The Department of Theology of the School of Theology of the Athens University is closely following with special concern the scheduled attempts by the Vatican to reactivate the historical remnants of Unia in the Ukraine, in Moldavia, in Yugoslavia, in Albania and in Czechoslovakia, to the detriment of the impoverished Orthodox peoples, in order to impose the domination of the Papacy in Eastern Europe. The Vatican is taking advantage - as it aught not - of the current confusion in the western European states in the face of the rapid developments among the peoples of Eastern Europe, in order to impose oppressive conditions detrimental to the Orthodox.

The indescribable treachery and violence against the Orthodox in these regions have brought back memories to the Orthodox Church, of the tragic experiences of the Papist Crusades' colonialist syndrome in the historical past.

They are force-feeding peoples with an unchecked and inexhaustible explosion of fanaticism and intolerance, when what they need -now, more than ever before- is peace and a union of hearts, albeit the Vatican leadership should be aware that religious intolerance will certainly not end, after just the first round of Uniate violence.

They (Uniates) merely confirm the familiar hypocritical stance of the Vatican opposite the Orthodox Church in general, inasmuch as the Papal throne may display its disapproval -within the Dialogue- of Unia as a path towards Unity, nevertheless, it continues to govern the Uniates' violent activities in every specific region. 

They scatter the fruits of any positive initiatives taken by the Dialogue of Love and the official Theological Dialogue between the two churches.

They destroy with their short-sighted and unrealistic ecclesiastic policy the path for a future continuation of the sincere and unfeigned, common course towards the Unity, for which so many pains have been taken nowadays by both sides, and finally, they reveal more clearly the Vatican's extremely profound confusion between the medieval identity and the contemporary, ecclesiastically utopian and ecclesiologically unacceptable quests of the papal throne.

The Department of Theology of the School of Theology of the Athens University, in today's (20.1.1992) convention, unanimously:

·       Denounces this policy of the Vatican upon the impoverished Orthodox peoples;

·       Condemns with aversion the use of political influence and blind violence in the obstruction of even the divine Worship of the Orthodox in the specific regions;

·       Deprecates the mobilization of insidious diplomatic means where instead there should be operating only the primacy of Christian love, and, finally,

·      It more specifically points out the unacceptable attempt by the Vatican to attach itself - through ecclesiastic Hierarchy and with illegitimate means - to the circumstantially seceded and alienated Orthodox Church of the region of Skopje, by promoting a post-war, novel and fabricated nationality and language in order to cast doubt on the 3000-year long, undoubted Hellenicity of Macedonia.

The Vatican is sowing winds, and will be reaping hurricanes.

 

For the Department of Theology

The Chairman Christos Sp. Voulgaris

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