Interview With Anti-Pope Thaddeus
The Sarajevo Times is pleased to present you an exclusive interview with Bishop Marko Vasic, head of the Orthodox Church in Slava Lavosk and now proclaimed Pope of the Slavan Catholics. Presenting is special guest Tara McLeod of the Seaforth News Network.
Tara McLeod:
Welcome viewers. to Sarajevo. Here with me is religious leader Bishop Marko Vasic, and acclaimed Pope of the Catholic Church. Welcome Bishop.
Marko Vasic: Thank you, Tara.
TM: Bishop, alot has happened in just a few short hours. Can you give the viewer a brief rundown of what exactly happend?
MV: Of course. My cousins in faith feel they have been abandoned by Pope Peter and his overly beauraucratic ideology. Slava Lovosk sits on the border of an enslaving Empire, the last known on Mundus. Even now the Medak Pocket is a hotbed of contention between our nations. In all of this I have maintained a steady and unwavering opposition to the practice of slavery. I have called upon Pope Peter to condem the practice to no avail. I have called upon the signatories of the MCUR to speak and act and for the longest time none did anything. Eventually, Tim Carpenter founded the Freestone Abolitionist Society and East Moreland, Lodja and finaly the Kingdom of Seaforth responded. Pope Peter? He takes a trip there.
Feeling increasingly abandoned, my catholic cousins sought compassioned leadership and turned to me as what they feel is an example of that. In the spirit of cooperations, church leaders in Slava Lavosk, from both the orthodox and catholic churches met to discuss our path forward. Passions ran high and in the wave of spiritual emotion, the fathers, in what they call popular acclaim, named me to lead them.
TM: They proclaimed you Pope?
MV: Yes, they did.
TM: Why did you accept?
MV: A flock needs a shepard. They felt they had none.
TM: So you became Pope? Are you Catholic now?
MV: I am Bishop Vasic to the Orthodox and Pope Thaddeus to the Catholics. I felt it was important to differentiate the two so, as uncomfortable as I am with the title, I accepted the acclaim and named myself Thaddeus...but I am not Catholic and reports that the Orthodox and Catholic churches are unified are....in error.
TM: Pope Peter has called you an Anti-Pope. How do you feel about that?
MV: I guess I am the Anti-Pope. Pope Peter...and I never should have refered to him as anything but Pope Peter II, is free to refer to me any way he chooses. Look, the Slavan catholics are lost...and I am helping to get them found. I may be Anti-Pope for a day, a month or the rest of my life. I just don't know. I do know that I will not abandon this flock, whatever the outcome.
TM: You claimed Pope Peter had a 'overly beaureaucratic ideology'. Can you explain that?
MV: Pope Peter focus's too much on his literal interpretaion of some passages. The things at the forefront of his mind are invitro fetilization and abortion. I think he has even made position statements on euthanasia, though I may be in error. It's all ideological dogma. Here in Slava Lavosk, orthodox and catholics alike yearn for a simpler, compassioned and empathetic clergy. A return to our basic tenants. Feed the poor, tend the sick. Educate the unlearned and spread the Word of God. In the eyes of the Lord, the rite of baptism confirms that all men and women were created equal by the Lord. In his eyes, slavery is a mortal sin and no man shall bind what God himself has given free will.
TM: Would you consider talks with Pope Peter?
MV: I think at this time I would require an unequivical denunciation of slavery, in all forms, from Pope Peter before that were to happen.
TM: Thank you Bishop Vasic for speaking with me today. Any final words for our viewers?
MV: One who would not be a slave must keep no slave of his own. God Bless you and Keep you all.