This is going to upset more than a few people


(Rorate Caeli) - November 8 of this year witnessed an extremely rare event: the priestly ordination, in Russia and according to the Byzantine Rite, of a Russian Orthodox convert to Catholicism. On this day, Fr. Deacon Pavel (Paul) Gladkov was ordained by Bishop Milan Šášik of the Carpatho-Rusyn Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo in the Latin-Rite Cathedral of the Transfiguration in Novosibirsk (in Siberia).

More photographs can be found on the website of the Catholic Church in Siberia.

The new priest was born into Russian Orthodoxy in 1982 and became Catholic in 1999. The ceremony itself was according to the Byzantine Rite with some elements of the Latin liturgical tradition (such as the prostration for the Litany of Saints, which has been adopted by some Eastern Catholics for their ordination rites.)

The new priest is now one of about 20 Greek Catholic priests serving the small but growing community of Greek Catholics in Russia, of whom only a minority -- sometimes called "Russian Orthodox United with Rome" -- worship according to the Russian tradition (the majority are from Ukraine and follow the Ukrainian Greek Catholic tradition). He is part of a minority (Russian Greek Catholics) in a minority (Greek Catholics) in a minority (Catholics) in Russia. (The vast majority of Catholics in Russia belong to the Latin Rite.) The Greek Catholic community in Russia is governed by Bishop Joseph Werth S.J. who is also the Latin-Rite Ordinary for the Diocese of the Transfiguration in Novosibirsk. (Bishop Werth is biritual and was present in Byzantine vestments at the ordination of Fr. Pavel Gladkov.)

Comments

  1. Matthew MDecember 20, 2011 at 1:18 PM

    Lovin' it!
    I am one of those odd man out types who doesn't fit in the Byzantine Eastern Orthodox or the Western Roman Catholic Churches. They both annoy me and I love aspects of both.
    I wonder if he is married?

    Let the 'haters' take care lest they anger the LORD in what He is doing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PaulDecember 20, 2011 at 1:56 PM

    I have a Uniate god son who is like this. His family says they are RO in communion with Rome.

    ReplyDelete
  3. John (Ad Orientem)December 20, 2011 at 2:21 PM

    Eh. I'm not freaking out. While I would never rejoice at anyone leaving the Church everyone has to obey the dictates of their own conscience. If he had reached a point where he was in his heart and mind no longer Orthodox then it was best he move to Rome rather than commune in hypocrisy in an Orthodox parish. This sort of thing is going to happen from time to time. But it is worth noting that Catholics (both Latin and uniate) make up a very small percentage of the population in Russia. The so called Russian Rite is insignificant in terms of its membership.

    Also worth noting is that there is and has always been some traffic between Rome and Orthodoxy. In recent decades (I'm speaking from anecdotal evidence) that traffic seems to be much heavier on the East bound highway than the West bound.

    On a side note the term "Orthodox in communion with Rome" is an oxymoron. Aint no such thing. My ecumenical sensibilities have limits, and sometimes things need to be said plainly. I don't bash Catholics and have little patience for those that do (I used to be one). But I won't stand silent for the sake of those who pretend that Catholicism and Orthodoxy are the same thing. They aren't. You can be one, or the other, or neither. But you can't be both.

    The Pope is a great man. I happen to think he is the best thing to hit Rome in a very very long time. But he is NOT Orthodox. And if you are in communion with him then neither are you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. JoannaDecember 20, 2011 at 7:34 PM

    He has been Catholic since 1999...only now ordained. 12 years since he left the Orthodox Church. I, and MANY others along with me, passed him going East in the span of those years. I pray for him, me, and for all of us.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AndrewDecember 21, 2011 at 1:27 AM

    John, well said. I like you =) I think you're wrong, and you think I'm wrong, but I like you. Cos you think.

    It's very apparent that the Catholic Church, according to Catholic self understanding, cannot be the same as the Eastern Churches, because the Catholic Church is the Mother of all the particular Churches. The Church of Rome can be the sister of the Church of (insert whatever) but the Catholic Church is the Mother of all the Churches.

    And since Vatican I's definition of Papal infallibility and the proclamation of the Immaculate Conception, those who deny those dogmas are not only, as they had formerly had been, schismatics, but also heretics, deniers of dogmatically defined teachings.

    Rough, I know, but true, in the Catholic understanding. And of course the Easterns think that the filioque is heretical and no amount of sweetness will make that bitter pill go down any easier.

    Anyone who thinks, in purely human terms of course, that there can be a rapprochement, or union of some kind, don't understand the Catholic Church or the Eastern Churches very well.

    When we are clear about each others positions, and respect each other as more than infantile adolescents who will be offended by the slightest whiff of truth, then we can start to find actual common ground.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousDecember 21, 2011 at 2:06 AM

    There is only One Body of Christ, it is the Holy Apostolic, Orthodox Church which this man left. I pray that he will return, and that we all remain humble enough (as individual Orthodox Christians)to be protected from the pull to apostasy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Athanasis Contra MundumDecember 21, 2011 at 5:03 AM

    Whatever your feelings, Russian Catholics deserve a presbyter for the benefit of their souls.

    ReplyDelete

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