What would need to be compromised for a Catholic - Orthodox reconciliation?

[twf]

Friend, you know full well that these posters do not speak with the mind of the Church. The Catholic Church’s official position has been very open and welcoming for decades now - going back to the 60s. Relations between Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew have been excellent. Pope Benedict said that the Orthodox would not be asked to accept the primacy of Rome beyond what was lived in the first millennium.

 

[twf]

The Church clarified Vatican I at Vatican II, which emphasized the authority of the college of bishops as a whole, united with and under the Bishop of Rome. Some Catholics had mistakenly developed the notion that the Pope is effectively the only true bishop with other bishops his mere deputies… Vatican II condemned this understanding, providing more nuance around the previous Council’s dogmatic declaration on the papacy.

 

[Spyridon]

Are you familiar with the Nikonian reforms in the Russian Orthodox Church and what happened?

 

[Profete]

The Old Believers and the Moscow Patriarchate both celebrate the Liturgy of st. John Chrysostom with small differences, and old believers use 2 fingers when they cross themselves.

 

[phil19034]

I don’t think the scripture is a big deal. I own a NRSV w deuterocanonical books which includes of course Catholic books, but also Orthodox. In this Bible the books not present in Catholic Bibles today are 1 and 2 Esdras( 3 and 4 Esdras in an appendix of the Latin Vulgate) and the Prayer of Mannesseh( which also is in an appendix of the Latin Vulgate. These three writings were traditionally in the Latin Vulgate however were not reaffirmed as scripture at the Council of Trent. However they were put in an appendix to the Vulgate “Lest they perish”. There’s nothing in these books heretical. Interestingly though, Uriel appears in 2 Esdras. Who is not an official archangel in the church, though is normally named in lists of the seven archangels. Actually many paintings in the Vatican depict Uriel ironically. The Gutenberg Bible and early editions of the KJV also include these 3 writings in the apocrypha section alongside the Catholic books. So in my opinion these books aren’t viewed as heretical by the Church in any sense. Just were not given the “inspired writing” status. These books also have status in Eastern Orthodoxy. 1 Esdras is in Orthodox Bibles. The Prayer of Mannesseh appears in the Book of Odes in Orthodox Bibles. 2 Esdras appears in the Slavonic Bible, or Russian Orthodox Bibles.

So the really only true unique books to Orthodoxy that never were received in any sense to the Catholic Church are, as you said, 3 and 4 Maccabees and Psalm 151. The reason they appear is because they were present in the Septuagint, and Orthodox, especially Greek really base their Old Testament off the Septuagint. I have often wondered why 3 and 4 Maccabees didn’t make the Catholic Canon when most of our extra books were books in the Septuagint. None of these texts are heretical to the Catholic Churches teachings in any sense. 3 Maccabees is an interesting read about Jews under Ptolemy Philopater in Egypt, who tried entering the Temple, wasn’t aloud too and then he persecuted the Jews, actually wanting to have drugged elephants stampede them.( may sound ridiculous but this did historically happen at times in antiquity.) In the end the Jewish people through prayer are saved. 4 Maccabees, although very Stoic, really just expands on the story of Eleazor and the 7 sons from 2 Maccabees and is a book about reason over the emotions. Absolutely nothing heretical about it. 3 Maccabees is canon in Orthodoxy. I believe 4 Maccabees appears in an appendix to the Greek Bible.

In the end I don’t think these texts would make or break anything. I think they Church if it meant reunification would even consider adding them to the Canon. That’s just my opinion though.

The scripture issue isn’t an issue for the Catholics. We allow the Byzantine Catholics to use those scriptures in their liturgy.

The issue is that some influential Orthodox take issue with the fact that we have not declared them inspired - so they demand that we recognize these in the Roman Rite.

 

[AlNg]

In this video an Orthodox priest explains what the Orthodox would like to see in a reunion with the Catholic Church.