Terror in the Basilian Monastery in Presov
"Timkovices, get out of the Presov monastery within 24 hours or I shall call the police!"
On June 27th, 2006 in the basilian monastery in Presov; the brothers Jozafat and Gorazd Timkovic received a decree dated June 17th, 2006 from the general Protoarchimandrite of the Order of St. Basil the Great, Father Basil Koubetch of Rome. It was handed to them by Father Superior Vladimir Juraj Sedlacek in the presence of two Basilian witnesses (Father Metod Milan Bilancik and Father Markian Marian Gresko). The decree states that within 24 hours of its receipt, the Timkovices are required to leave the monastery (if they happen to be there) and because they have not contacted the Holy Father or not fond dioecesan bishop for incardination yet, they are automatically suspended from the holy priesthood.
However, the decree is invalid. And this is why:
There is no address, it was aimed only at the Eastern Congregation, nuncio Nowacki and bishop J. Babjak... It talks about Timkovic in the third person singular. It can, thus, be deduced by detective means that it was addressed to Father Superior V. Sedlacek. This means that the Timkovices not only did not receive any decree, but also some such decree was delivered to them, which was addressed to someone else.
In the decree, the general representative refers to a decree from March 2005 (!!!), which was allegedly delivered to the Timkovices in March 2005, which is a lie. The Timkovices received that same decree a year and two months later, i.e. May 15th, 2006! It, therefore, concerns falsifying the dates and data with the blessing of the Holy Congregation. The newest decree was written in a diplomatic-devilish style, as its data is false by 90 percent:
- The Timkovices, allegedly, after receiving the decree about expulsion from the Basilian order in March 2005, got offended and left the monastery;
- Consequently, after a year, on April 27th, 2006; the Eastern Congregation came to terms with this fact and because the Timkovices did not contact the Pope in March 2005; on June 17th, 2006, general representative Koubetch wrote the newest ?decree? to Father Superior Sedlacek, saying that as the Timkovices had not chosen a bishop within a year and three months, they are not only expelled from the Order of Basilians, but also suspended from the holy priesthood. However, if false data is found in any decree, this is automatically considered invalid.
The Timkovices contacted the Pope four times between 2001 and 2003. According to church law, if someone contacts the Pope and does not receive any reply, they can not be punished. The Pope has not replied by now. That is why the whole furore, which took place within the two past years, was illegal.
Koubetch sent the Timkovices a cover letter in Italian, in which he directly confirms that what was done to them by bishop Babjak in March 2006, when he tried to suspend them from the priesthood, was controlled by the Vatican Holy Eastern Congregation.
THIS IS WHY THE BROTHERS TIMKOVIC REFUSED TO OBEY THIS INVALID DECREE, which wants to create the impression, that the Timkovices were expelled from the Order of Basilians during the pontificate of John Paul II, who died on April 2nd, 2005. And this is why their case was closed during the previous papacy and not that of the new Pope, Benedict XVI. That is why Father Jozafat V. Timkovic, OSBM, said that they might contact the Pope for the fifth time, this time the new one (after they have contacted John Paul II four times. In the years 2001-2003 they did not get any reply from the Vatican).
The real truth is (see the above picture from June 27th 2006) that the Timkovices are still living in the Presov monastery, they are wearing the Basilian habits, they are officiating Holy Mass, taking confession and so on. On the evening of 27th June 2006 Father Markian M. Gresko, OSBM - a former novice of Father Jozafat Timkovic, said angrily to "his father", that they would call the police and evict the Timkovices, or lock the monastery and not let people in. Timkovic answered: "Great, at least the second part of the book of documents on Rusyns in Slovakia will be more interesting..."
On June 28th, 2006, the Timkovices contacted Pope Benedict XVI. Thanks to this, the Timkovices were not forcibly evicted from the Presov monastery and they are still living and serving their flock. What will happen next? Follow further developments on www.geocities.com/timkovic/ - in the next few days you will find out up-to-the-minute news about the crisis in the highest circles of the Vatican, which is filtering down to individual eparchies and among believers.
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