www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy: Ut Unum Sint

If you ask me, I think it's tired old church politics and tired old prejudices that cause the Catholics and the Orthodox to grumble about the validity and legitimacy of each others' orders and sacraments...and nothing more.

Tell me, who do people turn to whenever they need an exorcist? If certain elements of Orthodox Church want to question the legitimacy of the Latin Church's priesthood and Sacraments, they can read report after report of successful exorcisms performed by Roman Catholic priests across the years. Clearly the Devil and his mignons realize that the Latins are legit.

If Roman Catholics want to question the legitimacy of the Orthodox, they need to pull their heads out of their private apparition diaries and read a history book for a change, not to mention the acts of the magisterium of their own hierarchy with respect to the Holy Orthodox Church.

What we all need to do, on all sides, I think, is grow up and get a grip. Questionable validity, indeed. Give me a break. It will come out in the end that we are and have been all along one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church made up of sinful children who run with scissors and don't know how to play right with one another.

No argument here. Think ROCOR ten years ago. Or even twenty years. With the way it is now..........

Dear brother Otsheylnik,

Thanks for the response. I'm not sure how commemorating a bishop violates anyone's ecclesiology.

Just to be clear, I am not saying the commemoration is the cause of communion, but merely a sign of it (the cause of communion is the Eucharist). I think it is important at this time to give a sign to visitors and inquirers that the Eastern and Oriental Catholic Churches they might visit are indeed in communion with Rome. Once reunion is acheived, we would no longer need this. But it would be premature at this time while schism yet exists between our Churches to remove commemoration of the bishop of Rome as part of Catholic Liturgies anywhere in the world.

Blessings

I think we should head back straight to the first recorded council of the organized Christian church: Jerusalem in Acts 15. Does the text give any indication that St. Peter called the Council and that St. Peter was the only authority whose judgment was heeded?

Does Papal Supremacy find any grounding in the pastoral event of the Council of Jerusalem? And did the other Apostles submit wholly to outright supremacy from St. Peter?

It's ecclesiology because it represents what Church you belong to. Essentially, we commemorate those who we are in direct communion with, through our local church. It's just that, in the Orthodox diaspora, local means jurisdiction - our metropolitan is sitting in Moscow or wherever, not in a city nearby - the patriarch of Moscow is in some sense though still a local hierarch for me. The Greek Bishop of Sydney or the Bishop of Rome however are absolutely not a part of this "local" structure.


Agreed, but this is manifested first and foremost on a local, or within jurisdiction level, not an inter-Church level. Remember, for clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, they need permission from their bishop to con-celebrate at a non-Russian Church. Their fealty is to their own "local" Church in the first place. To "go from city to city" (jurisdiction to jurisdiction in the modern sense) needs each "local" bishops permission.


The problem is the kind of communion that requires the commemoration of a non-local hierarch is not a form of communion the Orthodox understand to be communion. As an Orthodox priest said to me, "if you commemorate the bishop of Rome at the liturgy, you are a Roman Catholic." I am a Russian because the patriarch of the Russian Church is commemorated at services I attend, and is my hierarch. The communion of the Russian Church as an entity with the Greek Church is a separate matter.

I have heard it said that the part about everyone falling silent shows submission to Papal Supremacy. (If you don't agree with that ... well, I can't really blame you as I don't buy it either.)

To follow up on this point Metropolitan George of Mount Lebanon (Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch) has said:

Basically, commemoration is vertical to the level of the particular Church; i.e., priests commemorate their bishop and their or autonomous metropolitans; after that; at the Episcopal level, commemoration is both vertical and horizontal, i.e., bishops commemorate the other bishops in their synod, as well as their metropolitan or patriarch; metropolitans and patriarchs commemorate the bishops of their synod and the other metropolitans and patriarchs with whom they are in communion. So, the Patriarch of Moscow commemorates the bishops of the Church of Moscow, plus the other Orthodox patriarcharchs and metropolitans to whom he is speaking this particular Sunday.

Agreed.

I don't know of any reputable Orthodox or Catholic authorities who do NOT recognize the legitimacy and validity of each other's orders and sacraments. That's a red herring.

Well... if that is true, then I don't understand.
At St. Innocent of Moscow Orthodox Church, here in Carol Stream, IL, Catholic converts are baptized.
Why would they re-baptize if they recognized the legitimacy of Catholic sacraments?
In speaking to Father Jeremiah over there a few years ago, it seemed to me that they didn't recognize that the Catholic sacraments were grace-filled.

Would this count as some sort of "conditional" baptism like we Latins do for some Protestants coming into full communion with the Catholic Church?
(Does the East even perform conditional baptisms?)

Can you back up that statement? (Of course, you could always hide behind the qualifier "I don't know of any". ) I think it would be more accurate to say that the Orthodox do not have an official statement to the tune of "Catholic sacraments are absolutely null and utterly void."

And this is a flaming. Or drive by if you will. Please do tell me it all hinges on what you consider reputable? That would be an untestable premises and an invalid argument. I rather enjoy your post. They always liven things up.

Some Orthodox are agnostic on whether or not there is grace in Catholic sacraments.

With all respect, the questions of rebaptism, etc. are a little off the topic of the place of the papacy.