Page Title

Text Box: Priests of the Eastern Rite can interchange with virtually no problems. But regarding the Western Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, the uncertainty of the validity of the modern or current Divine Liturgy, Sacraments, and Priestly Ordinations, combined with the laxity and corruption of the Western Roman Rite, preclude interchange. It would be improper to interpret this as a condemnation of the Roman Catholic Church or of its Latin (Western) or non Byzantine Rite. It is an expression of concerns which should or perhaps even must be addressed if reunification is to be timely achieved without direct Divine intervention. While this is not a statement of policy of The Society of Clerks Secular of Saint Basil, it is an accurate statement of the official attitude and “thinking” of The Society of Clerks Secular of Saint Basil. The Western Rite of the Roman Catholic Church has changed and departed to such a great extent from its traditional practices, formula, traditions, dogmatic applications, liturgies, and from its leadership providing a living example of the spiritual fortitude which it expects and requires the laity to follow, so as to make it no longer recognizable as the Roman Catholic Church Latin Rite which existed prior to Vatican II. +

Text Box: ALTAR MISSAL REVISIONS The third edition of the Gregorian (Western) Rite Orthodox Altar Missal for The Society of Clerks Secular of Saint Basil and The Orthodox Catholic Church of the Americas, and the numerous other Jurisdictions which use our liturgical publications, is eighty-four percent complete. It may seem that it will be but a few days until it is complete, but that is not reality. Because the corrections copy which was at Saint Mary Magdalene was lost in Hurricane Katrina we have had to more scrupulously review the corrections copy at Holy Innocents. That “makes for slow going”. The majority of the corrections are simple typographical errors noted while praying Divine Liturgy. There are also clarifications of rubrics which were made evident through use. But there are also clarification of rubrics and addition of rubrics and prayers the necessity of which were made evident by observing Priests who have limited or no exposure to the Eastern Rite. Be patient. The current edition is completely proper and “usable”. The new edition will be “more so” and “better”. + LITURGICAL CALENDAR AND REVISIONS The Liturgical Calendar for the year 2009 A. D., should be sent to all of our Clergy during December, accompanied by the revised calendar. Revisions will continue to be required for as long as we have Clergy and they continue to Fall Asleep in the Lord and their commemoration dates entered. +

Text Box: THE EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT Would remove free choice regarding union representation Basically, under current law, if a union wishes to represent employees of a business, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board will certify the union if it is elected as the representative by a majority of the employees. The election process is by secret ballot. An election is to be held if 30% or more of the employees request it by signing “cards” or statements requesting the election. Employees can easily be coerced into signing the election request “cards” but their actual ballot or vote is secret. Therefore, a worker who has been coerced into signing the election request card is able to vote against the establishment of a union in voting his secret ballot. The Employee Free Choice Act would remove the secret ballot process, and certify the union as representing the employees if a majority of the employees signed election request cards. Remember, the election request card signing process is not secret. Union representatives can easily intimidate employees into signing the cards - and if anyone believes this does not happen at this time and will not happen if the law is enacted, then such individuals probably also believe in the tooth fairy. The proposed law is immoral because it allows the free will of each individual worker to be impinged - it promotes workers free will being squashed through intimidation.

Go to page