Sicily’s regional government today asked the area’s airports to stop selling souvenirs with mafia-related images.
“Let the sale of mafia-themed souvenirs and trinkets end in the shops and commercial establishments of Sicilian airports,” urged Alessandro Aricho, the regional mobility adviser.
The official wrote to the managements of the operators of the airports in Palermo, Catania, Comiso, Trapani, Lampedusa and Pantelleria.
“Maintaining a dignified image, devoid of the usual negative stereotypes, is without a doubt a firm line to be followed in the place of first arrival for tourists and visitors to Sicily,” he added.
Illustrative Photo by Mauro Reem-Itchy: https://www.pexels.com/photo/aerial-view-of-city-1628153/
The Turkish Independent Orthodox Church called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople as “ecumenical” a crime against Turkey’s territorial integrity and an “attempted riot” against its constitutional order. She called on Fener, as the Patriarchate of Constantinople is called, and the external forces that support it, to be held accountable, the church said in a statement quoted by TASS. It was previously reported that in a telephone conversation with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople on August 21, Zelensky called him “ecumenical patriarch.”
The President of Ukraine wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter) that he discussed with Patriarch Bartholomew the law on the banning of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church adopted by the Verkhovna Rada, thanked for the support for Kyiv and positively assessed the cooperation with Fener.
“On August 21, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again called Bartholomew, archpriest of the Greek Church of Constantinople, “ecumenical patriarch” and announced to the world community that the cooperation between them continues. This step is a riot against the constitutional order of the Republic of Turkey, a crime committed in the international arena against its territorial integrity. Fener, who is trying to proclaim his independence on our territory, and his internal and external supporters must be brought to justice immediately,” Turkish Orthodox Church spokesman Selcuk Erenerol said.
The Turkish Orthodox Church, established in 1921, is officially registered as a religious body in Turkey, although it is not recognized as canonical by other local Orthodox churches.
Bartholomew has repeatedly been criticized in Turkey for his participation in international events with the status of ecumenical patriarch, which is not recognized by Ankara. In June, he participated in a conference on Ukraine in Bürgenstock, Switzerland, spoke at it and signed the closing declaration as Ecumenical Patriarch. The Turkish Foreign Ministry subsequently denied reports that the Patriarch of Constantinople had participated as a state person, and Ankara demanded an explanation from the organizers for having his signature on the closing declaration.
Turkish authorities say their position on the status of the Patriarch of Constantinople remains unchanged based on the Lausanne Peace Treaty of 1923, which recognized him as the head of the Greek Orthodox community in Turkey.
Illustration: Grave Epitaph – “Papa Eftim served this country as much as an army” Mustafa Kemal Atatürk…
Despite the fact that there is a 450-kilometer-long road strip, which is a wild occasion, Albania is protected by the destination of the flights and the Albanians this.
Often compared to the Maldives, thanks to its crystal-clear waters and peaceful beaches, Albania is not as dirty as the rest of the world, or at least not to the public including Spain, Greece and Italy.
The group from Southeast Europe is working to increase the level of typism. Albania hopes to increase its total annual number of visitors to five times from the current target of 2.8 million, writes Ehrres.so.
The target of 14 million readers would be a four million increase, compared to the 10 million readers reported for 2023. To increase its appeal, Albania is betting big. The city is building an entirely new airport for 103.3 million euros in order to make it more convenient for the typists to visit it.
The international airport in the Albanian city of Bljepa should be put into operation by the end of 2025 a year, although it has been planned for a long time. The famous Bljepa international airport must be one more reason for typists to visit this place. This will significantly reduce the travel time from the airport to the airport.
The Albanian government for the first time announced plans for the new airport in 2017, and by 2021, the engineering company Mabetech International l, announced its intention to invest more than 103 million euro in the initial phase, which includes the loss of on the computer, as well as on the terminal.
It is said that the future airport will provide services for flights from more than 3 km. terminal of 31 square meters.
Albania is considered an ideal destination for those with a typical budget. A search on the booking site shows that nights cost from 17 euros to 140 euros for the cheapest hotels.
Illustrative Photo by Mihai Vlasceanu: https://www.pexels.com/photo/beach-on-sea-coast-26743508/
By asserting the unlimited autonomy of subjective religious experience, Berdyaev attacks Fr. Florensky precisely for his aspiration to subordinate this experience to some objective beginning; in other words, for the fact that he invests in the belief a mental content independent of the inner experience of the person. And reproaches Fr. Florensky because he affirms external revelation and “demands a transcription of religious experience in terms of transcendent ontology.” From Berdyaev’s point of view, all this is rational scholasticism, which should be rejected. The sophisticated religious psychology of Fr. Florensky “passes with him into scholastic theology; the dogma of the Trinity, as external and transcendent to mystical experience, inevitably turns out to be theological’. Theology always rests on the idea of external revelation, and is opposed to mysticism as resting on the idea of inner revelation. Theology is transcendentalism, mysticism is immanentism.” In Berdyaev’s opinion, “scholasticism in disguise” is a candle. P. A. Florensky is “inevitable punishment for any admission of dogma to and in spiritual life, to and in mystical experience”.[14]
The principle that N. A. Berdyaev opposes to Fr. Florensky, is absolute freedom – the “cognitive eros” that is not restrained by dogma, nor by logic, nor by any objective principles at all; more precisely: a boundless arbitrariness of subjective mysticism. As Berdyaev himself admits, the characteristic feature of his “new” religious consciousness is his conviction that “at present the world is entering an era of anthropological revelation, the end of which must be taken upon by man himself, at his own risk and fear; that divine revelation passes into and through man and continues. This is entering the age of religious adulthood”.[15]
For the reader who is at least somewhat familiar with the history of Christian and Protestant religious sectarianism in particular, there is hardly anything very new and significant in this “new” religious consciousness. As a warning to Fr. Florensky, however, N.A. Berdyaev’s point of view retains some importance, which is why we need to dwell on it here for a bit.
It is obvious that this unlimited freedom of the human individual – “at his own risk and fear” to determine the true revelation, means in practice a final cancellation of the latter, a complete loss of any common religious principles that bind people in one. Where the criterion for the truth of revelation is simply the subjective “religious experience” of the individual, there are obviously as many conflicting revelations as there are people. Clearly, such a view is self-defeating. In the eyes of Berdyaev, does his subjective revelation deserve any greater respect compared to this objective revelation of the Church against which he is rebelling? In the name of what, on what grounds? After all, Berdyaev’s references to his “intuitions” cannot have an external authoritative meaning for other people, and even for the person who experienced the “intuition”, there is always a possible doubt: was it an authentic revelation, a subjective hallucination or an apparition of Satan in the image of the Angel of Light. Those who deny, like Berdyaev, any objective criterion in religion, for him these doubts are unconditionally insoluble.
Thus, the weakness of Berdyaev’s religious point of view is more than obvious for Fr. For Florensky, it would not be a serious danger if he stood completely consistently and firmly on the point of view of the dogmatically determinable and definite objective revelation. Unfortunately, however, in the church views of Fr. Florensky observed an inconsistency, thanks to which he was defenseless against Berdyaev’s objections, and the religious subjectivism of the latter grew into a serious danger for him.
The source of this danger lies precisely in the aforementioned tendency of Fr. Florensky to alogism—in his fascination with that current fashionable trend in religious philosophy which proclaims the subjective experience of individual “religious experience,” unverified by thought, as the supreme criterion in religion. In this direction, he makes an extremely significant concession precisely at this point, where religious subjectivism should meet the strongest resistance from his side – in the teaching about the Church – and precisely with this he gives Berdyaev the opportunity to hold an easy victory over him. As we have already seen, when it comes to Christological questions or the mutual relationship of the persons of the Holy Trinity, Fr. Florensky insisted on the need for such “mathematically precise” dogmatic definitions that would exclude the possibility of different religious interpretations from the point of view of “individual religious experience.” Whatever the “experiences” of this experience may be, it does not depend on the discretion or “inspiration of the individual” whether he will regard the Son of God as “one-person” or “sub-divine”, whether he will recognize in Him one or two natures, whether he will he believes or he will not believe in the inseparability and non-fusion of these two natures.
Such should also be the point of view on the Church. Here, too, a firm dogmatic definition is needed, which would teach people to distinguish the true church from the false one and, in this sense, set some limit before subjective “dare.” However, due to some strange inconsistency, whenever it comes to the Church, Fr. Florensky is attacked by some fear of thought and he becomes an apologist for logical, and in the given case also dogmatic formlessness.
He finds that the Church, as the fullness of divine life, “cannot be laid in the narrow grave of logical definition.” “Let,” he says, “neither I nor anyone else be able, and certainly not succeed, to define what ecclesiasticism is!” Let those who try to do this challenge each other and mutually deny the formula of ecclesiasticism! This very indeterminacy of ecclesiasticity, its elusiveness for logical terms, its ineffability, does not all this prove that ecclesiasticity is a special life, a new life given to man, but, like all life, inaccessible to reason” (p. 5).
When Fr. Florensky speaks of dogmatic definitions concerning other mysteries, he is not misled by the ambiguity of the word “definition.” He knows well that to “determine” dogmatically, this does not mean to exhaust the religious mystery by means of a reasoning formula, to lay it down without a residue in concepts. He is not disturbed by the application to these mysteries of concepts such as “Being”, “essence”, “Person”, “nature”, etc. sub., because he well understands that in the given case the concepts in no way claim to be an exhaustive expression of what they denote, but only play a necessary role of barriers to thought, guarding a certain content of faith against its possible mixing with something untrue or impure. Why, then, when it comes to the Church, does he deny the need for these epithets, and think it possible to leave in this case the religious feeling of the individual without any highly sanctified dogmatic, mental support?
In relation to the Church, he replaces this dogmatic criterion with an aesthetic one – in his thought, the only criterion for ecclesiasticity is beauty. “Yes, there is, he says, a special spiritual beauty, and it, elusive to dogmatic formulas, is at the same time the only true way to determine what is Orthodox and what is not.” Those who know this beauty are the spiritual elders, the masters of the “art of art”, as the holy fathers call asceticism. Spiritual elders have, so to speak, “acquired a skill” in recognizing the goodness of the spiritual life. Orthodox taste, Orthodox appearance are felt, but not subject to arithmetical calculation; Orthodoxy is shown, not proven. That is why for everyone who wants to understand Orthodoxy, there is only one way: the direct experience of Orthodoxy”.
And right here the question arises: where is it, this immediate experience, and how do each of us, imperfect and sinful humans, distinguish it from non-immediate experience? Since only Christ is without sin, even the experience of the greatest of saints cannot be recognized as infallible. And, finally, where are these holy elders of the “orthodox taste” whom I should trust – in our church, in the Roman church, or with the schismatics, and in which sect? If they are precisely here, in Orthodoxy, isn’t there a vicious circle here: do we only know from the “experts” and the “old men” where the true Orthodoxy is! If we start to check the experience of these “experts” from our own imperfect experience, we will probably never know with certainty where this true “Orthodox taste” is: whether among the Old Believers, whether among the Imyaslavtsev, or among the Roman Catholics, or in the Holy Synod? The aesthetic criterion is unable to give us anything but an infinite number of conflicting answers. On the other hand, he gives N. A. Berdyaev the opportunity to place Fr. A Florentine question to which the latter cannot give the least satisfactory answer.
“If ecclesiastical life is life in the Spirit, and if the criterion for a correct church life is Beauty, then why then Jacob Böhme, for example, is not in ecclesiastical life, why did he not live in the Spirit? According to the external, formal criteria for ecclesiasticism, Böhme was a Lutheran and a heretic-gnostic – in the judgment of the official Roman Catholic and Orthodox consciousness; according to the criteria of Spirit and Beauty, however, he was an authentically ecclesiastical Christian. Why, according to the internal criteria of the Spirit and Beauty, from the church should be excommunicated and recognized as heretics the many mystics, people of the righteous life, of the authentic life in the Spirit and Beauty, who do not fit into the external, formal, official criteria?”. [16] ] And so, N. A. Berdyaev accuses Fr. Florensky in internal contradiction.
“The church does not have any external, formal signs and criteria, it is a life in the Spirit and in Beauty. This is the one thesis of a candle. Florensky. His other thesis, which he uses throughout his book, sounds like this: only that life in Spirit and Beauty is religiously permissible, correct, justified, which is ecclesiastic according to the formal, external criteria of ecclesiasticity. Everything non-Orthodox in the literal, religious and external formal sense of the word is suspicious, unhealthy, all this is a charm and even fornication”.[17]
Here the thought of Fr. Florensky is subjected to a certain stylization, but really in his book there are fluctuations between two diametrically opposed criteria for churchness: subjective, aesthetic, passed to him from the “new” religious consciousness, and objective, which was given by the Church itself. I fully agree with the proposal to make a choice between one and the other, and I think that the aesthetic criterion, as decidedly incompatible with the “orthodox theodicy” of Fr. Florensky, should be provided entirely and exclusively as the property of N. A. Berdyaev. Among the duties of the Orthodox theologian is to clearly realize and accurately formulate this objective criterion for ecclesiality, which would enable us to navigate the uncertain, contradictory indications of individual “religious experience” and taste. Otherwise, we risk losing the very awareness of the unity of the Church. The inevitable logical end to which the criterion of “orthodox taste” leads is a loss of universal consciousness and an anarchy of individual experiences, in the place of ecclesiastical concord. The signs of this incipient anarchy are present in Berdyaev’s “dares”; unfortunately for him Fr. Florensky does not fight back strongly enough; in some of its positions, a collision between individual taste and the objective principles and norms in which the Church itself expresses its understanding of ecclesiality can also be traced.
Take, for example, the attitude of Fr. Florensky to Roman Catholicism: following the Slavophiles in this respect, he denied the very existence of spiritual life, and therefore of ecclesiasticism, among Roman Catholics. “Where there is no spiritual life, something external is needed, such as the provision of ecclesiasticism. A given position, the pope or a given totality, a system of positions, the hierarchy – here is the criterion for ecclesiasticity of the Roman Catholic” (p. 6). Such is the assessment of Roman Catholicism from the point of view of the old Slavophiles, to whose teachings Fr. Florensky (p. 608). Meanwhile, it is not difficult to convince ourselves that this Slavophile “taste” is in complete contradiction with the universal tradition of our church. The Orthodox Church recognizes the reality of all Roman Catholic sacraments – from Baptism to Ordination. Which in turn means that, taking into account the clear inadmissibility of the blasphemous thought that ecclesiastical sacraments can be performed outside the Church, our church thereby recognizes the Roman Church as a church. Here is a graphic illustration of the gap that can exist in individual cases between the objective ecclesiastical understanding of the Church and the individual taste of individuals, even if they were the most pious Orthodox.
For Fr. It would not have been particularly difficult for Florensky to avoid this collision with ecclesiastical tradition, if in his teaching about the Church he followed the same method which he applied with success in other areas of religious teaching. The chapter “About Sophia”, for example, in his book is a very good attempt to realize and consolidate in concepts this understanding of “Sophia – the Wisdom of God”, which was actually expressed in the life of the Church, especially in its worship and in her icon painting. Here he is not afraid to rationalize church experience, but for some reason, when it comes to the Church, his point of view radically changes – here for him “concept” means the end of spiritual life!
Meanwhile, the understanding of ecclesiality, which has been expressed in the whole life of our church, in its sacraments, in its worship and in its relation to other churches and religious societies, can be logicized, that is, it can be realized and expressed in concepts, within the same limits and to the same extent as her understanding of “Sophia” and other religious mysteries. Of course, these concepts cannot exhaust the fullness of the spiritual life of the Church, but in them we find firm principles for distinguishing and separating the ecclesiastical from the non-ecclesiastical. The main, objective criterion by which the Church recognizes one from the other has already found its expression when St. Ap. Peter confessed Christ: “Son of the Living God.” Which, according to the Savior, becomes the foundation stone of the Church (Matt. 16:15-18). As in the words of St. Ap. John, who teaches us to distinguish the Spirit of God from the spirit of deception (1 John 4:2-3). This criterion is the actual, real incarnation of God: the manifestation of Christ, the Son of God, who came in the flesh. This criterion, of course, is expressed not in the letter, but in the meaning of the sacred texts. It is the incarnation of God taken in its universal meaning of content and meaning of all the life of mankind and creation. Not something else, but a social incarnation of the God-man Christ, His universal body wants to be the Church itself: where this continuous active God-incarnation is present, there she is, and outside of it she is nothing. Here we are given, as in a grain, the whole teaching of the Church about herself; here is also the reason for the inclusion in it of all those human communities in which the mystery of the incarnation is constantly at work; and here again is the reason for excluding from it all those societies which do not recognize this secret or for some other reasons do not possess it!
Closely related to this is the formal sign by which the Church distinguishes itself from all other purely human organizations. Through the sacraments, the Incarnation of God takes place continuously in the Church, and the authority to perform the sacraments belongs only to the apostles and their successors, who are ordained by them, and therefore only this Church can be the environment of the actual Incarnation of God, to be the body of Christ, which has apostolic succession. In this way, the statement of Fr. Florensky, that the concept of the Church is almost indefinable. This concept is defined dogmatically by the Church itself, which in the Creed itself calls itself “conciliar and apostolic”; The church, therefore, defines itself through clear logical terms, enabling in a number of cases to accurately distinguish the ecclesiastical from the non-ecclesiastical. And these definitions, these external formal signs, although they do not exhaust and do not pretend to exhaust the vital content of the Church, they necessarily logically derive from this content, form together with it an inseparable whole. The incarnation of God, the humanity of God, the deification of men, the sacraments, the hierarchs-mystagogues, these human mediators in the divine-human mystery that takes place in the Church – all these are different expressions of the same meaning, units of an inseparable vital and, at the same time, logical system. Because the logical and the vital in the Church are one and the same. From here it is also clear how groundless the fear of Fr. Florenski to define the Church in concepts: both congregationalism, apostleship, and succession are all concepts not only definable, but also strictly defined. Anyone who knows the teachings of the Church can accurately convey their meaning, and the Church, which knows nothing about the “aesthetic” criterion of Fr. Florensky, is not afraid to express his vital essence in them. If we are told that the dogmatic definitions which the Church gives to herself are incomplete and imperfect, that many questions concerning the Church remain unanswered in them, for example, the question of the grounds and limits of the dogmatic authority of council decrees, then this will not be an objection against what has been said here, but an indication of the need for new dogmatic definitions and, therefore, for new tasks before ecclesiastical thought. To point out the incompleteness of the existing definition does not mean to deny its existence, but to seek its completion. In any case, the demand for a definition of ecclesiality in terms of word and thought means ecclesiality to be affirmed, not erred to. After the Logos, having become flesh, Himself expressed Himself in human language, after He united with human speech and thought, by this very fact He already sanctified both the one and the other. And vain fear of thought must be abandoned. This alogism, which denies the embodiment of the Word of God in human speech and human thought, thereby commits a sin against the mystery of the Incarnation. That is why it, like many other delusions, must be cut off in the name of the criterion of the Incarnation.
It is especially important for us to establish here that this criterion by which the Christian is recognized from the non-Christian, the ecclesiastical from the non-ecclesiastical, is not transcendental, but immanent in thought, i.e., in it we have not only a living but also a logical criterion. After all human nature is deified in the Church, this deification is also experienced by thought itself: without ceasing to be human, thought becomes deified. And therefore, even in this act of deification, no violation of her laws, i.e., of logical laws, is required of her: the superhuman, the divine, which she is called to express, is a crowning, not an abrogation, of the logical.
Logic is precisely one of the characteristic distinguishing features of the church’s understanding of religion as a new religious consciousness. Meanwhile, while Berdyaev teaches us to perceive the “intuition” of religious experience without any mental examination and consideration, the criterion of St. Ap. John, by whom the Church is guided, subordinates all the “revelations” of subjective experience to the judgment of discursive thought: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have appeared in the world” (1 John 4:1).
The meaning of these words is clearest of all: every spirit, both foreign and our own, is to be subjected to a mental test in the way of comparing its testimony with the appearance of Christ come in the flesh. To do this is not to be satisfied with the evidence of “orthodox taste”, but to subject this evidence to the most severe criticism: all that, after examination, turns out to be in clear and irreconcilable contradiction with the mystery of the Incarnation, must be with the very this and rejected. The criterion of St. Ap. John contains in himself the categorical demand that the divine humanity should be the beginning of a logical connection of all our thoughts about faith. And in the fulfillment of this requirement is concluded this mental foretaste of the Tabor light, which is also the highest task before the human mind.
I could end with this, but in conclusion I would like to repeat once again that my criticism comes from a positive and deeply sympathetic attitude towards the book of Fr. Florensky: the meaning of this criticism of mine is reduced to the wish that he would think through the deep thought that lies at the basis of his book. Truly, the Light of Tabor is not a fleeting phenomenon, but an eternal reality in which all our earthly sins, sufferings and contradictions find healing; and it shines not only in the other side of the universe, but also “enlightens every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). And that is why even here, in this life, this universal transformation begins, which will end and become evident in the future resurrection of every creature. Even here, at the prayer of the apostles, Christ came down from the mountain and manifested the healing of the raging life. This Tabor light coming down from above brings with it not only physical healing, but also spiritual healing: the whole composition of man must restore its lost wholeness in it: the spirit, the body, the heart, and the mind. With all his nature, man must participate in this ascent of the mountain, and therefore also with his thought – does not our thought share the common lot of this sinful life, which periodically rages “and suffers badly, because it often falls into fire and often into water” (Matt. 17:15). It was only because of their unbelief that the apostles could not heal these contradictions in life. In the same way, it is only because of our unbelief that these contradictions of thought remain unhealed, which are expressed in its manifold leaps and wanderings.
Complete faith, rising above doubt, must herald that universal healing, which is expressed not only in the transformation of the heart and in the spiritualization of the flesh, but also in the enlightenment of the mind. This revelation of the holy ascetics of our church concludes the fulfillment of the expectations of Russian religious thought. In it and Fr. Florensky has found his Pillar and Support of Truth. Let us wish him to continue to build on this foundation, which is so well and firmly laid.
Source in Russian: Trubetskoy, E. N. “Svet Favorsky and the transformation of the mind” – In: Russkaya mysl, 5, 1914, pp. 25-54; the basis of the text is a report read by the author before a meeting of the Russian Religious and Philosophical Society on February 26, 1914.
Notes:
[14] Berdyaev, N. A. “Stylized Orthodoxy” – In: Russkaya mysl, January/ Бердяев, Н. А. „Стилизованное православие“ – В: Русская мысль, Январь, 1914, p. 114.
On Independence Day, President Zelensky signed Law № 8371 banning the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Ukraine through the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC)
On 24 August 2024, President Zelensky signed Law No. 8371 “On Protecting the Constitutional Order in the Field of Religious Organizations”, aimed at banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) which had been adopted by the Verkhovna Rada four days earlier.
The law will come into effect 30 days after its publication. However, with the exception of one provision – according to which UOC communities will have nine months to sever ties with the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).
In his address, President Zelensky said “Given that the Russian Orthodox Church is an ideological continuation of the regime of the aggressor state, an accomplice of war crimes and crimes against humanity that are committed in the name of the Russian Federation and the ideology of the ‘Russian world,’ the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine are prohibited.”
Law No. 8371 says that the activity of religious organizations affiliated with a foreign religious organization which is prohibited in Ukraine is not allowed and such religious organizations are terminated in accordance with the procedure established by law.
This last law is part of the process of de-russification and cultural de-colonization of Ukraine which started with the political and territorial independence of Ukraine from the late Soviet Union on 24 August 1991 and continued with the imposition of the Ukrainian language as the sole official language of the country, the rewriting of its history, the revision of schoolbooks, the renaming of cities and streets, the removal of public works of art reminding Communism and the Soviet Union.
The last important stone of Soviet heritage to be removed was the surviving link of the Patriarchate of Moscow and All Rus with its historical branch in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC-MP) which, with its about 11000 parishes, remains the majority religion in the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine.
A number of its parishes located in the occupied territory of Crimea (2014) and in the part of Donbas captured by the Russian Federation were annexed de facto by the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian Patriarch Kirill.
In the sovereign territories of Ukraine, the UOC and the (national) Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) created in December 2018 by the merger of several Churches and soon after affiliated with the Patriarchate of Constantinople now have approximately the same number of parishes.
Main points of Law No 8371
Religious scholar Andrii Smyrnov explained in an interview what Bill No 8371 provides for:
– The activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine are prohibited. The UOC-MP cannot be part of the structure of the ROC or be otherwise affiliated with it.
– The activities of the UOC-MP are not allowed, and its religious organizations will be terminated on the basis of court decisions nine months after the publication of the law.
– The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience studies, approves and publishes a list of religious organizations affiliated with the ROC.
– The UOC can continue its activities if it breaks administrative ties with the ROC.
– Simplification of the change of jurisdiction process of UOC-MP parishes and monasteries to the OCU.
– Contracts for the use of state property concluded with the UOC-MP are terminated ahead of schedule.
– Free rent of state and municipal property by religious organizations.
– Propaganda of the neocolonial ideology of the “Russian world” is prohibited.
The religious scholar predicts that the law will facilitate and accelerate the process of migration of some parishes of the UOC-MP to the OCU.
In particular, communities that use state-owned churches will decide whether to transfer or look for new premises.
According to Andrii Smyrnov, the parishes of the UOC-MP (those with their own churches not in state ownership) will continue to function even after court bans. And these are the majority.
“They are not in danger even after the court terminates the registration of a legal entity. Communities will be able to operate without registration and to register their churches in the names of individuals. Believers of the UOC will continue to be able to gather and pray in them,” the expert noted.
The UOC-MP and the Russian Orthodox Church: autonomy but no schism
Due to the support of Patriarch Kirill to Putin’s war on Ukraine, the UOC-MP has progressively distanced itself from the Russian Orthodox Church. In 2022, it revised its statutes to strengthen its complete autonomy and independence from Moscow. The UOC-MP has no representative in the Moscow Patriarchate but it has not seceded from it and will not in order to preserve its canonical status inside the Moscow Patriarchate.
On 27 May 2022, the Council of the UOC-MP removed all references to such dependence from its statutes, stressing its financial autonomy and the absence of any external interference in the appointment of its clergy. It hereby dissociated itself from the Russian Orthodox Church and stopped commemorating Patriarch Kirill at its divine services because of his blessing Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. This distancing did however not lead to a schism from Moscow Patriarchate and partly preserved the spiritual communion with the Moscow Patriarchate.
Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, have used artificial intelligence tools to accelerate the understanding of the risk of specific cardiac arrhythmias when various parts of the heart are exposed to different thresholds of radiation as part of a treatment plan for lung cancer. Their results are published in JACC: CardioOncology.
“Radiation exposure to the heart during lung cancer treatment can have very serious and immediate effects on a patient’s cardiovascular health,” said corresponding author Raymond Mak, MD, of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “We are hoping to inform not only oncologists and cardiologists, but also patients receiving radiation treatment, about the risks to the heart when treating lung cancer tumors with radiation.”
The emergence of artificial intelligence tools in health care has been groundbreaking and has the potential to positively reshape the continuum of care, including informing treatment plans for patients with cancer. Mass General Brigham, as one of the nation’s top integrated academic health systems and largest innovation enterprises, is leading the way in conducting rigorous research on new and emerging technologies to inform the responsible incorporation of AI into care delivery.
For patients receiving radiation therapy to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), arrhythmias or irregular rhythms of the heart can be common. Because of the close proximity of the heart to the lungs and with NSCLC tumors being near or around the heart, the heart can receive collateral damage from radiation dose spillage meant to target the cancer tumors. Prior studies have found that this type of exposure to the heart is associated with general cardiac issues. However, this nuanced study demonstrated that the risk for different types of arrhythmias can vary significantly based on the pathophysiology and cardiac structures that are exposed to different levels of radiation.
In order to classify the types of arrhythmias that are associated with cardiac substructures receiving radiation, researchers conducted a retrospective analysis on 748 patients in Massachusetts, who were treated with radiation for locally advanced NSCLC. The arrhythmia subtypes cataloged included atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, other supraventricular tachycardia, bradyarrhythmia, and ventricular tachyarrhythmia or asystole.
The team’s statistical analyses indicated that about one out of every six patients experienced at least one grade 3 arrhythmia with a median time of 2.0 years until the first arrhythmia. Grade 3 classifications are considered serious events that likely need intervention or require hospitalization. They also found that almost one-third of patients who experienced arrhythmias also suffered from major adverse cardiac events.
The arrhythmia classes outlined in the study did not entirely encompass the range of heart rhythm issues that are possible, but the authors note that these observations still create a better understanding of the possible pathophysiology pathways and potential avenues for minimizing cardiac toxicity after receiving radiation treatment. Their work also offers a predictive model for dose exposure and the type of expected arrhythmia.
For the future, the researchers believe that radiation oncologists should collaborate with cardiology experts to better understand the mechanisms of heart injuries and their connection to radiation treatment. In addition, they should take advantage of modern radiation treatment to actively sculpt radiation exposure away from the specific cardiac regions that are at high risk for causing arrhythmias. According to Mak, this study, alongside previous research, will help with surveillance, screening, and informing radiation oncologists on which parts of the heart to limit radiation exposure to, and in turn, mitigate complications.
“An interesting part of what we did was leverage artificial intelligence algorithms to segment structures like the pulmonary vein and parts of the conduction system to measure the radiation dose exposure in over 700 patients. This saved us many months of manual work,” said Mak. “So, not only does this work have potential clinical impact, but it also opens the door for using AI in radiation oncology research to streamline discovery and create larger datasets.”
Dutch Hindus are raising awareness about the plight of their fellow believers in Bangladesh. They hold radical Muslims responsible for a recent surge in violence against Hindus in that country. “Strange that our government responds so weakly.”
Hindus in Bangladesh are under attack by Islamists and have no voice, say Dutch Hindu activists. Therefore, they want to make themselves heard: “When you see temples being set on fire and idols being urinated on, it does something to you,” says Nawin Ramcharan (27), an active member of SOHAM, the Hindu advocacy organization in the Netherlands. Ramcharan, along with a few fellow activists, shares his story in an office in The Hague. “We noticed that in the news coverage from and about Bangladesh, there is hardly any mention of the suffering of Hindus.”
What’s going on? This month, the disgraced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled Bangladesh after weeks of student protests that were met with a heavy-handed response. Following Hasina’s departure, chaos erupted. According to Hindu spokespersons, radical Muslims looted Hindu shops, homes, and temples—Hindus make up a minority of 13 million in this densely populated, predominantly Islamic country of 169 million people. According to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC), Hindus were attacked in 52 of the 64 districts.
The situation has mostly calmed down now. The elderly economist and Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus (84) has been asked to clean up the mess and guide the transition to a new era. “Yunus is a puppet of the United States, where he lived for a long time,” says Mohnish Sharma (49), director of consulting firm MS Advisory. “The US wants to expand its influence in the region because oil transports to Russia and China pass through this area. According to Hasina, she had to leave because she refused to allow a US military base on St. Martin, a strategically located island in the Bay of Bengal.”
Nawin Ramcharan is “not convinced” by Sharma’s observation that geopolitics played a role in the ousting of the authoritarian Prime Minister Hasina. “But I don’t rule it out either.”
How exactly all of this fits together is unclear. What will surprise many Dutch people the most is the involvement of these Dutch Hindus with developments in Bangladesh, a distant country that is not exactly in the news every day. Glenn Doerga (26), a law lecturer at the Holland University of Applied Sciences, explains: “The Dutch see us as Hindustanis, originating from Suriname. But Hindustanis can be Hindu, Muslim, and sometimes Christian. We Hindus are a religious community, spread worldwide, and we feel solidarity with our fellow believers elsewhere.”
Mohnish Sharma: “Our ancestors come from British India. They were brought to Suriname as contract laborers, but ultimately, our roots are in South Asia.”
The fact that the fate of the Hindus in Bangladesh, whose numbers have significantly decreased over the years, is hardly discussed here is, according to the interlocutors, due to poor lobbying. Sharma: “Hindus in the Netherlands can organize themselves culturally and religiously, but politically, they don’t make a fist. They prefer to fit the image of well-integrated, respectable doctors, lawyers, and accountants. Very different from Muslims, who, for example, through Denk, ask all sorts of questions about Gaza.”
Glenn Doerga: “An interview with me about Bangladesh appeared on TikTok, and a Hindu girl responded: ‘I don’t want to speak out about this because you quickly get labeled as Islamophobic and Hindu nationalist.’ Dutch Hindus are as modest as Indo-Dutch people.”
In India, Bangladesh’s neighboring country with 1.1 billion Hindus, Hindu nationalism became mainstream under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Indian media extensively reported and expressed outrage over the attacks on their ‘Hindu brothers and sisters’ in Bangladesh, committed by Muslims—a group with which Modi’s India has problematic relations.
Nawin Ramcharan: “Those reports from Indian media were largely dismissed as fake news in the West. Why? Because it’s Muslims who are accused of violence? But when Hamas claims something, it’s readily accepted by editors.” He shows responses from Minister Veldkamp (NSC) of Foreign Affairs to questions from PvdA/GL. “Here, Veldkamp writes: ‘Multiple sources indicate that there is online disinformation about the violence against Hindus. It is therefore difficult to determine the scale of the violence.’ Well, I’ve seen exactly three videos that went viral debunked by Deutsche Welle. Many of the other images were definitely authentic and current.”
At a solidarity rally last week in The Hague, a few dozen people condemned the ‘genocide of Hindus’ in Bangladesh. Minister Veldkamp questions in his response to the House of Representatives whether the violence against Hindus—and also against the small Christian community in Bangladesh—was solely ‘religious in nature.’ After all, many Hindus in Bangladesh supported the party of the disgraced Sheikh Hasina. So, it could just as well be political retribution.
Be that as it may, Dutch Hindu activists continue to raise the alarm. Mohnish Sharma: “The number of Hindus in Bangladesh has dramatically declined in recent decades. Under pressure from the advancing Islam, people converted, or Hindus fled to India. India’s Prime Minister Modi also warns about it: Islam is expansive. The same goes for the Netherlands. Islam has also established itself in all layers of society here. Maybe that’s why we hear and read so little about the misdeeds of Muslims in Bangladesh?”
An estimated 10.7 million people have been displaced within Sudan, and a further 2.1 million have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. The fighting has also precipitated an acute hunger crisis, with almost 26 million struggling to secure daily meals.
In an exclusive interview with UN News, Leni Kinzli, Head of Communications at the World Food Programme (WFP) in Sudan, told Abdelmonem Makki that as many as 13 other areas across the war-ravaged country are also at risk of famine.
These are areas with active conflicts such as in Darfur, Kordofan and Khartoum, which are worsening by the day and making assessments very difficult, she said.
“Access to the camps that are inside El Fasher, where fighting continues to intensify day by day between the paramilitary RSF and the SAF, make it extremely difficult to access,” she added.
Catastrophic hunger in Khartoum
She said that some 90,000 are facing catastrophic levels of hunger in the capital Khartoum, which just 18 months ago was a bustling city without concerns over food security.
“Now there are areas in Khartoum where we are hearing that people are just surviving on mixing whatever kind of cereals they have with water and drinking that once per day to survive.”
Ramping up assistance
WFP is ramping up emergency assistance efforts, focusing on those suffering from severe hunger across the country. The agency aims to reach and support up to 8.4 million people by the end of the year.
“We are now aiming to provide around 100,000 hot meals per month and continuing to build off of that to increase the assistance. We have also registered a longer list of financial service providers through which we can provide cash-based assistance,” Ms. Kinzli said.
“[However,] one of the challenges with cash-based assistance since the onset of this crisis has been the liquidity and banking crisis that has also struck Sudan,” she added.
The agency is also helping set up community kitchens and working with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
“We are looking at every means to get assistance to people who need it in both in-kind emergency food rations as well as through cash and also working through community kitchens,” she said.
We cannot give up hope
Ms. Kinzli emphasized the world cannot give up hope when it comes to the Sudan crisis, stressing that “we certainly can deliver at the scale required”.
“If we can get assistance to these areas, especially to people who are trapped by conflict and especially to the areas that are at risk of famine, we can prevent many deaths and we can prevent mass starvation and widespread malnutrition,” she said.
At the same time, the warring parties should keep the interests of Sudanese people at heart, she urged.
“No matter what, WFP will continue to do whatever we can, no matter the circumstances, to support and provide assistance to people where they need it the most.”
World Food Programme (WFP) trucks carrying sorghum, pulses, oil and rice destined for 13,000 people at risk of famine in Kereneik, West Darfur, made the crossing on Tuesday evening local time.
WFP reports that it has food and nutrition supplies for around 500,000 people ready to move swiftly through the newly re-opened route.
“The re-opening of the Adre crossing is critical for the effort to prevent famine from spreading across Sudan, and it must now stay in use”, said WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain.
“I want to acknowledge all parties for taking this vital step to help WFP get lifesaving aid to millions of people in desperate need”.
She said agencies urgently need to reach every corner of Sudan with food assistance through humanitarian corridors as well as border crossings: “This is the only way to avoid widespread starvation.”
The Adre crossing from Chad is the most effective and shortest route to deliver humanitarian assistance into Sudan – and particularly the Darfur region – at the scale and speed required to respond to the huge hunger crisis.
Since Adre’s official closure in February, WFP was able to operate just two convoys via the Adre crossing – one in March and one in April and since then needs have only grown, as the rival militaries battle for control of the devastated nation.
UN expert vows to advocate for Afghan human rights following ban on entry
The UN independent human rights expert for Afghanistan has expressed concern over the Taliban’s commitment to end its clampdown on basic rights there, following their announcement that they will not permit his entry into the country.
Special Rapporteur, Richard Bennett, said he has always engaged with the de facto authorities transparently and has been effective in assessing the country’s human rights situation and providing recommendations for improvement where needed.
“As an UN-appointed independent expert, I take my responsibilities very seriously,” Mr. Bennett said. “I urge the Taliban to reverse their decision and reiterate my willingness and availability to travel to Afghanistan.”
Committed to the people
The UN expert says he will continue to engage with the people of Afghanistan “both inside and outside the country, as well as other relevant stakeholders, noting that I have not travelled to Afghanistan for over a year.”
Mr. Bennett also committed to further documenting human rights violations and providing suggestions for improvement.
“I remain committed to the people of Afghanistan and to supporting a stable, inclusive and prosperous country at peace with itself and its neighbours,” he said.
Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Human Rights Council to serve in their individual capacity, independent of the UN system and national governments. They are not UN employees and do not receive a salary.
Displacement rife across Myanmar
The deteriorating situation in three regions of Myanmar where fighting between military government forces and opposition rebels is intensifying is driving up displacement, the UN Spokesperson warned on Wednesday.
“Reports we are receiving show intensifying hostilities in Rakhine have caused casualties and new displacement, notably in Maungdaw Township, on the border with Bangladesh”, said Stéphane Dujarric.
An estimated 20,000 people were reportedly displaced from three downtown Maungdaw areas on 5 August while more people are reportedly fleeing across the border now.
In northern Shan state, there has been a resurgence of fighting since late June, with an estimated 33,000 people displaced from four townships, he added.
“There are also reports of civilian casualties; homes and other structures have also been destroyed according to the information we’re getting.”
Funding falling short
Torrential monsoon rains since the end of June are aggravating the already dire humanitarian situation with around 393,000 impacted.
The 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan, which aims to reach some 5.3 million people across the country has only received 23 per cent of the amount requested – just over $225 million.
“Despite the challenges, some 2.1 million people across Myanmar were reached by UN and other humanitarian partners during the first half of this year. They received assistance such as food, health, nutrition, and water and sanitation support”, Mr. Dujarric concluded.
Vienna, August 22, 2024 – Religious Hate Crimes – On the occasion of the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, there is a significant focus on the rising number of hate crimes in the OSCE region. This issue was emphasized in a statement by the Personal Representatives of the OSCE Chair in Office, stressing the immediate action required to address growing religious intolerance and discrimination.
In their pointed message, the representatives expressed “deep concern at the alarming level of hate crime and acts of violence based on religion or belief across the OSCE region.” This assertion is not without basis. The statement highlighted a disturbing increase in intolerance towards Muslims, noting that “the high and increasing number of reported incidents of intolerance, violence, and discrimination against Muslims” is a testament to the deep-seated roots of anti-Muslim hatred exacerbated by xenophobia in several countries.
Since the series of Hamas terror attacks in October 2023, there has been an increase in anti-Semitic sentiments. The repercussions of these incidents, combined with the persisting tensions in the Middle East have instilled a sense of fear, among communities residing in various OSCE nations. The representatives noted that these conditions have forced individuals to “hide their Jewish identity in public,” a stark indicator of the present threats to personal freedom and security.
It’s evident that religious hate crimes aren’t limited to any group. “Acts of intolerance against Christians and members of other religions or beliefs continue unabated,” the statement claims, emphasizing the connection between these actions and extreme nationalism, racism and prejudice. These intersections present dangers to various social groups, such, as women, immigrants, Roma and Sinti communities.
A significant contributor to this worrying religious hate crimes trend is the role of social media. The representatives warned that social media platforms are instrumental in “promoting and amplifying these acts and expressions of intolerance and xenophobia,” often inciting violence through the dissemination of false information. They emphasized that while freedom of expression is foundational to democracy, it should not serve as a shield for unchecked hatred that targets individuals’ physical and emotional well-being.
The consequences of unchecked violence based on religion or belief extend beyond immediate physical threats. These acts “risk the erosion of our basic democratic values and principles,” posing a long-term threat to social cohesion, peaceful coexistence, and societal security.
In their closing remarks, the OSCE representatives made a resounding call to action. They encouraged participating States to fortify efforts in safeguarding freedom of religion and belief, urging the implementation of “comprehensive measures enabling the effective reporting, recording, and prosecution of hate crime.” Moreover, they emphasized the necessity of legislative and enforcement measures alongside appropriate victim support, when suffering religious hate crimes.
The statement underscored that “freedom of religion or belief is specifically acknowledged as an integral aspect of the OSCE’s comprehensive concept of security,” reinforcing its vital role in countering discrimination and prejudice. The representatives expressed readiness to assist participating States with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in fostering respect for freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief.
The joint call was echoed by Rabbi Andrew Baker, Ambassador Evren Dağdelen Akgün, and Dr. Regina Polak, each representing a focus on combating various facets of intolerance and discrimination. Their unified stance serves as a crucial reminder of the ongoing efforts required to ensure a secure, inclusive future for all religions and beliefs within the OSCE region.
