JOINT STATEMENT OF THE SSB AND OCCA
ON THE ATTACK ON AMERICA OF 11 SEPTEMBER 2001 A.D.

PRAYER, ASSISTANCE, AND INSTRUCTION

IN THE TIME OF

THE GREAT EVIL OF

11 SEPTEMBER 2001 A.D.

~

METROPOLITAN

ARCHBISHOP

PAUL, S.S.B.

THE ORTHODOX CATHOLIC CHURCH OF THE AMERICAS

~

Tuesday, September 11, 2001 A.D., was not a day of tragedy. It was a day on which a Great Evil of the most horrible purity was committed by the forces of Evil, when Evil openly declared war on mankind as it turned air liners into human guided missiles, murdering thousands of people in New York City, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania.

We must first pray for those who have been murdered, those injured, their families and friends, and those most heroic who put their lives at risk to save the injured, and those who gave their lives in that Godlike effort.

To that purpose The Church authorized the special Divine Liturgy for the Dead be prayed the Sunday of 16 September, in place of the Divine Liturgy of that Sunday after Pentecost, for the victims, survivors, families and friends, and yes, the perpetrators, of that Great Evil, and continues them in our prayers.

This was the first shot fired in this war.

All are encouraged to pray that the Declaration of War which has thus been made against the United States of America and all of the World, will be met with a firm and terrible resolve guided by an even more pure holiness, and not by unholy anger or revenge.

A terrible resolve can be a holy resolve, but revenge can never by holy. America must avoid revenge, otherwise it will become as evil as those who have just attacked her. The tools used in this war against evil must not be the tools of terrorism, for as we have seen, terrorism gives birth to great injustice and great harm of the innocent. Terrorism is a tool of evil, not of holiness.

Those who committed these evils do not represent Islam and do not represent the Arab peoples. But even if they did, Americans must not attack Arabs in America and abroad, and must not attack Moslems in America and abroad, just because they are Arab or Moslem. To so do would be to engage in an even greater evil than that which has been visited upon America and the World. The lessons which America learned in its unjust and unholy treatment of Japanese during World War II, and which it is learning in its struggles for racial justice, must not be forgotten. Just as the persons who were murdered while doing mundane office work or flying to meet family, can not be brought back, so too will it be impossible to correct any injustice and harm done to the innocent of the Arab people and the innocent of the Moslem religion.

There are some who take a form of joy in the attacks, thinking, "now Americans know what it is like to live with terrorism." Such jealousy and expressions of jealousy will bring no reward of union with God.

America itself must not allow this opportunity for holiness to pass.

Yes, there is great opportunity for holiness in this time of Great Evil. For decades much of America has turned away from God. This is a time to turn to God, to pray to Him, to beg His assistance in holy thought, action, and deed.

Which person has the better perspective on the ultimate reality: The one who, as horrible death approaches and overtakes, says, thinks, and feels, "Oh Hell", or the one who says, thinks, and feels, "God help me"?

Yet, even though many of its people have turned away from God, many other Americans have remained with God. The hero and heroine passengers and crew on the flight which crashed in Pennsylvania, fought the evil enemy servants of Satan who had taken control of their air liner, and caused the airplane to crash miles away from where it could harm anyone else. These brave men and women of God sacrificed themselves so that thousands of others would live, so that thousands of others would have the opportunity to grow in God.

The common enemy in this first manifestation during the Twenty-First Century, of the eternal war, is Satan and his followers. The common enemy is no different than the common enemy during World War II. In world War II the human leaders of Satan's forces were Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mussilini, and the Japanese Emperor. They lead their nations into moral error, and some of their peoples went willingly into their moral error. Today, the enemy is the same. Only the human leaders of Satan's forces have changed. These human leaders of Satan's forces have today, again lead some of their people willingly into moral error. But Satan will not prevail unless America also falls into the trap of giving evil for evil.

America must be filled with the terrible resolve, and must use every, yes every, instrument and asset which it possesses, to fight and overcome those who would enslave it. Holiness does not necessarily preclude the terrible resolve, but the terrible resolve must not be any more terrible than is necessary.

Who would dare say that our fathers and mothers who saved the world from the Nazi, Fascist, Tojo, the Axis, were wrong? No one. But just as America eliminated the evil people who lead Germany, Italy, and Japan, and for a while even Russia, into the pursuit of evil - and then rehabilitated these peoples; so too must America be ready to completely annihilate the evil of today, and then to rehabilitate those who followed the evil ways.

What do you tell your children of these days? The truth. You tell them that many evil men and women decided to hurt Americans and the rest of the world. When your children ask why, tell them the only answer possible - that these evil people did these evil things because they are evil, and evil people do evil things; evil people do not do good things unless it is to promote something evil. Tell them that these evil people hijacked airplanes, stole airplanes with hundreds of people on the airplanes, and crashed the airplanes into buildings killing thousands of people in the buildings and on the airplanes, because they are evil. The people in the buildings and the passengers and crews of the airplanes were not evil, the hijackers were evil.

Tell your children you can not tell if a person is evil by what they look like, or what kind of clothing they wear, or what their religion is. You can only tell if a person is evil by whether or not they do evil things. Tell them that sometimes good people do bad things, but that does not make them evil, just mistaken; but that evil people hurt other people on purpose, and do not care and usually are happy that they have hurt other people.

And this is why America must be careful as it wages the Twenty-First Century War Against Satan. For if Americans take pleasure in the destruction of the enemy and his minions, then such Americans will be just as evil as those against whom they fight.

For America and the World to succeed in this war against Evil, America must return to the moral values which created it and which made it strong.

If those who believe man can solve his own problems without God's assistance and guidance, had been influential during World War II, we would either be still fighting that War, or, more likely, we would not even be speaking German or Japanese - we would not be here - we would not have been born.

Thus it is that this terrible Evil which has so adversely effected and destroyed so many thousands of lives, can actually be a great opportunity for building an even greater America, and an even greater World. An America and a World of moral values, not ethics or family values dreamed up by immoral people, but moral values as acknowledged by so many billions of people in the caring religions of tradition. Those religions which follow and proclaim the moral standards declared and established by God.

In the past, Satan used pride, greed, and envy to obtain followers who would wage war against mankind. Now he has added hatred and despair.

In the process of this War, America and the World must eliminate the minions of Evil, and the factors which allow people to be recruited to Evil. This can not be done by seeking just justice. This can only be done by turning to God - to God unadulterated by human desires and interpretation.

We have seen that people of all faiths follow the same main tenants decreed by God. These tenants are universal and transcend all faiths, all beliefs. It is only the false religions, those which are religions of Satan, which allow and foster indiscriminate and wanton murder and destruction. No, all religions are not equal, and since God is one, there can be but one true religion. But those religions which fall somewhat short of the complete truth of God do attempt to fulfill the complete truth of God. It is the religion of Satan which opposes the complete truth of God.

Thus it is that all true religions, whether Christian, Hebrew, Islam, Hindu, Buddhist, Naturists, and, yes, even the multitude of Pagan religions, are founded in the same universal truths by which mankind is morally governed in its internal relationships and its relationships with the remainder of creation. And this truth will remain.

The foundation of mankind is God.

We can only succeed in our war against evil if that war rests on the foundation of God. If we succumb to unholy passions and wantonly attack, then we will have moved from the foundation of God to the foundation composed of the quicksands of Satanic Evil. If we fear to attack, then we will have stepped from the foundation of God and suffocated in the quicksands of self-interest fear which is Evil. If some complain about the very minor inconveniences they experienced on the day of the attack, they have neither the fortitude to endure this war, nor are they deserving of the delights and fruits which will be harvested in winning this war against Satan.

We have already seen the great good which is intrinsic in mankind, in the holy responses to this act of aggression against the very existence of mankind. Those who fought the warriors of Satan and caused their craft to crash rather than allow it to be used to kill thousands more in Washington, are in the bosom of Abraham. Our friends in England played the American National Anthem at the changing of the guard before their Queen, displaying for the world their God based union with America. Father Michael and his brothers and sisters in the New York Fire and Police Departments, and ordinary citizens of a multitude of countries at the site of the New York attack, offered their lives to save the lives and souls of those trapped and killed in the World Trade Towers, offering the greatest gift which one can make. Yassar Arafat gave blood for the survivors of the attack, both to assist and as an outward expression of his horror and grief. Palestinians who initially rejoiced over the attack became somber and thoughtful as they realized the magnitude of this initial attack of the 21st Century and its grave meanings, significances, consequences, and horror. People of New Orleans, a city which wealth has by-passed, collected over three hundred thousand dollars in less than an evening, to donate to the needs of those who have been harmed in the attack. And so has the world responded.

And where is Satan's present day human general, Osama bin Laden? Is he in the

Osama bin Laden and Timothy McVeigh

forefront leading his troops? No! Like Satan he is in hiding, fearing the just retribution in the Anger of God.

Though as we write, Osama bin Laden has not been proven to be the one who ordered this attack, all must decide whether each will be a cowardly follower of Satan, or emulate the example of those firemen who raised the American flag overcoming the midst of destruction. We must not cower in hell. We must raise the flag of Christ, the Holy Cross, in war against Satan.

+ Paul, S.S.B.

If we engage this war without prayer, this may be the last shot fired in this war.