I’m curious as to why you do not think Latin Catholics should ever receive communion in an Orthodox church and what specific theologies need to change, not including the Filioque.
I don’t want to discuss all the differences in theology for the present, there is too much for me and it has been discussed extensively all over CAF (the archives must have a lot of things to read). I think you have been exposed to some of those elsewhere. But I will say that the matter of the Papal doctrines are important because the Roman Catholic church has taken what should have been a discipline, and turned it into a dogma, which means the Orthodox have to examine the claims as dogma (instead of just shrugging it off as ‘how things are done down the road’). That is a big problem between us now and should never have been to begin with.
As to why we should not share the Holy Eucharist, I will say that the two communions work on different operating principles.
To be a Papal communicant, or Roman Catholic, one has to be under the Pope. It is usually considered necessary to believe that the individual
must be under the Pope in order to be a communicant. This holds the church together. This puts all Roman Catholic bishops and laity into one organization, regulated by the central office on Vatican hill. It is an ideal they cultivate, and it is very impressive.
Bishops of the Roman Catholic church are hired, appointed to serve in cities, and transferred by the Pope, eventually retiring with the Pope’s permission, all along governing their Sees according to canonical norms established and promulgated by a Pope and his aides in Rome. Those who are not appointed directly by the Pope are appointed by others who are delegated to this responsibility by the Pope.
To be Orthodox, or in other words to commune with Orthodox, one has to believe what Orthodox believe. It has always been this way. It is why the early church excommunicated (stopped communing) some people, those people stopped believing what Orthodox Catholics believed (in some way) so they could not come to the table. The highest ideal is to receive the Apostolic Faith, preserve and follow it, and pass it on. If we should err in some way our fellows will call us on it and break communion, and we don’t want that. We could not change this principle now after 2000 years, as an operating principle it holds the communion together.
Orthodox are one faith, organized in regional synods which govern themselves. Structurally these synods act as strategic partners with their fellow synods and with a common purpose. This system was not invented at any time, there is no point in history where one could say that it started, it is simply a continuation of the early church structure into modern times. Some synods die out, some grow and bud off new ones, but they rely on mutual recognition as fellow believers and that is why the believers of one church are welcome to receive in the other churches and why the bishops of different synods can concelebrate the liturgy when they gather. There was a time when the Church at Rome, the church in Spain and the church in Gaul all participated in this same system.
It is not the norm for all Orthodox to be a part of one corporate structure, it has never been that way. Some see this as a weakness, but it has continually worked and the theology is consistently uniform.
OK, it’s messy. I know that, it is a very organic and apparently old fashioned way to run a church.
Some people think we are stagnant, we need to ‘get with the times’, we need to either ‘develop our doctrine’ or let the Pope develop it for us. At least our bishops all seem to have cell phones these days.
O strange Orthodox Church, so poor and weak, with neither the organization nor the culture of the West, staying afloat as if by a miracle in the face of so many trials, tribulations and struggles; a Church of contrasts, both so traditional and so free, so archaic and so alive, so ritualist and so personally involved, a Church where the priceless pearl of the Gospel is assiduously preserved, sometimes under a layer of dust; a Church which in shadows and silence maintains above all the eternal values of purity, poverty, asceticism, humility and forgiveness; a Church which has often not known how to act, but which can sing of the joy of Pascha like no other.
Father Lev Gillett
