What caused the Schism between the Eastern Orthodox church and the Roman Catholic Church?

[FaithW]

What caused the Schism between the Eastern Orthodox church and the Roman Catholic Church?

 

[~Anastasia~]

What caused the Schism between the Eastern Orthodox church and the Roman Catholic Church?

The complete answer would probably take a book.

The simplest answer, IMO, is that Rome tended to take liberties with theology (especially inserting the Filioque into the Creed, which changes to the Creed are the most serious kind of theological straying), and along with that, Rome believing she had a kind of authority that the others had never seen her to have. The authority issue really pushed things over the edge. It seems there were personality issues that fanned the flames as well.

 

[Lukaris]

There had been disputes for generations but these came to a head in 1054. A Latin cardinal & delegate,named Humbert, ( without the consent of the Pope) issued an excommunication to the Eastern Patriarch Celarius demanding allegiance to Papal supremacy, use of leavened (flat) bread in Holy Communion, adherence to the Roman trinitarian filioque (the Holy Spirit allegedly proceeds from the Father & the Son in contradiction to John 15:26 ) etc.

While this excommunication did not immediately split the church, the Orthodox could never accept its incorrect demands so 1054 is recognized as the infamous schism. There had been Latin and Greek rite churches in both Italy and Byzantium (modern Turkey) but each majority eventually suppressed the minority rites in their respective territories.

Surely a tragedy all around.

 

[ArmyMatt]

what makes it even more tragic is Rome has continued to drift away from her Apostolic roots. every year it seems they go further and further away.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

Short answer---Rome/Pope/the West. Google the rest.

 

[ArmyMatt]

and the sacking of Constantinople during the Crusades was the nail in the coffin.

 

[Goatee]

what makes it even more tragic is Rome has continued to drift away from her Apostolic roots. every year it seems they go further and further away.

In what way?

 

[ArmyMatt]

In what way?

created grace, infallibility, limbo, indulgences, the IC of Mary, purgatory, in persona Christi, the Assumption of Mary prior to her death, original guilt, Beatific Vision, to name a few

 

[Goatee]

created grace, infallibility, limbo, indulgences, the IC of Mary, purgatory, in persona Christi, the Assumption of Mary prior to her death, original guilt, Beatific Vision, to name a few

I see no issue with those myself. Obviously.

 

[ArmyMatt]

I see no issue with those myself. Obviously.

I would imagine not, however, they are also nowhere in the early centuries, and in some cases, flat out contradicted.

 

[Goatee]

I would imagine not, however, they are also nowhere in the early centuries, and in some cases, flat out contradicted.

Well, I believe in the Holy Spirit working in the church and throughout history has given the church these things.

 

[dzheremi]

Pardon me, but don't we owe it to ourselves to not go by our feelings, whether we're Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox or whatever? If I say that the Holy Spirit has given the Church this or that, but the historical witness of the Church contradicts it, then shouldn't I go with the early Church itself, and not with what I'd like to be the case?

To that end, here is what a father held in common by EO and RC has to say about the soundness of worshiping Christ's body as a thing, as in the RCC "sacred heart" devotion (itself a post-1054 development):

We do not worship a created thing, but the Master of created things, the Word of God made flesh. Although the flesh itself, considered separately, is a part of created things, yet it has become the body of God. We do not worship this body after having separated it from the Word. Likewise, we do not separate the Word from the body when we wish to worship Him. But knowing that 'the Word was made flesh,' we recognize the Word existing in the flesh as God.

- HH St. Athanasius the Apostolic, Ep. ad Adelph. (c. 370 AD)

It's not possible to maintain that the same Holy Spirit, Who is God, guided both HH St. Athanasius (a saint for the RCC, too) when he wrote the above words and also people like Margaret Mary Alacoque some 1300 years later, when she popularized/developed this devotion that so thoroughly contradicts the witness of the fathers, as shown above.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Well, I believe in the Holy Spirit working in the church and throughout history has given the church these things.

yes, but the fullness of the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles, which means there is no theological innovation.

 

[Lukaris]

Personally I think the Roman Catholic Church still has salvation but I think the simple faith of the likes of those who pray the Rosary and love God and neighbor is where it receives grace from the Trinity.

It is certainly not with incorrect theology we can submit to an incorrect ecclesiology on matters of authority.

 

[ArmyMatt]

and I would add that we are in communion with the Patriarchate of Antioch, which was founded by St Peter before he went to Rome. so even if the historic direct line to Peter, we have it.

 

[Anhelyna]

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Anhelyna Senior Ambassador Member

 

[Paidiske]

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[PanDeVida]

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Anhelyna Senior Ambassador Member

Good thank you.

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

The papal claims, which were and still remain bogus and un-historical, were a major cause of the Schism. Throw in the filioque nonsense pushed by the Carolinian Frankish folks, unleavened Judaizing bread, forced celibacy on clerics, a non-conciliar paradigm, Western legalism, a church overly influenced by Augustine without the Eastern Fathers for balance, politics, pride, and the Nicholatian Schism (which the West falsely calls the Photian Schism) already having poisoned the ground water and a rogue legate excommunicating a patriarch during liturgy and you have Schism.

 

[prodromos]

Absolutely, "Photian schism" is a complete misnomer.