What makes Catholicism true compared to Eastern Orthodoxy?

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Why doesn’t the pope just announce that his authority is the same as the patriarchs? Then the split could be healed. :confused:
 
Alex_H said:
Why doesn’t the pope just announce that his authority is the same as the patriarchs? Then the split could be healed. :confused:
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As primus inter pares, his authority is different than other Patriarchs. Defining this difference is complicated: the EO churches, in particular the EP and MP, do not agree on the meaning.
 
dvdjs said:
As primus inter pares, his authority is different than other Patriarchs. Defining this difference is complicated: the EO churches, in particular the EP and MP, do not agree on the meaning.
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What does EP and MP stand for?
 
Son_of_Niall said:
I have no dog in this fight. I really don’t care to be quite frank.
But you gotta wonder about a ‘new poster’ with eighty plus (and counting) posts in just a few days. :hmmm:
:cool:
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I’m hearing you. I don’t care about unity with Orthodoxians either, both are true “churches”. Most of these debates are about who is “right” not who is “true”.

I’m home where I belong and frankly more concerned about our relationship with our Protestant brethren.
 
tomspitzley3 said:
Hello so I have had this question for awhile now, and recently debating an Eastern Orthodox made me requestion this. Obviously the Catholic Church is true compared to Protestantism, and we both agreed upon this. How do we know it is true compared to Eastern Orthodoxy? Both were almost indistinguishable and many still see no difference. How do we know the Roman Catholic Church is true?
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Why I Didn’t Convert to Eastern Orthodoxy
 
tomspitzley3 said:
Hello so I have had this question for awhile now, and recently debating an Eastern Orthodox made me requestion this. Obviously the Catholic Church is true compared to Protestantism, and we both agreed upon this. How do we know it is true compared to Eastern Orthodoxy? Both were almost indistinguishable and many still see no difference. How do we know the Roman Catholic Church is true?
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I’m too simple to answer this maybe, but the way I see it is this: Christ established a Church with Himself as the head, and a hierarchical structure of the Church. Christ would not leave His Church headless in Heaven, so why would he leave it headless on Earth? Of course he would appoint one apostle over the others as His representation of the Head of the Church on earth.

Eastern/Oriental Orthodox reject the papacy and the idea that there is a head of the church on earth.

This position is not the only difference, but it’s the one I could never get over when I thought about becoming EO/OO.
 
Alex_H said:
Yeah but then he would be known as the pope who reunited Christianity.
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Well why doesn’t he reject all the teachings the protestants find offensive and then he could be known for reuniting protestants too. Yay, let’s dump Christ for a fake unity! woo.
 
benjamindt said:
Well why doesn’t he reject all the teachings the protestants find offensive and then he could be known for reuniting protestants too. Yay, let’s dump Christ for a fake unity! woo.
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But there is really only one teaching, I think, separating Catholics and Orthodox and that is the papacy. The gulf between protestants and Catholics is a lot wider than the narrow strait between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. :twocents:
 
Alex_H said:
Why doesn’t the pope just announce that his authority is the same as the patriarchs? Then the split could be healed. :confused:
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I could equally say “Why don’t the Eastern Orthodox just announce that the Pope is everything that we claim he is?” or “Why don’t the Oriental Orthodoxy just announce that they were wrong not to accept the Council of Chalcedon?” or “Why don’t the Lutherans just announce that the people are justified by works?” or “Why don’t the Baptists just announce that infants should be baptised?” :hmmm:

If we don’t like the way things are … well, we could always start buying weapons.
 
Peter_J said:
I could equally say “Why don’t the Eastern Orthodoxy just announce that the Pope is everything that we claim he is?” or “Why don’t the Oriental Orthodoxy just announce that they were wrong not to accept the Council of Chalcedon?” or “Why don’t the Lutherans just announce that the people are justified by works?” or “Why don’t the Baptists just announce that infants should be baptised?” :hmmm:

If we don’t like the way things are … well, we could always start buying weapons.
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😛

You make a good point, though.

I guess my question is, as someone who is not Catholic (yet) how can I discern which church is the church Christ founded? (Which is the question that really goes back to the title of the thread)
 
Alex_H said:
😛

You make a good point, though.

I guess my question is, as someone who is not Catholic (yet) how can I discern which church is the church Christ founded? (Which is the question that really goes back to the title of the thread)
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I’m too simple to answer this maybe, but the way I see it is this: Christ established a Church with Himself as the head, and a hierarchical structure of the Church. Christ would not leave His Church headless in Heaven, so why would he leave it headless on Earth? Of course he would appoint one apostle over the others as His representation of the Head of the Church on earth.

Eastern/Oriental Orthodox reject the papacy and the idea that there is a head of the church on earth.

This position is not the only difference, but it’s the one I could never get over when I thought about becoming EO/OO.
 
benjamindt said:
I’m too simple to answer this maybe, but the way I see it is this: Christ established a Church with Himself as the head, and a hierarchical structure of the Church. Christ would not leave His Church headless in Heaven, so why would he leave it headless on Earth? Of course he would appoint one apostle over the others as His representation of the Head of the Church on earth.

Eastern/Oriental Orthodox reject the papacy and the idea that there is a head of the church on earth.

This position is not the only difference, but it’s the one I could never get over when I thought about becoming EO/OO.
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That makes a lot of sense. I mean, what happens if two patriarchs disagree? A council would have to be formed, right?
 
tomspitzley3 said:
Obviously the Catholic Church is true compared to Protestantism, and we both agreed upon this. How do we know it is true compared to Eastern Orthodoxy?
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The thing is, something is only non-obvious until it isn’t. Someone could equally say “It’s obvious that the EOs are wrong not to be Catholic.”

(Not that I would say that, I’m just pointing out that someone could. I have a very high opinion of Eastern Orthodoxy.)
 
I’m probably going to call in to the Catholic Answers Radio program and ask them this very question. Next open forum isn’t til Thursday though.
 
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