St Basil On Protecting The Abused, Orthodox Reform, September 6, 2007

St. Basil On Protecting The Abused

Orthodox Reform
September 6, 2007

http://orthodoxreform.org/topic/reflection/st-basil-on-protecting-the-abused/

Today's reading from the Prologue from Ohrid reminds us that while we are called to forgive those who sin against us, we are also as a church called to champion justice, protect the innocent, and discipline the unlawful. It is a lesson sadly ignored by many of our modern day Bishops. Saint Nikolai Velimirovic describes St. Basil's teaching on this subject:

Christianity has uprooted many barbaric customs from the society of man. But some of those customs-praiseworthy from the pagan point of view, but shameful from the Christian point of view-are, even to the present day, like hidden corruption oozing from a supposedly healed wound. One of these customs is the unlawful kidnapping of maidens. St. Basil wrote powerfully to one of his priests, after one such incident: "Do all in your power to find and rescue this maiden. Then, return her to her parents and excommunicate the perpetrator. Also suspend those who abetted him–including their entire households-from participation in services for three years. Likewise, suspend everyone in the village to which the maiden was taken, where she was hidden or perhaps kept by force–so that all will know that a kidnapper should be driven away from them like a serpent or some other wild beast or common enemy, and that the abused should be protected."

From the September 6 daily reading in Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich's "The Prologue from Ohrid", available here.