VICAR GENERAL ANNOUNCES THE BUILDING OF AN AUXILIARY CATHEDRAL
BASILICA IN AURORIA BUT FATHER FLACCUS STILL MAKE NEWS: CAME BACK IN SELUCIA AS SIMPLE CLERIC IT'S A WEEK HE GOES ALL DAYS TO THE EMPYREAN TEMPLE PRYING ON THE TOMB OF SAINT MICHAEL AND DAYS AFTER DAYS AURORIAN FAITHFULL FROM ALL OVER SALUCIA AND ABROAD ARE EMULATING HIM FILLING SAINT MICHAEL SQUARE IN DEEP PRAYER
Faithful flock Saint Michael Square
April 5112
His Holiness Paulus XI announced the appointment of an auxiliary Pro-Vicar General for the diocese of Auroria: the selucian Marcellinus Caro who, although he is another Eliasit, is a much more
moderate and less exposed character than his brother Marcus Propertius Flaccus and who has already declared that his primary
intent is to administer the Aurorian dioceses of Selucia in keeping with his office.
Flaccus had in fact been rejected by the Selucian government which with the usual biased anti-Aurorian positions considered Flaccus a threat to the anti-Aurorian policies passed off as policies of religious harmony.
The Holy See, however, has not simply appointed a substitute but an auxiliary: in fact Flaccus at the Holy See will continue to be accredited as the Pro-Vicar General of the Arch-Patriarch of the diocese of Auroria but in Selucia he will not be able to use these credentials leaving the administration of the diocese of Auroria and of the other dioceses of selucia to Marcellino Caro.
Caro returned to Auroria three weeks ago after the brief visit to Ville-De-Saints for the handover with Flaccus and the official
investiture by the pontiff and once in Auroria he announced the construction on a land owned by the church not far from the Empire Temple of the Auxiliary Cathedral Basilica of the Blessed Binarity which will host the chair of the bishop of Auroria who is the supreme pontiff since the Basilica of Saint Michael has long been deconsecrated and today its only crowded with visitors and tourists.
Right at the Basilica of Saint Michael however Father Flaccus are making news for a week now: he returned to Selucia after the years spent in Istalia and entering as a simple cleric without using his credentials as Pro-Vicar General he dedicated himself to the activities of the Eliasit Order as Provost of the order in Selucia.
During his first week in Auroria he set to work with the assistance of a legal and a commercial offices to find and buy land in the city where he could build the first Elisait Assistential Home of Charity of Selucia just as the Order is doing in several other countries.
The only statements released to the press by Father Flaccus himself were explanations regarding this project: it will be a assistential center where a hospital, an orphanage, a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen and finally a listening and assistance center mainly dedicated to women, young people and children abused or victime of violence will be built.
But the attention of the press for Father Flaccus has skyrocketed for at least a week since on the first Sunday of Lent after following the Vespers mass in a nearby Aurorian church, he went together with eight
Eliasit brothers to the Empirean Temple. Crossing the great nave and then entering the crypts where he passed the tombs of the various arch-patriarchs of the past he reached the holiest place of the basilica: the tomb of Saint Michael.
Father Flaccus knelt in front of the small marble altar and gathered in prayer in a profound and religious silence followed by his brothers. To the amazement of the tourists present many of those of the Aurorian faith joined in prayer together with Flaccus while the others began to take pictures and make videos that thanks to social media went viral in no time.
As the sun was setting to the great surprise of the forces of law and order present from all over Auroria dozens, then hundreds and then thousands of people filled the basilica and then the great oval of Saint Michael Square joining in prayer. In the square families with children, elderly, young people of the oratories, nuns, friars, clerics and other faithful began to intone the most classic prayers of the Aurorian cult starting to recite a collective rosary and the voices as in a great unison choir filled the square rising to the sky while the voices in unison could be heard even a few blocks away.
Father Flaccus stayed for three hours before leaving the Basilica and marveling himself at the mass of people who came when he went out on the churchyard.
The day after Flaccus dedicated the day to follow the activities of the Order for the construction of the Assistential House of Charity but again after Vespers he returned to pray at the tomb of the first apostle and despite it being a working day several hundred people gather again at the foot of the churchyard of the Basilica again to
pray. This time among those who had rushed to follow Father Flaccus there were several journalists but Flaccus did not make any statements respecting what he had set out to do on arriving in Selucia. But it was one of his confreres, the Istalian Father
Giovanni Versili who briefly spoke to the press saying that:
for the whole period of Lent Father Flaccus took a vow of silence from the hour of vespers to dawn and to come and pray at the tomb of Saint Michael to ask for his intercession with Our Lord Eliyahu Hosioi and the Most High for the martyrs of the faith and for the forgiveness of sinners
As the press news began to spread already the following evening the mass of Aurorian faithful in the square had doubled and so also in the following days with numerous Aurorian faithful from all over Selucia who wanted to reach Auroria for at least one evening and join in prayer together with the other Aurorian brothers.
On Friday the pontiff from Ville-De-Staint wanted to bless the devotion of Flaccus to whom he asked to address a blessing on his behalf to the faithful gathered in the square so starting from Friday Flaccus always paused for five minutes when he left the basilica at the end of the prayer for a quick blessing of the crowd.
But it seems that not only Selucia was struck by this spontaneous manifestation of religious devotion: in fact, as early as Thursday hotels, B&Bs and holiday homes throughout Auroria began to receive
bookings from faithful from Aurorian countries of the rest of the world aimed to go to Auroria to pray at the Empyrian Temple as in a sort of pilgrimage. And the holy father noting this religious devotion on the occasion of the mass on the following Sunday held in Ville-De-Saints solemnly declared that anyone who undertakes this pilgrimage to the tomb of the first apostle and prays in the Basilica will be granted a plenary indulgence and therefore the remission of all sins.
For a week now the local and international press has been besieging the monastery of nuns where Father Flaccus and his brothers are hosted but neither the order nor Father Flaccus wanted to meet them.
But in the face of the ever-growing crowd one of the members of the order finally agreed to speak to the journalists but then asking them to leave so as not to create further inconvenience to Father Flaccus
or to the order.
Among the questions on which journalists have insisted the most is that of the fears that Father Flaccus or the Order have about some sort of retaliation by the Selucian authorities for the uproar aroused and for the continuous meetings in Saint Michael Square. Father Giovanni Versili also replied:
Any move or retaliation by the Selucian authorities would be a biased act without any legal basis and animated only by the will of repression.
Father Flaccus and we Eliasits are respecting the dictates of the Selucian law: no non-Selucian cleric is exercising the priesthood in any parish or diocese of Selucia and we Eliasits are here in private
capacity and not as ministers of worship. Neither we nor Father Flaccus are proselytizing or doing evangelism. Since we have been in Selucia we have been dedicating ourselves exclusively to following the activities for the construction of the Assistential House of Charity and it does not appear to us that it is illegal to deal with construction activities or charity works such as assistance to the homeless or physical or mental or moral care of the people.
Father Flaccus will to pray in silence in front of one of the holiest places of Hosianism is a private act. It was neither he nor the
Eliasit Order nor the church that organized or demanded anything to the Aurorian faithful and we were as amazed as anyone else to see such a display of devotion.
A cleric who prays in silent recollection and blesses people who are already faithful Aurorians are among the most ordinary, simple and basic rites of the Aurorian cult, or maybe the Selucian authorities would even like to poke their nose into the rites and liturgies of our religion more than they have already done? Not to mention that neither Father Flaccus nor the Church are officiating or pretending to officiate any official rites in the Basilica of Saint Michael.
Praying or reciting the rosary are acts of private devotion.
In Selucia from what I understand there is still freedom of movement and it is difficult to believe that families with children, nuns, friars, elderly people or kids of oratories who pray kneeling with rosaries in hand can be considered a danger or dangerous subversive.
And I believe that in the future we will see many more people flocking to this place that remains and will remain among the most sacred to the Aurorian faithful from all over the world and it will not be only tourists and visitors interested in the immense artistic heritage of this place but also pilgrims who do want to come on pilgrimage from all over the world simply to pray in front of the tomb of the first of the apostles.
Will the Selucian authorities want to deny even this simple act of private devotion to the Aurorians? And if so on what legal basis? It would take courage to consider proselytizing the exercise of one's
faith by private citizens of the Aurorian faith whether they are Selucians or foreigners. Devotion and reverence for saints is part of
the rituals of the Aurorian Church and many other Hosian denominations. Any act directed against these rites and traditions of
ours would be a form of repression in the face of the much vaunted freedom of worship in force in Selucia.
We are not going among pagans or atheists to preach, we are not going to those who have mixed pagan rites with the faith, much less are we are going among constitutionalists to say anything. May they be free to exercise their public and private cults and rites and that equitable treatment be granted also to Aurorians. I don't think it's too much to ask, and even less can this be considered proselytism.
Finally I ask to the press on behalf of the Order to not pressuring us for further statements and declarations because sadly we cannot avoid to fear that even the interests and the attention of the press
could be used by the authorities to accuse us of infringing the law.
I hope this explainations will suffice to dispel doubts and respond to interests of press. Thank you