The Catholic Church teaches that the Orthodox are “True Curches” and “Sister Churches” and that they have Apostolic succession, therefore, they have a valid Eucharist.
We Byzantine Catholics have a different understanding of the Immaculate Conception and Rome is fine with that. Actually, Rome encourages us to return to our ancient ecclesiastical heritage.
In reality, Eastern Catholics have different understanding of it- but they hold it to be true. It’s just point of view. What is important is to not deny Latin point of view. This is not just their right but also duty, to uphold their own tradition to enrich the Church. There is different understanding of Original Sin in Eastern Catholicism (and Orthodoxy ofc) so they do not profess it same way, but to reject dogma on the other hand, is certainly wrong.
Thing is, officially Orthodoxy does not reject anything Latin, in practice they do it a lot though. This is why we do not call them heretics but schismatics. They are not part of the Church in real sense but they are “sister Church” in sense that they hold apostolic succession. There is clear Catholic teaching on that. I too, do not like when people go into heresy of indiferentism mainly when Orthodoxy is concerned, but in the end if they did accept as true (not necessarily as their patrimony) all Latin teachings and accepted supremacy of the Pope, there would not be schism. I know about what Pope Benedict has said but in the end if there is to be unity, it has to be in truth, not in mere compromise.
They are “Sister Churches.” Read resent documents on ecumenism with the Orthodox. By the way, have you read the documents from Vatican II concerning ecumenism, in particular with the Eastern Churches which are not in communion with Rome?
There sure is and Rome has no problem with it. Vatican II calls on us, Eastern Catholics, to practice our ancient ecclesiastical heritage. That means we are fully Eastern. The Church is much more than the Church of Rome.
Protestants broke away from the Apostolic Faith. The Orthodox still hold on to this faith. You really need to read UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO, in particular the section on the Eastern Churches.
Wrong! Then Cardinal Ratzinger wrote, “Rome must not require more from the East than had been formulated and what was lived in the first millennium.”
Any break in Eucharistic communion between the Orthodox has to do with politics more than anything else. The early Church did the same. They still recognize each other as canonical Churches. They hold the same faith.
There are two levels of theology–the theologia prima (first level theology) and theologia secunda (second level theology); in Greek, the two are called, more significantly, “theologia” and “theoria”. The former is the essential, dogmatic level of theology as contained in the Church’s rule of prayer, which is to say, in the liturgy of the Church, for “lex orandi lex credendi”, the rule of prayer is the rule of belief.
Unfortunately, for a number of centuries, the Church of Rome thought of itself in exclusionary terms as the ONLY true Church; therefore, the doctrinal pronouncements of the Church of Rome were often labeled as “dogmatic”, when, in fact, they were particular ONLY to the Church of Rome. Therefore, not everything Roman Catholics consider “dogmatic” really is. It is now understood that, as long as there is agreement on the level of the theologia prima, variety in the theologia secunda is both acceptable and desirable, for a Church that is uniformly Roman (or for that matter, uniformly Byzantine) can make no pretension to ecumenicity or catholicity.
You do realize that I’m Byzantine Catholic? We don’t have to accept the formulation of Roman doctrine and we are just as Catholic as you are. From DECREE ON THE CATHOLIC CHURCHES OF THE EASTERN RITE ORIENTALIUM ECCLESIARUM, “The Catholic Church holds in high esteem the institutions, liturgical rites, ecclesiastical traditions and the established standards of the Christian life of the Eastern Churches, for in them, distinguished as they are for their venerable antiquity, there remains conspicuous the tradition that has been handed down from the Apostles through the Fathers (1) and that forms part of the divinely revealed and undivided heritage of the universal Church.”
Not reject Roman doctrine. They are free to formulate as they wish just as long as it is not pushed on us. You should read what Ukrainian Greek Catholic Father Robert Taft S.J. of blessed memory has to say about this subject.
When Vatican II told the Eastern Church to return to what they are, which is Eastern Churches, that means in all things. You cannot be an Eastern Church and believe in the western theology of the Filioque. So we as Eastern Catholics do not reject, we just don’t have to believe it.
(Joshua J. McElwee, “Francis tells Georgia’s Catholic minority of ‘wonders’ God works in smallness”, National Catholic Reporter , Oct. 1, 2016)
The Eastern Churches have always believed in the Assumption. We celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God on August 15. Same feast as th Assumption, different name.
Just not formulated the same way as the Latin doctrine. Here’s a good article from the Melkite Greek Catholic Church on the subject:
That’s the tricky one. Here is what former Patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church has to say, “We are an Eastern Church in communion with Rome and faithfully so, yet which wants to remain faithful to the pure, Orthodox spiritual tradition. I make bold to say that we are an Orthodox Church with the little or big plus of communion with Rome, with the Pope and our Holy Father Benedict XVI who presides in primacy and charity. Treat us as a real Eastern Church, just as you would the Orthodox on the day when the much longed for union takes place!" -Patriarch Gregorios III Laham, on letter "ecclesiology and ecumenism
This directly contradicts papal teaching.
As does this.
Tell that to “Cardinal Ratzinger” . . .