www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Flashback: Melkite--Orthodox Dialogue 25 Years Ago

That's my general point of view. The top management doesn't matter if the two companies are offering the same thing. But it would be better if the two companies recognized this and honored each other's coupons.

Western rite Orthodoxy is problematic, in that it is fully reflective of the "uniate" model. First, the WRV is not an independent Church, but a ritual adjunct of an Orthodox jurisdiction. Second, it has not been allowed to retain the fullness of its authentic Tradition (e.g., liturgical "byzantinizations" such as the inclusion of an epiclesis in the Roman Canon and the insertion of a Byzantine-style pre-communion prayer). Third, it was established for the express purpose of proselytizing Western Christians--understandable in the context of the time in which it was formed, but not acceptable in the present age, particularly in light of the Balamand Declaration's repudiation of anything that even smacked of proselytism--a renunciation that swings both ways.

The Western rite does not resemble any of the larger, organic movement of Eastern Orthodox into union with the Church of Rome (Brest, Uzherod, Alba Julia, the election of Cyril IV), but smaller, more aggressively missionary Churches such as those founded in Bulgaria, Poland, Belarus, and so forth.

So it's really a comparison of apples and oranges.

Seems to my wife that even so, things always cost more at Michal's!

They are, but the selection is better.

We Easterners have a strong neo-platonic streak in us. We always uphold the ideal, even when we recognize that reality may fall short of it due to the brokenness of the world and the frailty of human nature. We work towards achieving the ideal, one small step at a time, and never settle for less than the ideal, even while knowing we will not get there in this lifetime. That is theosis, and as the human person is a microcosm, what we apply to the individual we apply to the entire People of God.

They "act" that way because that is the lived reality of normal, everyday people. It's not an act, it's life.

Therein lies the irony: The talk about a "Melkite cancer" seems quite dangerous, but they-should-leave-the-Catholic-Church may actually be a lot more dangerous. Why? Because the latter is subscribed to by a great many more people than the former.

The work of Chick, Rivera, and Alamo as point men of fundamentalist anti-Catholicism legitimizes Mission to Catholics, the Conversion Center, and the other "moderate" anti-Catholic organizations. The three have allowed the groups that effect conversions to appear reasonable and respectable by distancing themselves from their foolishness. "Moderate" anti-Catholics are seen as making the necessary distinctions, as thinking the questions through carefully, which is nonsense, but convenient nonsense. . . .
Examples of fundamentalism's darkest side could be repeated without end. There is no need to examine dusty books or yellowed leaflets to find them. They exist in numbers that were unimaginable only a few years ago. For the most part, Catholics have little notion of the depth of anti-Catholic sentiment. The most fanatic of the anti-Catholic people such as Chick, Rivera, and Alamo work on a different level than do garden-variety fundamentalists. The latter do what they do because they seek the truth. They are willing to follow syllogisms to their conclusions, even though they have uncritically followed some badly premised syllogisms to get where they are. They think they have discovered religious truth, and what they have discovered impels them to share it with others and to do whatever is necessary to make others see what they see. Often they take liberties with the facts, although usually they are unconscious of doing so. To them, their arguments seem conclusive. They can discover no weaknesses although, to be sure, they have not searched particularly hard for any.

They act that way because nobody tells them it isn't the truth. And that's a failure of leadership.