Orthodox and Romans

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I notice in many social media groups that I frequent that Orthodox members are usually very hostile towards Roman Catholics, but I have yet to witness the kind of hostility vice versa. Can we all agree that coming together and fighting the unsound theology of reformers from spreading is more important than our own issues or am I asking for too much?
 
Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism are very similar.
 
I don’t know why many Orthodox on the internet are so hostile to Catholics, but I’ve noticed it and I’m sure others have also. I think it’s petty. And I agree that we have common enemies that we should be focusing on, like militant atheism and unsound protestant theology.
 
What totally blows me away are those I’ve met “online” who still seem bitter at all modern Catholics for the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. Blaming modern day Catholics for the actions of medieval Franks defies any semblance of reason.
Thankfully the Orthodox I’ve met in real life are of a very different stripe… and for the better :).
 
The internet really brings out the jerk in people, doesn’t it? 😁
 
twf said:
What totally blows me away are those I’ve met “online” who still seem bitter at all modern Catholics for the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. Blaming modern day Catholics for the actions of medieval Franks defies any semblance of reason.
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It’s a bit more than that. Have you read about the Ustase in Croatia during WWII and the Jasenovac death camp with commandant Franciscan clergyman Miroslav Filipovic?
 
twf said:
But here’s the thing… the actions of some Catholic priest in a distant country decades ago has NOTHING, absolutely nothing… not even the most remote connection… to me as a 21st century lay Catholic in North America
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Well. That is the problem. First of all it was many priests in the Franciscan order in Croatia and not just one priest. Everyone should read about the death camp of Jasenovac where Serbian Orthodox and Jews were tortured and put to death. And the problem continues today with a Catholic priest calling for assassination and terror and death by hanging of the enemies of Ukraine - would that not be the Russian Orthodox who are the enemy in Ukraine? Russian Orthodox Churches have been seized in Ukraine by Catholics. As Russian Orthodox Christians march in Ukraine with their holy icons of the Mother of God, they and their holy icons are being pelted with eggs and jeers. Why does a Catholic priest in ukraine call for assassination and terror and death by hanging. and demand that all Chinese, Jews, Blacks and Russians leave the country? the Russian Orthodox have been there for hundreds of years and now the Catholics demand that they leave?

twf said:
. I absolutely and completely reject the notion that I would be in any way culpable for his sins. They are his sins…
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I never said that they were your sins. I say that some Orthodox may point to times in history when they were persecuted by Catholics. and that might explain the hostility of some of them. That was the question right? Why are some Orthodox hostile to Catholicism?
 
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My first response was a bit strong and I apologize for that. Regardless, the issues you cite are ethnic issues. These are more ethnic conflicts than religious conflicts. You make it sound like it’s a conflict of Catholics vs Orthodox. I think it’s more accurately a conflict of Ukrainians vs Russians, regardless of faith…no?
 
twf said:
I think it’s more accurately a conflict of Ukrainians vs Russians, regardless of faith…no?
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No. Not the complete picture, although it is partly correct. No because there are Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests who are openly supporting the Ukrainian nationalists who oppose Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church.
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I know what you are talking about. Roman and Eastern Catholics have tried to create a partnership with the Orthodox for years now, but the Orthodox refuse the idea.

There is a reason why the Catholic Church is much larger than the Orthodox church. Catholics are more accepting. Orthodox on the other hand are not. They are all about enforcing laws and rules. They also think people need to starve themselves or they are a heretic that is going to hell.

I understand lent and fasting, but they think people should not eat meat, cheese, or use oil every single day during lent. If someone does, they think that person is going to burn in hell and they refuse to give them communion. Orthodox priests are known to refuse other Orthodox people communion just because they do not know who the person is (personally).
 
Codyleger said:
I notice in many social media groups that I frequent that Orthodox members are usually very hostile towards Roman Catholics, but I have yet to witness the kind of hostility vice versa. Can we all agree that coming together and fighting the unsound theology of reformers from spreading is more important than our own issues or am I asking for too much?
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That is nothing new. The Fourth Council of Lateran (thus 1215; http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Councils/ecum12-2.htm), in the 4th canon writes: “For, after the Greek church together with certain associates and supporters withdrew from the obedience of the apostolic see, the Greeks began to detest the Latins so much that, among other wicked things which they committed out of contempt for them, when Latin priests celebrated on their altars they would not offer sacrifice on them until they had washed them, as if the altars had been defiled thereby.”.

Then there’s probably self-selection. Eastern Orthodox who are strongly anti-Catholic might be more willing to participate in such discussions.

And then there’s nationalism:
AlNg said:
No. Not the complete picture, although it is partly correct. No because there are Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests who are openly supporting the Ukrainian nationalists who oppose Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church.
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Please note that opposing Russia is presented as an important part here.

And, given how Russia is ever scared of humiliations, one shouldn’t be surprised that not giving the “honour due to Third Rome” is seen as disrespect. And enmity follows.
 
But do they oppose Ukrainian Orthodox? Greek Orthodox? The issue is specifically with Russian Orthodoxy…and thus I think ultimately an ethnic conflict at its root.
 
twf said:
What totally blows me away are those I’ve met “online” who still seem bitter at all modern Catholics for the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. Blaming modern day Catholics for the actions of medieval Franks defies any semblance of reason.
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Without going into the details, anyone who really studies the history of it agrees there was plenty of blame to go around with the Fourth Crusade.

One of the real barriers to better relations is territoriality. Orthodoxy is territorial; that is to say Russia, for example, is deemed to be the sole preserve of the Russian patriarchy of the Eastern Orthodox. No other churches are supposed to be there, according to Orthodoxy. According to the Russian EO, the Latin Church should be confined to the City of Rome and some of the countryside around it. The patriarch of Moscow should, they say, have exclusive jurisdiction over western Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia.

Catholicism, on the other hand, claims the right to worldwide presence. The two really can’t be reconciled.
 
Internet orthodox tend to be hyperdox fundamentalists, we had one on here at CAF who got permabanned recently.

Orthodox in real life tend to be much more charitable and wise.

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, His All Holiness Bartholomew I, is a great friend of the Catholic Church as well as a brother to Pope Francis…

If every Eastern Orthodox had the same charity and knowledge as His All Holiness, the schism between our Churches would be healed.
 
twf said:
But do they oppose Ukrainian Orthodox?
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There is the Ukrainian Orthodox church Moscow Patriarchate which is a self governing church of the Russian Orthodox church in Ukraine and there is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patrarchate which favors the Ukrainian nationalists and is friendly toward the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
BUT the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patrarchate is not recognized by the canonical Eastern Orthodox Churches. Patriarch Filaret of the UOCKP is in schism from the official Eastern Orthodox Churches.
 
Spyridon said:
If every Eastern Orthodox had the same charity and knowledge as His All Holiness, the schism between our Churches would be healed.
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I don’t think so because Catholics adhere to certain apparently non-negotiable positions which Orthodox do not accept.
 
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