www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology orthodox and catholic comparison with byzanitine

like the title says i'm struggling to see what the similarities and differences, especially when it comes to theology, with byzantine and catholic and orthodox.
Can someone give me a basic comparison summary.

That is very difficult because different Eastern Catholics are more Latinized than others. The Melkies are closer to Eastern Orthodoxy than some other Byzantine Rite Catholics. The major issue that divides is is obviously the Pope. On paper at least, all Eastern Catholics accept full papal authority and the 1st Vatican Council. In practice, some Eastern Catholics are more loyal to Rome than others.

Fr. John W. Morris

What I don't understand is that the Vatican has given clear mandates for Eastern Catholics to de-latinize the liturgy. And how Ruthenians insist on revising everything. No one likes it. Many have left. But they continue to do it anyway.

My priest has a joke. He says: "There are still people left. We must keep revising until 'us all' are gone."

It's also somtimes unclear whether or not a particular practice is an authentic tradition or a "latinization." We've had some discussions on this forum in which certain practices (unfortunately, I don't remember what they were--they weren't familiar to me) were thought to have been borrowed from the Latin Church and it turned out that they were not!

However, I do remember that it was a relatively small thing. By far, the most significant latinization was when EC seminarians were taught a complete curriculum of RC theology and little or nothing of EO theology. Having had that kind of formation, EC priests will be much more likely to view their own traditions and practices from a Western mindset.

To my knowledge, *none* of the ECCs are doing this anymore, but there are still a number of priests who have had this kind of formation.


Peace,
Deacon Richard