I’m Eastern Orthodox, or at least a catechumen. I’m not trying to engage in apologetic, arguments, debates, etc. This is a friendly discussion in the spirit of Christian brotherhood. I wish and pray that all non-Orthodox will be united to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Catholic Church.
Holy Mother, full of grace, pray for everyone to be united to the Orthodox Church.
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Nor am I trying to convert Protestants or Roman Catholics, nor any other to Orthodox Catholicism.
First, I’ll list some primary issues that Roman Catholics would have to abandon if we ever want to be united.
RC:
He would have to confirm the original text of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Symbol of Faith and defend its use in all the churches, beginning with his own. At the very least (should some churches for pastoral reasons be permitted to keep the filioque in their creed), he would insist on an explanation that would clearly teach that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Son” only in relation to God’s saving dispensation in the world. He would make certain that no Christian be tempted to believe that the Holy Spirit essentially proceeds from the Father and the Son together, and certainly not "from both as from one (ab utroque sicut ab uno.)
The pope would also teach that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons or hypostases, and not simply “subsistent relations” within the one God who is identified with the divine nature. And he would insist that the one true God of Christian faith is not the Holy Trinity understood as a quasi-uni-personal subject who reveals himself as Father, Son and Spirit, which is unacceptable “modalism.” He would rather hold that the one God is Jesus’ Father from whom the Holy Spirit proceeds who dwells in the Son, and in those who by faith and grace become sons of God through him.
The pope would also insist that human beings can have real communion with God through God’s uncreated divine energies and actions toward creatures, from the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.
He would also officially say that the immaculate conception of Christ’s mother Mary from her parents, and Mary’s total glorification in the risen Christ “at the right hand of the Father,” are not properly explained in the papal bulls that originally accompanied the Roman church’s “ex cathedra” dogmas on these two articles of faith. The pope would explain that Mary’s conception by her parents was pure and holy without a need for God extraordinarily to apply “the merits of Christ” to Joachim and Anna’s sexual act of conceiving her in order to free her from “the stain of original sin.” And the pope would also have to make it clear that Mary really died, and was not assumed bodily into heaven before vanquishing death by faith in her Son Jesus.
The pope would also clearly state that though there may be a purification and cleansing from sin in the process of human dying, there is no state or condition of purgatory where sinners pay off the temporal punishment that they allegedly owe to God for their sins. The pope would also stop the practice of indulgences whereby, through certain pious activities, Christians can allegedly reduce the “days” of purgatorial suffering for themselves and others.
The pope would also make it clear that Christ’s crucifixion was not a payment of the debt of punishment that humans allegedly owe to God for their sins. He would rather teach that Christ’s self-offering to his Father was to trample down death by death, not to atone for our sins. Nor to bear our sins, guilt, or replace us.
The pope would also assure all Christians that the bishop of Rome will never do or teach anything on his own authority, “from himself and not from the consensus of the church (ex sese et non ex consensu ecclesiae).” He would promise to serve in his presidency solely as the spokesperson for all the bishops in apostolic succession who govern communities of believers who have chosen them to serve, and whose validity and legitimacy as bishops depend solely on their fidelity to the Gospel in communion with their predecessors in the episcopal office, and with each other.
On undecided doctrinal and moral issues the Pope of Rome would use his presidential authority to insure that everyone - clergyman or layperson - would be encouraged to freely present his or her arguments concerning Christian teaching and practice as witnessed in the Church’s formal testimonies to Christian faith and life, i.e. the canonized scriptures, the traditional liturgies, the councils and canons, and the witness and writings of the canonized saints for the reasons that they are glorified.
The pope would also use his presidential authority to guarantee a spirit of freedom, openness, respect and love in and among all churches and Christians, and indeed all human beings, so that the Holy Spirit, Christ’s sole “vicar on earth”, may bring to remembrance what Christ has said, and guide people into all the truth. (Jn 14.25, 16.13) The pope would, in this way, truly be the Great Bridgebuilder (Pontifex Maximus)
