Page:Guettée papacy.djvu/23

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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
xix

Archpriest Wassilieff, titular head of the Russo-Greek Church in France, and especially attached to the Russian Church in Paris, l'Union Chrétienne, a weekly publication in quarto form, having for its specific object the diffusion of information upon the principles of the primitive Church as those of a true Catholicity, upon which the non-Roman branches of the Church should be recalled to a renewal of their outward unity, and thus a resistless influence be opposed to the invasions of the Papal principle and the corruptions it has introduced into the primitive faith. It is natural that such a consecration of his labor and such associations, should have led M. Guettée into close and increasingly devoted relations with the Oriental Church, and especially with the Orthodox Church of Russia. His views ceasing to be Roman and Papal only because more intensely Catholic, he sought a home in the East, where the Papal power could never seat itself, and especially in the Orthodox Russian Church, where its pretensions are held in abhorrence. All that is venerable, pure, and Catholic in the faith and form of the Church of Christ, our author believes he has found in the Russo-Greek branch, and he has therefore attached himself warmly to it, making it the platform for his earnest and pure-minded labors for the restoration of visible unity. He is in turn held in high esteem by the authorities and learned men of the Russian Church, and has recently received from it the high and rare honor of a doctorate in theology. His labors for union are warmly appreciated and encouraged there as they are everywhere by all who understand them. M. Guettée is no enthusiast; he is fully aware of the difficulties and magnitude of the work to which his life is consecrated, and looks for no marked progress or flattering results to show themselves in his lifetime, but is content to sow wide and deep the seeds of truth, leaving them to germinate and become fruitful in God's good time. He has a warm and intelligent appreciation of our American branch of the Church, and looks to its activity in the great endeavor as of the highest importance, believing that her catholic character and free and mobile structure peculiarly mark her as a powerful instrument to promote the interests of the Catholic faith. M. Guet-