A preparatory article on Called to Communion on the Orthodox Church and how the Catholic Church views her:
The Catholic and Orthodox Churches speak in unison about so many things. That we differ on important matters like the nature of the episcopacy, particularly the successor of Peter, is worthy of reflection for Catholics, Orthodox and those Protestants who see our common message. But despite our differences, we are so close. We make the same call to communion with the Church Fathers. We venerate the Holy Mother of Our God on this note, I want to parenthetically state that devotion to the Blessed Virgin is more full and flowering in the East than the West in terms of during the liturgical services, but my point is that Protestants should feel less at home in an Orthodox or Eastern Catholic Parish than they would in a Roman Catholic service, if Marian devotion is troubling. We beseech our Lord and King to have mercy on the souls of those who have gone to their eternal Rest.
via Two Rights Declare a Wrong-on Appeals to Orthodoxy | Called to Communion.
“We venerate the Holy Mother of Our God on this note, I want to parenthetically state that devotion to the Blessed Virgin is more full and flowering in the East than the West in terms of during the liturgical services, but my point is that Protestants should feel less at home in an Orthodox or Eastern Catholic Parish than they would in a Roman Catholic service, if Marian devotion is troubling.”
If the veneration to the Most Holy Mother of God is the only thing keeping a Protestant away from the Orthodox Church or the Roman Catholic Church, then perhaps it is true that they would feel more at home in the Roman Catholic Church, but I doubt it. I think that Protestants would feel more at home in a Church that has never believed in the infallibility of the Pope, his universal jurisdiction, purgatory, indulgences, the Immaculate Conception,and other such dogmas. These teachings, which Protestants reject, never existed in the Roman Catholic Church for the first 1000 years and still do not exist in the Orthodox Church from which Rome separated in 1054. This being said, I think that even Roman Catholics, who unbiasedly research their own Church history, might find themselves being drawn to what their own Church believed for the first 1000 years – a Faith still alive in the Orthodox Church. Did you know that the Orthodox Church is the second largest Church in the World?
For more info: http://orthodoxyinamerica.org
Hi Emily,
Thanks for your perspective: I like the fact that you are willing to claim that the Orthodox Church is the true Church (which is what we as Catholics claim for the Catholic Church as well).
I just gave a talk last night at my parish class on the Orthodox Churches. I plan to upload the audio as a podcast in the next few days and would be very interested in you (and your husband’s) thoughts on it. I do not expect you to agree with the history I recount and the conclusions drawn from it, but I would very much like to know where I could read thorough historical accounts from the Orthodox perspective of the history from 100 AD – 1054 AD.
For my part, I don’t think Protestants would feel comfortable in either of our Churches. But none of us are (immediately) comfortable in environments that starkly differ from that which we have grown used to.
Two rebuttals I would present to you regarding the claim you make that those particular doctrines are false and novelties created by the Catholic Church after 1000 AD are that:
1. There is evidence for these doctrines prior to 1000 AD (some of which I include in my talk), and
2. Twice in the past 1,000 years the Orthodox have reunited with the Catholic Church, first at the 2nd Council of Lyons in 1272 AD and the second at the Council of Florence in 1439 (just 14 years before the disastrous loss of Constantinople to the Muslims).
All of the issues you bring up, and the Filioque, were resolved in those brief reunions with the assent of the Orthodox bishops.
Finally, regarding Purgatory, both Orthodox and Catholics believe that prayers for the dead are commendable (correct me if I’m wrong), which is a big rub for Protestants. Purgatory might as well be true to them if praying for people who have died is true.
I offer these thoughts, not in a combative way, but with a desire for us to find the truth in humility. God bless and thanks for all of your kind comments on our blog!
Devin is quite right, the Orthodox have budged on almost every issue when confronted with the Fathers. Alot of the separation was based on Orthodox scholars not knowing about the Latin Fathers writings or having reliable translations of them. Now we’ve come to agreement on alot.
The problem is not so much between the heads of Catholic and Orthodox churches, so much as it is with the Orthodox church themselves. They’re so destroyed by schism and can’t seem to agree on anything, that all negotiations seem fruitless. Though recently some have admitted at least a papal primacy of honor even if not of jurisdiction. ANd they do believe in purgatory, they just don’t believe it contains fire, which Catholic teaching has compared it too. I’ve not ever heard Orthodox critics cite indulgences, as it’s simply analogous to priestly absolution. They don’t have the practice, but they do not dogmatically oppose it.
Emily, you might also find this comment (responding to a comment that Andrew made on CalledToCommunion.com) about the Orthodox beliefs on those doctrines interesting: http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2010/03/two-rights-declare-a-wrong-on-appeals-to-orthodoxy/#comment-7140
Again, Christ bless y’all!
I totally got comment moderated on Calledtocommunion! I just defended my condemnation of the Orthodox. Anyway, I’m sure it’s for the best, I need to learn patience and love anyway. But just FYI, not all of my argument is displayed there.
Don’t take it personally, Andrew, The called to communion guys are hardcore (and are trying to keep the discussion of the topics focused). I got an email from them a month or two ago after a comment asking me to be careful and take the discussion to my blog to avoid derailing their article’s discussion thread.