Indeed, Jharek, I agree with you, but my question was: How is it targeting Catholics? This is something different than whether or not you are I find the Elder pleasant to listen to or would personally use similar rhetoric ourselves (I don’t believe either of us would). If it is his view that the Roman Catholic Church is wrong and does things for its own reasons, not necessarily solid Christian reasons, then why can he not express it without being accused of something awful?
No doubt there is a fine line to walked here
if you are interested in ecumenical dialogue (something tells me the Elder in the video is not), but of course this is not an excuse to not be truthful. Ecumenism for the Orthodox is to expose the non-Orthodox to Orthodoxy, not to say that everyone may have his own theology and ecclesiology and 500 other conflicting things and still be acceptable. So at that level, I would agree with the Elder even though I’m sure the likes of him would be less than happy with my own Church communion, as well. So be it. We are Orthodox and have faith in our Church. Catholics should be saying the same, if they truly believe in these dogmas of theirs that separate them from the Orthodox.
As HH has put it,
everything we do and believe must have depth and its own reasons; we do not do things for surface reasons or appearance’s sake. I suspect that you would agree HH in this point, as most Catholics would (and, if you pay close attention, HH is actually saying that the Vatican is in the
right in that video clip, and is instead of the opinion that what was wrong was the apology, not the actions of the Vatican). This is how we live, and yes, sometimes it is unpleasant even to me. After all, it is much nicer to say that everyone is okay or at least minimally acceptable or whatever. But that is not the case. How we express it might differ, but no Orthodox Church in the world is going to say anything other than the Roman Catholic Church is wrong (on those things that separate it from the true faith, I mean), just like Protestants are wrong, Islam is wrong, Buddhism is wrong, Hinduism is wrong, Secularism is wrong, etc. To do anything else would be going against our own ecclesiology and really our understanding of what the Christian faith is (and isn’t).
So it’s really not targeting Catholics in particular. But context is important to understand the words, and the context of the Elder’s statements is some kind of question about Catholicism. I would feel differently if the question was asked in a different context, or of course if a question on a different topic were asked, and the Elder talked about Catholicism instead. But as it is, I think it is more important that all of us (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, whatever) be able to be serious and not compromising when looking at different faiths, or writing about comparative theology, etc.
Again, I would not talk as the Romanian elder has, but I guess I’m writing in support of his right to do so. And indeed, I don’t really see a great difference in the view of HH in the video I’ve linked above and the view of the Romanian. Very different approaches, maybe (HH was usually quite gentle), but the underlying impulse is the same, and one I agree with (defense of Orthodoxy, and rejection of non-Orthodoxy).
