Ecclesiastical differences between

the Catholic Church and the

Eastern Orthodox Church
For theological differences between the two churches, see Theological
differences between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Catholic–Orthodox ecclesiastical
differences are differences between the
organizational structure and
governance of the Eastern Orthodox
Church and that of the Catholic
Church. These are distinguished from
theological differences which are
differences in dogma and doctrine. A
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in
number of disagreements over matters Jerusalem – a centre of pilgrimage long
of Ecclesiology developed slowly shared and disputed between the
Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental
between the Western and Eastern wings Orthodox churches.
of the State church of the Roman
Empire centred upon the cities of Rome (considered to have "fallen" in 476)
and New Rome/Constantinople (also considered to have "fallen" in 1453)
respectively. The disputes were a major factor in the formal East-West
Schism between Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael I in 1054 and are
largely still unresolved between the churches today.

Contents
1 Papal authority
2 Canonical territory
3 Ecclesiological economy
4 Rejection of Eastern Catholic Churches
5 Apostolic succession and sacraments
6 See also
7 References

Papal authority
A lot of the issues that currently separate the two churches are ecclesiastical.
Principal among them is the content of papal primacy within any future
unified church. The Orthodox insist that it should be a "primacy of honor",
as in the ancient church and not a "primacy of authority",[1] whereas the
Catholics see the pontiff's role as requiring for its exercise power and
authority the exact form of which is open to discussion with other
Christians.[2]

The declaration of Ravenna in 2007 re-asserted these beliefs, and re-stated

the notion that the bishop of Rome is indeed the protos ("first" in Greek),
although future discussions are to be held on the concrete ecclesiastical
exercise of papal primacy. Hierarchs within the Russian Church have
condemned the document and reassert that Papal authority as is held in the
West is not historically valid.[3][4] As the Orthodox view of the Papacy
would be Primus inter pares without power of jurisdiction.[5][6]

Canonical territory
Main article: Canonical territory

A canonical territory is a geographical area seen as belonging to a particular

patriarchate or autocephalous Church as its own. The concept is found not
only in the Eastern Orthodox Church, but also in the Catholic Church, and is
mentioned extensively in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.[7]

The issue of canonical territory has proven to be a significant point of

dispute in Russia, with the Moscow Patriarchate being opposed on one hand
to the influence of the Patriarch of Constantinople in Ukraine, and on the
 other to perceived Catholic influence within Russia itself.[8]

Ecclesiological economy
See also: Eastern Orthodox Church organization

A major point of difference is with the style of church government. The

Orthodox Church has always maintained the position of collegiality of the
bishops. The Orthodox Church has also emphasised 'economia', or a certain
amount of flexibility in the rules depending upon the exigencies of a
particular situation. The administrative structure of the Orthodox church is
closer to a confederacy in structure with no functioning centralization as a
constant.

In the synods of the Orthodox Church, the highest authorities in each Church
community are brought together. Unlike the pope in the Catholic Church, no
central individual or figure has the absolute (and "infallible") last word on
church doctrine and administration. In practice, this has sometimes led to
divisions among Greek, Russian, Bulgarian and Ukrainian Orthodox
churches, as no central authority can serve as a rallying point for various
internal disputes.

However, in contrast to the picture presented by the Russian religious poet

Aleksey Khomyakov more than a century earlier,[9] the Catholic Church's
Second Vatican Council reasserted the importance of collegiality, clarifying
that "primatial authority is inseparable from collegiality and synodality" and
that "the Bishop of Rome is a brother among brothers who are sacramentally
all equal in the episcopate.[10]

Rejection of Eastern Catholic Churches

At a meeting in Balamand, Lebanon in June 1993, the Joint International
Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the
Orthodox Church[11] declared that these initiatives that "led to the union of
:
 certain communities with the See of Rome and brought with them, as a
consequence, the breaking of communion with their Mother Churches of the
East ... took place not without the interference of extra-ecclesial interests";
[12]
and that:

What has been called "uniatism" "can no longer be accepted either as a

method to be followed nor as a model of the unity our Churches are
seeking".[13]

At the same time, the Commission stated:

Concerning the Eastern Catholic Churches, it is clear that they, as part

of the Catholic Communion, have the right to exist and to act in
response to the spiritual needs of their faithful.
The Oriental Catholic Churches who have desired to re-establish full
communion with the See of Rome and have remained faithful to it,
have the rights and obligations which are connected with this
communion.

Apostolic succession and sacraments

Some Orthodox Churches do not require baptism in the case of a convert
already baptized in the Catholic Church. Most Orthodox Churches allow
marriages between members of the Catholic Church and the Orthodox
Church. For example, the Church of Greece would allow an Orthodox man
to marry a Catholic bride in its church, providing the wife vows the children
will be baptized Orthodox.[citation needed]

Because the Catholic Church respects their celebration of the Mass as a true
sacrament, intercommunion with the Eastern Orthodox in "suitable
circumstances and with Church authority" is both possible and encouraged.
[14]

The Catholic Church allows its clergy to administer the sacraments of

:
 Penance, the Eucharist and Anointing of the Sick to members of the Eastern
Orthodox Church, if these spontaneously ask for the sacraments and are
properly disposed.[15] It also allows Catholics who cannot approach a
Catholic minister to receive these three sacraments from clergy of the
Eastern Orthodox Church, whenever necessity requires or a genuine spiritual
advantage commends it, and provided the danger of error or indifferentism is
avoided.[16] Catholic canon law allows marriage between a Catholic and an
Orthodox only if permission is obtained from the Catholic bishop.[17]

The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches authorizes the local Catholic
bishop to permit a Catholic priest, of whatever rite, to bless the marriage of
Orthodox faithful who being unable without great difficulty to approach a
priest of their own Church, ask for this spontaneously.[18] In exceptional
circumstances Catholics may, in the absence of an authorized priest, marry
before witnesses. If a priest who is not authorized for the celebration of the
marriage is available, he should be called in, although the marriage is valid
even without his presence.[19] The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches
specifies that, in those exceptional circumstances, even a "non-Catholic"
priest (and so not necessarily one belonging to an Eastern Church) may be
called in.[20]

See also
Autocephaly
Balamand declaration
Eastern Christianity
Eastern Orthodox Christian theology
Eastern Orthodox opposition to papal supremacy
Theological differences between the Catholic Church and the Eastern
Orthodox Church
Eastern Rite Catholicism
Eastern Orthodox Church organization
Quartodecimanism
:
 Ravenna Document
Western Christianity
Western Rite Orthodoxy

References
1. as can be seen in the words of Archbishop Nicetas of Nicomedia of the
Twelfth Century: “My dearest brother, we do not deny to the Roman
Church the primacy among the five sister patriarchates and we
recognize her right to the most honorable seat at the Ecumenical
Council. But she has separated herself from us by her own deeds when
through pride she assumed a monarchy which does not belong to her
office... How shall we accept decrees from her that have been issued
without consulting us and even without our knowledge? If the Roman
pontiff seated on the lofty throne of his glory wished to thunder at us
and, so to speak, hurl his mandates at us from on high and if he wishes
to judge us and even to rule us and our churches, not by taking counsel
with us but at his own arbitrary pleasure what kind of brotherhood, or
even what kind of parenthood can this be? We should be the slaves not
the sons, of such a church and the Roman see would not be the pious
mother of sons but a hard and imperious mistress of slaves.”The
Orthodox Church London by Ware, Kallistos St. Vladimir's Seminary
Press 1995 ISBN 978-0-913836-58-3
2. In 1995 Pope John Paul II wrote: "With the power and the authority
without which such an office would be illusory, the Bishop of Rome
must ensure the communion of all the Churches." He invited "Church
leaders and their theologians to examine with me in a patient and
fraternal dialogue on this subject, a dialogue in which, leaving useless
controversies behind, we could listen to one another, keeping before us
only the will of Christ for his Church and allowing ourselves to be
deeply moved by his plea 'that they may all be one ... so that the world
may believe that you have sent me' (Encyclical Ut unum sint section
:
 96). The Ravenna document of 13 October 2007 is one response to this
invitation.
3. "Christ is the Head of the Church, not the Pope". www.oodegr.com.
Retrieved 25 December 2019.
4. is a more correct translation of the document
5. "Papal Primacy – Theology – Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of
America". www.goarch.org. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
6. Eastern Orthodoxy in a global age: tradition faces the twenty-first
century By Victor Roudometof, Alexander Agadjanian ISBN 978-0-
7591-0537-9
7. Examples of canons of this code that speak of the canonical territory
of an autonomous Church are 57, 78, 86, 102, 132, 133, 138-140, 143,
146-150, ...
8. "Canonical Territory in the Russian Orthodox Tradition".
9. Quoting Aleksey Khomyakov pg 87 The legal formalism and logical
rationalism of the Catholic Church have their roots in the Roman State.
These features developed in it more strongly than ever when the
Western Church without consent of the Eastern introduced into the
Nicean Creed the filioque clause. Such arbitrary change of the creed is
an expression of pride and lack of love for one's brethren in the faith.
"In order not to be regarded as a schism by the Church, Romanism was
forced to ascribe to the bishop of Rome absolute infallibility." In this
way Catholicism broke away from the Church as a whole and became
an organization based upon external authority. Its unity is similar to the
unity of the state: it is not super-rational but rationalistic and legally
formal. Rationalism has led to the doctrine of the works of
superarogation, established a balance of duties and merits between God
and man, weighing in the scales sins and prayers, trespasses and deeds
of expiation; it adopted the idea of transferring one person's debts or
credits to another and legalized the exchange of assumed merits; in
short, it introduced into the sanctuary of faith the mechanism of a
banking house. History of Russian Philosophy by Nikolai Lossky
:
 ISBN 978-0-8236-8074-0 p. 87
10. James F. Puglisi (editor), Petrine Ministry and the Unity of the Church
(Liturgical Press 2005 ISBN 0-8146-5936-5), p. 190 (emphasis in the
original).
11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 22 July 2011.
Retrieved 7 September 2010.
12. "Orthodox Christian Information Center – Full text of the Balamand
Statement (section 8)".
13. "Orthodox Christian Information Center – Full text of the Balamand
Statement (section 12)".
14. Paragraph numbers 1399–1401 (1994). "Catechism of the Catholic
Church". Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
15. Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism,
125; cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 844 §3 and Code of Canons of the
Eastern Churches, canon 671 §3
16. Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism,
123; cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 844 §2 and Code of Canons of the
Eastern Churches, canon 671 §2
17. Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canon 813 and Code of
Canon Law, canon 1124
18. Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canon 833
19. Code of Canon Law, canon 1116 and Code of Canons of the Eastern
Churches, canon 832
20. Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canon 832

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1. ^ The ROC severed full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in

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