Eastern Catholic Ecclesiology and the Papacy

[MattofTexas]

Hello! I was curious if Eastern Catholics share the same eccelsiology and beliefs about the Pope as Roman Catholics, and if not what the differences are? Obviously the Eastern Orthodox do not accept papal infallibility or claims of authority over the entire Church, but only see the See of Rome as possessing an honorary primacy (the first among equals)…an ecumenical patriarch if you will, in as far as I understand it. Yet my assumption would be that Eastern Catholics must profess faith in the teachings of the universal catechism and the First and Second Vatican Councils concerning the papacy, the same as members of the Roman Church. If this is the case, would any Eastern Catholics care to expand upon why they accept papal dogma and doctrine over the Eastetm Orthodox position? I’ve found a lot of great apologetics out there addressing Protestant objections to the papacy, but fewer works (particularly works of high quality that don’t fall into circular reasoning, rely on documents of questionable authenticity, devolve into polemical proof-texting, or base their thesis on the mere inability to conceive of God organizing His Church in a different way that the author might have…) that acknowledge Orthodox objections, and to an inquiring Protestant such as myself it certainly seems difficult to understand who is really correct considering both groups share a common history for so long. Should I become a Catholic some day it is important to me that I am confident in my ability to truly believe the profession of faith I’ll be asked to make, and that includes being truly convinced of the historicity and truthfulness of the papacy.
Thanks!

 

[Elizium23]

 

[SyroMalankara]

Hello! I was curious if Eastern Catholics share the same eccelsiology and beliefs about the Pope as Roman Catholics, and if not what the differences are? Obviously the Eastern Orthodox do not accept papal infallibility or claims of authority over the entire Church, but only see the See of Rome as possessing an honorary primacy (the first among equals)…an ecumenical patriarch if you will, in as far as I understand it. Yet my assumption would be that Eastern Catholics must profess faith in the teachings of the universal catechism and the First and Second Vatican Councils concerning the papacy, the same as members of the Roman Church. If this is the case, would any Eastern Catholics care to expand upon why they accept papal dogma and doctrine over the Eastetm Orthodox position? I’ve found a lot of great apologetics out there addressing Protestant objections to the papacy, but fewer works (particularly works of high quality that don’t fall into circular reasoning, rely on documents of questionable authenticity, devolve into polemical proof-texting, or base their thesis on the mere inability to conceive of God organizing His Church in a different way that the author might have…) that acknowledge Orthodox objections, and to an inquiring Protestant such as myself it certainly seems difficult to understand who is really correct considering both groups share a common history for so long. Should I become a Catholic some day it is important to me that I am confident in my ability to truly believe the profession of faith I’ll be asked to make, and that includes being truly convinced of the historicity and truthfulness of the papacy.
Thanks!

Hi Matt, welcome.

For one thing, Eastern Catholics encompass more than the Byzantine Tradition Churches. There are Syriac, Copt, Armenian, Indian, and Assyrian Churches the hold a higher Petrine view than today’s Byzantine theology. Within the Catholic Communion, both views can be held at the same time, although not always perfectly. For example, most Byzantine Churches - Ukrainian, Melkite, etc have collegiality within their Holy Synod; whereas, the Coptic, Malankarese, Syriac, Maronite, Armenian, Chaldean, etc have collegiality with a more-powerful Patriarch/Catholicos.
Apologists on all sides tend to proof-text and isolate historical events in their favor, but I am confident that each of the Apostolic Churches hold some perspective of the actual praxis within their Communion, although not fully since time and development have occurred.