Documentation of the Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue

The Great Schism is not directly traceable to any one particular date. Rather, a study of history reveals that, during the last several centuries of the first millennium, the churches of the East and the West gradually drifted apart from each other in ritual, practice, theological expression and church organization. Political factors, particularly the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the concomitant rise of the political power of the Papacy in the West, and the rise of the Frankish Empire, gave rise to a new, different culture in the Western part of Europe. The rivalry that developed between the new Western Frankish Empire and the Eastern Byzantine Empire spilled over into controversies regarding religious affairs, and led to unfortunate confrontations between the Eastern Patriarchs and the Western Patriarch - the Pope - already in the Ninth Century. Although these confrontations were eventually resolved, the following 200 years witnessed an even greater distancing between the Eastern and Western Churches leading to the thoroughly regrettable, heated mutual personal excommunications issued by the legates of the Roman Pope and Constantinopolitan Patriarch in 1054.

In practice, many commentators have referred to 1054 as the year in which the Great Schism began, but in reality many of the Eastern Churches remained in communion with Rome following the events of 1054, and dialogue between East and West did not cease. An event of a far greater weight in East/West relations was the unfortunate sack of Constantinople by the Latin mercenaries of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 - an event which led, among other things, to the deposition of the Patriarch of Constantinople and his replacement with a Latin Bishop. Even following this painful moment in Church history - an event that to this day figures prominently in the minds of many Orthodox - there were attempts at reconciliation between the Eastern and Western Churches, and numerous instances of intercommunion.

Towards the mid-point of the second millennium, a series of unfortunate events in East and West effectively put an end to dialogue between the Eastern and Western Churches for several centuries. First, the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, and the subsequent subjection of all of the Greek, Balkan and Arab Orthodox Churches to Turkish political control, effectively put an end to Orthodox initiatives regarding church union. Second, the traumatic experience in the West of the Protestant Reformation a scant 65 years later led to the rise of a militant, energized, "hardline" approach in the Western Church during the period known as the Counter-Reformation. During the Counter-Reformation, certain groups of Orthodox Christians entered into full communion with Rome for a variety of reasons - both political and religious - and gradually became incorporated into a rather triumphalist, Counter-Reformation Roman Catholic Church. The policies in creating these "unions" or "Unia" was one of proselytism, and, according to the 1994 Balamand Statement, "one in which the Catholic Church developed the theological vision in which she presented herself as the only one to whom salvation was entrusted."  Members of the Orthodox Churches who established full communion with Rome, today known as "Byzantine Catholics" and "Greek Catholics" (or, simply, "Eastern Catholics"), were treated extremely poorly by Rome and were wrongly forced to replace much of their authentic Byzantine patrimony with Roman Catholic practices and theological understandings. While these 'latinizations' were only a byproduct of communion with Rome, they only provided abundant evidence of the flaws in the Catholic policies of that era, which themselves created much bitterness among Eastern Orthodox Christians, and helped to put a damper on Catholic/Orthodox relations for centuries. 

In recent years, and in particular following the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have reached out once again towards each other in a spirit of reconciliation. In the 1960s, Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I mutually rescinded the personal excommunications of 1054 in a highly symbolic gesture of goodwill. In 1979, an International Theological Consultation was established with representatives from all of the Orthodox Churches as well as the Catholic Church. This body has met eight times (most recently in July 2000) and has addressed many issues of importance to the dialogue between the two Churches. Unfortunately, in the last decade, this body has been preoccupied with the renewed tensions in Eastern Europe following the fall of communism and the reemergence there of Byzantine / Greek Catholic Churches after the hard years of persecution and the nearly complete annihilation of these Churches during the communist regime.  These tensions, along with the lack of a vehicle within Eastern Orthodoxy to develop a united Orthodox approach to resolving these and other issues, have presented additional challenges to the dialogue.  It should also be noted that the Byzantine Catholic and other Eastern Catholic Churches, with the full support of Rome, have made great progress in replacing the Western theological expressions with those that are faithful with our Byzantine Orthodox heritage, witnessing authentic Byzantine doctrine and praxis.  A continuation of this progress in future generations, along with a developmental change in the way that Rome relates to us, will surely witness of sign of how the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches will relate in a fully united Church.

Although there are a number of issues that would need to be definitively addressed by the two Churches before a complete reconciliation would be possible, most commentators agree that the central issue dividing the Catholic and Orthodox Churches revolves around the appropriate conception of the ministry of the Pope of Rome, and in particular, the nature and scope of his ministry vis-à-vis the Eastern Churches. In this respect, although the issues are complicated, a reasonably accurate summary of the present positions of the two Churches on this issue would be that (1) strictly speaking, the Catholics hold that the Pope of Rome, as the Successor to St. Peter, enjoys full, immediate, direct jurisdiction over every diocese in the Church and, under certain conditions, the charism of infallibility when speaking ex cathedra on matters of faith and morals, whereas (2) the Orthodox hold that the Pope of Rome is the first bishop of the Church, a source of tremendous authority and respect, and perhaps a "court of final appeal" or mediator between bishops, but that he does not have direct legal jurisdiction over each local diocese, or individual infallibility per se when speaking alone. Both the Catholic Orthodox Churches believe that their respective view of the role of the Bishop of Rome is rooted in the traditions of the ecumenical Church of the first millennium. We must all pray that the Holy Spirit will guide both the Orthodox and Catholic Churches to the blessed unity of one mind on this matter, so that full communion in unity of faith can be finally and decisively reestablished.                

For More Information:

• Go to the Documentation Page containing the statements of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, the North American Catholic-Orthodox Theological Consultation, and local Byzantine Catholic and Orthodox Churches (Coming Soon)
• Archdiocese of Baltimore page containing information on the VIII Plenary Session of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, Emmitsburg, Maryland - July 9-19, 2000
• Links to Sister Churches
• The Eastern Christian Churches - A Brief Survey by Father Ronald Roberson, CSP - This book gives a clear overview of the Eastern Churches by providing basic information about each Church and indicating the relationships among them.  Available on-line at the Catholic New East Welfare Association website or in soft cover from the NCCB/USCC Publishing Office.