Is there disunity in the Catholic Church?

[MilesVitae]

(I tried to post this before, but I can’t find it now. I apologize if this is a repeat)

I recently read a story about an anglican who wished to enter the Eastern Orthodox Church (1800s, I think). He approached the Greek Orthodox Church, but discovered that they would not accept his baptism as valid, and so would insist on re-baptizing him. Since he was convinced in the validity of his baptism, he believed a re-baptism would be sacreligious and, so, would not join the Greek Orthodox. The Russian Orthodox, on the other hand, would accept his prior baptism as valid. Since the Greek Orthodox would not, however, he would find himself in the situation of being considered a validly baptized Christian by the Russian Orthodox, and not baptized by the Greek, even though they consider themselves part of the same universal Church as the other. Ultimately he became Roman Catholic.

I’ve been very struck by this example of disunity in the Orthodox Church - but I am unfamiliar with the situation in the Catholic Church. Are there any such examples of disunity in among the various Catholic Churches?

 

[ESMDHokie77]

on your subject, a trinitarian baptism is valid.

Also, Catholic Churches… be they Latin, Marionite, Eastern, Melkite, whatever, are all doctrinally linked and liturgically unique.

Regards and peace,
Phil

 

[WoundedIcon]

(I tried to post this before, but I can’t find it now. I apologize if this is a repeat)

I recently read a story about an anglican who wished to enter the Eastern Orthodox Church (1800s, I think). He approached the Greek Orthodox Church, but discovered that they would not accept his baptism as valid, and so would insist on re-baptizing him. Since he was convinced in the validity of his baptism, he believed a re-baptism would be sacreligious and, so, would not join the Greek Orthodox. The Russian Orthodox, on the other hand, would accept his prior baptism as valid. Since the Greek Orthodox would not, however, he would find himself in the situation of being considered a validly baptized Christian by the Russian Orthodox, and not baptized by the Greek, even though they consider themselves part of the same universal Church as the other. Ultimately he became Roman Catholic.

I’ve been very struck by this example of disunity in the Orthodox Church - but I am unfamiliar with the situation in the Catholic Church. Are there any such examples of disunity in among the various Catholic Churches?

The closest thing I’ve seen to that is that some of the Byzantine Catholics either ignore or reject dogmas defined after the Schism. Mainly things like indulgences, purgatory, etc.

 

[MilesVitae]

The closest thing I’ve seen to that is that some of the Byzantine Catholics either ignore or reject dogmas defined after the Schism. Mainly things like indulgences, purgatory, etc.

Hmmm, and how is this rejection/ignoring viewed by the wider Church, or the Papacy? Wouldn’t it be heresy?

The story I related in the op was part of a larger argument for the need for a head of the Church, and hence union with Rome. But if such disunities are to be found even in the Catholic Church, then the argument doesn’t hold much water…

 

[ByzCathCantor]

The closest thing I’ve seen to that is that some of the Byzantine Catholics either ignore or reject dogmas defined after the Schism. Mainly things like indulgences, purgatory, etc.

Gee, we certainly pray for the deceased quite often in Byzantine tradition. I wonder why?

 

[Catherine_Grant]

Note from Moderator:

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• It is acceptable to discuss the effect a specific incident had on current policy or practice.
• It is acceptable to seek the truth vs. commonly-held beliefs or conventional wisdom about actual events.
• It is fallacious reasoning to use embarrassing incidents to claim that they “prove” a particular Church is or was in error.
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That previous thread was removed from the forum for review. It was a series of attacks and counterattacks against Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox beliefs and practices. While threads on specific controversies may be useful, they raise a red flag for the Moderation staff. It is our observation that discussion of such past events rarely serves a useful purpose and inevitably opens a thread to posts that violate forum rules and/or the bounds of civil discourse. An open-ended thread like this asking for nothing but a stream of such events will require too much moderation without providing any useful benefit to the forum.

This thread is now closed.