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Glory to Jesus Christ!

Melkite Priest Fr. James Babcock was the guest du jour on the Illumined Heart from Ancient Faith Radio.

The link to the program is here: http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/illuminedheart/eastern_catholics_are_they_orthodox

The title and tagline is as follows:

Eastern Catholics - Are They “Orthodox”?
There are over 20 ancient Eastern Christian churches in communion with the Pope of Rome whose liturgies and "ethos" are more "Orthodox" than their Latin-Rite brothers. Some of them claim to be "Orthodox in communion with Rome". Some Orthodox disagree, calling them (pejoratively) "Uniates" or Eastern Rite Catholics, who have made significant compromises to come into such communion. In this episode host Kevin Allen speaks with Melkite (Eastern Catholic) priest Father James Babcock about the similarities and differences between Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholics and the Roman Catholic Church.

Praying it will be used for more Eastern Christians to know more about each other better.

In XC,
Jonathan

p.s. I have just started listening while posting this, and there is a sense in which Kevin Allen (the host) is just calling us a branch of Rome, but I think this will still lead to more cross-pollination.

It never ceases to amaze me the things some of those inside Orthodoxy find important.

Could you please elaborate?

Yes, Please elaborate...as a cradle Byzantine Catholic who "returned home" to the Orthodox Church approximately 4-5 years ago (??) I thought it was a very good presentation on both sides...

Without going into specifics, the interviewer had a very, um, sketchy understanding of Latin theology and Catholic ecclesiology, and the matters he sought to emphasize tended to highlight this ignorance. On the other hand, he did seem genuinely pleased with the answers that he received.

Aspects of Latin theology that as far as I can tell, ordinary Catholics aren't even aware of.

.

Aspects of Latin theology the Pope isn't even aware of.

But I suspect the interviewer was a fairly recent Orthodox convert from some Evangelical denomination, and got his knowledge of Latin theology second- or third-hand

I am going to comment. As Job noted ( I am a member of the EOC), I thought the presentation was fair, informative, and balanced. Stuart, I do not think that is fair to complain that interviewer was not very knowledgeable about Latin theology since the show was produced by the Orthodox and for Orthodox consumption; for the same reason, I thought AMM's comments were odd. The issue raised were and would be of interest to some members of the EOC. At least from my perspective, the interviewer had some knowledge of Latin theology and to me it does not matter where he got it; he at least some effort to know something about the topic, though some would carp he did not know enough.

I've done these sorts of interviews myself, and I expect that the person interviewing me will take the time to be able to ask serious, informed questions. To come in absolutely cold is disrespectful to the person who is giving up his time to be interviewed. Ten minutes or so with Wikipedia would have given him enough to avoid the more obvious pitfalls.

That said, I thought his overall approach was charitable, and that he came away from the interview with a better opinion of Eastern Catholicism.

On the other side of the coin, I thought Father James should have clarified the ecclesial nature of the Eastern Catholics in regard to the Church of Rome. I would have said, "Just as the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of particular Churches, so the Catholic Church is a communion of particular Churches. The Eastern Catholic Churches are no more "branches" of the Roman Catholic Church than the Church of Moscow is a branch of the Church of Constantinople".

I thought that the interviewer did a fine job, as did Fr. Babcock. Nevertheless, I do disagree with some of Fr. Babcock's comments, e.g., I reject his view of the status of Vatican II in the Catholic East, and his claim that Rome has not advocated latinization recently, but generally speaking I found the program to be solid and informative.

This AFR program with Fr. Babcock is quite a contrast from the AFR "East meets East" program with Fr. Thomas Loya six years ago. (The program appears to be no longer available on the AFR website, although I still have a copy of it.)

Someone mentioned this interview today after Liturgy. I met Fr. James Babcock several years ago at the Orientale Lumen Conference in San Diego. He was very helpful to me at that conference where I was one of a very few Latin Catholics. I think he's quite involved with the Society of St. John Chrysostom — Western Region [lightoftheeast.org] With the SSJC Father James has certainly had a lot of time with Orthodox, at least with those who are interested in finding ways to meet and work together with Catholics.

I look forward to listening to the interview. The person who mentioned it at OLF today thought it was as others here seem to be saying a pretty good exchange.

I agree. But it will be interesting to hear his next guest, a former Byzantine Catholic now Orthodox.


This part really got to me. I think many Orthodox don't understand that the Catholic Church is a communion of Churches not just the Roman and we are not just branches of the Roman Church. This would have been a good chance to help combat this misconception of the Catholic Church. (now of course there are also some in the Catholic Church who also believe that the Catholic Church is only the Roman and we "eastern rites" are just branches but that is a whole different topic)

Other than that I rather enjoyed the interview.

Again, I suppose it's just personal perspective. I have seen many conversations that seem to me to borderline on obsession with Medieval Latin theology.

I did learn a new term though "Supererogation".

Unfortunately, I am unfamiliar with this program from 6 years ago. Would love to hear it...I am curious though, in what ways is it a contrast with the recent interview with Fr. Babcock????