A
Series of Theses,
written with the express intention of restoring and establishing
canonical order among Orthodox Catholics in the West who are attempting
to restore their rightful patrimony, whose explanation shall be the
focus of this website.
1.
In the Western lands before the great schisms of the eleventh
and
twelfth centuries there existed Orthodox Catholic Churches in full
communion of faith and the mysteries with those of the East.
2. After
the schism, the
ecclesial communities that formed in the West would be unrecognizable
in faith to Orthodox Catholics of the East, and their own Orthodox
Catholic predecessors.
3. For
those centuries,
after the fall of the Western Orthodox Catholic Amalfi monastery on
Mount Athos, there would exist no Orthodox Catholic Church in the West.
4. All
attempts to restore canonical order and Orthodox Catholic faith in the
West would fail until the 19th century.
5.
Orthodox forms of worship
were preserved in the West, but by Divine Providence not generally
utilized, and preserved only accidentally.
6. The
Fathers of Western
Orthodox Catholic lands used their own ancestral rituals, given them by
the Holy Apostles, which contain their own unique and Orthodox
expressions of faith.
7. The
rituals used in the
so-called "Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate" are an intentional
distortion of the historical uses of the Western Orthodox Catholic
Faith; and furthermore, that the so-called "Vicariate" has no intention
of using the historical and Orthodox Catholic ritual of the West.
8. Many
of the historical
usages of the Orthodox Catholic Church of the West are now easily
accessible to Orthodox Catholic Westerners.
9. The
so-called "Antiochian
Western Rite Vicariate" actively attempts to suppress the ancient and
Orthodox Catholic ritual and usage, and in so doing so calls down upon
themselves the judgment of God.
10. An
Englishman, or a
Spaniard, who converts to the Orthodox Catholic Faith, whether in a
genuine Eastern or Western Orthodox ritual, is as much a Western
Orthodox Christian as St Bede, or St Isidore.
11. Dr
Joseph Julius
Overbeck, of blessed memory, established a method by which the Western
Rite of the Orthodox Catholic Church may be restored.
12. The
so-called "Vicariate" has profaned his memory through their actions.
13. St
Tikhon of Moscow and
the Holy Russian Synod established a hundred years ago, an alternate
method by which the Western Rite of the Orthodox Catholic Church may be
restored.
14. The
so-called "Vicariate" has deceptively subverted their orders while
claiming to be obedient to them.
15. The
actions of the
so-called "Vicariate" are motivated by the desire to make the Roman
Catholic and Anglican Churches appear to be "sister-churches".
16. The
Western Orthodox
Catholic ritual is being preserved by Christians zealous for the
"traditions handed down" to them, as advised by St Peter, and that the
so-called "Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate" attempts to actively
suppress them and damage their livelihood wherever they go.
17. The
ritual usages of the
so-called "Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate", far removed from the
Western Orthodox Catholic usages of traditional Western Orthodox
Catholic Christians today and a millenium ago, violate and flagrantly
disregard the canons of the Orthodox Catholic Church of the West and of
the East.
18.
Orthodox Catholic
Christians of the East would gladly recognize the Orthodoxy of
Western-Rite Orthodoxy if the members of the so-called "Vicariate"
would act in the manner of Orthodox Catholic Christians, whose faith
transcends space and time.
19.
Orthodox Catholic
Christians of the West are not bound to a specific ritual, but have a
duty to recognize and venerate their rightful Orthodox Catholic
Patrimony, and this is best served through living the "traditions
handed down" to them.
20. Roman
Catholicism, also
known as the Papacy, and Anglicanism, headed by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, have had nothing to do in faith with the Orthodox Catholic
Church for almost a thousand years.
21. The
so-called
"Vicariate's" use of Roman Catholic and Anglican liturgies, as opposed
to legitimate Western Orthodox forms of Worship, readily available to
them, is damnable deception of those in the West who seek Orthodoxy,
for which the so-called "Vicariate" will have to answer to God.
22. The
so-called
"Vicariate", in a pusillanimous fashion, refuses to publicly defend
herself from charges brought against them; mainly, that they have
entered into communion with the official Orthodox Church, whereas they
have not converted from their previous schism and heresy.
23. The
so-called
"Vicariate" is using two liturgies far removed from
Orthodoxy,
having removed the most obvious heretical references, that of the
Tridentine Mass, and that of the Anglican Missal.
25. The
so-called
"Vicariate" is secretly iconoclastic, based upon the actions of certain
parishes and the words of Father Paul Schneirla, the head of the
so-called "Vicariate".
26. The
so-called
"Vicariate" has as its implicit goal, based on the actions of its
defenders, in the recognition of heretical and schismatic devotions as
Orthodox Catholic, which they clearly are not.
27. The
actions of the
so-called "Vicariate" have, rather than enriched the deep spiritual
Patrimony of the Orthodox Catholics of the West, have diluted and
defamed it.
28. The
actions of the
leaders of the so-called "Vicariate", through their intentional
suppression of the Western Orthodox Catholic Faith, and their attempts
to give people the patrimony of usurpers, giving the people "a stone
for bread", are guilty of fraud.
29. Until
the so-called
"Vicariate" repents of its perverse course, Orthodox Catholics in the
West who seek the genuine Western Orthodox Catholic Faith should either
go to Churches where the authentic Western Orthodox Catholic Faith is
taught; or should go to an Eastern Orthodox parish, while preserving
their Western Orthodox traditions taught to them at home, and should
flee from the fraud perpetrated on them.