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This is how, for example, he writes in his “Thoughts on the Church” (p. 13):
“No confession of the Christian faith, except the Orthodox, can lead a Christian to the perfection of Christian life or holiness and to the complete cleansing of sins and to incorruption, because other confessions, non-Orthodox, contain truth in untruth ( Rom. 1:18 ), mixed vanity and lies with the truth and do not possess those God-given means for purification, sanctification, rebirth and renewal, which the Orthodox Church possesses .
The experiences of centuries, or the history of the Orthodox Church and other churches, have shown and continue to show this with astonishing clarity. Recall the multitude of saints of our Church, past and present, and their absence, following the division of the churches, in other, non-Orthodox churches—Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican.
Here are the astonishing thoughts of the holy righteous father John, directed precisely against the latest "ecumenical" resolution of the Vatican Council: "There are many separate confessions of Christianity, with different external and internal structures, with different opinions and teachings, often contrary to the Divine truth of the Gospel and the teaching of the holy Apostles, ecumenical and local councils and holy fathers. One cannot consider them all to be true and saving: indifference in faith or the recognition of every faith as equally saving leads to unbelief or cooling towards faith, to negligence in the fulfillment of the rules and statutes of faith, to cooling of Christians towards each other. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asks you to sift you like wheat ( Luke 22:31 ). This is what he, Satan, has done and is doing, that is, he has given birth to schisms and heresies. Strictly adhere to the One, True Faith and the Church: “One faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all ( Eph. 4:5 )” (p. 31).
What is the immeasurable superiority of our holy Orthodox Church?
“The Orthodox Church surpasses all non-Orthodox churches, firstly, by its truth, its Orthodoxy , preserved and won by the blood of the apostles, hierarchs, martyrs, monks, and all the saints; secondly, by the most faithful guide to salvation (by an even, direct, and true path); by the fact that it faithfully purifies, sanctifies, and renews through the hierarchy, divine services, sacraments, and fasts; thirdly, by the fact that it best guides to repentance, correction, prayer, thanksgiving, and doxology. Where are there such prayers, doxologies, thanksgivings, and petitions, such wondrous divine services as in the Orthodox Church? Nowhere” (p. 38).
How powerfully and eloquently the holy righteous Father John speaks of the absurdity of the cornerstone of the papal dogmatic system—the false doctrine of the primacy of the Pope as the infallible "Vicar of Christ"! Here are his words:
“I am with you always, even to the end of the age ( Matthew 28:20 ). The Lord Himself is always present to His Church—so why a vicar, the pope? And can a sinful man be the vicar of the Lord? He cannot. A king’s vicar, a patriarch’s vicar in any given city can and does exist, but no one can be a vicar, a substitute for the Lord, the Beginningless King and Head of the Church. True. Catholics are mistaken. Remind them, O Lord, that it is absurd to assert such things, and to be adorned with pride like a necklace.” (pp. 43–44).
According to Father John, all evil in papism originates from this pernicious false “dogma,” as from its root:
"The most harmful thing in Christianity," he says, "in this divinely revealed heavenly religion, is the primacy of man in the Church, for example, the Pope, and his supposed infallibility. It is precisely in the dogma of his infallibility that the greatest error lies, for the Pope is a sinful man, and it would be a disaster if he imagined himself to be infallible. How many errors, enormous and destructive to human souls, have the Catholic, Papal Church invented—in dogmas, in rituals, in canonical rules, in worship, in the deadening, malicious attitudes of Catholics toward the Orthodox, in blasphemy and slander against the Orthodox Church, in insults directed at the Orthodox Church and Orthodox Christians! “And the supposedly infallible Pope, his and the Jesuits’ doctrine, their spirit of lies, duplicity and all kinds of wrong means admajorem Deigloriam (to the greater glory of God) are to blame for all this” (p. 44).
“It is necessary to belong to the Church of Christ, whose Head is the Almighty King, the Conqueror of Hades, Jesus Christ . His Kingdom is the Church militant against the principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spirits of wickedness in the heavenly places, who skillfully form an organized kingdom and wage war with extreme skill, intelligence, precision, and force against all people, having thoroughly studied their passions and inclinations. One man alone in the field is no warrior; and a great society, although non-Orthodox and without the Head—Christ—can do nothing against such enemies—cunning, subtle, constantly vigilant, and perfectly masterful in the science of their warfare. An Orthodox Christian needs strong support from above, from God and from the holy warriors of Christ, who have conquered the enemies of salvation by the power of Christ’s grace, and from the earthly Orthodox Church, from pastors and teachers, and then from public prayer and the sacraments. Such a helper for the Christian in the struggle against invisible and visible enemies is precisely the Church of Christ, to which, by God's grace, we belong. Catholics have invented a new head, humiliating the One True Head of the Church—Christ: the Lutherans have fallen away and are left without a Head; the Anglicans, too: they have no Church, the union with the Head is broken, there is no all-powerful help, and Belial fights with all his might and cunning, and holds everyone in his delusion and destruction. Many are perishing in atheism and debauchery" (p. 52).
But this is what, as Saint Righteous John deeply and aptly points out, is the root cause of evil in Roman Catholic papism:
“The cause of all the falsehoods of the Roman Catholic Church is pride and the recognition of the Pope as the true Head of the Church, and, moreover, as infallible. Hence comes all the oppression of the Western Church. Oppression of thought and faith, the deprivation of true freedom in faith and life, the Pope has laid his heavy hand on everything: hence the false dogmas , hence the duality and deceit in thought, word and deed; hence the various false rules and regulations for the confession of sins; hence the indulgences; hence the distortion of dogmas; hence the fabrication of saints of the Western Church and non-existent relics, not glorified by God; hence the levying on the mind of God ( 2 Cor. 10:5 ) and every resistance to God under the guise of piety and zeal for the greater glory of God” (p. 58).
“The Pope and the Papists became so proud and exalted that they decided to criticize Christ Himself, the very Hypostatic Wisdom of God, and extended their pride (under the pretext of developing dogmas) to the point of distorting some of His words, commandments, and ordinances that should not be changed until the end of time, for example, the word about the Holy Spirit, the commandment about the Cup of His most pure Blood, of which they deprived the laity, and they put to nothing the words of the Apostle Paul: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes ( 1 Cor. 11:26 ); instead of leavened bread, they use unleavened bread in the liturgy” (p. 59).
This pride was the source of the boundless fanaticism and murderous hatred of all dissenters for which Roman Catholic papism has become so famous throughout history:
"Hatred of Orthodoxy, fanaticism and persecution of the Orthodox, and murders run like a red thread through all centuries of Catholic life. By their fruits you will know them. Is this the spirit commanded us by Christ? To whom, if not Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformers, can we always say: 'You do not know whose spirit you are' ( Luke 9:55 )" (p. 58).
This is what the replacement of the Head of the Church of Christ with the Pope led the Roman Catholics to!
“For Catholics, the head of the Church is not Christ, but the Pope, and Catholics are jealous of the Pope, not of Christ, they fight for the Pope, not for Christ, and their zeal for faith always turns into passionate, misanthropic, frenzied fanaticism, fanaticism of blood and sword (bonfires), irreconcilability, duplicity, lies, cunning” (p. 87).
In our Orthodox Church, according to the thought of Saint Righteous John, even the divine service itself constantly reminds us of our spiritual unity under the Head common to all of us Christians - Christ, which has been completely violated by both Roman Catholics and Protestants, who have distorted the very idea of the Church.
“In every church service,” says Saint Righteous John, “at home, private, and public, the spiritual gaze of the Orthodox Christian is presented with the thought, the idea of a single spiritual body, which is the body of Christ, the pillar and ground of truth, the Head of which is Christ God Himself; this Church of Christ, or the spiritual Body of Christ, consists of three tribes - heavenly, earthly, and underworld, therefore the holy earthly Church (or earthly tribe) daily intercedes before its Head for the forgiveness of the sins of those who have departed in faith and repentance and for their establishment in the Kingdom of Heaven, and calls upon the members of the heavenly Church and the very head of the mental edification of the Church - the Mother of God - as mediators in its intercession, so that through their prayers the Lord will cover their sins and not deprive them of the Kingdom of Heaven. For us, members of the Church of God living on earth, it is most joyful and comforting to always believe, know, and hope that our spiritual Mother, the Holy Church, prays unceasingly day and night for us, that we are always under the gracious protection of the Lord Himself, the Mother of God, the Holy Angels, the Forerunner, and all the saints. For Catholics, the head of the Church is the Pope, a fallible man (though incorrectly proclaimed infallible). As such, he has permitted numerous errors in the Church of Christ, and by his very deeds has shown himself to be so. He has distorted and fettered the very concept of the Church of God, the spiritual freedom and conscience of Catholic Christians, while simultaneously subjecting the Holy Orthodox Church, the pillar and ground of truth, to the wrong blasphemy and hostility of Catholics. "The Protestants—Germans and Englishmen—have a completely distorted concept of the Church, for they lack the grace of a lawful priesthood, have no sacraments other than baptism and (most importantly) the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ; there is no heavenly tribe—the heavenly Church: they do not recognize saints, nor is there an underworld tribe—they do not recognize the dead and do not pray for them, considering this unnecessary. Glory to the Orthodox Church! Glory to Christ God—the Most Holy Head, the only Head of the Church of God on earth! Glory to God in the Trinity, that we have not fallen into blasphemy against God, have not recognized and will never recognize a holy, sinful man as the head of the Church!" (pp. 65–66).
And this is how Saint Righteous John looked at all those who did not belong to our Holy Orthodox Church:
“I thank the Lord, who has listened and is listening to my prayers , in the sight of the all-saving and terrible Sacrifice (the Body and Blood of Christ) for the great societies that have lost their faith, called Christian, but in essence apostate: Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and others” (p. 59).
"The rite of conversion from various faiths and confessions and joining the Orthodox Church—what does it demonstrate? The necessity of abandoning false faiths and confessions, denying errors, confessing the True Faith, repenting of all past sins, and promising God to preserve and firmly profess the immaculate faith, to avoid sin, and to live in virtue" (p. 57).
Here is a clear and categorical condemnation by Saint John of Kronstadt of the now so fashionable “ecumenism”, which has already captured all local Orthodox churches; here is a strong and decisive response to all “ecumenists” who, under the pretext of imaginary “Christian love”, promote the equal value and equality of all faiths and confessions!
In conclusion, we must mention, as a vivid and colorful illustration of the words of our holy righteous father John of Kronstadt about the "spirit of lies" in Roman Catholic papism, how Roman Catholic priests in our western region vigorously spread slander against Saint Righteous John, claiming that he had converted to Catholicism and therefore became so famous for his clairvoyance and miracles. This slander, despite all its absurdity, was repeated subsequently. In 1932, in the Jesuit journal "Towards the Union" in Vilnius, a certain priest, Semyatsky, did not hesitate to publish the following lines: "Father John of Kronstadt performed many miracles while he was a Catholic, but as soon as he renounced Catholicism, the power of miracles left him."
This is how Saint Righteous John himself responds to such a fantastic tale in his sermon, spoken in the city of Vitebsk in the Peter and Paul Church on April 7, 1906:
"I have been eager, dear fathers, brothers, and sisters, to converse with you here, in your city and church, for the glory of God and our holy, immaculate faith and Church, and for your confirmation on the path to salvation. Why was I so eager to converse with you? Here's why. Living and serving as a priest in Kronstadt for the past fifty-one years, I have recently received many letters from western Poland, especially the Grodno and Vilnius provinces, written, so to speak, with tears of blood, with bitter complaints about the Catholic priests and their henchmen, the Catholic laymen, about their persecution of Orthodox Christians and their forcible conversion to Catholicism by all manner of violent means. Moreover, the priests, without a twinge of conscience, slandered me, claiming that I had converted to Catholicism, and that the Tsar himself had allegedly become a Catholic and was ordering everyone to accept the Catholic faith. By so shamelessly slandering me and the Tsar, the Catholics forced many Orthodox peasants to accept Catholicism and imposed an alien faith upon them. Is this the spirit of Christ? Do not the priests, by the manner of their actions, prove that the Catholic faith does not have in itself the vital force that subdues the mind, heart, and will of man to voluntarily follow it, and that its followers attract right-thinking people only by violence and deception?
Dear fathers and brothers! You know of my steadfast adherence to and service in the Orthodox Church for fifty years now; you know, perhaps, of my constant zeal for the true faith; you know of my numerous writings to the glory of God and the Orthodox Church, and of the numerous signs of God's power manifested not only on Orthodox Christians, but also on Catholics and Lutherans, and even Jews and Muslims, when they turned with faith to my prayers. Newspaper reports and the sincere, truthful testimony of eyewitnesses attest to this. I also testify now before you all and before the All-Seeing God that even today our miracles of healing continue unabated. Does this mean that the Orthodox Faith is a dead faith, as Catholics slander? Does it not continually testify to its vitality and saving power, to its pleasingness to God?
I don't want to cite a thousand years of impartial history as evidence of Catholic injustice: it's well known to the entire educated world. The memory of the ill-fated union of the seventeenth century is still fresh here in Russia: the fanatical hatred with which Catholics destroyed Orthodox churches in the western region is still fresh; all the terrible insults and abuse with which the Orthodox faith, the Orthodox Church, and unfortunate Orthodox Christians were vilified are still fresh. Now the days of the union have returned. And when? When Catholics have been granted complete freedom—freedom, of course, not to persecute Orthodoxy and the Orthodox, but to peacefully and fraternally coexist with their Orthodox fellow citizens.
At the beginning, I quoted the words of the Apostle Paul about the Church as the Body of Jesus Christ, and about Christ as the Head of the Church, “...which is the fullness of Him who fills all in all” ( Eph. 1:23 ).
We firmly believe in this one Head of the Church, and we cannot recognize any other, visible head as infallible, for two masters cannot serve. A single Head, all-righteous, omniscient, omnipotent, and all-filling (the fullness of Him who fills all in all), is quite sufficient for us. This Head governs us, protects us, and strengthens us in faith through the Holy Spirit, performs the sacraments, enlightens, saves, and leads us to perfection.
And if you want to see the glorious and God-pleasing fruits of our Orthodox faith, then we will point out to our enemies the multitude of heavenly eagles who have flown from our land to heaven to the very Sun of Truth - all our Saints, ancient and modern, glorified by their angelic life, incorruptible relics and countless miracles.
In conclusion, I will say that the truth of our faith lies in itself, in its very essence, in it - “yes”, and in it itself - “Amen”.
And I end my speech with the word – amen.”
For all who sacredly revere our newly-appeared great saint of God, the holy righteous father John of Kronstadt , the above testimonies are more than sufficient, especially since their truthfulness and persuasiveness are confirmed by his life itself and impartial history.
What confidence, then, can we have in the Roman Catholic papacy, which is founded on lies and thoroughly permeated with lies, until it decisively and publicly renounces its pernicious lies and the delusions it has generated, which are destructive to the souls of men?
There can be no compromises with him and no fellowship, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? ( 2 Cor. 6:14 ).
The only correct path in our wicked time, filled with all kinds of lies and deception, is the path indicated by our same great righteous man:
“Fight every evil, extinguish it immediately, fight it with the weapon given to you by God: Holy Faith, Divine wisdom and truth, prayer, piety, the cross, courage, devotion and fidelity!”
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