People have been e-mailing me, and many have been blogging, aboutwhat happened last Wednesday on Mt Athos, where some dissident monks, long displeased by the idea of ecumenism with Roman Catholics, invaded a construction site and assaulted other monks with hand weapons. A few injuries are serious. Apparently, the perps had already been excommunicated by Patriarch Bartholemew and ordered to leave. The matter is now in the hands of the civil authorities. I sure hope so.I've refrained from commenting until now because I needed time to allow my Advent ascesis to eliminate even the temptation to Schadenfreude. I have succeeded. I was tempted to say some polemical things about how dangerous a thing ecumenism can be in Orthodoxy, but that would be worse than useless. Catholics have occasionally had their little internecine rumbles too, not to mention full-scale wars over the usual things wars are fought about. I don't like glass houses.
Of course we haven't had many such rumbles lately. Too many of us have been singing "You'll know they are Christians by their love..."
