***I certainly agree that in this present state the Catholic Church is not ready for reunification, precisely for the reasons you outlined. ***
As do I; yet we shall discover relatively soon what our theological leaders have come up with.
***If the Pope succeeds in regularizing SSPX and restoring proper, distinctly Latin liturgy, then the road will be much clearer. At this point the best anyone can do is to build up mutual good will.***
Kosta, you informed me of Tolstoy’s The Three Hermits some time ago, and I have not looked at the Church quite the same since. Alex, might I suggest that you read it (google it online) and see what you think. I agree with Kosta that the East is the product of the first millennium and the West the product of the second. There is much that is to be valued from the second millennium and much that needs to be surgically removed like necrotizing tissue.
Our Wiccan nuns and our liberation theologists must be put aside. I will not seriously address any of what is in my brother’s eye before we deal with our own log. I do admit a Papal bias, but that will not blind me to the CINOs and the pro abortion politicians.
The West is the product of the first millennium too, Mark. It's just that the East change little if any in the second, ant the West became unregonizable, mostly in the last 46 years.
No question about that. However, we still have a sororal relationship between the two Churches today; we should foster the spirit of love today. On that score, the Orthodox often disappoint. It is one thing to point out the admitted flaws in the Latin Church's fabric, -- all this "netrotizing tissue". Quite another to raise a seemingly endless series of objections, that betray a desire to stay separate regardless of what the Latin Church does.
For example, hypothetically, let us say the Latin Church proclaims everything that went on in the West after AD 1054 as a local Western theologoumenon, which is not dogmatically binding in the East, at least not unless a future ecumenical counsil in which the Orthodox participate ratifies some of it. Surely, when someone knowledgeable in the ecumenical affairs says "we are ready in two months", he must have some such radical initiative in mind.
Now, if (1) that initiative from the West comes through, and (2) the "nectrotizing tissue" is marginalized, what do you think the reaction in the East will be?