Does the Orthodox church accept Catholics in the same way that Catholics accepts Orthodox?
Absolutely, positively not! What I am going to say is largely what I have gathered from the Orthodox who post in this forum. I take them at their word.
The Orthodox churches consider the Catholic Church heretical; the Pope illegitimate and Catholic sacraments (except baptism) invalid. The Catholic Church considers Orthodox sacraments valid.
The great majority of Catholics would like reunion. The great majority of Orthodox do not, EXCEPT under the condition that the Catholic Church cease being the Catholic Church and “apply” for “normalization” as an Orthodox church of limited jurisdiction; rejecting all Catholic doctrines defined since about the year 1000.
The Orthodox churches are profoundly territorial, positively reject the very notion of worldwide “jurisdiction”, and resent the Catholic Church’s presence in places like the Phillipines, the Middle East, Russia, Africa and even the Americas. Some feel the Pope should only be the bishop of Rome and it’s immediately surrounding area. The Catholic Church claims “universality”; which is to say that it claims the right, and mission, to be anywhere and everywhere in the world as a single, unified church.
While the Catholic Church considers the Orthodox churches to be “sister” churches, the Orthodox view the Catholic Church in essentially the same way they view Protestant churches.
Not all Orthodox feel the same way about the Catholic Church, exactly. The Patriarch of Constantinople, for instance, invited the Pope to Istanbul, and they seem to share a desire for reunification. But he can’t speak for any of the bishops in the Greek church. The Patriarch of Moscow, on the other hand, over whom the Patriarch of Constantinople has no authority whatever, is affirmatively hostile to the Catholic Church and encouraged the Soviet, then the Russian governments to prevent John Paul II from setting foot on Russian soil.
There is a much revered Orthodox monastery at a place called “Mount Athos” that is so totally opposed to the Catholic Church that it more or less “rebelled” against the Patriarch of Constantinople for so much as visiting with the Pope. Many Orthodox share this sentiment.
I am a Catholic, raised among Protestants, who once believed the Catholic and Orthodox churches were not so very far apart. Having read lots of things printed by Orthodox in this forum, which prompted me to do further research, I have been sadly disabused of that notion. I will confess that, being a thoroughly Western person in education, culture and attitude, I find myself comfortable and warmly “at home” in the Catholic Church. I do find Eastern liturgies beautiful. But I also find eastern ways of thinking quite alien to me, and, make no mistake about it, Eastern Orthodoxy is profoundly oriental. By “oriental” in this context, I do not mean “East Asian”, but a part of the eastern side of that ancient line between East and West that runs along the eastern boundaries of Scandinavia, the Baltic States, Poland, Western Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. The Americas and Oceania are, culturally, part of the “West”, along with Western Europe. The Orthodox “East” includes, essentially, Russia, Belarus, Eastern Ukraine, the Balkans, Greece, North Africa and the Middle East. The great majority of at least nominal Orthodox are Russians. The plurality of Catholics are in the Americas, with Europe and Southern Africa being close. There are substantial numbers of Catholics in East Asia, chiefly in the Philippines, but with growing numbers in South Korea and China, where there are smaller numbers of Orthodox. There are, of course, small numbers of Orthodox in the West and small numbers of Catholics in the Orthodox part of the East.
I am not saying that Orthodox thought is somehow horrible or evil. It is just not a western pattern of thought.
), but at least there is a final authority in the Catholic Church to end disputes. Just my thought.