www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Hypothetical Question

Because theologically and liturgically I am Byzantine, and not Roman. In other words, I feel at home in the Eastern Church.

I do not mean to offend any non-Catholics, or anyone else, but isn't the faith in the Roman church, the same faith through out the church, but just expressed differently? I mean If your Catholic, isn't union with the Pope the more important? This question is not to offened anyone but is just a question.

Dominus Vobiscum,

Sam

Faith in Christ is neither Roman nor Byzantine; instead, it is simply a divine gift. Nevertheless, the expression of the one faith can and does differ, and for me the Byzantine tradition expresses the mystery of Christ in a way that has deepened my experience of God.

^^^^
Yeah. What he said!

Seriously I don't normally just "ditto" someone else's comments. But you really summed up how my husband and I feel.

I am, simply put, not Roman Catholic. I do not feel that the spiritual practices of the Latin Rite help me grow spiritually. It is for me, and this is strictly a personal opinion, arid and empty.

But that's just a personal opinion.

So do eastern Catholics have more in common with the ORthodox than with Latins? Doesn't the Catholic Faith contain things that the orthodox faith doesn't? and vice versa?

Dear Extraecclesiam,

In terms of the Faith, the only point of substantive departure between Catholics and Orthodox is the papacy, as you know.

As for Mariology, the Orthodox have always believed in the total holiness of Mary and of her bodily assumption. Orthodoxy holds this in accordance with "lex orandi, lex credendi." And the East doesn't see Augustine as having much to say to it and so doesn't accept the Augustinian notion of Original Sin, which notion led to the development of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Trinitarian theology-wise - the East holds to the original Creed, as Dominus Iesus has also affirmed, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and rests on the Son.

The East prays even more assiduously for the faithful departed even though it does not hold to a separate state or place called "Purgatory" - it has its own view of eschatology in this respect though.

As for the Papacy, the Orthodox East has always believed the Pope of Rome to be a first among equals in terms of primacy. It would agree with the primacy of jurisdiction if this meant that Rome is the court of final appeal in local theological and canonical disputes among the Churches. And the Orthodox East might agree to papal infallibility IF this meant that the Pope is infallible when he ratifies the decisions of Ecumenical Councils.

To be an EC means more than holding a certain set of faith principles - it means belonging to an entire and comprehensive Christian liturgical, theological, spiritual and canonical ecclesial culture that possesses one throughout in body and soul.

Apart from the papal dogmas, there is nothing that the West can teach the East in anything really. We are spiritually self-sufficient and always were.

The Papacy for us is not primarily there to interfere with our internal lives as Eastern Catholic Churches. It is there as an external safeguard.

But even Rome and her ecumenical theologians have agreed that the "unions" of the Eastern Churches with Rome were based on a flawed ecclesiology and theology. In short, the model of church union based on the union agreements that brought into being the various EC Churches are now categorically rejected by Rome.

Rome affirms that the Orthodox Church is the true Church in every which way save full communion with it.

Much work has to be done between Rome and Orthodoxy to allow for the possibility of reunion to be realized.

The EC discovery of our Eastern roots has shown us just how close we really are to our Orthodox brothers and sisters, not because we agree on this or that principle of faith more today than yesterday, but because our liturgical identity and very being/breath of life as Christians is truly "Orthodox."

The Papacy, for many of us, has come to express a stopgap measure that Christ wants the Church to have.

It is not there to ensure we hold to the true Catholic faith.

We've held to that faith even before the various union agreements were promulgated.

And we'll continue to hold to it, nomatter what anyone else says.

We cannot deny our Eastern Christian nature.

And if Rome ever annulled the Eastern Catholic Churches, then this would simply mean that we would more fully become what we already are.

Alex

Our faith is not in the Latin Church. It is Catholic. It is Apostolic. We of the various Eastern Rites are in communion with the Pope of Rome. The are no doctrinal differences between me (or any other) as Russian Byzantine Catholic and another other person in any of the many branches of the Church that also look to the Pope of Rome as Chief(Eccumenical)Hierarch. We do express these beliefs using our own forms of expression. We dont use the Latin Rite as a ruler we measure ourselves against to see if we have got it right still. The Church does not ask anyone to do that.

I must say that some recent postings of the RCs on this site have shocked me with their agressive tone, intemporate language and insensitivity to those of the Venerable Orthodox Churches who also frequent this site.

ICXC
NIKA

Spasibo Pavel.