False Union With Rome

Some of our hierarchs and "professional theologians" today are saying that the Orthodox Church has never "officially declared" Roman Catholicism to be heretical. They call Rome a "Sister Church" (See the "Balamand Agreement", below) and will tell you that there is a "new openness" to Rome, that we "understand things better in light of new developments" (e.g., "eucharistic ecclesiology"). For example, here is a quote from Bishop Maximos of Pittsburgh, a person whom many consider to be one of the most conservative and erudite bishops in the GOA. The quote is from his Foreward to The Quest for Unity: Orthodox and Catholics in Dialogue (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir Seminary Press and Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1996), ed. by John and John Borelli:

Common prayer and participation as far as possible in the prayer life of the other church has also been part of our lives together in dialogue... We have responded to the work of the Joint Theological Commission for the dialogue between our two sister churches, the "two lungs" of the one Church of Christ. These two have to synchronize anew their breathing, so that the Church of Christ may begin breathing properly again. (p. 3).

As an antidote to this kind of innovation I offer the documents below. It will leave no doubt in your mind what the Church has declared regarding the Latin Communion. Then ask yourself: "What has changed since these were written?" The answer is nothing. Rome has repented of none of her errors. In fact, they have only gotten worse since Vatican II, as the video report will show.

An excellent short book on false union with Rome is by Archpriest Alexey Young: The Rush to Embrace (St. Nikodemos Publication Society). It can be found in many Orthodox bookstores. Also recommended is Against False Union by Dr. Alexander Kalomiros.

St. Mark of Ephesus

Read about his involvement in the Council of Florence, and the aftermath to his repose...

A Protest to Patriarch Athenagoras: On the Occasion of the Lifting of the Anathemas of 1054. See also the numerous Sorrowful Epistles and other writings of Metropolitan PHILARET.

Are Protestantism and Roman Catholicism Heretical?: compiled by Patrick Barnes.

Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs (1848): A Reply to the Epistle of Pope Pius IX, "to the Easterns."

Patriarchal Encyclical of 1895: A Reply to the Papal Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII (1895) on Reunion.

Video Report: "The Role of the Vatican in the Continuing Inter-Religious Movement and the Great Fall of the Orthodox Ecumenists."

A Desperate Appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch: by the Blessed Elder Philotheos Zervakos (1968). On hasty false union with Rome.

St. Gregory Palamas and the Pope of Rome: from an Orthodox Tradition Q&A, vol. XIII, no. 2. "Hesychasm is a direct condemnation of Papism."

Florence 2000?: An Open Letter To All Roman Catholics and Orthodox On The State of Rome and Orthodoxy, by Father Alexey Young.

Papism as the Oldest Protestantism: by the Blessed Father Justin (Popovich)

"Branch Theory" Openly Preached at Recent Ecumenical Gathering. A report from L'Osservatore Romano, 30 June-1 July, 1998.

The Vatican and Russia, by Deacon Herman Ivanov-Treenadzaty. This article is very favorably cited by Hieromonk Patapios Hagiogregorites in a forthcoming article for Orthodox Tradition which touches on the Uniate problem. Appended to it is a short article on Josaphat the Malevolent, considered a Saint by the Roman Catholics.

The Tragedy of Our Uniate Brothers, by Hieromonk [now Bishop] Auxentios

Never, O man, is that which concerns the Church put right through compromises: there is no mean between Truth and falsehood. But just as what is outside the light will be necessarily in darkness, so also he who steps away a little from the Truth is left subject to falsehood.

Letter to George Scholarios, (as quoted in Orthodox Word, III, p. 1)

There is one Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, not more, nor even two; congresses other than this are synagogues of wicked men and a synod of dissenters; thus do we the true Christians think, thus do we believe, thus do we proclaim.

Epistle 284, Against the Heresy of the Theopaschites
(as quoted by Elder Adrianos, formerly of the Monastery of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai, in his "A Letter of Orthodox Confession")