Address to Pope Benedict XVI
By Archbishop Elias
Of the Ukrainian Orthodox Greek-Catholic Church
January 28, 2011 (Transcript of the English translation)
Your Holiness,
On the very first day in the New Year shocking news went the rounds: You confirmed the apostatical gesture in Assisi; you intend to repeat and canonize it.
We quote you: “To commemorate the great historic gesture of my predecessor and to solemnly renew the commitment of the believers of all the religions to live their own religious faith as a service to peace.”
Your Holiness, realize that by your acknowledgement of the Assisi gesture, you stood against Christ and against His Mystical Body, the Church.
This so-called “great historic gesture” is a total betrayal of Christianity.
To invite pagans who worship Satan to Assisi and to commit them to living their own religious faith is absurd. To put pagan idolatry on an equal footing with the Gospel is heresy maxima.
The Gospel and the whole missionary tradition of the Church are thus denied.
Your Holiness, Peter denied Christ three times, but that very night he showed repentance.
1) You publicly declared a heresy.
2) You fixed a specific date of beatification of an apostate.
3) You decided to make a gesture of apostasy and to go to Assisi yourself.
In these last two years, our bishops’ Synod have repeatedly urged you to begin the reform of the Church. We have stressed that the reform of the Church cannot be effected without public repentance for the apostatical gesture of John Paul II in Assisi.
It is the irony that at the beginning of this year you did quite the opposite: You set a concrete date on the beatification of an apostatical Pope: 1st May, 2011.
The day when you beatify an apostate will become the day of your self-excommunication from the Mystical Body of Christ.
According to the Epistle to the Galatians, Chapter 1, verses 8 and 9, you will fall under God’s anathema, a curse.
If you then create unity with the spirit of Anti-Christ in Assisi, you will become a grave-digger of the Church.
Twenty years after his death, Pope Honorius I was excommunicated from the Church only because he had been silent on heresy. Similarly to John Paul II, you are silent on heresies. You too make a historic heretical gesture.
Unless you repent, you will be responsible for [the] self-destruction of the Catholic Church.
Your Holiness, come to reason and repent.
How?
1) Firstly, cancel the planned meeting in Assisi and do the opposite. The opposite is public penance for the heretical gesture of John Paul II.
2) Secondly, cancel the beatification of John Paul II.
3) Thirdly, remove apostate cardinals and bishops from office. Consecrate true Catholic bishops who will carry out an internal reform of the Church.
This is what the bleeding Church expects from you.
This is what the suffering Shepherd of the Church, Jesus Christ Himself, expects from you.
He will soon ask you to account for whether you acted in accordance with this prophetic word.
Your Holiness, seven bishops of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Greek-Catholic Church are praying for you.
