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A Church that is All Business
Read count: 190 Comment(s)SharePrint
17:10 | October 30 2012
http://en.aravot.am/2012/10/30/125276/
by Denis Donikian
We can often be heard cursing the current leadership in Etchmiadzin.
This probably won't change for a long time to come, at least until the
church stops paying lip service to its intended evangelical message
and instead puts this message into action in its everyday thoughts and
actions. My novel Vidures describes this phenomenon in detail. The
minute that a spiritual institution gives precedence to the
institutional over the spiritual, you can be sure that it has
completely distorted its true and proper vocation. And in Armenia, a
Christian nation where one constantly repeats the now rather hollowed
expression tsavet danem (Let me take your pain from you) and where a
philosophy of every man for himself has completely eclipsed any type
of altruistic behavior, it seems somehow sadly fitting that the Church
be concerned with money rather than the wellbeing of its flock.
In the current phase of its history this Church, which is dipping its
wick in the century's shithole, can hardly expect to enlighten anyone
on the Orthodox faith without either being stupidly blind or
blissfully nationalistic. Its parakeets in gold vestments continue to
revel in magic and incantatory formulas that people seem to be so fond
of, but far from seducing God, all they are really doing is widening
the gap from which a strong odor of ethnocentrism emerges. We rarely
see them drag their polished shoes to poor Armenian neighborhoods, for
fear that they may have to share the latter's soup with them. Instead
we see them, standing side-by-side those who have stolen the country's
money, blessing weapons, fruit and newly built constructions, whatever
it takes in order to bless money-making concerns. Yesterday it was
apricots at the opening of a film festival. And who knows? Tomorrow it
may be a Barbie doll at the Miss Armenia competition. The fall has
been so steep. And yet...
An anecdote. One fine day the director of Etchmiadzin's affairs has
the Caholicos' car prepared for a trip. Not a Bentley like the one
owned by the Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan, who is in charge
ofYerevanand the Southern half of Ararat province, no. The South is
poor and a Bentley reeks of wealth. And one musn't show off one's
wealth too much. On the agenda today is a tour of the construction
site of the Tatev funicular, as the legitimate owner of the lands
where the former is being built. But on the way there, the large right
hemisphere of the church's autocephalic representative, decides to
stop along the way and break bread in a local restaurant, where he can
mingle with the populace and also cop a free meal along the way in
exchange for a papal blessing. Then he has an even better idea: why
not invite the heads of the Italian company actually building the
funicular so that they can narrate their progress as he scans the
menu. The Italians take their leave...disheartened: `They say that we
complain a lot about our Pope. But compared to yours, he is a Saint.'
Need one say more?
For all that, the Director of business in Antelias, or the Small Left
Hemisphere of the autocephalic Apostolic church, isn't shy about
giving out its blessings either. As long as they bring in some cash.
And for all one knows, perhaps a papal understanding exists between
him and his Big Brother in Etchmiadzin in order to build a new church,
Sourp Garabed, right in the middle ofLas Vegas, the world gambling
capital, the world capital of all sorts of excesses. Poor Garabed, if
only you could see the quagmire that they've buried your sainthood in!
Little Left Hemisphere has already won the day by consecrating the
foundations, probably in the hopes of later pocketing substantial
dividends. A sign of the cross - it's like magic! Even though the church
proffers benedictions, it also needs to know how to monetize them in
order to keep its standard of living and carry out God's plan. And
financial manna doesn't fall from heaven with any greater force than
inLas Vegas, since money reproduces faster there than bread in the
hands of Jesus Christ. In thisDisneylandof cardboard and dollar bills,
Sourp Garabed may yet add a lowly touch of Armenianness to this
artificial and pompous world, one filled with vile taste and lost
souls.
But before this, Big Right Hemisphere, who some mean-spirited
anticlerics have renamed The Director of the National and Celestial
Bank of Etchmiadzin, had his own ideas about how to profit from the
situation. Otherwise what money would he use to build his branch
offices in Yerevanat the crossing of Abovian and Sayat Nova streets.
Only one solution came to mind: make off with the European parishes,
especially those whose patronage extend to the great banks, casinos,
hotels and families. Like those in Brussels, or Geneva, or why not
the one in Nice which is the second oldest Armenian Apostolic church
in Franceafter the Cathedral in Paris' Rue Goujon. Azuredly in this
part of the coast, our Director tells himself rubbing his hands
together, with the Sun's help and the cicadias buzzing to their
hearts' content, the Angels will join in and everyone will blindly
respect the MotherChurch`that has played such a crucial role in the
millennial history of the Armenian people. Hence it is enough for our
church to demand completely blind allegiance for their flock to do
everything it can to obey without ever revolting. Hence the members of
the Nice Cultural Association were expected to simply accept statutes
that would be summarily imposed on all parishes and in a way that
would devolve all powers (spiritual, political, representative and
administrative) to ecclesiastical authorities. During a general
assembly, where they did however accept a negotiated compromise,
parishioners rejected this proposal, rare Armenians for whom
Armeniameans everything...but they did not reject every single thing.
Since people in high places felt that this outcome was inadequate,
they sent the parish a former priest from the parish itself, a certain
V.A. whose apostolic duty seemed to lie in him raping all the members
of the parish. But one still would have needed to give them a child,
that is to say put them at the behest of Etchmiadzin. In the following
weeks, this V.A., aided by a few sycophants he had recruited as
doormen from the gorilla cage from God knows which public zoo, took on
the mantle of some petty little dictator, separating, on Earth as in
heaven, those parishioners who were worthy of entering their own
church, from the others - which included the President of the cultural
association! And that is how the Nice parish was transformed into a
zone where no rights exist. In short, a mini version of Armeniaemptied
out of any sense of justice whatsoever, celestial or temporal, and
emptied as well of any evangelical compassion, where the average
citizen has no choice but to fall to his knees and put him or herself
at the mercy of the more powerful. Master Catholicos, upon being
informed of this certain V.A.'s actions pouted and remained perched
from in his lofty heights. As for the
Primate-who-transmited-information, he declared: `Accept the statutes
that we introduced or step down!' A clear indication of how much one
these blessers of apricots really care for their flock! Moving
forward, both V.A. and the primate used every known method of
harassment and intimidation - none was too great: sabotage, threats of
excommunication, a forced coup d'état, insults and even bodily harm
and attacks...In short, they acted like pugilists who enjoyed attacking.
Arrests occurred, followed by resignations. The only response by the
Primate to help this now traumatized parish was to appoint a
commission to replace the Nice parish council. As a response to all
these attacks against it, the latter requested the appointment of an
ad hoc administrator from the Nice High Court - Xavier Huertas was thus
appointed on July 10th, 2010. As one might imagine, the General
Asembly that Huerta organized was not to the Primate's liking. Then,
the Primate's illegal committee ignored and superseded the Nice court,
under the pretext of changing the Nice cultural association's
statutes! In March 2011, the newspaper Nice-Matin got involved in the
matter, underlining all of V.A.'s criminal activities in the matter,
and during their inquiry revealed that within the Russian mafia there
existed an Armenian mafia which was implicated in sordid dealings such
as money laundering and high class prostitution. Starting then, the
merely shameful turned into the scandalous. The Catholicos' emissary,
father K.K., interrupted a mass so that he could order the parish's
elected treasurer to leave stage area where candles are lit. And then
this same K.K. celebrated the Mass of the Nativity in the Catholic
church of Saint Peter of Arena rather than Saint Mary's Armenian
Apostolic Church under the pretext that the latter was too small, the
real reason being that he then instituted a new cultural association.
Since then, father K.K. leaves Saint Mary's presbytery where he lives,
in order to lead Armenian apostolic mass at Saint Phillip's Catholic
Church. As for the Parish Council, it had to call on Father Sahag all
the way from Moscow so that he could officiate at Saint Mary's, over
the objections of the ecclesiastical authorities.
The next visit of the Catholicos of all Armenians will perforce be
problematic. But I suppose that the man must have something in mind.
To mollify the most fragile of the parishioners and to present himself
as a conciliatory spirit, as a means of reaching his ends. Either
way, in the long run, Etchmiadzin's strategy is to count on even the
most ardent dissidents becoming tired and discouraged, in the hopes
that it can deal itself another, more profitable hand.
(One may consult the file on the Armenian Apostolic Church parish of
Nice-Côte-d'Azur on the internet at the following
address:[http://www.eglisearmeniennenice.org/Dossier_information/index.html.)
Since the new statutes were meant to be imposed on all Apostolic
Armenian European parishioners, anywhere that lay people sought to
avoid the Etchmiadzinification of the parish and conserve a minimum
amount of autonomy, explosive situations broke out. In Brussels and
Geneva, for example, the exact same things occurred as sin Nice,
although on a less excessive scale. Until then the Ecclesiastical
Assembly of Geneva was simply following the traditions and rules of
the Church which had been for centuries based on a democratic
process. In this tradition, the lay Assembly decides on its system of
organization, including its institutions, finances and the role of its
priest. But in its desire to impose the Diocese in the entire
diaspora, the Catholicos sought to impose his sole authority
everywhere. And so thanks to the Vehapar, after numerous exchanges,
parishioners in Geneva were deprived of the services of their priest
who was abusively defrocked, as well as of their ability to choose,
their right to organize, of its attaché in Etchmiadzin. Today they are
deeply disillusioned and worried about the absence of charity,
tolerance and compassion that this incident has revealed;
disillusioned as well by a Church empty of any spiritual values, and
by a pontiff who has forgotten that he was elected in order to act as
the Catholicos of all Armenians.
One can accept that the Mother Church would like to impose a certain
statuary unity to all of the diaspora's churches. But shouldn't it
have prepared such change in consultation with the lay members of the
church? In fact the differences, not to say the hostility, that exists
between the Catholicos and the parishioners in the diaspora can be
explained by cultural differences. The lay people in Geneva, Brussels,
Nice and elsewhere, although they are all Armenian, have a different
mindset from Armenians in Armenia proper. If one's Apostolic faith
transcends all other differences, each person's presence in the world
is unique due to one's history, geographic location, and one's adopted
culture. Given this fact, the Church would have been wiser to keep
its own cultural prerogatives to itself and let the lay people define
and form the cultural aspects of their religion. Today these same lay
people find themselves commanded to give up their identities, their
church locales - everything that they and their parents built up
themselves. Given this fact, resistance was inevitable. To the extent
that lay and religious people form one organic whole, the roles that
each play should be mutually respected. A transitory period was needed
in order to dialogue and divide up roles. Instead it seems that the
Church had decided to take over all powers and reduce practitioners to
complete submission, transforming the latter into a virtue.
However under the guise of an apparent normalization of all parishes,
which one might understand, one detects hidden intentions of the most
purely political nature. These are tantamount to the transfer of
power and goods from the lay to the religious. In other words, nothing
has changed. The Church seems to be playing the same tune as the
Armenian state when the latter believes that the diaspora must remain
submitted, mute and inert with no influence whatsoever on Armenia,
except as a source of financial manna. When one knows that the Church
does all it can not to contradict the State, and does even less to
bring up its terrible treatment of the poor in Armenia, it is because
the relationship between the two institutions goes beyond collusion to
the point that they exchange one favor for another. You authorize me
to teach religion in schools, I will move into your diaspora parishes
in order to help manage your goods. In fact, all of these stories
demonstrate that the Armenian State, by using the Church and soon by
manipulating information itself, is attempting to control the
diaspora, or at the very least to divide it in order to conquer it.
For Armenia's great fear is that the Diaspora will one day be
organized enough to influence its own decisions. Hence the
representatives of the Armenian church in Europe would one day become
channels to transmit and relay the wishes of the Armenian state. Once
this happens, the rising critics of the country's disastrous
management will no longer be able to express themselves freely.
Impeded as they will be by the voice of the Armenian
church - parishioners will have only one choice - to shut up.
But the saddest part of all of this lies in the complete disarray that
parishioners find themselves in. Their suffering is but the reflection
of the church's pathology. Torn between a love of their church and the
pathetic behavior of its representatives, between their faith and the
political ends that their religion is being used for, they no longer
recognize themselves within the context of their nation or within its
religious institution which behaves like a monarchy of divine right by
dictating to all its codes of behavior under threat of expulsion.
Those who thought that their Church would teach the compassion that is
so cruelly missing today in Armenia will have instead witnessed with
their own eyes its cupidity and intolerance unleashed. They will have
witnessed a priest who is the leader of a violent gang. Another who
interrupts his mass under the guise of a punishment in order to scold
a parishioner assigned to sell candles, as if the latter were a temple
merchant. Because what one can see in no other church in the world,
one can witness in ours! A picture to bring tears of blood to Christ's
eyes.
P.S. 1): It would be wrong to accuse us by reducing the contents of
this article to a systematic attack and belittling of the Armenian
Apostolic Church. We recognize without a shadow of a doubt the immense
amount of work that it has accomplished throughout the course of
Armenian history in order to maintain its unity and spirituality
within often hostile conditions. But one must also recognize, all
evidence to the contrary, that its political function has overtaken
its initial vocation and that today it finds itself in complete
contradiction with its mission. The proliferation of sects in Armenia
will suffice to prove our point.
2) Out of respect for our reader, we hesitated before posting this
text. Because it is not hard to see that what we observed in the Nice
parish has some shades of grey to it. In that affair, no one was safe
from the multiple and insidious manipulations that led to the current
situation. Beginning with the manipulators themselves. Since we could
not investigate on the spot, we cannot claim to have been completely
thorough in our coverage. But the spirit of the events at hand has
been completely respected.
3) The CCAF's call to welcome the Catholicos during his upcoming trip
to the Nice region demonstrates that this organization is acting
within its usual role when it stigmatizes parishioners in order to
respect a certain idea of the Armenian state. Just as I am acting
within mine when I defend a certain notion of human rights. For the
CCAF, which worries about the cultural and religious sights with
rotten luck, the Armenian church represents first and foremost a
historical and nationalistic institution.In this way, one should help
it to bring people together by rejecting all those who might divide
it. And no one has any idea by what sleight of hand usually peaceful
parishioners should have becomes crazed fomenters of discord within
their own community. Yet the Armenian Church as it exists today
elicits feelings ranging from respect to suffering. Respect when it
comes to its eminent role in past Armenian history. Suffering when one
witnesses how it treats its illuminatory vocation today. By seeking to
reject any divisions within the diaspora, the church seeks to impose
its own influence. But its lack of exemplariness, not to mention its
indifference to saintliness, are not without consequences. To begin
with, it falls into the hands of other, competing religions. By losing
ground in Armenia and the diaspora, it is the Armenian nation which
disintegrates. And the CCAF, obsessed by a legitimate desire for unity
which it confused with uniformity, in truth acts against the church's
bets interests. In short, by letting the Catholicos exert his power
over a part of the Armenian community, the CCAF also acts against the
diaspora itself. Starting with itself. Because soon, after the
creation of the Ministry of the Diaspora whose goals are blurry,
servants of doubtful intentions, and a Church that acts in a
Totalitarian manner, other emissaries of the state will arrive to
complete their work and spread their influence and rigidity. Today it
is in the realm of the religious. But tomorrow it will be in the realm
of information. Trying by way of propaganda to manipulate, counteract
or torpedo this same CCAF's aspirations to become a united political
power.
Denis Donikian
Translated by CA
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Read count: 190 Comment(s)SharePrint
17:10 | October 30 2012
http://en.aravot.am/2012/10/30/125276/
by Denis Donikian
We can often be heard cursing the current leadership in Etchmiadzin.
This probably won't change for a long time to come, at least until the
church stops paying lip service to its intended evangelical message
and instead puts this message into action in its everyday thoughts and
actions. My novel Vidures describes this phenomenon in detail. The
minute that a spiritual institution gives precedence to the
institutional over the spiritual, you can be sure that it has
completely distorted its true and proper vocation. And in Armenia, a
Christian nation where one constantly repeats the now rather hollowed
expression tsavet danem (Let me take your pain from you) and where a
philosophy of every man for himself has completely eclipsed any type
of altruistic behavior, it seems somehow sadly fitting that the Church
be concerned with money rather than the wellbeing of its flock.
In the current phase of its history this Church, which is dipping its
wick in the century's shithole, can hardly expect to enlighten anyone
on the Orthodox faith without either being stupidly blind or
blissfully nationalistic. Its parakeets in gold vestments continue to
revel in magic and incantatory formulas that people seem to be so fond
of, but far from seducing God, all they are really doing is widening
the gap from which a strong odor of ethnocentrism emerges. We rarely
see them drag their polished shoes to poor Armenian neighborhoods, for
fear that they may have to share the latter's soup with them. Instead
we see them, standing side-by-side those who have stolen the country's
money, blessing weapons, fruit and newly built constructions, whatever
it takes in order to bless money-making concerns. Yesterday it was
apricots at the opening of a film festival. And who knows? Tomorrow it
may be a Barbie doll at the Miss Armenia competition. The fall has
been so steep. And yet...
An anecdote. One fine day the director of Etchmiadzin's affairs has
the Caholicos' car prepared for a trip. Not a Bentley like the one
owned by the Archbishop Navasard Kchoyan, who is in charge
ofYerevanand the Southern half of Ararat province, no. The South is
poor and a Bentley reeks of wealth. And one musn't show off one's
wealth too much. On the agenda today is a tour of the construction
site of the Tatev funicular, as the legitimate owner of the lands
where the former is being built. But on the way there, the large right
hemisphere of the church's autocephalic representative, decides to
stop along the way and break bread in a local restaurant, where he can
mingle with the populace and also cop a free meal along the way in
exchange for a papal blessing. Then he has an even better idea: why
not invite the heads of the Italian company actually building the
funicular so that they can narrate their progress as he scans the
menu. The Italians take their leave...disheartened: `They say that we
complain a lot about our Pope. But compared to yours, he is a Saint.'
Need one say more?
For all that, the Director of business in Antelias, or the Small Left
Hemisphere of the autocephalic Apostolic church, isn't shy about
giving out its blessings either. As long as they bring in some cash.
And for all one knows, perhaps a papal understanding exists between
him and his Big Brother in Etchmiadzin in order to build a new church,
Sourp Garabed, right in the middle ofLas Vegas, the world gambling
capital, the world capital of all sorts of excesses. Poor Garabed, if
only you could see the quagmire that they've buried your sainthood in!
Little Left Hemisphere has already won the day by consecrating the
foundations, probably in the hopes of later pocketing substantial
dividends. A sign of the cross - it's like magic! Even though the church
proffers benedictions, it also needs to know how to monetize them in
order to keep its standard of living and carry out God's plan. And
financial manna doesn't fall from heaven with any greater force than
inLas Vegas, since money reproduces faster there than bread in the
hands of Jesus Christ. In thisDisneylandof cardboard and dollar bills,
Sourp Garabed may yet add a lowly touch of Armenianness to this
artificial and pompous world, one filled with vile taste and lost
souls.
But before this, Big Right Hemisphere, who some mean-spirited
anticlerics have renamed The Director of the National and Celestial
Bank of Etchmiadzin, had his own ideas about how to profit from the
situation. Otherwise what money would he use to build his branch
offices in Yerevanat the crossing of Abovian and Sayat Nova streets.
Only one solution came to mind: make off with the European parishes,
especially those whose patronage extend to the great banks, casinos,
hotels and families. Like those in Brussels, or Geneva, or why not
the one in Nice which is the second oldest Armenian Apostolic church
in Franceafter the Cathedral in Paris' Rue Goujon. Azuredly in this
part of the coast, our Director tells himself rubbing his hands
together, with the Sun's help and the cicadias buzzing to their
hearts' content, the Angels will join in and everyone will blindly
respect the MotherChurch`that has played such a crucial role in the
millennial history of the Armenian people. Hence it is enough for our
church to demand completely blind allegiance for their flock to do
everything it can to obey without ever revolting. Hence the members of
the Nice Cultural Association were expected to simply accept statutes
that would be summarily imposed on all parishes and in a way that
would devolve all powers (spiritual, political, representative and
administrative) to ecclesiastical authorities. During a general
assembly, where they did however accept a negotiated compromise,
parishioners rejected this proposal, rare Armenians for whom
Armeniameans everything...but they did not reject every single thing.
Since people in high places felt that this outcome was inadequate,
they sent the parish a former priest from the parish itself, a certain
V.A. whose apostolic duty seemed to lie in him raping all the members
of the parish. But one still would have needed to give them a child,
that is to say put them at the behest of Etchmiadzin. In the following
weeks, this V.A., aided by a few sycophants he had recruited as
doormen from the gorilla cage from God knows which public zoo, took on
the mantle of some petty little dictator, separating, on Earth as in
heaven, those parishioners who were worthy of entering their own
church, from the others - which included the President of the cultural
association! And that is how the Nice parish was transformed into a
zone where no rights exist. In short, a mini version of Armeniaemptied
out of any sense of justice whatsoever, celestial or temporal, and
emptied as well of any evangelical compassion, where the average
citizen has no choice but to fall to his knees and put him or herself
at the mercy of the more powerful. Master Catholicos, upon being
informed of this certain V.A.'s actions pouted and remained perched
from in his lofty heights. As for the
Primate-who-transmited-information, he declared: `Accept the statutes
that we introduced or step down!' A clear indication of how much one
these blessers of apricots really care for their flock! Moving
forward, both V.A. and the primate used every known method of
harassment and intimidation - none was too great: sabotage, threats of
excommunication, a forced coup d'état, insults and even bodily harm
and attacks...In short, they acted like pugilists who enjoyed attacking.
Arrests occurred, followed by resignations. The only response by the
Primate to help this now traumatized parish was to appoint a
commission to replace the Nice parish council. As a response to all
these attacks against it, the latter requested the appointment of an
ad hoc administrator from the Nice High Court - Xavier Huertas was thus
appointed on July 10th, 2010. As one might imagine, the General
Asembly that Huerta organized was not to the Primate's liking. Then,
the Primate's illegal committee ignored and superseded the Nice court,
under the pretext of changing the Nice cultural association's
statutes! In March 2011, the newspaper Nice-Matin got involved in the
matter, underlining all of V.A.'s criminal activities in the matter,
and during their inquiry revealed that within the Russian mafia there
existed an Armenian mafia which was implicated in sordid dealings such
as money laundering and high class prostitution. Starting then, the
merely shameful turned into the scandalous. The Catholicos' emissary,
father K.K., interrupted a mass so that he could order the parish's
elected treasurer to leave stage area where candles are lit. And then
this same K.K. celebrated the Mass of the Nativity in the Catholic
church of Saint Peter of Arena rather than Saint Mary's Armenian
Apostolic Church under the pretext that the latter was too small, the
real reason being that he then instituted a new cultural association.
Since then, father K.K. leaves Saint Mary's presbytery where he lives,
in order to lead Armenian apostolic mass at Saint Phillip's Catholic
Church. As for the Parish Council, it had to call on Father Sahag all
the way from Moscow so that he could officiate at Saint Mary's, over
the objections of the ecclesiastical authorities.
The next visit of the Catholicos of all Armenians will perforce be
problematic. But I suppose that the man must have something in mind.
To mollify the most fragile of the parishioners and to present himself
as a conciliatory spirit, as a means of reaching his ends. Either
way, in the long run, Etchmiadzin's strategy is to count on even the
most ardent dissidents becoming tired and discouraged, in the hopes
that it can deal itself another, more profitable hand.
(One may consult the file on the Armenian Apostolic Church parish of
Nice-Côte-d'Azur on the internet at the following
address:[http://www.eglisearmeniennenice.org/Dossier_information/index.html.)
Since the new statutes were meant to be imposed on all Apostolic
Armenian European parishioners, anywhere that lay people sought to
avoid the Etchmiadzinification of the parish and conserve a minimum
amount of autonomy, explosive situations broke out. In Brussels and
Geneva, for example, the exact same things occurred as sin Nice,
although on a less excessive scale. Until then the Ecclesiastical
Assembly of Geneva was simply following the traditions and rules of
the Church which had been for centuries based on a democratic
process. In this tradition, the lay Assembly decides on its system of
organization, including its institutions, finances and the role of its
priest. But in its desire to impose the Diocese in the entire
diaspora, the Catholicos sought to impose his sole authority
everywhere. And so thanks to the Vehapar, after numerous exchanges,
parishioners in Geneva were deprived of the services of their priest
who was abusively defrocked, as well as of their ability to choose,
their right to organize, of its attaché in Etchmiadzin. Today they are
deeply disillusioned and worried about the absence of charity,
tolerance and compassion that this incident has revealed;
disillusioned as well by a Church empty of any spiritual values, and
by a pontiff who has forgotten that he was elected in order to act as
the Catholicos of all Armenians.
One can accept that the Mother Church would like to impose a certain
statuary unity to all of the diaspora's churches. But shouldn't it
have prepared such change in consultation with the lay members of the
church? In fact the differences, not to say the hostility, that exists
between the Catholicos and the parishioners in the diaspora can be
explained by cultural differences. The lay people in Geneva, Brussels,
Nice and elsewhere, although they are all Armenian, have a different
mindset from Armenians in Armenia proper. If one's Apostolic faith
transcends all other differences, each person's presence in the world
is unique due to one's history, geographic location, and one's adopted
culture. Given this fact, the Church would have been wiser to keep
its own cultural prerogatives to itself and let the lay people define
and form the cultural aspects of their religion. Today these same lay
people find themselves commanded to give up their identities, their
church locales - everything that they and their parents built up
themselves. Given this fact, resistance was inevitable. To the extent
that lay and religious people form one organic whole, the roles that
each play should be mutually respected. A transitory period was needed
in order to dialogue and divide up roles. Instead it seems that the
Church had decided to take over all powers and reduce practitioners to
complete submission, transforming the latter into a virtue.
However under the guise of an apparent normalization of all parishes,
which one might understand, one detects hidden intentions of the most
purely political nature. These are tantamount to the transfer of
power and goods from the lay to the religious. In other words, nothing
has changed. The Church seems to be playing the same tune as the
Armenian state when the latter believes that the diaspora must remain
submitted, mute and inert with no influence whatsoever on Armenia,
except as a source of financial manna. When one knows that the Church
does all it can not to contradict the State, and does even less to
bring up its terrible treatment of the poor in Armenia, it is because
the relationship between the two institutions goes beyond collusion to
the point that they exchange one favor for another. You authorize me
to teach religion in schools, I will move into your diaspora parishes
in order to help manage your goods. In fact, all of these stories
demonstrate that the Armenian State, by using the Church and soon by
manipulating information itself, is attempting to control the
diaspora, or at the very least to divide it in order to conquer it.
For Armenia's great fear is that the Diaspora will one day be
organized enough to influence its own decisions. Hence the
representatives of the Armenian church in Europe would one day become
channels to transmit and relay the wishes of the Armenian state. Once
this happens, the rising critics of the country's disastrous
management will no longer be able to express themselves freely.
Impeded as they will be by the voice of the Armenian
church - parishioners will have only one choice - to shut up.
But the saddest part of all of this lies in the complete disarray that
parishioners find themselves in. Their suffering is but the reflection
of the church's pathology. Torn between a love of their church and the
pathetic behavior of its representatives, between their faith and the
political ends that their religion is being used for, they no longer
recognize themselves within the context of their nation or within its
religious institution which behaves like a monarchy of divine right by
dictating to all its codes of behavior under threat of expulsion.
Those who thought that their Church would teach the compassion that is
so cruelly missing today in Armenia will have instead witnessed with
their own eyes its cupidity and intolerance unleashed. They will have
witnessed a priest who is the leader of a violent gang. Another who
interrupts his mass under the guise of a punishment in order to scold
a parishioner assigned to sell candles, as if the latter were a temple
merchant. Because what one can see in no other church in the world,
one can witness in ours! A picture to bring tears of blood to Christ's
eyes.
P.S. 1): It would be wrong to accuse us by reducing the contents of
this article to a systematic attack and belittling of the Armenian
Apostolic Church. We recognize without a shadow of a doubt the immense
amount of work that it has accomplished throughout the course of
Armenian history in order to maintain its unity and spirituality
within often hostile conditions. But one must also recognize, all
evidence to the contrary, that its political function has overtaken
its initial vocation and that today it finds itself in complete
contradiction with its mission. The proliferation of sects in Armenia
will suffice to prove our point.
2) Out of respect for our reader, we hesitated before posting this
text. Because it is not hard to see that what we observed in the Nice
parish has some shades of grey to it. In that affair, no one was safe
from the multiple and insidious manipulations that led to the current
situation. Beginning with the manipulators themselves. Since we could
not investigate on the spot, we cannot claim to have been completely
thorough in our coverage. But the spirit of the events at hand has
been completely respected.
3) The CCAF's call to welcome the Catholicos during his upcoming trip
to the Nice region demonstrates that this organization is acting
within its usual role when it stigmatizes parishioners in order to
respect a certain idea of the Armenian state. Just as I am acting
within mine when I defend a certain notion of human rights. For the
CCAF, which worries about the cultural and religious sights with
rotten luck, the Armenian church represents first and foremost a
historical and nationalistic institution.In this way, one should help
it to bring people together by rejecting all those who might divide
it. And no one has any idea by what sleight of hand usually peaceful
parishioners should have becomes crazed fomenters of discord within
their own community. Yet the Armenian Church as it exists today
elicits feelings ranging from respect to suffering. Respect when it
comes to its eminent role in past Armenian history. Suffering when one
witnesses how it treats its illuminatory vocation today. By seeking to
reject any divisions within the diaspora, the church seeks to impose
its own influence. But its lack of exemplariness, not to mention its
indifference to saintliness, are not without consequences. To begin
with, it falls into the hands of other, competing religions. By losing
ground in Armenia and the diaspora, it is the Armenian nation which
disintegrates. And the CCAF, obsessed by a legitimate desire for unity
which it confused with uniformity, in truth acts against the church's
bets interests. In short, by letting the Catholicos exert his power
over a part of the Armenian community, the CCAF also acts against the
diaspora itself. Starting with itself. Because soon, after the
creation of the Ministry of the Diaspora whose goals are blurry,
servants of doubtful intentions, and a Church that acts in a
Totalitarian manner, other emissaries of the state will arrive to
complete their work and spread their influence and rigidity. Today it
is in the realm of the religious. But tomorrow it will be in the realm
of information. Trying by way of propaganda to manipulate, counteract
or torpedo this same CCAF's aspirations to become a united political
power.
Denis Donikian
Translated by CA
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress