Crucea.ro

Mihnea Maruta semnaleaza in articolul Problema juridică a paşapoartelor biometrice, sintetizată de un expert universitar: “primul articol profesionist şi nepătimaş despre cipurile biometrice care e realizat de un specialist al societăţii civile. Este vorba de textul intitulat “Paşapoartele biometrice, între moderaţie şi pasiune”, scris de profesorul Radu Carp, prodecanul Facultăţii de Ştiinţe Politice a Universităţii Bucureşti.”

Profesorul Radu Carp face citeva precizari de ordin normativ:

• Tema pasapoartelor biometrice in spatiul autohton a fost generata de impunerea in ordinea juridica interna a unui Regulament nr. 2252/2004 adoptat de Consiliul Uniunii Europene “privind standardele pentru elementele de securitate si elementele biometrice integrate in pasapoarte si in documentele de calatorie emise de statele membre”.
•  Acest Regulament a fost adoptat ca urmare a modificarilor intervenite in legislatia SUA dupa atacurile teroriste de la 11 septembrie. Incepand cu 2002 a intrat in vigoare Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act care stipula ca statele ale caror cetateni nu au nevoie de a intra in SUA cu vize trebuie sa introduca pasapoarte biometrice in timp de 2 ani, in caz contrar urmand a fi introdus un regim de vize.
• De fapt, 11 septembrie a fost folosit in acest caz de administratia de la Washington pentru a transa o mai veche disputa in relatia cu Uniunea Europeana.

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In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of
Russia, representing the only free part of the Russian Orthodox
Church, with reverence discussed the exploit of the Martyrdom and
Confession of the innumerable believers in the Russian land who have
suffered from the hands of the godless persecutors of the Faith of
Christ.

From the days of the Great Prince Vladimir, the Russian people with
all its heart has accepted the Holy Orthodox Faith. This Faith
inspired numerous Holy Princes, Hierarchs and Ascetics, sanctifying
the Christian order of Russian culture. These were founded on the
Christian principles set forth in the Sacred Scripture and Tradition
of the Orthodox Church. Being realized in Russian national life in
various degrees in various periods of history, these principles have
continued to exist in all layers of the Russian people, from the Tsar
to the last pauper, for the course of more than 900 years. However,
during the past two centuries, instigated by the enemy of our
salvation, the anti-christian principle of revolutionary atheism has
directed all its strength and means towards the annihilation of these
principles in the Russian people.

From 1917, beginning with the sin of the whole people in violating the
oath, given before the Cross and the Gospel, of loyalty to Faith,
Tsar, and Fatherland there began to be put into practice the uprooting
by the atheists of the whole Orthodox spirit in the government and in
the people’s way of life, both of which had turned away from God. This
evil was attained by means of a cruel persecution of Faith and of the
Orthodox way of life; all layers of the population were made victims
of this process, from the Tsar and the Hierarchy to the simplest
believers.

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 Far from being the refutation or “correction” that Fr. Seraphim Rose claims it to be, St. John’s article What Did Christ Pray For in the Garden of Gethsemane[71] reflects and develops many of the themes expressed by his mentor, Metropolitan Anthony, in his The Dogma of Re­demption:

…It was necessary for Him to redeem man from sin and death, and re-estab­lish the union of man with God. It was necessary that the sinless Savior should take upon Himself all human Sin, so that He, Who had no sins of His own, should feel the weight of the sin of all humanity and sorrow over it in such a way as was possible only for complete holiness, which clearly feels even the slightest deviation from the commandments and Will of God. It was necessary that He, in Whom Divinity and humanity were hypostatically united, should in His holy, sinless humanity experience the full horror of the distancing of man from his Creator, of the split between sinful humanity and the source of holiness and light — God. The depth of the fall of mankind must have stood before His eyes at that moment…

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Am vorbit la o emisiune despre “chestiunea” pasapoartelor biometrice, cipuri si felurite alte sminteli ale zilelor noastre, impreuna cu Iulian Comanescu, expert media. Emisiunea, realizata de Dan Parvu la Radio France International, se numeste ArtCultura si va fi difuzata diseara de la ora 19 la ora 20.

It is a restrained, well-proportioned interior, as befits a church by Sir Christopher Wren. There is an Augustan austerity to its oak panelling and large, arched windows of plain glass. Its barrel-vaulted ceiling is painted in a tasteful Anglican sage-green, discreetly picked out with cream and gold.

But hanging above the altar is something huge and exotic. It is an overwhelmingly massive Byzantine icon in the shape of a jet-black cross. On it hangs a gigantic crucified figure with bright red blood streaming from his hands and feet. The image is surrounded in an edging of the brightest gold clearly designed to turn darkness into glory.

Beneath it is something else alien to the aesthetic of the building. A figure in a golden robe wearing a golden, onion-domed crown is waving two bundles of lighted candles over the altar. Around him stand half a dozen priests, deacons and altar servers in faded burgundy silk robes and copes.

This is St Andrew’s church in Holborn, on the first Sunday of the month. The congregation, several hundred strong, are refugees, some for the second time in their lives. Over six decades, a small but vibrant branch of the Russian Orthodox Church has grown in the UK. Its members were a miscellany of elderly émigrés, and their descendents, who had fled their homeland in the Communist era, and who had arrived via long sojourns in Finland, Switzerland, Italy and France, along with a collection of aristocratic and upper-class English converts. What united them was the charismatic personality of the holy man who led them for 50 years, the late Metropolitan Anthony Bloom.

But now, this community is again in exile. This Anglican church, where they gather twice a month, is a temporary home. They are no longer welcome in Bloom’s cathedral.

This is more than just a story of schism, much like the others that have dogged Christianity for 2,000 years. For these curiously anomalous English Orthodox Christians claim they have been pushed out of their own cathedral by a large influx of Russians who arrived in the UK in recent times, some of whom have launched a Moscow-inspired takeover of the church.

It’s all part of a much bigger story in which Oleg Deripaska is a key figure. He is Russia’s richest man, the aluminium tsar who is a friend of the British cabinet minister Lord Mandelson, and on whose yacht the hapless Tory shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, entangled himself in the rigging of the oligarch’s lavish hospitality and allegations of illicit soliciting of political donations.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Two big communications satellites collided in the first-ever crash of its kind in orbit, shooting out a pair of massive debris clouds and posing a slight risk to the international space station.

NASA said it will take weeks to determine the full magnitude of the crash, which occurred nearly 500 miles over Siberia on Tuesday.

“We knew this was going to happen eventually,” said Mark Matney, an orbital debris scientist at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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Ca raspuns la solicitarea insistenta a multor pelerini, si pe deplin constienti de existenta raului in vremurile noastre, Sfanta noastra Manastire a decis sa rupa tacerea temporar si sa faca publice urmatoarele estimari generale, referitoare la scandalul care dainuie de mult timp in constiinta oamenilor din cauza haosului generat de Mass Media, privitor la activitatile unor calugari dintr-un institut manastiresc din Sfantul Munte. In vremuri ca acestea, in care abuzul asupra institutiilor, a principiilor si a valorilor este o conditie prealabila pentru inaltare sociala si acceptare, cu durere ne dam seama ca trebuie sa vorbim despre lucruri care au fost candva evidente.

1. Monahismul reprezinta renuntarea la cele lumesti si la toate lucrurile referitoare la lume. Tocmai din acest motiv, unul dintre legamintele monahale este cel al respingerii proprietatii. Indiferent de locul in care s-ar afla un calugar, acesta se obliga sa constientizeze ca nu poseda nimic, ca nu e posedat de nimic, si ca orice forma de proprietate personala reprezinta o incalcare grava a legamantului facut. Un calugar cenobit cu un cont personal in banca spre propriul folos reprezinta o contradictie, atat in termeni, cat si in esenta.

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As a citizen of an established democracy, I get to exercise my democratic rights once or twice every four years. If I want to protest outside parliament, I now have to apply to the police for a license. If I write to my MP about an issue I am passionate about, such as the introduction of compulsory biometric identity (ID) cards in Britain, I’ll get an earnest letter back saying he knows they’re a silly idea too but the cabinet just won’t listen these days. I can request documents under the Freedom of Information Act, but I am not allowed to distribute them, or I’ll get a cease-and-desist letter from the happy bunnies in Whitehall who enforce Crown copyright.

The article is here.

Desen animat realizat de Alexander Petrov, dupa o tema slava, “rusalka”: un duh al apelor in chip de femeie, care ispiteste tinerii si ii pierde. Aici ucenicul unui pustnic este ademenit, iar staretul sau vede neputincios cum tinarul rataceste. Pustnicul greseste la rindul sau, palmuindu-l, dar mai apoi se va jertfi pentru a salva sufletul ucenicului sau.

Bulgarian President seeks Russian patriarch’s assistance in orthodox schism

by Nick Iliev

The Inokentii synod, which wants independence from the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, has received the backing of Strasbourg’s European Court of Human Rights.

At the end of January the court in Strasbourg ruled that Bulgaria had violated the right to religious freedom and that the Bulgarian Government has intervened disproportionately by appointing patriarch Maxim as the ruler of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The court has set up a time frame of three months in which the alternative synod of Inokentii and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church are to resolve the controversy surrounding the ownership of about 100 pieces of property. Alternatively, Strasbourg will pass on a solution regarding that matter as well.

This potential schism within the Bulgarian Orthodox Church has been regarded as a highly combustible matter, something that, according to Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov, “could have serious implications not only for Bulgaria but the entire region”. Consequently, in light of the decision for the Strasbourg court to interfere in Bulgarian religious affairs, Purvanov is now pleading with the Russian Patriarch to give his support to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and prevent the potential rift, Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) reports.
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Va propun doar citeva note marginale la ceea ce se petrece in zilele noastre. Nu din nacela, privind cu telescopul intimplari exotice din teritoriile pe care le explorez (din balon), ci vorbind despre lucruri care mi s-au intimplat si mie si unor cunoscuti, pe care le-am trait si vazut.

Mai intii, fiindca nu intelegem de mici ca optiunile dinaintea noastra sint fie viata monahala fie cea de om casatorit, nici macar nu luam in calcul ideea de a fi monahi, asa incit perspectiva noastra e dezechilibrata dintru inceput. Vreau sa spun aici un singur lucru, limpede, ca sa nu fiu interpretat gresit: excluderea optiunii monahale din universul omului tinar este o pierdere iremediabila a perspectivei asupra vietii. O orbire ingrozitoare.

Ar trebui ca asa cum nu ne putem imagina o slujba de tundere intru monahism schimonosita de felurite razne, ci o asociem cu bun temei cu ceva minunat, tot asa ar trebui sa ne cutremuram dinaintea spectacolului sinistru al “cununiilor ortodoxe” de azi.  Mai intii, sa stim ca nu exista cununie civila si cununie religioasa. Ceremonia civila e orice numai cununie nu, o minciuna pe care unii o trec drept adevar pentru a batjocori Taina Cununiei. Faptul ca in unele biserici ti se cere certificatul de casatorie civila ca o conditie pentru Cununie este o mutilare a normalitatii, o rasturnare a ordinii dumnezeiesti a lucrurilor. In ce priveste ideea de cununie religioasa in afara Ortodoxiei, in tot felul de scheme mixte cu miri\nasi\preoti heterodocsi sau pagini sau cine stie cum, e limpede ca aceasta este o impostura autentica.

Curvia nu este inceput de nunta, aflam din Pidalion, din nefericire mult prea tirziu. Nu voi vorbi mai mult despre acest rau pe care necuratul l-a insamintat in lume si care astazi este firesc, anume ideea ca inaintea casatoriei mirii se cunosc trupeste. Din pacate, cred ca stiti, multi dintre voi, la ce ma refer si la cit de contorsionate sint adincimile acestui pacat care schimonoseste pe cei care se apropie de Taina Cununiei si le distruge temelia viitorului.

Urmeaza apoi alaiul smintit al “nuntilor” de azi: nasi alesi pentru bani sau slava desarta, ba chiar dintre cei cu viata de familie smintitoare, ba chiar multe perechi de nasi pe alocuri; nunti savirsite simbata si nu, de pilda, duminica, urmate de chiolhanuri care desfigureaza frumusetea nuntirii, cu dansuri si muzica pe care nu ma ostenesc sa le descriu; nuntasi si nuntiti si nuni care intra in biserici cu totul nepregatiti duhovniceste, cu un duh strain Tainei, imbracati pestrit si necuviincios; preoti care fac “atmosfera” si ingaduie glume care deja au intrat in “ritual” (cutare e pocnit in ceafa sa inghita piscotul, cutare arunca orez si tot asa).

Nu scriu toate astea ca un fel de analiza a ceea ce se intimpla, caci ar trebui sa va ingrop in detalii sinistre si cutremuratoare,  ci doar ca sa propun, intre noi, o tema de reflectie. Pentru cei care nu aleg monahismul ci lumea, cum este cu putinta sa isi ingaduie o asemenea nesocotinta in chiar temelia vietii lor de familie? Daca am cere o omleta si ni s-ar aduce un morman de coji de oua stricate amestecate cu felurite mizerii, probabil ca nu le-am primi. Evident, nu ne-am face noi insine o astfel de spurcaciune pentru a ne hrani. Unii ar merge cu pretentiile de a le fi respectat gustul pina la cea din urma mirodenie sau cel din urma ingredient, cit de mic. Imi cer scuze ca n-am gasit o comparatie mai buna.

Atunci de ce oare in cele duhovnicesti mai acceptam aceste surogate si blestematii sinistre?