ONCE UPON A TIME IN ROCA
(Excerpted from a report made by the Editor of “Listok”
http://www.listok.com, wherein he cites historic statements made at one
time in “Pravoslavnaya Rus’”, the “flagship” publication of ROCA, which
expressed ROCA’s erstwhile “Official Position,” that today is being flushed
down the drain by the neo-ROCORites.)-:
“Following Metropolitan Sergii’s [infamous] Declaration,
Metropolitan Joseph and many other bishops, along with their entire
flock(s), rejected [any] canonical communion [whatsoever] with Metropolitan
Sergii. Metropolitan Sergii’s supporters began to be called “Sergianists”,
while the supporters of Metropolitan Joseph [were labelled]
“Josephites.” The position of the “Josephites” was endorsed by
Metropolitan Peter (of Krutitsk), Metopolitan Kyrill (of Kazan’) and other
bishops.” (“PR”, No. 11, 1947, pp. 4-7)
“Patriarch Sergii and Patriarch Aleksii forbade those active in
the “Josephite” Church from serving and branded them “political criminals,”
while the latter forbade believers to attend open soviet temples.” (“PR”,
No. 14, 1947, pp. 4-10)
“Patriarch Aleksii’s new sacrilege-: for the first time in the
history of the Church, Patriarch Aleksii proclaimed an ektenia ‘for the
health and protection of Joseph Stalin, the great leader of
Russia…’ Another of the patriarch’s sacrilegious acts was calling those
newly-martyred for their faith in Christ political or felonious
criminals. This compromise with the persecutors of the Church of Christ is
not the pathway of Orthodoxy. The true Mother-Church is to be found in the
catacombs; she does not pray for atheists; she does not defile temples; she
does not abandon Orthodoxy.” (“PR”, No. 20, 1947, pp. 13-14)
“ROCA does not recognize the soviet church personified by the MP,
for the true Orthodox Church in Russia has withdrawn into the
catacombs. She is persecuted and suffers for her fidelity to Christ.”
(“PR”, No. 13, 1970, pp. 8-9)
“The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, this free part of the
persecuted Russian Orthodox Church, is subjected to attacks on the part of
soviet agents personified by the MP.” (“PR”, No. 12, 1978, pp. 9-12)
“Epistle to the God-beloved flock from the Sobor of Bishops of
ROCA: Our Church confesses [her] unity with the tormented and persecuted
Catacomb Church in [our] Native Land, which regards ROCA as the guardian of
the pure Orthodox faith.” (“PR”, No. 19, 1978, pp. 3-4)
As is evident from these attestations of a once Orthodox
publication [i.e., “Pravoslavnaya Rus’”], the Russian Orthodox Church
Abroad has always considered the Catacomb Church to be the true
Mother-Church, and not the Moscow Patriarchate, that soviet serving-wench
of a godless regime. The shift in ROCA’s course and principles of faith
has brought about a falling-away from her former traditional path of those
who, in the world of today, have rejected the witness of Truth, which is
incapable of being bribed, and have embraced the sergianist spirit and
methods vis-a-vis those who are not in agreement with their deviation in
the direction of Apostasy. This is confirmed by the continued persecution,
in the form of repressive court actions, directed against those who have
remained faithful to the original position of the Church
Abroad Metropolitan Vitaly and his followers on the part of the synod of
Archbishops Laurus and Mark.
The persecutors, of their own free will, are choosing union with
the anathematized ecumenistic world, and are repenting neither of heresy
nor of the schism which they have fomented.
-- Translated from the Russian by G. Spruksts