Orthodox leader to bestow Fidel Castro with Church order

Natasha · Post by **Natasha** » Mon 26 January 2004 5:37 pm

1-19-2004 - www.ekathimerini.com - The Associated Press

HAVANA - The spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians will honor Fidel Castro with the Church’s Order of St Andrew the Apostle during his visit next week, event organizers said yesterday.
Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios will thank Castro for his government’s construction of the church’s new St Nicholas Cathedral, to be consecrated by the patriarch on Jan. 25, regional church leaders told a news conference.
Vartholomaios will be the first Orthodox Christian patriarch ever to visit Latin America, said Metropolitan Athenagoras of Panama and Central America, equivalent of archbishop for a region that includes Mexico, the Caribbean, Colombia and Venezuela.
“For us, this visit has great historic significance,” Metropolitan Athenagoras told reporters. He said the Orthodox hierarchy occasionally bestows the Order of St Andrew on personalities who help the Church.
Vartholomaios is considered “first among equals” of 14 patriarchs representing Orthodox Christians in eastern Europe and the Middle East, including Russia, Romania, Ukraine, Greece and Syria. Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism split a millennium ago over questions of theology and papal authority.
The Ecumenical Patriarch will arrive in Cuba Wednesday, “bringing the same message that Jesus Christ brought 2,000 years ago,” the metropolitan said. “It’s the same message of peace, the message of reconciliation.” The trip will be strictly ecclesiastical and nonpolitical in nature, organizers said.
“The patriarch does not take political positions,” said Benjamin Leavenworth, communications director for the visit. No visits with dissidents are planned, he said.
Cuba became officially atheist in the years after the 1959 revolution that brought Castro to power, but the government abandoned official atheism more than a decade ago and allowed religious believers to join the Communist Party for the first time. There are less than 2,000 practicing Orthodox Christians in Cuba, many of them immigrants from countries of the former Soviet Union.
Vartholomaios is considered a successor to St Andrew the Apostle, believed to have founded the Church in the early years of Christianity in what was then called Byzantium.
In recent years, Vartholomaios has visited Libya, Iran, Bahrain and Qatar — the first Ecumenical Patriarch to visit those Muslim countries — to promote religious tolerance.

Natasha · Post by **Natasha** » Mon 26 January 2004 5:56 pm

Orthodox patriarch dines with Castro
Sat Jan 24,10:28 PM ET

HAVANA, (AFP) - Bartholomew I, the visiting Orthodox ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople and spiritual leader of the 300 million strong orthodox community worldwide, met with Cuban President Fidel Castro but snubbed a US reception that included Cuban dissidents.

Bartholomew I, Castro, and 23 others dined late Friday at Havana's posh landmark Hotel Nacional, said Benjamin Leavenworth, spokesman for the Orthodox patriarch.

"It was an extremely successful dinner," he told AFP, without elaborating.

On Saturday, Oswaldo Paya, leader of the banned dissident Christian Freedom Movement, issued a statement saying that those "wanting to be respectful and supportive of the Cuban people" should support "peaceful democratic change, referendum and dialogue, liberation of political prisoners, raise their voice and pray for our silent people, and not lose hope."

The statement was handed to Orthodox Archbishop Dimitrios of New York -- who traveled to Cuba for Bartholomew's visit -- at a reception at the residence of the US representative in Havana, James Cason.

Cason's event was attended by several dissidents, spouses of jailed dissidents, foreign diplomats and a delegation of Greek Americans.

Bartholomew I and his entourage, invited and expected to attend the reception, did not show up.

A US diplomat said the Orthodox patriarch excused himself "at the last minute," adding that his absence represented "a lost opportunity," although he declined to speculate on the reasons.

Bob Edgar, secretary general of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States, told reporters after he met with the Orthodox patriarch on Friday that he hoped to meet with Castro himself to voice concern about the fate of 75 dissidents rounded up in April in the biggest government crackdown in years.

The dissidents were sentenced to lengthy prison terms and the crackdown sparked an international outcry.

Edgar said he did not want to tell the communist Cuban government what to do, but that he hoped compassion would be shown the dissidents whether with releases or reduced sentences.

On Friday, the patriarch of Constantinople consecrated the Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Havana, built especially by the Cuban government "as an offering from the Cuban people" to the Orthodox Church.

The Cuban Orthodox community has 2,000 to 3,000 members, mostly of Slavic, Russian and Ukrainian origin.

bogoliubtsy · Post by **bogoliubtsy** » Mon 29 March 2004 5:33 pm

Archon Leader Refutes Rumor: "Castro Not An Archon"

http://www.goarch.org - February 20, 2004 - New York, NY - Contrary to widely circulated reports, His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew did not confer the Order of St. Andrew upon the President of Cuba, Fidel Castro, nor did he present him with the Cross of St. Andrew. According to Dr. Anthony J. Limberakis, National Commander of the Order of St. Andrew, who accompanied the Patriarch on his recently concluded historic trip to Cuba, “His All Holiness gave to the Cuban leader a simple cross bearing the seal of the Patriarchate, as an expression of gratitude to the people of Cuba for the return and reconstruction of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Havana.” The Patriarch traveled from Constantinople (Istanbul) to Cuba last month for the consecration of the Cathedral, which took place on Sunday, January 25, 2004. “The Order of St. Andrew is bestowed upon individuals of proven Orthodox Christian character, after a process of nomination and comprehensive review,” Dr. Limberakis continued. “Fidel Castro, despite his government’s recent act of generosity to our Orthodox Church, does not espouse the Christian faith, and was never considered for this high honor.”

Seraphim Reeves · Post by **Seraphim Reeves** » Fri 2 April 2004 5:11 pm

If this is the case Bogoliubtsy, then someone might want to contact the webmaster of the OCA's main site.

Caption from Website: Patriarch BARTHOLOMEW presents the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Cross of St. Andrew to President Castro. The new church was a gift from President Castro to the Orthodox Christians of Cuba.

Seraphim

bogoliubtsy · Post by **bogoliubtsy** » Fri 2 April 2004 5:25 pm

Ha... well then. Who knows....

Daniel · Post by **Daniel** » Fri 2 April 2004 11:38 pm

I get a kick out of the look on Castro's face every time I see that picture.

There should be a little bubble above his head saying: "I build you a beautiful church and all I get is this tiny cross?"

romiosini · Post by **romiosini** » Sat 3 April 2004 12:08 am

Lord Have Mercy!