Sin to become Orthodox?

[NorthTexan88]

This is being started as a seperate post frm the other Orthodox/Catholic post.

I know that if you leave the Catholic Church you put your eternal soul in danger. However, if you leave the Catholic Church and become Orthodox does it still put your soul in danger? If the Catholic Church sees the Orthodox as a true Church then would it actually be a sin?

 

[steve_b]

This is being started as a seperate post frm the other Orthodox/Catholic post.

I know that if you leave the Catholic Church you put your eternal soul in danger. However, if you leave the Catholic Church and become Orthodox does it still put your soul in danger? If the Catholic Church sees the Orthodox as a true Church then would it actually be a sin?

If we can’t celebrate the Eucharist in common with the Orthodox, then a Catholic can’t go in that direction.

From the CCC
838 “The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter.” Those “who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church.” With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so profound "that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord’s Eucharist."**

 

[Aelred_Minor]

“schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2089; Code of Canon Law 751)

There is never a good reason for schism. It was to prevent any pretext for schism that Christ instituted the Petrine ministry, so that there may be a visible unity to the Church.

I think you may be confusing the sense in which a group may be a true Church with whether it is the true Church, or part of the true Church. Any Christian body with validly ordained bishops is truely a Church. That fact does not automatically make them fully a part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church that Christ founded.

 

[NorthTexan88]

Ah ok thanks for the help!

So is it ok to go to an Orthodox church for a non communion service like vespers??

 

[thistle]

This is being started as a seperate post frm the other Orthodox/Catholic post.

I know that if you leave the Catholic Church you put your eternal soul in danger. However, if you leave the Catholic Church and become Orthodox does it still put your soul in danger? If the Catholic Church sees the Orthodox as a true Church then would it actually be a sin?

I don’t know how often we have to say this but once you are a Catholic you are always a Catholic. It does not matter how you feel, what you think, what you say, what you do, even walking away from the Church you remain a Catholic. There are only two types of Catholics - those in a state of grace and those in a state of mortal sin. There is no such thing as a former Catholic.

 

[Aelred_Minor]

I don’t know how often we have to say this but once you are a Catholic you are always a Catholic. It does not matter how you feel, what you think, what you say, what you do, even walking away from the Church you remain a Catholic. There are only two types of Catholics - those in a state of grace and those in a state of mortal sin. There is no such thing as a former Catholic.

Well, there’s also such a thing as an excommunicated Catholic, but even an excommunicated Catholic is still canonically a Catholic.

Of course, when most people speak on the subject they do not mean whether they remain Catholic according to the Church’s own laws, but rather what religion, if any, the person currently claims as their own.

 

[thistle]

Well, there’s also such a thing as an excommunicated Catholic, but even an excommunicated Catholic is still canonically a Catholic.

Of course, when most people speak on the subject they do not mean whether they remain Catholic according to the Church’s own laws, but rather what religion, if any, the person currently claims as their own.

A Catholic who is excommunicated is still a Catholic.

A Catholic who now claims to be a different religion now is simply a Catholic in a state of mortal sin.

 

[reconman]

A Catholic who is excommunicated is still a Catholic.

A Catholic who now claims to be a different religion now is simply a Catholic in a state of mortal sin.

But if they become Orthodox, how could they be in mortal sin, since the Orthodox have valid sacraments?

For instance, what if you got a job in a new town and the closest Catholic church was 100 miles away. But there was an Orthodox church right there. Would it still be a sin?

I mean, in cases of emergency, we are allowed to receive Orthodox sacraments.

 

[thistle]

But if they become Orthodox, how could they be in mortal sin, since the Orthodox have valid sacraments?

For instance, what if you got a job in a new town and the closest Catholic church was 100 miles away. But there was an Orthodox church right there. Would it still be a sin?

I mean, in cases of emergency, we are allowed to receive Orthodox sacraments.

That can also apply to non-Catholics receiving Catholic sacraments but it doesn’t change who you are.

None of this changes the FACT that once you are a Catholic you remain a Catholic forever no matter what you do, even if you want to be Orthodox, Methodist, Lutheran etc.

Even if you consider the Orthodox Church as actually a schismatic part of the Catholic Church, a Catholic becoming Orthodox would be committing a schismatic act which is a mortal sin.

 

[slywakka250]

This is always a disturbing topic to me.

So you have two people devoutly practicing the Orthodox religion. One of them happens to have been a practicing Catholic years ago.

Both are happy in the Orthodox religion and fully embrace it.

But According to the Catholic Church, the former Catholic is completely wrong with God, while the other is right with God?? Even though they both are living according to the same religion, living a very similar lifestyle, etc?

This makes no sense to me. All of life is a long spiritual journey. Some people spend time in many different religions and philosophies. It seems what counts is your destination, and where you are now. Why does the past matter so much as to rise to the level of mortal sin??

 

[ConstantineTG]

So it is a sin to worship in a place where the Catholic Church says they have valid priests and a valid Eucharist?

And if you are in a state of sin, from the Catholic point of view, and you go to confession to an Orthodox priest and he absolves you of all your sins (remember, valid priest, valid Sacrament), then what?

Also, if you are going to become Orthodox, why are you worried about what the Catholic Church thinks?

 

[thistle]

So it is a sin to worship in a place where the Catholic Church says they have valid priests and a valid Eucharist?

And if you are in a state of sin, from the Catholic point of view, and you go to confession to an Orthodox priest and he absolves you of all your sins (remember, valid priest, valid Sacrament), then what?

Also, if you are going to become Orthodox, why are you worried about what the Catholic Church thinks?

Its not a sin for those born and brought up in the Orthodox Church.
It is a sin if a Catholic turns his back on the Church to embrace and support the Orthodox Church which is a schismatic institution. A schismatic act is a sin of grave matter.