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Submitted June 16, 2005
Regarding Pope
seeks to heal ancient rift |
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Dear Brothers in Christ:
In the article "Pope seeks to heal ancient rift"
there is a shocking statement. It says: "Hardline
Orthodox go further. To them all non-Orthodox
Christians are heretics.
I hate to break it to the 'politically correct'
author of this article (and other PC people who
may share his sentiments), but this is not a "hardline
Orthodox" position: it is the position of Holy
Orthodoxy. Either you are a member of the true
Church of Jesus Christ, the Orthodox Church, or
you are heterodox, and therefore heretical. This
is not a personal judgment on every individual and
his relationship with God, it is simply a
statement of objective fact.
The differences between Orthodoxy and Roman
Catholicism are many and deep, and they touch on
fundamental issues of how we relate to God, the
nature of the Church, the celebration of the Holy
Mysteries (sacraments), the Theotokos,
biblical-patristic theology verses the
philosophical-scholastic theology of the Latins
and many other issues. To sweep away these
differences in the name of 'ecumenism' and
'historical misunderstandings' is dishonest and
does a disservice to many Orthodox Christians who
are not well-informed on these matters.
May the Lord save us from those members of the
Church - especially clergy - who try to divide
Orthodox into 'open-minded' and 'hardliners'.
Bishop Lorenzo of Palermo
Orthodox Church in Italy
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