Why can't the Orthodox be considered the One True Church?

[Selene03]

Thanks for that. I sort of get it.. but just to have one more question. Lets say a future pope decides to remove the Immaculate Conception (or alter it in some way) is that possible?

I don't think its possible to remove the Immaculate Conception, but to the Orthodox they would say that it's possible to remove it because they don't believe in papal infallibility. Dialogue is essential in bringing the 2 Churches together.

If papal infallibility doesn't exist, then how does one trust Sacred Scripture written by fallible men as the inerrant word of God? How can one trust the teachings of fallible men? The Catholics believe that the infallible Holy Spirit use fallible men to teach correct doctrine just as it was done with the Apostles. This infallibility didn't die with the Apostles but continues on in the Church through the Pope and bishops.

 

[eastcoast_bsc]

Pope John paul II

In this perspective an expression which I have frequently employed finds its deepest meaning: the Church must breathe with her two lungs! In the first millennium of the history of Christianity, this expression refers primarily to the relationship between Byzantium and Rome. From the time of the Baptism of Rus' it comes to have an even wider application: evangelization spread to a much vaster area, so that it now includes the entire Church. If we then consider that the salvific event which took place on the banks of the Dnieper goes back to a time when the Church in the East and the Church in the West were not divided, we understand clearly that the vision of the full communion to be sought is that of unity in legitimate diversity. This is what I strongly asserted in my Encyclical Epistle Slavorum Apostoli 85 on Saints Cyril and Methodius and in my Apostolic Letter Euntes in Mundum 86 addressed to the faithful of the Catholic Church in commemoration of the Millennium of the Baptism of Kievan Rus'.

 

[eastcoast_bsc]

Two lungs both East and west

 

[anna ~ grace]

Two lungs both East and west

We need each other.

 

[Markie Boy]

Both sides need each other. We both have some errors to correct. If we are not humble enough to admit that - we have problems.

The East can't seem to get along well enough to hold a council. Without that centrality, the unity gets much harder.

The West has lost so much of the mysticism and spirituality of the East, and become accounting like. And the West may have gone too far with the central power - and we are paying for it today.

They were one Church for 1,000 years - we are now each one part of the Church - neither can claim to be the whole.

If you set an apple on a table and leave it there - then cut it in half - neither half can claim to be the whole.