I learned not to speak in finality. Before I became Eastern Catholic, I couldn’t imagine myself not being Roman Catholic. When I was in the UGCC, all I ever wanted to be was to be Ukrainian Catholic. And now I am Orthodox. Is this where I will spend eternity? I hope so, but who knows. For sure I will not be back in the Catholic Church. I have gone too much deep into Soteriology and Sacramental Theology just in the last year and I completely disagree with everything the Roman Catholic Church teaches on those two matters. Okay, maybe not everything, you might start judging me again here. My point is that in all aspects there is something I disagree with. I see the difference between East and West is more than a few minor issues such as the Papacy, Purgatory and the Filioque. The fundamental faith is completely different. And I have completely accepted the Orthodox teaching. If I were to move on, I can imagine the only place left for me to go to is the Oriental Orthodox Church. But at this point in time, I highly doubt it. We’d probably be in communion soon enough anyway. I can’t imagine what issue will drive me from Eastern Orthodoxy to Oriental Orthodoxy. I’m just saying this because I recognize their authenticity as a Church of Apostolic origin, and the fact that I’m not going back to communion with Rome, unless of course Rome accepts Orthodoxy.
Now, you have my attention. How is the fundamental faith between Orthodoxy and Catholicism completely different? And how is it that you completely disagree with everything the Catholic church teaches on salvation and sacramental theology?
The Catholic view of salvation is that if you die in the state of grace, you will go to heaven, albeit, that if you still have a tendency to sin, you will be purged of that tendency in purgatory prior to your admittance into heaven. You get in the state of grace through baptism, which is freely given to those who ask for it, not based on merit, but based on the desire to live the Christian life. During baptism, you are cleansed of all prior sin and given the graces necessary to live that Christian life. To stay in the state of grace you must do God’s will for you, which is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself. If you fail to do God’s will for you and you fall from the state of grace through mortal sin, you will be condemned unless you reconcile with God through sacramental confession, which God in his unlimited mercy, makes available to us as often as we request it. Furthermore, God strengthens our ability to do his work through the grace of the sacraments. He enters us physically and spiritually through the Eucharist, He gives us the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit through confirmation, As in Orthodoxy, we have valid holy orders, anointing of the sick and matrimony as sacraments of special graces. So what is it about any of this that you completely disagree with?
As for the Orthodox denial of purgatory, I simply don’t get it. The Orthodox pray for the dead, do they not? But if there is no purgatory, what is the point? The dead in Hell can’t benefit from our prayers and the dead in Heaven have no needs that aren’t fulfilled by God. And what about those that die in the state of grace but still have a tendency to sin? How can they enter heaven, where no sin is allowed, without having their sinful tendencies purged?
I do understand that there must be a different understanding of the trinity for the Orthodox, because they don’t understand that the Holy Spirit is the product of the love between God the Father and God the Son, thus proceeding from both of them, How do you understand the trinity?
I also don’t understand how the Orthodox see the Pope as first among equals without understanding that St, Peter was given the keys to the kingdom of heaven uniquely and that the risen Christ told Peter three times to tend his flock. As you well know, when the Eastern Churches, representing about 30% of Christians at the time, broke away from Rome, 30% of the Eastern Churches refused to break communion with Rome and are the 21 Eastern Catholic Churches. How do you reconcile those facts?
The other major question I have is how do you reconcile the fact that the Catholic Church has 1.2 Billion people worldwide in communion with the Pope, while the Orthodox are split into a series of national Churches (Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, etc) which aren’t even in communion with each other? Wouldn’t the one true church have greater unity? Isn’t it obvious that to attain to true unity, there has to be a common leadership and that the Orthodox lost that when they severed ties with the Pope.?
