump sum gratuity, from 4.7 to 5.2 times the annual pension.  Pensioned teachers may work privately and earn incomes without prejudice to their pensions. 

Not bad, eh?

Source:  Alejandro Sergio Simone of the IMF, ‘The Cypriot Pension System:  Issues & Reforms Options’ in the Cyprus Economic Policy Review, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 3-34 (2011). 

Every year thousands of Cypriot university graduates file applications with the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture.  Only an undergraduate degree is required, no teaching qualifications or experience necessary. 

 

The catch is there is a waiting list of about 25 years. 

Unless you have μέσα ('mesa', contacts).  

A cousin of mine who graduated in “English” Literature from an Athenian university in the late 1970s eventually got her state teaching position in Cyprus in the mid-2000s.  She was in her mid-40s. By that time she couldn’t remember a single book she’d read at university and could barely speak English.  She now teaches English Language at a state secondary school in Cyprus.   

The Cyprus Mail’s editorial column today highlights the endemic corruption within the Cypriot state education system.  Forget meritocracy – a First Class Honours degree from The Russell Group and years of experience won’t get you a job.   Nepotism abounds.  

Grant, Lord, to all students to love and know that which is worth knowing, to praise that which pleases you most, to value that which is most precious to you, and to dislike whatever is evil in your eyes. 

– Thomas a Kempis

Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi today

Dr. Paolo Pieraccini is the leading historian and authority on Catholicism in the Holy Land and the areas it encompasses, which includes Cyprus, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories.  

His new book, The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land in Cyprus, 1191-1960 (Edizioni Terra Santa, Milano 2013) charts the arrival of Saint Francis of Assisi and his companions in Cyprus and the history of the religious order on the island from the 12th century up to the end of British rule in 1960.    

The Italian-English translation needs a bit of editing, and there are a few glaring printing errors, but it's a fascinating, well documented, thoroughly annotated insight into the history of Catholicism in Cyprus, citing original documents and sources throughout.  There are some evocative, rare, black & white photos at the back.  

Happy St. Francis Day!

All the darkness of the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle. 

- St. Francis of Assisi, 'The Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi'

Freemasonry at the highest levels of the Orthodox Church?

A big fat Greek wedding earlier this week looked like it was going to be the usual scene at first.  Join the queue to hand over your entrance fee to the bride and groom, pick up a lokoumi  tou gamou, quaff a quick bevvy and then split.  Duty done. 

But mingling among the throng of chicken kebab-gorging guests was a most amiable Greek Orthodox priest who’d flown all the way from the Antipodes to officiate at his sister-in-law’s wedding. 

Smiling in his robes, he introduced us to his bubbly wife and two delightful children and told us that when he wasn’t busy with church services, he and his wife ran a fish’n’chip shop.  We like this guy.

 

From cod and plaice, somehow the chat got onto the Orthodox hierarchy.  Quite casually he dropped a little bombshell:  

“We suspect that our last three Patriarchs were Freemasons.”

He was talking about the Patriarch of Constantinople, who is primus inter pares among all the other Patriarchs of the Orthodox Sees.  Bartholomew I was elected in 1991. His predecessor was Demetrios I (reigned 1972-1991) who succeeded Athenagoras I (reigned 1948-1972). 

Digging a little today, I find this from a Greek newspaper of 1964:  

“In Paris, a book entitled The Sons of Light was published, in which it is stated that Patriarch Athenagoras is a Freemason. On page 313, the Patriarch is called a Freemason. Since the Patriarch has not come forward to deny this, the scandal persists in the consciences of Christians who have read such frightful news in the daily Athenian press and in publications coming from America–a scandal not so much because of what the journalists report, but because the Patriarch himself, who seems indifferent about the matter or does not wish, for reasons best known to himself, to come forward and deny this report” (Χριστιανική Σπίθα [Christianiki Spitha], No. 268, January 1964).

Archbishop Gregory of Colorado, USA, writes that the leading Masonic periodical of Greece in 1977, "Pythagoras", stated that Athenagoras’s successor, Demetrios, was a Mason, and put him on the cover: 

Elsewhere, Archbishop Gregory says about the current Patriarch Bartholomew:  “Now, taking up where his Masonic predecessors left off, Bartholomew will more explicitly affirm [an Ecumenical agenda] and work for the practical realization of the unity of all men and all religions, condemning all efforts at proselytism as sin and working with pan-religious organizations for the employment of religion as a pliable propaganda tool and control mechanism of global government in the hands of the United Nations Organization ... As an adept Royal Arch Mason, [Bartholomew] knows how to ‘be all things to all men’ in a sense which the Apostle Paul definitely rejected.”

UN flag

Flag of the Greek Orthodox Church

Great Seal of the USA (obverse side)

Any similarities in the emblems?

In Orthodoxy, as in Catholicism, Freemasonry is forbidden for any member of the Church, whether priesthood, monastics, or laity.  

I disagree with the American cleric’s views on “Papist heresies”.  I think he has misunderstood the concept of sister Churches.  We Catholics refer benignly to our Orthodox brothers and sisters, but that is not the same as Ecumenism.   There is only One Church founded by St. Peter.  

Most glorious and most bountiful God, accept our praises and thanksgivings for your holy catholic church, the mother of us all who bear the name of Christ, for the faith which it has handed on in safety to our time, and the mercies by which it has enlarged and comforted the hearts of mankind; for the virtues which it has established in the world, and the holy lives by which it gives glory both to the world and to you; to you be all honour, might, majesty and dominion, O Blessed Trinity, now and forever.  Amen.

- Memorials

Nationalism: a double edged sword

Cyprus “Independence” Day.  Groan.  

Cyprus IS independent!

This coming from a nation that does not speak the language of the country she claims as a motherland, nor is Cyprus part of the Republic of Greece.  ‘Motherland’ Greece that got Cyprus into the economic ruin it is in today.  ‘Motherland’ Greece that only ever had cultural influences on this island, but never autonomous political control.

In the early Bronze Age, Cyprus was under Assyrian, Phoenician, and Egyptian rule (read:  Arab), later part of the Hittite kingdoms (Jewish), later part of the Ancient Roman empire (when St. Paul and St. Barnabas arrived).  For 300 years from the 7^th Century AD, Cyprus was jointly ruled by Arabs and Byzantine Greeks and Jews up to the Crusader period.  All ethnic Cypriots descend from them. 

In the 12th century, under the Roman Catholic rule of King Richard the Lionheart and later, the French Lusignan dynasty, Latin was the official language of the island, later replaced by French.  Maronite Arabs settled on the island during this period, who intermarried with the local population.  In the 15th century, Cyprus was part of the Venetian empire.  Many Italians (Catholics) intermarried with locals too.  Subsequently, Ottoman Turks ruled the island for about 200 years, and again intermingled with the indigenous population.  British rule followed from 1925 to 1960.  

So the ideology that Cyprus is "ethnically Greek" is a fallacy.  Propaganda that has served a political purpose within Europe since 1821.  If islanders could be bothered to take a DNA test or look into their genealogy, they might be surprised by what they find.  

The national identification of Cyprus with Greece is a very recent phenomenon, whipped up in the 1930s as a reaction to British colonial rule, reaching a climax in the 1950s with the EOKA movement, ultimately leading to the establishment of a republic in 1960, the Turkish invasion of 1974, and the racial and religious segregation of the island. 

Young nations do struggle to find their own identity, and the Republic of Cyprus is still very young:  only 53 years old.  The USA is only 237 years old and still struggling.  Nations that have been under imperial rule try harder to assert themselves than those that were kingly powers.  I say that the identification of Cyprus with Greece is a false construct.  Cyprus would be better off forging a truly independent identity:  Cypriot, not Greek.  Promotion of the Cypriot language, not Modern Greek.  

Our current president, Mr. Anastasiades, whose surname can be taken as a linguistic variation of ανάστασης [anastasis], “Mr. Resurrection”, speaks today of the need for a new (world) order in Cyprus.  It has disturbing Masonic undertones to me. 

Mihalis Eleftheriou [“Mike Freedom”] hits the nail on the head in the Cyprus Mail today. 

Almighty God, from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed. Kindle we pray, in all our hearts the true love of peace, and guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth, that in tranquillity your Kingdom may go forward, till the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love.  Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.
- Bishop Francis Paget