I only met Fr. Belisarius a few times, but I was impressed and humbled when he encouraged me in my little writing apostolate. It was a personal blessing! Forgive me if I describe him as "well-rounded" which, with his long white beard and cheerful smile always made me think of St. Nicholas. How appropriate that this dear man went to the Lord on the first Sunday of Advent. I can imagine him on Christmas day filling our stockings with prayers and blessings as we muddle on in the Valley of Tears. The article after the break was sent as an email by one of my readers. I reprint it here with her permission and with gratitude. As I read it I was reminded of Yeats famous quotation, "The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity." How many of the dissenters in our Church bubble over with zeal as they undermine the faith? How many of those in the hierarchy, called to promote the faith "lack all conviction" having traded it for the Almighty tax exemption. How many failed to protect the little lambs in the flock and allowed the sodomite wolves to prey on them without interference? Fr. Belisarius was not one of them. He was a simple, humble priest who truly loved children and God's people. May the Lord bless us with many more like him.
______________________________________________
Remember and Pray for Fr. Constantine Belasarius, RIP
Fr Constantine Belisarius, a very dear friend. died yesterday
afternoon.
Please remember his soul in your prayers . Fr
Constantine, a Melkite Byzantine priest came to our assistance as parishioners
of a Carpatho Ruthenian Catholic Church in NJ. We had written to the bishop complaining that our pastor gave a homily denying the Real Presence. He
pointed to the Tabernacle and told us,"God is not in the box so don't pray to
him there." Parishioners at the mother parish for our mission also wrote to the bishop, only they saw the priest in his full persona. They complained he came
dressed as a woman to their church functions and that, along with his personal
altar server who was a young teen, enjoyed parties in the rectory with
other teen aged boys. The parishioners complained that they were not received in
their own rectory when they called on the priest.
The Bishop died in a car crash. Following his demise, several years ago we
went to the main (mother church for our mission Church) for Easter Mass. It was
cancelled. Our little Mission Church was also sold to Korean Evangelicals. Two
parishes that once filled the pews were left with only one or two pew
people.
Here is something I want people to know that Fr Belisarius told me. For his part in our defense, Bishop Pitaki took his revenge and the
Melkite Bishop was warned against Fr Belisarius as a troublemaker. Bishop Pitaki ( now
deceased) told Father's Bishop at the time ( also now deceased) he "...never
wanted to hear Fr Belisarius' name ever again."
Under Bishop Pitaki we had been assigned a mighty group of
perverted priest pastors, including Fr. [John] Danilak ( now deceased) who was found
dead on his kitchen floor when the police finally came to arrest him. He died of
AIDS after raping and sodomizing two little boys in his Ocean City, MD trailer.
Then there was Fr. [Glenn] Davidovich who had a penchant for filming parish youth
wrestling with scantily clad homosexual porn film stars in the rectory
basement. In another parish in PA Fr. Davidovich chastised the elderly long time
rectory housekeeper from the pulpit for warning the parents of the parish youth.
She never set foot in a church again according to her friend.
Davidovich and his partner were last seen on line as active members in a
Priestess-run LGBTQ-inclusive Episcopal parish in Wyoming where Davidovich is
pictured entertaining the youth with a puppet show.
One of Danilak's victims committed suicide at ten years old and I was told
by a priest he is buried in Monmouth Cty, NJ. Another victim's mother posted she
was the mother of a young man who also committed suicide .She said she knew of
five other young men who did the same thanks to the trauma Danilak inflicted on
them. These stories are all on line posted as first hand accounts by numerous
Byzantine Catholics.
I want Catholics to realize that nothing, absolutely nothing will be
renewed in Truth within the institutional Church UNTIL we have a hierarchy willing
to take genuine action to rid the filth from the ranks of clerics. Pray more and more rosaries to that end or the End will be so much more
difficult to endure. Father Belisarius was a very courageous priest in that he was willing
to speak up to his Bishop on behalf of the Faithful!
We spoke frequently by
email and phone. We were able to say our earthly good-byes in August when we
visited with him and took him out for dinner We visited his little chapel and
delivered to him a box of icons that he wanted to gift to his home schooling
parishioners whom he knew were unable to afford to buy them. Father knew his time left on earth was short and asked for rosaries for
his soul especially from Catholics who loved the Divine Liturgy as he
did.
May Our Beloved Lord and Our Lady embrace him in their Blessed
Arms for all ages and ages!
Truly a devastating loss for us and for so many others.
ReplyDeleteA few more snippets I want people to know about our beloved Fr B.
ReplyDeleteFr invested in the stock market and retrieved his money when his stocks went up. He made a deal with a local restaurant owner so that after his beautiful Divine Liturgy on Sunday he could feed his parishioners an all day buffet at a nominal price since he had subsidized it. He told me many of them were unemployed or underemployed with large families. The people could stay till around five and he told me he loved the fact the children especially could go back to the buffet as much as they wanted and he was pleased they were fed well.
He laughed and told me some people thought he was rich.
He was very rich in his tenderness and love especially for home schooling families.
He knew that most sacrificed a second income so they could teach their children the Faith.
Fr was initially a Jesuit and did his novitiate in Teilhard de Chardin's cell.
He said the Jesuits revered Teielhard so much they often prayed at his grave. I will not repeat what he told me they should really do at that grave site. He left the Jesuits and found the Divine Liturgy of St John Crysostom and knew Eastern Catholicism was where he truly belonged. We often shared stories of the Early Church Fathers and like minded we prayed for the full unification of both the East and the Western Church as it was in Early Christianity.
Fr was kind enough along with another friend in VA to bring our family and another family down to VA, paying for our hotel rooms and food after our husbands were both out of work. He was very sad we left after several nights and wanted us to stay on longer.He gave us a wonderful party the night before we left. We shared a love of reading and would exchange books on the Faith.
Via e-mail
ReplyDeleteNo matter his holiness, I would encourage a change in this headline. "Entered into eternal life," seems to imply that the person went to Heaven right away, and that is something we cannot know for sure, so it would be lying. Plus, very few folks go right to Heaven. Even many, or at least some, canonized Saints, likely spent time in Purgatory first.
Thanks, and please post on your blog!
Dawn
Thanks for the comment, Dawn, but don't all of us go from temporal life to eternal life when we die? Even those who go to hell have entered eternal life or eternal "death" if you prefer. The souls in Purgatory also enter into eternal life with some time spent in the mud room before they enter the castle.
ReplyDeleteBut to stress your point, I am NOT canonizing Fr. Belisarius. Please pray for him. A priest once told me there is no one deader than a dead priest because he has no biological family to pray for him. I am going to have a Mass said for him. Please pray for us, Fr. Belisarius, who still struggle in this temporal valley of tears.
Thank you for sharing this information. I always seek the truth in our Byzantine faith. My parents fought this Bishop Pitaki. It is sad that there are still ignorant priests that hold him after death in respected esteem. Our Lord is his final judge. He was a true criminal of our church.
ReplyDelete