Father Martin's Monthly Newsletter
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| Volume 1, No. 3 |
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January 13, 1998
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Sunset in the East
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| Volume 1, No. 3 |
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January 13, 1998
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In our day, it has become a commonplace of ecclesiastical life to emphasize the need for an ecumenical intention on the part of Roman Catholic prelates, priests and laity. Indeed, this present Pope's International Theological Commission (hand picked by John Paul himself) has published a document called Christianity and the World Religions (CAWR) which is endorsed by John Paul and Cardinal Ratzinger.
In particular, many Roman officials speak of the Eastern Orthodox as the special object of this ecumenism. Pope John Paul goes out of his way to woo the two reigning leaders of Eastern Orthodoxy, Patriarch Aleksy II of Moscow and Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, and to make them feel privileged, welcome and highly valued within the precincts of the Roman Church. John Paul will go to any lengths in order to please them even willingly sacrificing bishops in Eastern Orthodox territories who have stayed faithful to Rome in spite of the Orthodox machinations against them.
Indeed, it has been and still is a painful experience to see how both these prelates go out of their way to use (and abuse) John Paul for their own personal hostility to each other as well as repelling even snubbing the conciliatory advances of John Paul. Every six months or so, we are provided with a fresh example of their quite feckless treatment of the Pope. In short, they make it abundantly clear they want no close ecclesial association with the Roman Pontiff, but they do insist on being treated with privilege by him.
In this content, I do not wish to expand on the disappointing details of their mutual jealousies and ecclesial maneuvering for which, of course, they will have to answer to Christ. But, we should note in passing what destruction both these prelates have already wrought in their individual bailiwicks. In effect, both Bartholomew and Aleksy have hollowed out the rich core of their traditions, thereby emptying them of all truly ecclesial significance; and within the two hollowed-out cores they have placed non-ecclesial contents. Bartholomew has become the "Green" Patriarch pushing the type of environmentalism-globalism favored by his good friend, Prince Philip of Edinburg. Aleksy II, true to this training as a KGB operative in Soviet days, has escalated the "Mother Russia" theme as the principal significance of Christianity in Russia and the CIS.
Needless to say, both men have subjected their flocks to this-world interests. The devastation of ecclesial and ecclesiastical life is inevitable. But, as I have said, I am not writing here about the sad failures of these two prelates. Rather, I wish to outline here the extremely precarious condition of Eastern Orthodoxy as a means of eternal salvation. I say "outline" because this important subject deserves deeper and more lengthy treatment then I can give it here.
The fundamental difference between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox "Churches" ( in truth, they should not be spoken about as separate churches) is that since the year 787 A.D., the members of Eastern Orthodoxy have no teaching authority in their midst which they could regard as definitively sure and, in its religious pronouncements, obligatory on all believers. Eastern Orthodoxy has no ecclesial element claiming credibly and vindicatively for itself absolute truth.
This means that since 787 A.D., a whole host of questions remain undecided and open to question, in the Orthodox mind. For Eastern Orthodoxy, only the first seven Ecumenical Councils, the last one being Nicea II in 787 A.D., have had infallible teaching authority.
The result is that Greek and Russian Orthodox clergy and laity are free in their consciences to pick and choose from a whole gamut of doctrines on which none of the seven Ecumenical Councils have decided on way or the other. The result is a very mixed ecclesial bag. There have been Patriarchs of Moscow of Constantinople, as well as bishops and theologians who have condemned the Roman Catholic Church as the spawn of Satan, as godless, as anathema. Others, of the same rank, have openly professed belief in such Roman Catholic doctrines as papal primacy; papal infallibility; Purgatory, the Immaculate Conception and many other such teachings.
The truth is that the Eastern Orthodox Churchmen, since they broke away from the Roman papacy, have never formulated a body of the main doctrines professed by them in their tradition. They could not do that formulation without assembling an Ecumenical Council where such a complete inventory of officially defined doctrines could be draw up.
But this ecclesial condition is extremely precarious for Orthodox members. What are they to believe about fundamental supernatural realities? About Hell, Purgatory, Limbo, Mary as Mother of God, the meaning of the central liturgical act, about human and divine merit, about predestination, about the nature of the three divine persons? About all such questions, the individual has to make up his own mind.
It is on this point that one feels the Patriarch of Constantinople has been truly feckless. He is, ex officio, responsible for the spiritual health of literally millions. Recently, speaking at Georgetown University where the Jesuits, obsequiously and with one askance eye cocked at the Pope they dislike, conferred an honorary degree on Bartholomew. This Patriarch spoke loftily about the two churches ( Roman and Orthodox) as being "ontologically different", adding (without further specification) that those "who have freely chosen to shun the correct glory of God" are to be rejected.
Nobody in his distinguished audience had any doubt that Bartholomew was delivering a hearty slap at the Roman Pontiff, his Vatican, his Church and his bishops.
In a sense, to use a popular American expression, John Paul II has been "asking for" that slap. He has not behaved himself as the infallible vicar of Christ enjoying primacy of authority and facing recalcitrant Greek and Russian Patriarchs who are both heretics and schismatics and should be treated as such. John Paul owes it to his Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox believers to set all of them a right, asserting once more the power and privilege of Peter and his Roman successors. Thus, he could help the Orthodox in their ecclesiastically precarious position. There is a genuine sunset of the Christian faith, not merely in the Americas, but throughout the territory of Eastern Orthodoxy. When the conflagrations of God `s punishment reaches those territories, "the big need of the Orthodox-enlightenment- will not be available in Costantinople or Moscow"
- Malachi B. Martin (January 1998)
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