Roman Catholic bishops vs Orthodox bishops

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Well, there’s going to be an Orthodox Ecumenical Council next year.

firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/03/at-last-a-council-for-the-ages

All fourteen patriarchs and many bishops will attend to discuss various matters facing the church in the modern world.

I think it’s telling that they aren’t really going to discuss important theological disagreements.

Maybe because there aren’t any…?

The only patriarch who won’t be in attendance is the pope, of course.
Try again, none of the Oriental Orthodox or Assyrian bishops will be represented or invited here
 
I think anyone who is honest can see the evil of Vatican II. The church used to preach the necessity of being Catholic and adhering to orthodox teaching, and there was a much greater emphasis to evangelize.

The Vatican II religion avoids discussion of evangelization and heresy, treating them as “old-fashioned.” The Vatican II religion is all about ecumenism and going with the flow of the world.

Churches in the Vatican II religion are a lot less respectful of the sacred and a lot emptier…
That’s funny because there are more Catholics in the world today than before VC2! The Eastern Churches in union with Rome were asked to remove latinizations are restore any lost Patristic Traditions and practices. V2 actually promoted Eastern Tradition. Post V2, Easterners, Traditional Latins, etc all are in Communion in the Church. Since V2, the Oriental Orthodox and Catholic anathema were lifted, Catholics and Syriac Orthodox may communion in each others Church, Catholics may commune with Assyrian Church of the East and with Armenians, as well as some other Mysteries. Not all is wrong in the world, again more caricature than reality.
 
Where to begin?

1.) Pope Urban IV, papal bull Cantate Domino:

The Church firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart “into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels," unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the** unity of the ecclesiastical body** is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward, and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.

2.) Pope Boniface VIII, papal bull Unam Sanctam:

We are compelled, our faith urging us, to believe and to hold; and we do firmly believe and simply confess; that there is one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, outside of which there is no salvation or remission of sins; her Spouse proclaiming it in the canticles, “My dove, my undefiled is but one, she is the choice one of her that bore her;” which represents one mystical body, of which body the head is Christ, but of Christ, God. In this Church there is one Lord, one Faith, and one Baptism. There was one ark of Noah, indeed, at the time of the flood, symbolizing one Church; and this being finished in one cubit had, namely, one Noah as helmsman and commander. And, with the exception of this ark, all things existing upon the earth were, as we read, destroyed.

3.) Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos:

**In this one Church of Christ no man can be or remain who does not accept, recognize and obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate successors. **Did not the ancestors of those who are now entangled in the errors of Photius and the Protestant reformers, obey the Bishop of Rome, the chief shepherd of souls? Alas their children left the home of their fathers, but it did not fall to the ground and perish for ever, for it was supported by God. Let them therefore return to their common Father, who, forgetting the insults previously heaped on the Apostolic See, will receive them in the most loving fashion. For if, as they continually state, they long to be united with Us and ours, why do they not hasten to enter the Church, “the Mother and mistress of all Christ’s faithful?” Let them hear Lactantius crying out: “The Catholic Church is alone in keeping the true worship. This is the fount of truth, this is the house of Faith, this is the temple of God: if any man enter not here, or if any man go forth from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation. Let none delude himself with obstinate wrangling. For life and salvation are here concerned, which will be lost and entirely destroyed, unless their interests are carefully and assiduously kept in mind.

So…

Pope Pius XI literally said that the Orthodox and Protestants will not have salvation unless they return to the visible Catholic Church.

If Pope Francis said that exact same thing today, in those exact same words, the world would accuse him of “bigotry” and “intolerance” towards other religions.
Protestants do this proof text stuff with the Bible, this style of misdirection is not helpful except to those you already agree with. Now if you want to get real, realize that a Bull itself is generally limited to a king or a region, so it would be odd to quite it to prove some universal dogma. There are exceptions but normally a Bull refers to political machination.
 
Protestants do this proof text stuff with the Bible, this style of misdirection is not helpful except to those you already agree with. Now if you want to get real, realize that a Bull itself is generally limited to a king or a region, so it would be odd to quite it to prove some universal dogma. There are exceptions but normally a Bull refers to political machination.
“The Church firmly believes, professes, and proclaims…”

The pope’s words seem pretty direct in their meaning.

Maybe the pope personally didn’t know what the church taught, then? Or, as you claim, the pope was proclaiming as a truth a non-truth according to Vatican II revisionists, but it doesn’t matter because it may or may not have been to only part of the church?

The pope was speaking (1) ex cathedra (2) to the whole church (3) on matters concerning faith or morality.

Let’s just cut to the chase. Can you provide a definitive list of infallible papal teachings from the past 2,000 years that all Catholics agree on?

If not, then what’s the point of declaring the pope infallible if nobody knows when he actually is?
 
That’s funny because there are more Catholics in the world today than before VC2! The Eastern Churches in union with Rome were asked to remove latinizations are restore any lost Patristic Traditions and practices. V2 actually promoted Eastern Tradition. Post V2, Easterners, Traditional Latins, etc all are in Communion in the Church. Since V2, the Oriental Orthodox and Catholic anathema were lifted, Catholics and Syriac Orthodox may communion in each others Church, Catholics may commune with Assyrian Church of the East and with Armenians, as well as some other Mysteries. Not all is wrong in the world, again more caricature than reality.
Catholics In Name Only, maybe.

Like my whole family.

I wasn’t even baptized or raised in a religious household. I suspect this is typical for 90% of Catholic families.
 
I just want to see 5 statements of papal infallibility from each millennium that all Catholics universally agree on.
Same back at you regarding the infallibility of Christian doctrine found in the Bible, or among Orthodox.
 
Vatican II is modernist and just proves the Catholic Church goes with the flow. The Catholic Church was the evil empire in the middle ages. Catholics always take the Church Fathers out of context. The Catholic Church is wrong to admit the uncertainty of the salvation for heterodox Christians (even though the Catholic Church is heterodox according to the OC):roll eyes: These are the same old, tired arguments repeated again and again by posters who have no professional status as historians but have merely read some of the Church Fathers (probably not even in their original language).:yawn:
So you like to bring up the Catholic Church's dirt. Well, I am sure the OC has dirt too because the OC is made of humans just like every religious institution on earth. As for which Church is right? well, I think it is fair enough to say that quoting Church Fathers just won't do the trick. How do you know you're not interpreting them anachronistically? How do you know you're not interpreting them with Orthodox or Catholic tinted glasses? The "how do you know part" screams that you (Catholics and Orthodox) are navigating through an epistemological thicket that precludes any talk of history proving the other side wrong...
 
Vatican II is modernist and just proves the Catholic Church goes with the flow. The Catholic Church was the evil empire in the middle ages. Catholics always take the Church Fathers out of context. The Catholic Church is wrong to admit the uncertainty of the salvation for heterodox Christians (even though the Catholic Church is heterodox according to the OC):roll eyes: These are the same old, tired arguments repeated again and again by posters who have no professional status as historians but have merely read some of the Church Fathers (probably not even in their original language).:yawn:
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So you like to bring up the Catholic Church's dirt. Well, I am sure the OC has dirt too because the OC is made of humans just like every religious institution on earth. As for which Church is right? well, I think it is fair enough to say that quoting Church Fathers just won't do the trick. How do you know you're not interpreting them anachronistically? How do you know you're not interpreting them with Orthodox or Catholic tinted glasses? The "how do you know part" screams that you (Catholics and Orthodox) are navigating through an epistemological thicket that precludes any talk of history proving the other side wrong...
So, nobody is allowed to interpret history unless it’s in a Catholic-approved way? And you state the fallacy that I need “status as a historian” to question Roman Catholicism?

What about all the secular historians who already do?

When I first began studying church history, I had no bias towards either church. It was obvious after a short time that the Roman Catholic faith didn’t exist in the first millennium. The Orthodox faith did, but not the Roman Catholic faith.

Catholic revisionists are like the Evangelicals who have a few clearly deceitful scientists to “prove” evolution is wrong. The anti-science scientists and the anti-history Catholics are on the fringes of their respective fields. Their followers earnestly believe them, and anyone who offers evidence to the contrary is laughed off.

The Papacy as we understand it today is an invention of the Middle Ages. According to modern Catholic theology, all are subject to the pontiff and nobody is allowed to question him in any way whatsoever, because to do so is to question God.

That’s not how things were done at one time. Can you imagine a council declaring a previous pope a heretic and making succeeding popes swear it? Because that’s what happened when Honorius was declared a heretic.

Maybe the pope really is the seat of the antichrist. He “sits in the temple as God.” I recall reading Orthodox saints who’ve prophecied along those lines.

No Catholic can tell me why Constantine would go through the trouble of convening an ecumenical council and enforcing it as law when he could have simply asked the church in Rome for the correct doctrines and enforced those, thus saving time and effort. If the church back than saw Rome as supreme head, then why would Constantine concoct the idea of assembling bishops from all over his empire to settle the church’s internal bickering?

The common-sense answer as to why he would take the more tedious path was because there wasn’t an easier path. The still-pagan Constantine simply wanted to create peace within the church to appease the Christian God. If he had knowledge of a super bishop in Rome, he would have seen no sense in a council.
 
So, nobody is allowed to interpret history unless it’s in a Catholic-approved way? And you state the fallacy that I need “status as a historian” to question Roman Catholicism?

What about all the secular historians who already do?

When I first began studying church history, I had no bias towards either church. It was obvious after a short time that the Roman Catholic faith didn’t exist in the first millennium. The Orthodox faith did, but not the Roman Catholic faith.

Catholic revisionists are like the Evangelicals who have a few clearly deceitful scientists to “prove” evolution is wrong. The anti-science scientists and the anti-history Catholics are on the fringes of their respective fields. Their followers earnestly believe them, and anyone who offers evidence to the contrary is laughed off.

The Papacy as we understand it today is an invention of the Middle Ages. According to modern Catholic theology, all are subject to the pontiff and nobody is allowed to question him in any way whatsoever, because to do so is to question God.

That’s not how things were done at one time. Can you imagine a council declaring a previous pope a heretic and making succeeding popes swear it? Because that’s what happened when Honorius was declared a heretic.

Maybe the pope really is the seat of the antichrist. He “sits in the temple as God.” I recall reading Orthodox saints who’ve prophecied along those lines.

No Catholic can tell me why Constantine would go through the trouble of convening an ecumenical council and enforcing it as law when he could have simply asked the church in Rome for the correct doctrines and enforced those, thus saving time and effort. If the church back than saw Rome as supreme head, then why would Constantine concoct the idea of assembling bishops from all over his empire to settle the church’s internal bickering?

The common-sense answer as to why he would take the more tedious path was because there wasn’t an easier path. The still-pagan Constantine simply wanted to create peace within the church to appease the Christian God. If he had knowledge of a super bishop in Rome, he would have seen no sense in a council.
First, I never suggested you should take the catholic position because if you read my post, you would know that I said Catholic posters here also take a simplistic view of history as unanimously in favor of their point of view. Also, when someone suggests that Rome is the seat of the antichrist, that is a definite conversation ender. That would mean Pope Francis is the antichrist by virtue of being in the seat of Peter. Do you hug people with tumors all across their body? Do you associate yourself with the homeless and marginalized? Are these acts of an antichrist despot?
 
When I first began studying church history, I had no bias towards either church. It was obvious after a short time that the Roman Catholic faith didn’t exist in the first millennium. The Orthodox faith did, but not the Roman Catholic faith.
And yet others, who have studied as little as you, have reached different conclusions, and they also say it was obvious.
Catholic revisionists are like the Evangelicals who have a few clearly deceitful scientists to “prove” evolution is wrong. The anti-science scientists and the anti-history Catholics are on the fringes of their respective fields. Their followers earnestly believe them, and anyone who offers evidence to the contrary is laughed off.
And when people present evidence that debunks what you say, you claim they are dishonest, or that they take them out of context. And yet the claim of out of context is easily thrown back at you. You also stated on a different post that you try not to post from religious sources, and yet several times you have linked to some of the most anti-Catholic blogs, and quote what they say as if it is scriptural truth. When people post links that show holes in the links that you post to, you just say the other site is wrong, but never show where they are wrong.
The Papacy as we understand it today is an invention of the Middle Ages.
The Papacy, as we understand it today, was in seed form when Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter.
According to modern Catholic theology, all are subject to the pontiff and nobody is allowed to question him in any way whatsoever, because to do so is to question God.
Since you say this is Catholic theology, can you show me official Catholic teaching that says nobody is allowed to question him, because to do so is to question God?

Is Pope Clement wrong here when he says this?
Chapter 59. Warning Against Disobedience. Prayer.
If, however, any shall disobey the words spoken by Him through us, let them know that they will involve themselves in transgression and serious danger; but we shall be innocent of this sin,
Isn’t Clement actually making a supremacy and infallibility claim by stating:
A.) that if they disobey, they are sinning?
B.) that Jesus is speaking through him ? ( if God speaks through you, it must be infallible)
Maybe the pope really is the seat of the antichrist. He “sits in the temple as God.” I recall reading Orthodox saints who’ve prophecied along those lines.
Names of those saints please.
No Catholic can tell me why Constantine would go through the trouble of convening an ecumenical council and enforcing it as law when he could have simply asked the church in Rome for the correct doctrines and enforced those, thus saving time and effort. If the church back than saw Rome as supreme head, then why would Constantine concoct the idea of assembling bishops from all over his empire to settle the church’s internal bickering?
This is an easy question to answer. Constantine didn’t view the pope as having that type of power. And when Rome had given him the correct doctrine (since Rome cannot teach error), there is no guarantee that he would have viewed it as correct, or even enforced it. And there is no guarantee that bishops would have accepted it, as you so rightly point out that there were plenty of bishops who do not hold to Rome’s claims. But just because others do not see someone as having a special charism, or type of authority, does not mean they do not have it.

By your logic, since Judas and most of Judea did not see Jesus as being the Messiah, His claim to be the Messiah must not be true.

This Catholic just answered the question that no Catholic could answer
The common-sense answer as to why he would take the more tedious path was because there wasn’t an easier path. The still-pagan Constantine simply wanted to create peace within the church to appease the Christian God. If he had knowledge of a super bishop in Rome, he would have seen no sense in a council.
Again, no knowledge of a particular something, does not mean that particular something does not exist.
 
Donuts, personally I do not disagree with you that the papacy as it is conceived of today is more of a medieval invention/development. That being said, I think more charity is in order. Augustine was correct to say that those who are not members of the Body of Christ/Church are doomed. However, Augustine also said their are wolves within and sheep outside the flock. In short, there is a true institutional Church, but there is more than that. We know where the Body of Christ is, but we do not know where it is not. Therefore, I wouldn’t be so harsh on Catholics nor would I presume to judge Vatican II as poorly thought out and evil.
 
He basically just made the point that no one of any group agrees on everything. There’s even recent debate on whether or not Pope John Paul II spoke infallibly on female priests. Francis hinted that he thinks he did, but it is a debate.

I think the more interesting question is whether or not infallibility exists in a council or any seat of episcopal power. It’s actually a question that Orthodox debate quite a lot of about.
 
Originally Posted by Here_For_Donuts View Post
The common-sense answer as to why he would take the more tedious path was because there wasn’t an easier path. The still-pagan Constantine simply wanted to create peace within the church to appease the Christian God. If he had knowledge of a super bishop in Rome, he would have seen no sense in a council.
I believe you have an incomplete understanding of the papacy. You do realize that the Catholic Church still convenes ecumenical councils and synods of various sorts? The idea that Papal primacy as understood by Catholics rules out the need for councils is clearly false. Are you aware that the Catholic Church teaches that the supreme governing authority of the Church is the Pope AND bishops in union with him? Or that Vatican II declared that all bishops are vicars of Christ in their own right? Yes, the Pope exercises universal primacy, but he does not usurp the authority of local bishops. The vast majority of dogmatic decrees have been promulgated by ecumenical councils. This is the norm. The Pope acts in concert with his brother bishops - not apart from them. It is exceedingly rare for a pope to intervene in a local diocese and Rome regularly ratifies the decisions of national episcopal conferences. His power to act alone is more of a reserve power to be used when truly needed.
You didn’t respond to my earlier post regarding the Assyrian canons. You claim that Roman primacy was unknown in the Persian church…yet as noted earlier in this thread, the ancient Assyrian canons do state that the Bishop of Rome is to the patriarchs as the patriarchs are to bishops.
The Catholic Church doesn’t pretend that the Bishop of Rome micromanaged the early Church, nor that the doctrine of papal primacy was fully developed. We do believe in the development of doctrine; however, the acorn that would grow into the tree that is papal primacy was definitely there from the beginning and of divine institution.

On another note, why Eastern Orthodoxy over Oriental Orthodoxy? Without papal primacy, I couldn’t choose between either camp. What makes those bishops who accepted Chalcedon right and those who rejected it wrong? If Pope St. Leo didn’t have the deciding vote, how can you be sure the Byzantines were right?
 
Pope Leo did not have the deciding vote, although he was given due honor for speaking correctly. How one determines what is Truth is through careful prayer and discernment. In other words, a theological argument must justify itself. The process does not justify the argument. That’s how I chose Orthodoxy over OO, etc.
 
Donuts, personally I do not disagree with you that the papacy as it is conceived of today is more of a medieval invention/development. That being said, I think more charity is in order. Augustine was correct to say that those who are not members of the Body of Christ/Church are doomed. However, Augustine also said their are wolves within and sheep outside the flock. In short, there is a true institutional Church, but there is more than that. We know where the Body of Christ is, but we do not know where it is not. Therefore, I wouldn’t be so harsh on Catholics nor would I presume to judge Vatican II as poorly thought out and evil.
You’ve hit on what, for me, is a very important point.

There is The Church- be it the bldg or the magesterium down in Rome or the Orthodox or the Protestants.
And then there is The Body of Christ. Any christian believer is a member of the body of christ.

Augustine must have said that if you don’t belong to The Church you’re lost. The idea of The Body of Christ didn’t exist back then. I can’t agree with that. I like to gleen my knowledge from the bible; these early church fathers had many ideas and, like I said in another post, I think we should have a personal rapport with Jesus and stop reading about what everyone else thinks.

Of course, that could be dangerous too. Weird ideas could come to fruition. So let’s use all our reading to GUIDE us.

Jesus did want believers to be of like mind - so why are we not?
Important question - important answer.

We’re human and have gotten too far from the original source, Jesus, and have tried to dissect chrisitanity to its most minute fragment.

Fran
 
And yet others, who have studied as little as you, have reached different conclusions, and they also say it was obvious.

And when people present evidence that debunks what you say, you claim they are dishonest, or that they take them out of context. And yet the claim of out of context is easily thrown back at you. You also stated on a different post that you try not to post from religious sources, and yet several times you have linked to some of the most anti-Catholic blogs, and quote what they say as if it is scriptural truth. When people post links that show holes in the links that you post to, you just say the other site is wrong, but never show where they are wrong.

The Papacy, as we understand it today, was in seed form when Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter.Since you say this is Catholic theology, can you show me official Catholic teaching that says nobody is allowed to question him, because to do so is to question God?

Is Pope Clement wrong here when he says this?Isn’t Clement actually making a supremacy and infallibility claim by stating:
A.) that if they disobey, they are sinning?
B.) that Jesus is speaking through him ? ( if God speaks through you, it must be infallible)

Names of those saints please.

This is an easy question to answer. Constantine didn’t view the pope as having that type of power. And when Rome had given him the correct doctrine (since Rome cannot teach error), there is no guarantee that he would have viewed it as correct, or even enforced it. And there is no guarantee that bishops would have accepted it, as you so rightly point out that there were plenty of bishops who do not hold to Rome’s claims. But just because others do not see someone as having a special charism, or type of authority, does not mean they do not have it.

By your logic, since Judas and most of Judea did not see Jesus as being the Messiah, His claim to be the Messiah must not be true.

This Catholic just answered the question that no Catholic could answer

Again, no knowledge of a particular something, does not mean that particular something does not exist.
👍 Well said. It is overtly obvious that Here_for_Donuts is here for much more than donuts. :rolleyes: (Radically stirring the pot with every known argument to cast doubt and disparage the RCC.)
IOW – no discussion – just :hammering:
 
Actually, the Body of Christ did exist back then. It comes from the Epistles. Tychonius of Africa was the first Church Father to write extensively on the issue, and he had a tremendous influence on Augustine’s thought.
 
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